Scorecard

Harbledown v Newenden Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI on Sun 16 Jul 2023 at 1.30pm
Newenden Cricket Club Won by 5 wickets

Match report HARBLEDOWN NEWENDEN UP



Newenden won by 5 wickets ( Harbledown 50 All Out, Patel 4-10, Smith 2-5, Bradney 2-8, Edwards 2-17, Newenden 54-5, Parr 25, Patel 8*)

Man of the Match : Chirag Patel


The hurdles keep on coming and Newenden keep taking them in their stride, as we took another significant step towards being crowned the best village side in the county with a resounding win over second-placed Harbledown.

A strong side made the journey down to Canterbury knowing that only a victory would keep us in top spot.

Having lost the toss and being asked to bowl, which we would have done anyway, Patel approached me to say it was definitely a day to bowl first. I thought this was because he had seen something in the deck but I was later to find out it was because he needed to get his bakery order in before 5.30pm.

As we took to the field it soon became apparent that we may be in a little trouble as two of our main fielders were limping about. Parr was carrying a toe injury from a booze-based incident the pervious night and Browning's knee was still troubling him after his heroics at the Wallop final. Add these two to the resident cast of Dad's Army, the original not the remake, and things were not looking good. I haven't seen that much hobbling, since Heather Mills organised an impromptu hokey-cokey with Long John Silver and Admiral Nelson.

I think the bowling unit realised they may have to do this themselves today and this they did. Edwards tore into his spell, bowling with real venom and should have picked up his first wicket, when their top man struck the ball hard to Morris at Mid On. With flight being challenging in recent years, he managed to get an inch or two off the ground but saw the ball burst through his hands.

Fortunately Patel came to his rescue by clean bowling the same batsman with the very next delivery. There is no better feeling for a fielder who has just dropped a catch.

The loss of their main man seemed to send Harbledown into a tailspin as they succumbed to Patel's wizardry. He took another three wickets, including a superb slip catch by Bellhouse, ending up with figures of 4-10 from his nine overs.

Edwards was not to be denied, first having their number three caught in the slips, another excellent grab from Bellhouse, then clean bowled the other opener. Wickets were falling with such regularity that I can only imagine a few of their boys must have had to get back to work on Patel's bakery delivery.

There was still time for Bradney and Smith to join the fray, both picking up two wickets as the Harbledown innings was wrapped up leaving them at 50 all out.

With no tea on offer, most disappointing but unfortunately becoming the norm on away days, we padded up and went about chasing down the target.

It is always tricky chasing a low total as you never really know how to go about it and things didn't start well. They had a youngster who was bowling pretty quickly and he accounted for Edwards in the first over. Not the first time an Edwards has been taken down by a teenager this week.

Bourne followed shortly afterwards, then Browning gloved behind. We were suddenly 24-3, surely we couldn't throw this one away? Bellhouse and Parr steadied the ship for a while, but then Parr was bowled, before Bellhouse also fell foul of their opening bowler, 39-5.

Harbledown's tails were up, but it only took two wafts of Patel's bat, as he and Morris saw us home to a slightly-less comfortable victory than we had hoped for at the break.

This was a vital win and makes a real statement to the chasing pack with three league games left to go.

Harbledown Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
8b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
10
50 (21.5 overs)		     
Cameron Monteith b  C Patel 11
Greg Shields b  D Edwards 0
Sudesh Thakur ct  M Bellhouse b D Edwards 5
Henry Roberts b  H Bradney 6
Finn Carter b  C Patel 1
Harry Hodges lbw  C Patel 1
Toby Vaughan ct  C Sloan b C Patel 2
Gavin Dixon ct  M Bellhouse b G Smith 5
Darrell Carter ct  M Bellhouse b H Bradney 5
Jack Tremain ct  B Browning b G Smith 4
Jan Maroofhkil Not Out  0

Newenden Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dan Edwards6.001728.502.83
Chirag Patel9.041042.501.11
Harry Bradney5.02824.001.60
Garry Smith1.50522.502.73

Newenden Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2w 8b  
for 5 wickets
10
54		        
Mike Parr b  T Vaughan 25
Dan Edwards b  J Maroofhkil 0
Jonathan Bourne b  J Maroofhkil 0
Ben Browning ct  F Carter b J Maroofhkil 4 1
Mike Bellhouse b  J Maroofhkil 5 3
Chirag Patel Not Out  8
Philip Morris Not Out  2
Charlie Sloan   1
James Stuart  
Harry Bradney  
Garry Smith  

Harbledown Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jan Maroofhkil4.501744.253.52
Jack Tremain2.001600.008.00
Toby Vaughan2.0013113.006.50