Catch up with all the latest from the Shepherd Neame Kent Cricket League from the weekend.
SHEPHERD NEAME KENT CRICKET LEAGUE PREMIER LEAGUE
WEEK 6 – 10 June 2017
Holmesdale 157-10 lost to Tenterden 158-4 by 6 wickets
Lordswood 298-5 beat Hartley 295-9 by 3 runs
Sandwich Town 259-8 lost to Beckenham 263-8 by 4 runs
Sevenoaks Vine 202-7 lost to Bexley 203-5 by 5 wickets
Tunbridge Wells 127-2 beat Blackheath 126-10 by 8 wickets
Sandwich end the day just one point in the lead after suffering their first defeat of the season to visitors Beckenham in a truly outstanding game of cricket. Beckenham chose to bat and after the loss of two early wickets, Alex Blake joined Chris Isles. The pair batted sensibly against the onslaught of Matt Hunn and took the score to 149 when Isles departed for 70. Four runs later Blake was also dismissed for 73. Useful contributions of 41 by Oliver Robinson and 36 from Adam Senn helped Beckenham to 263-8 at tea. Matt Hunn ended with useful figures of 4-35. In reply Zack Fagg, 31 and Tom Chapman 40 set Sandwich off to a decent start. At 88-2 Kai Appleby joined Robert Goatham and the pair continued to build on the total and at 210-2 with eight overs remining and 54 needed it seemed Sandwich would make it six wins from six. However, Beckenham skipper Alex Senn had kept a few over from Junaid Nadir, Tabish Khan and William MacVicar up his sleeve. In a short time, Nadir trapped Gotham for 75, Appleby for 71 and Grant Stewart without scoring. At the other end Khan picked up Alex Smith for 6. The score now 252-6. MacVicar then took two more and Sandwich fell four short at 259-8.
Another match of similar excitement saw Lordswood beat current Champions Hartley by three runs.
A decent knock of 69 by Zahmeer Khan and a run a ball 70 from Chris Piesley set a platform for a quite spectacular 91 off 46 balls by Amjad Khan took Lordswood to a more than respectable 298-5 after their 50. In such a run feast mention should be made of 2-23 from his ten overs by James Hockey and Andy Tutt 0-29 from his. The other bowling figures accordingly were rather less impressive. Hartley lost their openers cheaply and James Thompson joined Dominic Hendricks and began to repair the damage. Thompson raced to 57 from 34 balls but departed with the score now 96-3 and the game well balanced. The middle order mostly chipped in while Hendricks was going about his work at the other end. He scored a quite magnificent 127 but sadly for Hartley was dismissed with the score on 284 and Hartley could only scrape another eleven of the fifteen required.
There was rather less drama in three final three matches.
Bexley move to second place in the table after a five wicket win at Sevenoaks Vine. The home side were invited to bat. With the exception of Evert Bekker, 52, Miles Richardson 57 and an unbeaten 32 by Max Aitken the remainder of the batting was disappointing. Harry Furze took 3-20 as the Vine could only manage 202-7 from their allocation. Aryan Jain, 68, spearheaded the reply and an unbeaten partnership between Jason Benn 32 and Adam Riley 24 saw Bexley Home by 5 wickets in the 47th over.
Blackheath’s batting failed completely as they were invited to bat at the Nevill as they were bowled out for just 126 by Tunbridge Wells. Richard Fleming scored 39 of them and Chris Willetts 30 with Michel Waller returning figures of 3-14. Chris Williams scored 92 not out from 74 balls as the home side romped home to win by 8 wickets in 21 overs.
Jacobus du Plooy took 4-25 as Holmesdale floundered with the bat at Montreal Park and their total of 157 was to prove well below par against visitors Tenterden. Du Plooy was also to make runs, his 51 not out ensuring his side got home comfortably with four down and eight overs in hand.