Another absorbing Saturday of cricket sees the Premier Division drop down to a three horse race on the final weekend. 
SHEPHERD NEAME KENT CRICKET LEAGUE
PREMIER LEAGUE
WEEK 17 – 30 August 2014
Bickley Park 112-10 lost to Lordswood 113-6 by 4 wickets
Blackheath 125-10 lost to Beckenham 128-3 by 7 wickets
Bromley 221-7 lost to Sevenoaks Vine 273-8 by 52 runs
Canterbury 202-9 lost to Bexley 266-9 by 64 runs
Hartley 230-9 beat Sandwich Town 157-10 by 73 runs
Sevenoaks Vine, Hartley and Lordswood can all win the title, the first time it has come down to the last weekend for many years.
Sadly after a heavy defeat for Blackheath on their home soil they drop out of contention. As leaders, the fate of Sevenoaks Vine rests in their own hands.
If they defeat Blackheath at the Vine next Saturday, the title is theirs. If they slip up then the winners of the game at Martin Grove between Lordswood and Hartley will take the title. It could be no tenser than that, and a very exciting final weekend in prospect.
One longstanding record, we believe, was broken and one significant milestone reached by a League stalwart on Saturday. Young Australian, Marnus Labuschagne (Sandwich Town), by scoring 54 on Saturday reached 1,033 runs for the season thus surpassing the highest run aggregate in a Premier season of 1,012 set in 1992 by Australian Test batman, Justin Langer, before his International career began.
This is a superb achievement and if Marnus progresses his career in like fashion to Langer, he has a great future ahead. We wish him well as long as there are not too many Ashes runs! Kevin Masters of Lordswood set a magnificent Club and cricket milestone by taking his 1,000th Club wicket yesterday. This is another superb achievement by a fine long standing Club stalwart, and dedicated Club cricketer. Congratulations to them both.
Leaders Sevenoaks Vine travelled to Bromley on Saturday and thanks to a fine 136 off just 146 balls by John Bowden, they posted too many runs for Bromley to chase. Supported by Karl Pearson 46 and an unbeaten 44 by Ollie Howick having elected to bat the Sevenoaks side posted a decent total of 273-8 for Bromley to chase, James Butterfill taking 4-35. Despite 40 from Miguel Barbosa and latterly 71 not out by Nick Bluett, Bromley fell short of the run rate and thus the target, by 52 runs.
This result sets up another tense battle at the bottom of the table next Saturday. Bromley now sit just four points ahead of Canterbury who currently occupy the second relegation spot. Neither has an easy fixture next Saturday with Canterbury travelling to Beckenham and Bromley to Sandwich. It is needless to say that both have a battle on their hands to avoid relegation next Saturday.
Second placed Hartley did not have it all their own way as they entertained Sandwich. They were invited to bat by Sandwich and with Craig Spanton taking 3-36 and the other Sandwich bowlers bowling consistently, Hartley were restricted to a total of 230-9, with Scott McKechnie scoring 73 and Shane Deitz 47. The Sandwich innings began well, if not a little slowly with the aforementioned Labuschagne scoring 54 and Robert Goatham 39 but had little to offer after this and Sandwich were bowled out of 157 to give Hartley a comfortable 73 run victory.
On a greenish looking wicket it was perhaps a little unusual that Blackheath elected to bat first at the Rectory Field against visitors Beckenham, a decision which came back to haunt them. The only Blackheath batsman with any credit was Dipayan Paul with a very patient and well-made 61 as wickets tumbled all around him and Blackheath collapsed to a very disappointing 125 all out. Will McVicar took 3-9 and Chris Isles 3-25 in the Blackheath rout. In reply unbeaten 51 by Alex Senn and 34 by Raza Ali Dar saw Beckenham romp home in the 35th over by seven wickets. A sad day for Blackheath ending their title hopes.
Lordswood kept their title challenge alive with a fairly comfortable win at already relegated Bickley Park. The home side were invited to bat and with Dan Masters and Adeel Hussein taking three wicket apiece the Bickley batting was well below par ending with just 112, which would have been considerably less without 35 by Alex Darroch. With credit to Bickley they made Lordswood work hard for their runs with Nayan Doshi bowling 10 over for just eight runs and taking two wickets. At 62-5 perhaps the game was in the balance for a while, but a fine 68 by Shaun Piesley ensured Lordswood stayed in contention for the title next Saturday with a four wicket victory.
A fine 131 not out by Matt Stiddard for Bexley ensured his Club victory as Bexley travelled down to Canterbury. Invited to bat, the visitors posted a useful 266-9 for Canterbury to chase. Six Canterbury batmen score between 20 and 40 but none manage to continue and build a larger innings and by the home side ending on 202-9, Bexley won by a comfortable 64 runs.