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Week of
4th-10th June 2007
 vs
Old Stacians B (Home) - 4th June
 vs
Mersham (Home) - 4th June
The Dragons won the toss, captained by James Cook, and elected to field first. The Dragons got off to a fine start with Jonah Diedrick picking up the first wicket of S.Slegg. Then the
Mersham batsmen started to pick up momentum, but some fine bowling from James Cook and Ed Hall pegged the Mersham run rate. A fine run out by Nick Wright brought the wicket of the Mersham
dangerman Jack May to an end just shy of a half century for a fine 45. Jonah Diedrick then bowled a fine final spell to grab two late wickets to finish with excellent figures of 3 for 10. Mersham closed their innings on a
creditable 75 for 5.
In reply, Ashford got off to the worst possible start, losing the first three batsmen for
0. Thomas May and Nick Wright then batted very sensibly with some delightful strokeplay to bring some kind of respectability to the scoreboard before Thomas May was bowled trying to reverse sweep. Nick Wright was then joined at the wicket by Robert
Yerrall making his U12's debut, who promptly showed how to swing the bat with beautiful leg glances and powerful pulls through mid wicket before he too was bowled trying to pick up the pace.
Then followed Nick Wright who played a patient innings being bowled trying to hit one through mid wicket. That brought to the wicket Jack Halstead who had no option but to try and stop the quick fall of wickets by batting the last ten overs out with Ashford lads finishing on 33 for 9, some 42 runs adrift of their counterparts. Although Mersham won the game the Ashford Dragons
can be very proud of their performance after a heavy defeat on their opening game of the season. Well done lads!!
 vs
Great Chart (Away) - 5th June
 vs
Headcorn Hawks (Home) - 7th June
Ashford Dragons U14's played the Headcorn Hawks at Ball Lane with the 'Hawks' coming out on top in a bit of a one-sided contest, the Dragons going down by ten wickets.
Batting first, after winning the toss, the Dragons batting line up found it very difficult against some very good quick bowling from the two opening bowlers and had lost five wickets with only 12 on the board. Headcorn then introduced the first change bowler, A Kingsmill, who took four wickets in three overs for the loss of only ten runs missing out on a hat-trick.
Charlie King top scored for the Dragons with 15 and played very well batting at number 8. The Dragons were all out for 40 to leave the Hawks chasing a total of 41 to win. The two opening batsmen had set out to finish the game quickly and did so by reached the target in 4.2 overs.
 vs
Old Stacians (Away) - 4th June
 Mini
8-a-side Competition - 10th June
Ants (A)
(Manager Andy Elgar) :
Jack Halstead, Joe Elgar, Rory Miller, Thomas May, Jackson Clark, Jai Shah, George Lancaster, William Fenwick, Onka Divikar, Liam Fletcher
Apes (B) (Manager Neil Tegg) :
Ben Perkins, Patrick Bertoli, Nathan Burgess, Courtland Adams, Nick Healy, Cameron Hopley, Charlie Davies, Alex Russell, Thomas Evans, George Knight
Ashford U9s took part in the first stage of the Kent Cricket Board Super 8s competition which is 8-a-side Kwik cricket. With only one training session the lads were a little apprehensive on the day (as were the
Managers) but as it turned out they represented their club superbly. We played 5 games and each squad contained 10 players so every player missed one game. It was pleasing to see those left out supporting their teammates. The Ants were led by Joe Elgar and Jack Halstead, and these two were often seen plotting tactics on the sidelines.
Both also batted and bowled well (most of the time). Rory Miller improved consistently throughout the afternoon learning quickly that bowling slower but straighter reaps its rewards. Tom May also batted and bowled well. Liam Fletcher,
Onka Divikar and George Lancaster belied their young years and lack of match experience by competing and running well. Special praise to Liam who has played little cricket at all but listened to all the advice and improved his bowling throughout the day. Will Fenwick looks to have a promising future as a left arm spinner and the final two members of the squad Jai Shah and Jackson Clark also put in excellent team performances batting well and bowling
straight. The key to doing well in KwiK cricket is to keep the number of extras down and all the team did very well at this.
The
Ants team won 5 out of 5 on the day including an excellent game against the
Apes during which a fantastic atmosphere was created by both sets of parents with cheering,
Mexican waves and light-hearted abuse of the umpire!! I'm sure the boys would like to thank all their parents for the support
and "advice" given on the day.
The Apes won 3 out of their 5 games, which is an excellent achievement considering that many of the boys have very little cricket experience at all.
Captaincy was shared across the lads during the afternoon with Charlie Davies, Thomas Evans, George Knight, Cameron Hopley and Courtland Adams all having a turn. There was a great team spirit with Ben Perkins, Patrick Bertoli and Nathan Burgess all bowling enthusiastically. Alex Russell and Nick Healey scored some useful runs and without doubt all the lads improved the more games they played. Special mention should go to Courtland who bowled really well all afternoon. The boys are already looking forward to the return leg in a couple of weeks' time and in particular revenge against the "Ants" both on and off the field with the "Apes" parents determined to win the cheering competition this time !!
In both teams there are many boys who are playing a year above their age group and this bodes well for the future. The return legs against the same opposition are at Ashford in two weeks' time.
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