At Lords on Sunday Betteshanger Colliery Welfare CC representing the Kent Cricket Board just failed in their attempt to become Kent’s third National champions in the last three years when they lost in their semi final match to Sarisbury representing Hampshire. 

The Sarsibury side featured two players who had one this title before with other clubs but Betteshanger were not disgraced and the supporters were most vociferous in their encouragement of the players.

Sarisbury batted first and after a quiet first over from Andy McNicholas with just 3 concede the Hampshire side upped the anti with 16 from the next over as Matt Journeaux who retired and James Ingram 16 ran well, they got to 54 after 6 overs and a run out from the next ball saw the first wicket fall, Pete Hammond then started accumulating runs and a disastrous 9^th over saw 20 runs scored and Mike McNicholas pick up the wicket of Simon Orr for 8, Hammond was then run out for 25 and when Journeaux returned he added to his total finishing on 35 as his side reached 121. Arslan Sahi 0-17 was the pick of the Betteshanger bowlers while Andy McNicholas went for 23 in his spell.

Betteshanger’s reply followed in a similar vain with 3 from the first over and openers Bob Spence and Joffee Towe running well at half way they looked comfortable with 49 on the board but a sharp run out in the 7^th over saw Spence gone for 21, Joffee Towe retired shortly after but then it all went wrong for the Dover lads, as they lost four wickets for just 2 runs two of which came in the crucial 9^th over – which was also a maiden bowled by Ingram, while Phil Jewell 1-24 struck in the 10^th.

Joffe Towe tried his best and as last man standing he along with Mike McNicholas scored 21 from the 11^th over but 25 from the final over proved too much and Towe was caught out for 51 going for the boundary hits required. Ingram returned figures of 0-19 for Sarisbury.

In the second semi final tournament favourites Blaydon from Durham – returning for their sixth appearance for the finals – notched up an impressive 129 for 2 after a slow start, their opponents Margam from Wales were resolute in chasing down the target easing home with 5 wickets down from the final ball of the innings.

In the final Sarisbury got off to a disastrous start and were 5 for 2 at the end of the first over, Pete Hammond and Simon Orr recovered the situation adding over 70 for the third wicket, the Welsh side then got back into the game with a couple of quick wickets restricting their opponents to 111 for 5 innings closed.

Margam got off to a blistering start scoring at an average of 12 an over for the first 5 overs and they soon had one of their openers back in the hutch, the middle order kept up the pressure and then tempers rose as the Hampshire lads felt they were not getting the rub of the green with some of the decisions, but they did pick up a couple of wickets late on. However, with both their retired batsmen back at the crease the Welsh boys eventually eased home with 9 balls to spare.