Shepherd Neame Kent Cricket League – week 9 review

Given some of the weather around the County this week we can consider ourselves fortunate that only one fixture fell foul of the rain on Saturday.

We reach the half way stage of the season with Hartley holding an eighteen point lead of the Premier Division with a chasing group of five behind who are only separated by nine points, Tenterden in second heading this pack with 119 points.

Dartford's misery continues at the foot of the table as they were soundly thrashed by Hartley to leave them 43 points from the safety of the relegation zone.

Invited to bat first at Culvey Close Dan Redwood (4-32) was soon causing havoc in the Dartford Line up and at 45-5 Dartford were floundering.

Jamie Williams with 31 offered some resistance but James Hockley 3-26 tidied up the lower order and left Hartley just 103 to chase.

James Hockley scored an unbeaten 55 from 29 balls and Dan Stickels 45 from 27 to see Hartley pass their target off the first ball of the tenth over, without loss. A truly emphatic victory.

Bromley found Tenterden in fine fettle as they travelled to Morghew Park where the home side took the spoils with a six wicket win.

Bromley, were asked to bat first and never had much command with only three players making double figures, Imran Qayyum 37, Miguel Barbosa 26 and James Balmforth 23 as Sam Weller 4-26 and Jamie Bristow-Diamond 3-25 dictated terms.

Bromley were bowled out for 135 in the 45th over. Such a total is often hard to defend and so it was to prove. Christopher Vernon chipped in with 26 and Tyler Griffin 35 not out but the innings of the day was from Ben Price who remained unbeaten on 62 from just 40 balls as Tenterden raced home to win by six wickets in the 24th over.

Tunbridge Wells took the honours on their visit to the Rectory Field, Blackheath, defeating the home side by five wickets.

Blackheath got off to a good start, Alex Roberts 66 and George Wells 34 opening up with a stand of 89 and was followed by 35 from Tanweer Sikandar and at 126-1 looked set for a decent score.

David Smith took 3-30 and Michael Churchill 3-35 as the Blackheath middle order somewhat crumbled, only 31 by Jahid Ahmed helping them to a modest total, after such a solid start, of 201 all out.

In reply a fine 90 by Christopher Williams and 46 by his brother and skipper Alex broke the back of the chase. Robert Sehmi 24 steered them closer and the middle order finished the task to provide eighteen points for Tunbridge Wells.

Beckenham emerged victors at they visited Manor Way, Bexley, providing the highest run aggregate of the day in the Division.

Electing to bat first, most of the Beckenham top order found form, Chris Isles scored a useful 73, Oliver Howick 55 and William MacVicar 40.

Raza Ali Dar finished of the innings with a run-a-ball 48 as Beckenham's innings closed on 251-5. Michel Stevenson was the pick of the Bexley attack with 3-35.

Bexley began steadily with openers Christopher Laas scoring 56 and Aryan Jain 35 but the introduction of Raza Ali Dar helped slow the run rate. Dar ended with eth excellent figures of 4-19 from his ten.

A valiant 57 from Jason Benn from 50 balls helped the Bexley cause but the reintroduction of Junaid Nadir saw the rapid fall of the three Bexley lower order, Nadir ending with 3-62 after an expensive earlier spell.

Bexley were bowled out off the final ball of the match, 17 runs short.

At Sevenoaks Vine only four overs of play was possible, Lordswood reaching 12 without loss when play was abandoned.

Bexley 234-10 lost to Beckenham 251-5 by 17 runs

Blackheath 201-10 lost to Tunbridge Wells 202-5 by 5 wickets

Hartley 105-0 beat Dartford 103-10 by 10 wickets

Sevenoaks Vine v Lordswood 12-0 match abandoned

Tenterden 137-4 beat Bromley 135-10 by 6 wickets