There were big wins for Sevenoaks Vine, Hartley and Sandwich Town in the Shepherd Neame Kent Cricket League this weekend.
SHEPHERD NEAME KENT CRICKET LEAGUE
PREMIER LEAGUE
WEEK 12 – 26 July 2014
Bickley Park 147-10 lost to Sevenoaks Vine 350-3 by 203 runs
Bromley 209-10 lost to Blackheath 212-3 by 7 wickets
Hartley 350-8 beat Canterbury 164-10 by 186 runs
Lordswood 274-10 beat Bexley 240-10 by 34 runs
Sandwich Town 232-5 beat Beckenham 231-9 by 5 wickets
Sevenoaks Vine hold on to a five point lead at the top, as all the top four Clubs in the Premier Division won yesterday with impressive performances. An exciting conclusion to the season is in prospect with only thirteen points separating the top three Clubs.
The Sevenoaks side travelled up to Bickley Park where they were invited to bat by their hosts. A run spree followed as Fabian Cowdrey scored a fine 155 and John Bowden 128 with the Vine racing to 350-3 from their 50 overs.
This was to prove far too many for Bickley Park who managed just 147 in reply to provide the League leaders with a 203 run victory. Bickley are now 42 points away from safety and need a run of victories soon to avoid relegation.
Blackheath remain in close pursuit also taking maximum points as they travelled to Bromley. The home side elected to bat and despite 70 by Dominic Reed, 50 by Miguel Barbosa and Richard Selvey-Clinton 42 the remaining batsmen disappointed.
James Hands 4-36 bowled tightly and Warren Lee took a hat-trick in his 3-44 as Bromley were bowled out for 209. A fine unbeaten 100 by Tanweer Sikander saw Blackheath comfortably home by seven wickets with almost nine overs to spare.
Hartley made an impressive 350-8 as they entertained Canterbury at Culvey Close. Dan Stickels and Shane Deitz both fell just short of their centuries each making 97 and Scott McKechnie chipped in with 67, the main three contributors to the sizeable Hartley total.
Such a big chase would not be easy and Canterbury fell well short closing on 164, Charles Hartley top scorer with 46. James Hockley was the pick of the Hartley bowlers taking 4-18.
Lordswood are 21 points behind third place Hartley but kept in touch with the top three with a 34 run win over Bexley at Martin Grove. Matt Greenwood, 71, and Palash Joshi, 53, were the top scorers for Lordswood as they set Bexley a target of 274 to chase.
Adeel Malik was the best of the Bexley bowlers taking 4-33 from his ten overs. The Bexley batting collapsed early on and they seemed out of the game at 69-5. The middle lower order, led by Adeel Malik, with 48, battled hard and kept them in touch but were finally dismissed for 240 with still 5 overs and a ball to go.
The final match of the round saw a much needed with for Sandwich Town, lifting them out of the bottom two. They entertained Beckenham, whose batting once more slightly disappointed.
Chris Isles made 76, Will MacVicar 61 and Raza Ali Dar 43 but their final total of 231-9 looked below par on a fast scoring Sandwich ground.
This was proved to be the case as with Marnus Labuschagne setting the pace with 69 followed by a breezy unbeaten 85 by Geraint Jones, Sandwich reached their target with five down and with nineteen balls to spare. Beckenham are now only 20 points clear of the relegation zone and will hope their batting begins to fire soon.