Leaders romp home at a canter
Division 5 Premier Division
Linden Lockhart hit a century as Lordswood triumphed by 25 runs at Tunbridge Wells.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, the visitors were all out for 231 after being led by Lockhart’s 108 from 141 deliveries. Christopher Williams offered a halfcentury in reply but Tunbridge Wells fell short on 206 all out.
After losing Edward Taylor and Jack Laraman cheaply early on, Lordswood recovered through a 77-run partnership between Lockhart and Michael French (29).
Chasing down a victory target of 232, Tunbridge Wells found themselves at 27-2 after the dismissal of Marcus O’Riordan for six and Christian Davis for four. Williams scored 50 from 65 balls until he was run out by Chris Piesley, who struck again with the ball to bowl Alexander Williams for 44 later in the innings. Aristides Karvelas managed 21 from 23 balls as Wells were bowled for 206. Sandwich recorded a five-wicket victory at Canterbury after limiting the hosts to 129 all out at Polo Farm.
Skipper Isaac Dilkes fell for one after Canterbury had opted to bat first. Tom Davis (14) and Bradley Goldsack (17) were next to go, both caught by Jake Smith off the bowling of Ashleigh Cox and Rory Smith respectively.
Joe Gordon supplied Canterbury’s top score with 51 alongside 18 from Sam Burt. Alex Smith, meanwhile, finished with 3-23.
Zack Fagg got Sandwich off to a positive start in reply with 34 off 18 balls before he was caught by Ben Cooper off Justin MacVicar.
Robert Goatham with 22 not out and Ben Chapman with an unbeaten 33 led Sandwich to a winning score of 131-5 off 34.5 overs.
Beckenham beat Blackheath by 46 runs following a top score of 83 from Johan Malcolm.
The second-placed side were 37-2 after losing Alexander Senn (17) and Dan Hardy (11).
Will MacVicar fell for 29, after which Malcolm and Finnan Bryan (26) shared Bromley Town extended their lead at the top to 30 points with a nine-wicket thrashing of Betteshanger Colliery Welfare. Betteshanger made 186-5 in their 50 overs but Bromley knocked off the runs with almost 20 overs to spare.
They took full advantage of a rare defeat for secondplaced Littlebourne, who were outclassed by The Roebucks. Usman Afzaal smashed 130 for the home side and Jay Dassrath scored 50 while Chris Lewis finished 43 not out as they racked up 322-7. Littlebourne collapsed to 131 all out in reply, with tail-ender Ryan Towson (41) scoring most of those runs while Javon Abraham took 4-20 with the ball.
Coetzee Muller and Tharusha a 72-run partnership. Mahi Mahfuzul scored 26 from 26 balls as the home side closed on 223-7.
Malcolm was the star with the ball, picking up 3-32 from his 10-over spell. Blackheath were short of partnerships in response, slipping to 42-3 having lost opener Dipayan Paul for three.
Tanweer Sikandar attempted to steady proceedings with 23 until he was trapped leg before by Malcolm, followed by similar efforts from Richard Fleming (24) and Jahid Ahmed (38), both of whom were dismissed by Mahfuzul.
Malcolm struck with the ball twice late on in the innings as Blackheath were bowled out for 177.
Bexley now lead Beckenham by just one point at the top after losing by four wickets to Sevenoaks.
Opting to bat first, Bexley lost Calum Basey for four before reaching 82-2 thanks to a 77-run partnership between Matt Cross (32) and Matthew Stiddard (43). George Haley fired 62 from 56 balls later in the innings while Luke Schlemmer took 4-23 for Sevenoaks as Bexley were dismissed for 199.
Skipper Schlemmer top scored for Sevenoaks with 55, receiving support from Adam Rouse (26). Evert Bekker helped complete the chase with an unbeaten 43 to lead Sevenoaks to 200-6. Bickley Park won by six wickets in their meeting with HSBC after bowling their opponents out for 115.
HSBC captain Sadiq Hassan top scored for his side with 43.
Andrew Wright managed another 34 but eight single-digit scores saw the visitors dismissed in 32.5 overs.
Arafat Bhuiyan proved Park’s best performer with the ball, taking 3-14 from his five overs.
The hosts needed just 22.4 overs to reach a winning tally of 120-4, with Daniel Magin top scoring on 31 along with knocks in the 20s from three of his team-mates. Tilakarathne both claimed three wickets for The Roebucks, who are now just six points behind Littlebourne. Sam Field hit 110 for Bexley 3rds but still finished on the losing side away to Rodmersham.
Field’s ton helped the visitors set a target of 246 but Rodmersham produced a fine team effort to chase that down. Kevin Jones hit 45 at the top of the order and Lee Rigden helped out with 40 before Sukhpal Singh Rana’s 50 in the closing stages set up Rodmersham for a dramatic one-wicket victory which was clinched off the final delivery. Hartley Country Club are now 26 points clear of the drop zone following a five-wicket win over Offham.
Tom Evans (56) and Sunil Landa (51) starred with the bat for Offham but they were bowled out for 169 with Sam Weller claiming 3-29.
Hartley reached their target in the 42nd over with Kieran Hammond (50) and captain Richard Nicol (44 not out) topscoring.
Will Dear was the main man for Faversham as they beat rock-bottom Chislehurst & West Kent by 97 runs. Dear topscored with 49 as Faversham posted 217 all out and then took 4-42 to help skittle Chislehurst out for just 120.
Chris Streatfield weighed in with 4-33 for Faversham, who are sixth.