Quick off the Mark

Cricket

Sandwich Town suffered their first defeat in the East Kent NHS Heroes League at the weekend. They suffered a four-run loss to St Lawrence & Highland Court in the first of their two T20 matches but bounced back to win the second encounter. St Lawrence (183-8) were indebted to a blistering knock from Matt Hammond as he hit 93 off 48 balls, an innings that included 11 fours and four sixes. Sandwich came close to completing the chase, with a half-century from opener Robert Goatham (58), sharing a secondwicket partnership of 85 with Tom Burnap (46).

In the second game, Sandwich (200-4) were put into bat and their top order produced again, with Goatham hitting a quickfire 73 and Burnap this time making a half-century before being dismissed. Hammond was the main man for St Lawrence again, scoring 51 off 27 balls, departing with his team on 73-2. They could only reach 112-6, losing by 63 runs. There was also a win apiece in the match between Canterbury and Folkestone. Visitors Folkestone (1447) won the opening game by three wickets, restricting the Polo Farm side to 138-9 in their reply.

Canterbury responded in the second game. Folkestone won the toss and elected to bat, Jarred Lysaught hitting an unbeaten 57 batting at no.7 as the top order struggled. In reply, Canterbury opener Jack Wheeler hit 51 while Jarryd Taig (33 not out) guided them home in the 17th over. A resolute half-century from teenager Harry Carter was not quite enough to make up for a poor start to the Broadstairs innings as they suffered a 16-run defeat away to Nonington in Division 2.

The hosts racked-up a score of 220-6 off their 40 overs, taking advantage of some inconsistent bowling from Broadstairs, with wickets claimed by Elliot Fox (3), Chris Kidd (2) and Jamie Dewell (1).

In reply, Broadstairs slumped to 43-5 which prompted the start of a recovery with Elliot Fox (34) and Alfie Huntley (31) establishing a 62-run sixthwicket partnership. Some last ditch runs from Chris Kidd (11) and Bradley Ellison (21 not out) combined with Carter’s 51 took the game to the penultimate over but in the end, Broadstairs finished 204 all out, ruing some earlier missed chances and soft dismissals.

Broadstairs 1sts in action away to Nonington