Zak attack
Cricket
Zak Crawley scored his third half-century for England as the second Test with Pakistan ended in a draw.
The Kent youngster went on the attack in what amounted to a glorified practice session on the final day of the rain-affected match at Southampton.
With England stuck on 7-1 since early on day four in reply to Pakistan’s 236, play finally resumed on the final afternoon, with Crawley making 53 in a stand of 91 with Dom Sibley.
Crawley - filling in for the injured Ben Stokes - showed his intent by pulling Shaheen Afridi for four and also punishing a short ball from Mohammad Abbas. He brought up his 50 with another boundary before falling lbw to Abbas in the next over, having hit seven fours in 99 balls.
England declared on 110-4 and lead the three-Test series 1-0 going into the final match which starts on Friday. Crawley, who made a careerbest 76 in the first Test against the West Indies this summer, had spoken about the possibility of hitting his first England century over the weekend.
“I think about (it) all the time,” he said.
“I pinch myself thinking about scoring a hundred in my room at night.
“The first one is probably the hardest to get so I’m very much looking forward to the day I hopefully can get one. “There’s a lot of hard work yet.”
Minster’s 1st XI squad will hosting a Kent 2nd XI in two T20 matches on Thursday, which promises to be an excellent day of cricket. The first game starts at 10.30am and the second is scheduled for 3pm.
The bar at Gilbert Hall will be open for light refreshments throughout both days and the club says all ECB Covid-19 guidelines will be observed.
Bearsted bowed out of the National Village Cup after a rain-affected fourth-round tie was settled by a bowl-off.
The Maidstone side led the bowl-off 2-0 but lost 3-2 to Glynde & Beddingham in Saturday’s match at Bearsted Green.
Glynde chose to bat and were 123-3 off 23 overs when rain stopped play.
They were 0-1 after the first over, Christian Roberts with a excellent catch at gully off the bowling of Miles Henslow. Alex Lush and Ben Johnston took the other wickets to fall. Henslow and Dave Charlton put Bearsted in charge of the bowl-off but Glynde hit back to edge through to round five.
Luke Hopkins made a great start to the 2020 Pirelli National Superstock 1000 championship with a points scoring finish. The Sittingbourne Kawasaki rider picked up points in race one and narrowly missed out on a points finish in race two at Donington Park.
Hopkins took two 600cc club titles and was runner-up in two 1000cc club championships in 2019. For 2020 he has stepped up to the British Championship and first race weekend in he has already begun to show what he might be capable of.
After two free practice sessions on the Friday, Hopkins was in the top 20 fastest stock 1000 riders in a highly competitive field. He qualified 23rd on a grid of 40 riders.
By lap five of race one he had begun his move forwards, moving up to 20th. He continued his excellent progress gaining 16th place and battling with Braydon Elliott and Shaun Winfield.
His hard work was almost undone when another rider came off at the chicane. Hopkins had to be alert to avoid the fallen rider’s bike as it slid across the track, almost collecting the number 16 on its way.
The 18-year-old then went on to cross the line in 14th and
Steve Beaney started his The Centurion North Downs Way 100 challenge at 6am last Saturday and finished it just over 24 hours later.
The Medway Tri athlete finished the 100 mile continuous trail along the North Downs Way, which had a total climb of 10,000 feet, in a time of 24 hours 48 minutes, and after starting in 137th he finished 23rd overall.
From the 50-mile mark,