Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Relegation follows heavy derby defeat
Kent League
Canterbury demolished Whitstable by eight wickets to boost their Division 1 promotion hopes and condemn their rivals to relegation.
Whitstable won the toss and elected to bat first at Polo Farm but were bowled out for just 69 after just 31 painful overs in the middle.
Nine players failed to reach double figures with the only brief resistance coming from Tanzeela Rahmen who hit 19 and top scorer Tom Phillis who made 26.
Their tormentor-in-chief was Ardarsh Shah whose six overs saw him claim an incredible 5-7, while Stuart Drakeley took 2-12 from his 10 overs.
Max Campbell made 28 as the city club breezed to their target in just 61 balls and his side are now just 10 points behind second-placed Bromley Common with three games left – the last of which is at home against their rivals.
Whitstable’s cricket manager Nick Denly remained philosophical and said: “It was a disappointing result and way to confirm relegation but we knew they were a much stronger team than us.
“We’re not being helped by player unavailability at the moment which means we’re always going to struggle, so the result was probably half expected.
“We have known for a while that our team is not strong enough for that level and that we need to go down, rebuild at a lower level and find our level again.”
Denly, however, focused on the positives and added: “Our demise as a club is one thing but we are doing remarkable things with our youngsters. There are always positive to take.
“Players like Ben Mills has been in the side and has gone on to be the best bowler at the Bunbury Festival – he’ll have learned so much this year.
“We won’t stop trying to win and hopefully our 2nds can stay in the Premier Division as the standard is closer to that of the 1sts.
“It might be the end of an era but hopefully this is the start of a new one.”
James Widerstrom claimed 5-26 and Graeme Tryon hit an unbeaten half-century as St Lawrence & Highland Court beat Gravesend in Division 2.
The hosts stuttered to 110 all out with Tryon also claiming 3-28 and Jamie Vant-harrison 2-16 and although he went for nought to start the reply, 47 from Matthew Hammond and Tryon’s 58 not out guided Saints home by seven wickets.
The win took the visitors back up to second, five points ahead of Broadstairs, who were surprisingly beaten by Nonington.
Chestfield slipped to fifth and are 14 points adrift with just three games to play after a 19-run loss at rock-bottom Sibton Park. Josh Lock took 4-35 to help whip out the struggling hosts for just 120 with Tim Collins taking 2-5 late on.
The reply fell short, however, with wickets falling regularly.
Jago Pearson’s 20 was the top score. The last five batsmen added just 15 runs as Chestfield were dismissed for 101 in 37 overs.
Faversham are just six points above the drop-zone in Division 5 with three games to play after being beaten by six-wickets at home to Walmer.
Vince Taylor’s 25 was as good as it got for the hosts who were bowled out for 141 in 46 overs.
Chris Streatfield did take 3-52 from 13 overs in reply but the seasiders raced home in just 28 overs.
Whitstable 2nds suffered a torrid day at the hands of the Hartley batsman as they went down by 114 runs in the 2nd XI Premier Division.
The visitors amassed 317-8 and Whitstable slumped to 68-5 in reply before late-order resistance spearheaded by John Butterworth (41), Jonty Barnes (37 not out) and Harrison Legge ( 26) saw them up to 203.
Ben Rutherford’s five-wicket haul for Canterbury 2nds was in vain as they went down by 22 runs to Lordswood in Division 1.
Rutherford took 5- 36 as Lordswood were dismissed for 197 but Canterbury were 174 all out in reply, opener Bradley Goldsack top scoring with 50.
Half- centuries from Lewis Jenkins (81) and Peter Turrell (64) helped Division 3 leaders St Lawrence & Highland Court 2nds to 232-6 against Old Elthamians.
Thomas Copestake then took 5- 56 in 11.5 overs and Luke Rumbelow 3-35 in 11 as Elthamians were dismissed for 130.
‘It might be the end of an era but hopefully this is the start of a new one’