Ashford Town

Ashford Town skipper Sam Kennett leads his side out against Downham & Bellingham on Saturday aiming for nothing less than maximum points with the Division 4 title still up for grabs.

They go into the last day of the season level on points with OD Cuaco, who end their season with a trip to bottom club Blackheath.

Victories for both sides will see the Beckenham club crowned as champions, courtesy of more wins and Kennett said: “All we can do is give it our all and see what happens. It will be nice to win the league but promotion has always been our first aim.”

Town edged home by two wickets at thirdplaced Offham on Saturday, finishing on 178-8, to earn the victory which clinched promotion and an immediate return to Division 3, halting a slide after three successive relegations.

Liam Tegg (68 off 88 balls) and father Neil (36 off 110 deliveries) added 96 for the second wicket after Simon Taylor was adjudged leg before to the first ball of the innings.

Kennett added: “It was a poor decision because he nicked it on to his pad, everyone heard it.

“Liam went for his shots, while Neil anchored the other end on a wicket that wasn’t great and did a bit.

“We got out to silly shots after that. It was typical Ashford, we never make things easy for ourselves.”

Ben Ealham got them home, hitting the winning runs off the penultimate ball of the innings.

Earlier, Offham won the toss and batted but found runs hard to score with the first six overs all maidens.

“They were only 45-3 at drinks, with Mo Raza and Simon Taylor our two best bowlers,” said Kennett.

“Simon didn’t get a wicket but his figures (0-19 in 12 overs with six maidens) were good.”

Offham were 130-8 at one stage but late order hitting saw them finish on 174 after being all out in the final over.

Raza finished with 3-30 while Liam Tegg took 4-50.

Ashford 2nds missed out on the win which would have kept them in the hunt for promotion, losing by eight runs in the reverse fixture.

Jai Shah was the pick of the Town attack with 4-53 as Offham totalled 185.

However Ashford could only make 177, despite opener Martin Duffield hitting 73.