Shepherd Neame Kent Cricket League, week 11
Sunday 15th July 2018
Tunbridge Wells closed the gap on leaders Blackheath with a low-scoring win against Bexley at The Nevill Ground.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first but were restricted to just 171 for nine by superb bowling by the hosts.
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MCC Young Cricketer Ari Karvelas took 2/15 in ten miserly overs with two wickets each for Patrick Sadler and former Academy scholar Marcus O’Riordan.
Former Sussex batsman Christian Davis top-scored with 76 as Wells cantered home with five overs to spare.
Blackheath suffered their second defeat of the season as third-placed Sevenoaks Vine kept the pressure on the leaders.
Half-centuries from Luke Schlemmer and Miles Richardson helped Vine reach 279 for eight with Ivan Thomas picking up a wicket for the league leaders.
Charlie Sid-Speller was the only Blackheath batsman to reach 50 in reply as Michael Thompson (4/32) was the pick of the Vine attack after early in-roads from Karl Pearson (2/38) and the same figures for Andrew Reid-Dick sealed the points.
Sandwich consolidated fourth spot with a home win against Lordswood at The Butts.
The visitors opted to bat first and Chris Piesley’s superb 68 rescued the innings after reaching 74-5, they managed to post 194-9 as Matt Hunn picked up two wickets as did Craig Spanton and Matthew van Poppel.
In reply, Tom Chapman hit an excellent unbeaten 105 but almost ran out of partners as the Lordswood bowlers struck regularly while he stood firm at the other end to seal a tense two-wicket win.
Tenterden boosted their survival hopes with a low-scoring win against bottom side Bromley Common at Morghew Park.
Batting first, the hosts posted 197 with half-centuries from Chris Vernon and Ben Price with Matt Taylor taking 6/31 for the visitors.
In reply, Tom Richards took 6/15 in a superb eight-over spell as Common were dismissed for 127.
Beckenham slipped into the relegation zone with defeat at home to Bickley Park in a low-scoring affair at Foxgrove Road.
The 2017 champions slipped to a sixth loss as Bickley doubled their score after slipping to 81-6. Daniel Magin (30) and Adeel Malik (33) scored vital runs with occasional off-spinner Alex Blake claiming 3/47.
In reply, only one Beckenham batsman passed 20 as they slipped to 143 all out and a 19-run defeat.