Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Top Glass display proves in vain
Kent League
Canterbury were skittled for just 69 in less than 20 overs as they crashed to a 79-run defeat at Hayes in Shepherd Neame Kent League Division 1 on Saturday.
The city club began well and had their hosts reeling on 5-2 and 38-4 with Kris Glass claiming 4-39 from his eight overs. However, Hayes rallied and were 143-7 before a blitz from Ben Cooper saw him finish with 4-19 and the hosts 148 all-out.
The reply, however, began in terrible fashion with the top three contributing two runs each.
The 22 from Graeme Francis was the only double-figure contribution before tailender Nicholas Vanhoutteghem was left on 10 not out as Canterbury’s innings lasted just 118 balls.
Whitstable suffered a second heavy defeat to begin their own Division 1 campaign with a 153-run drubbing at home to HSBC.
Although Jake Guinan made an early breakthrough with the ball, the visitors’ top-order piled on the runs through Sadiq Hassan (105 from just 61 balls), Alan Slater (114) and George Hutton (83).
Tom Phillis and 15-year-old Ben Mills took three scalps each as the hosts stemmed the flow with a flurry of wickets but they were still left chasing 363 to win.
Phillis and Sean French went at the start of the reply and although skipper Stuart Sinclair made 59, the hosts’ second best contribution came from extras as they were ousted in the final over for 209.
Team manager Nick Denly was philosophical and said: “It’s not been a great start but we were prepared for that. We had a long season last year and lost Kai Appleby to Sandwich.
“This is what we expected, although we are still disappointed. It was another wonderful Belmont batting track and HSBC played well and attacked from the start.
“Three hundred and 50 or 360 is pretty daunting but we still didn’t bat as well as we’d have liked.”
He added: “The team spirit is superb, we could have played (Sussex pro) Ollie Robinson but we decided to stick with our lads and see how it pans out.
“If we do nothing other than bring on our young players this season, then it will be worthwhile.”
Skipper Tim Collins is not getting carried away despite Chestfield setting the early pace in Division 2 after a six-wicket win over Old Wilsonians at Grasmere Road.
Arron Bennett claimed 4-35 as the visitors were restricted to 233-7 from their 50 overs, recovering from 55-5 thanks largely to Jordan Thomas (88).
Chestfield lost opener Dan Patching (1) early in the reply but Dom Chambers hung around to make 58 and shared a match-winning 150-run stand with overseas star Dylan Hunter.
The Aussie went on to crack 16 fours and a maximum in an unbeaten 130, with Bennett joining him to steer his side over the line with 14 balls to spare.
Collins said: “We’ve not put a complete performance together in the first couple of games.
“We didn’t bowl well and let them off the hook but we went about the run chase in the right way and Dylan was brilliant and paced it perfectly.”
He added: “It doesn’t matter if we’re top now, it’s the end of the season that matters.
“We knew the first few games were against sides likely to be in the bottom half so it was important to get off to a good start.”
St Lawrence & Highland Court are one of two other sides who have also won their opening two games after a 162-run success in the derby against Nonington.
Overseas Graeme Tryon hit 15 fours and cleared the ropes once in a fine 95 and shared 117 for the second wicket with Alex Cotter (43) and 74 for the next wicket with Will Hilton (42).
James Widerstrom added 34 as the hosts posted an imposing 275-8 from their 50 overs and then claimed 3-36 from 10 overs of the reply, with Ben Trott claiming a further 2-9 from eight overs.
The game was all but up as the visitors crumbled to 15-5 and although they rallied to reach 108-7, Tryon had the final say with the final wicket in his only over as Nonington were out for 113 in 32 overs.
Chris Streatfield continued his good early-season form with a five-fer for Faversham but they lost by 149 runs at home to Bapchild in Division 5.
Streatfield claimed 5-66 from 15 overs but Bapchild posted 278 all-out in 49 overs and although opener Antony Hill made 41 in reply, wickets fell regularly and the hosts were all out for 129.
Julian Thomspson took 6-25 in 10 overs but Whitstable 2nds were hammered by 132 runs at Sandwich in the 2nd XI Premier Division.
They were bowled out for 95, with 53 of them coming from Richard Legg.
Canterbury lost at home to Holmesdale by seven wickets in Division 1 while St Lawrence & Highlands Court 2nds enjoyed a 55-run win at Sidcup in Division 3 with Alex Day taking 5-20 and Toby Vaughan 4-10.
Chestfield lost by seven wickets at Bexley in Division 4.