There were wins for Bromley, Hartley, Lordswood, Bexley and Sevenoaks Vine in the Shepherd Neame Kent Cricket League on Saturday.
SHEPHERD NEAME KENT CRICKET LEAGUE
PREMIER LEAGUE
WEEK 10 – 12 July 2014
Bickley Park 81-10 lost to Bromley 219-8 by 138 runs
Hartley 85-0 beat Blackheath 84-10 by 10 wickets
Lordswood 318-6 beat Canterbury 255-8 by 63 runs
Sandwich Town 215-10 lost to Bexley 251-8 by 36 runs
Sevenoaks Vine 144-8 beat Beckenham 78-10 by 66 runs (60 over match)
This Saturday saw the first round of the win/lose matches and after a resounding victory for Sevenoaks Vine and heavy defeat for co-leaders Blackheath, the Sevenoaks side open a sixteen point lead at the top with Hartley moving into second place with their defeat of Blackheath.
Three teams suffered dreadful batting collapses, one of whom were Beckenham who travelled to Sevenoaks Vine. After heavy rain on Friday the start was delayed and the match reduced to 30 overs a side. The visitors invited the Vine to bat first and appeared to be well on top with the Vine slipping to 69-7.
A fine unbeaten 43 by Lorne Burns supported well by his lower order enable the Sevenoaks side to recover and reach 144-8 at the half way stage. The Beckenham side plummeted to 30-5 and despite a fighting 32 from skipper Chris Isles, never recovered to be bowled out for just 78 with the Vine bowlers all sharing the wickets.
Blackheath travelled to Hartley and were invited to bat first. It seems it was an important toss for Hartley to win as they ripped through the Blackheath batting line up, to bowl them out for just 84 in the 25th over. Only Tanweer Sikandar and Warren Lee with 23 each made any contribution of note as the Hartley bowlers all shared the wickets between them.
James Hockley then blasted 62 from just 26 balls as Hartley romped home by ten wickets in just the 9th over of their reply.
At Bickley the home side’s relegation worries were compounded as they too faced a batting collapse and were heavily defeated by Bromley. Bromley elected to bat and were perhaps ruing this decision when they found themselves at 46-5 when Nick Bluett joined Dan Christian.
The two batted with great composure and began to repair the damage. Bluett departed for a useful 39 and Christian then found good support from Qasim Akbar, 23, as he notched up his century, ending unbeaten on 104 and Bromley a total of 219-8.
Xavier Darroch was the pick of the Bickley bowling taking 4-26. Robert McNeill bowled with good pace down the hill and ripped through the Bickley top four taking leaving Bickley on 14-4.
Gordon Darroch with 34 was the only batman to show much resistance as wicket clattered at the other end. Bickley ended on 81 and now find themselves 27 points away from the safety of relegation.
Bexley found some form down at Sandwich and picked up a valuable 18 points to close the gap on Sandwich now in 8th place to just six points. At last some of the Bexley batsmen found some form, and led by a useful 81 by Adeel Malik 81 and contributions of 36 by Matthew Stiddard 36 and Robert Sehmi, 30, at the half way stage Bexley had reached 251-8.
At 115-1 with the dangerous Marnus Labuschagne and Robert Gotham going well, Sandwich looked on course to threaten the Bexley total. Goatham departed for a useful 59 with the total becoming 115-2 on 115 and Labuschange for 66 to make it 153-3.
Despite 32 from Zack Gag, the remainder of the Sandwich batting disappointed as they stuttered to 215 all out to give Bexley the win.
Lordswood piled on the runs at Martin Grove as the entertained Canterbury. Lyndon Lockhart scored 64, Matt Greenwood 60, Chris Piesley 50 and Amjad Khan an unbeaten 50 as they posted a formidable 318 for their visitors to chase.
James Lilley carried his bat for an excellent 127 but received little support, and with wickets falling regularly at the other end, Canterbury looked unlikely to recover from 115-7.
Lilley battled on and Piers Richardson chipped in with 36, Canterbury closing on 255-8 and thus a win by 63 runs for Lordswood.