Ashford Hill Cricket Club

1st XI match report vs Hursley Park:

Saturday saw another convincing win for the 1st XI, this time against Hursley Park. It became clear before the game that Hursley were dropping players down from a more senior team, so there was a sense of excitement in our squad about testing ourselves against a strong side.

After winning the toss, we decided to bowl first. This proved to be a good call when we managed to get two early wickets, both falling to Ben Osborne. One of these was the senior batsman dropping down, which caused much celebration. Mark Williamson bowled superbly, beating the bat on many occasions, and twice drawing an edge only for it to fall short of the slips. After surviving these scares their opener dug in and looked to building a recovery, only for two quick wickets to fall to Pete Newton and Arlo Tidy. Hursley then fought back with a partnership between their experienced players which was only broken by a flying catch by Mark Williamson at point to dismiss their big hitting number 5. After picking up another wicket, Tom Moore then put in his own effort for catch of the day with an unbelievable caught and bowled. The ball was struck at him like a gunshot but he simply plucked it out of there and stood there as if nothing had happened, ever the cool customer. Grant Good then came on to bowl a tight spell, picking up a wicket bowled. This left us with just one more wicket to get, which Wayne Good managed to sort out with an accurate throw after a mix up with their running. Jeral Cooper took it well and whipped off the bails, leaving Hursley all out for 163.

Our openers Ollie Williams and Garry Masters once again set a great platform for us, keeping out the good balls and punishing the bad. We had 74 runs before we lost our first wicket, Garry being caught for 31. This started a minor wobble as Grant Good was out for a very rare duck, but Ollie kept pushing on with some crunching drives and pull shots. He was eventually bowled for 70, shortly before Wayne Good was unlucky to be given out lbw. Hopes were on Brodie Good and Jeral Cooper to see us home, which looked like it would happen until Brodie got a ball that popped and somehow clipped the back of his bat, looping up for an easy catch. Luckily Mark Williamson kept a cool head and rotated singles with Jeral to see us home with 5 overs to spare.

Next week we aim to keep our 100% win record in tact with a home game against St Cross, who are likely to be a strong outfit.

1st XI Match Report vs Liphook & Ripsley

The 1st XI began their league season in great style against Liphook. After being asked to bat first, new signing Ollie Williams and last year’s Player of the Season Garry Masters started well, negotiating a tricky opening spell without too many problems. As the Liphook bowlers tired, runs began to flow, with Ollie particularly punishing any loose balls.
The new opening pair didn’t offer many chances to the opposition, and in the end the breakthrough only came due to a good piece of fielding; Ollie was run out for 64 while attempting a quick two. The partnership was broken, but not before they had put on 104 runs. At this point Garry started to kick on, and new man Grant Good came out of the blocks quickly, striking a couple of sixes over the short boundary. Liphook were unable to take any more wickets, meaning Garry and Grant could accelerate toward the back end of our 45 overs. At the end of our innings, Grant had made 83 off just 73 balls, while Garry was left agonisingly close to a century on 94 not out. Their massive 2nd wicket stand of 160 broke a record that had stood since 1994 – set by club legends Kevin Perry and Gordon Hurst.
Our final score was 264, which was always going to be a difficult one to chase. Ashford Hill showed no complacency in the field though, with intensity being displayed throughout the fielding unit and the batsmen being placed under pressure by the whole group. A tight opening spell from Mark Williamson and Ben Osborne left the required run rate climbing every over, and pressure told when Mark managed to clean bowl their stronger looking batsmen. Ben shortly won the battle of the captains, getting the opposition skipper lbw. Next Jeral Cooper managed to hang on to a thin edge off Williamson and all of a sudden Liphook were 3 down. They never really recovered from here-although they did manage to preserve their wickets for a while, the run rate was at a virtual stand-still.
Arlo Tidy, Pete Newton and Tom Moore were all in the wickets, Tom managing to clean up a large section of the tail following some resistance from Liphook. He finished with 3 quick wickets in his 5 overs. Pete Newton managed to wrap up proceedings by clean bowling their number 10 and it was smiles all round for the two trees. The commitment in the field was superb from the whole team, but it was Wayne Good who was awarded the coveted fielding point for a Gordan Banks style save when a ball flew toward him in the gully.
By their own admission, Liphook were missing players so tougher tests are surely on the horizon. None the less this was a very pleasing start and we look forward to our next game against Hursley Park after a week off.

1st XI Season Review:

The 1st XI went into this season aiming to repeat or better their 4th place finish in the last full season. Losing a couple of players to other clubs shortly before the season was a blow, and since it had been a long time since the last 'normal' season, it was difficult to judge how strong we were going to be.

We started the season as we meant to go on with a tight win over Medstead, and momentum seemed to gather following that. We won our next two matches, including a particularly pleasing victory over a strong Whitchurch side, and looked to be in contention at the top end of the table. Our first loss came in a close game against Crown Taverners which we probably should have won, but they outplayed us on the day. This was disappointing but we bounced back well with 3 straight wins, putting us right back in contention for the league.

We then faced a top of the table clash with eventual league winners Old Basing. This match was incredibly close and swung one way, then another but Old Basing just managed to hold on and chase our score with 1 wicket remaining. We then knew that we would need to win our remaining matches to achieve promotion, but the biggest blow came not on the field but off it through Covid-19. With many squad members testing positive, we had two games called off, leaving us just two matches to try and reach 2nd place for promotion. We knew that even winning both may not be enough if other matches did not go our way.

The first game back after our enforced break was against local rivals Kingsclere. Their batting line up was much talked about before the game, with them having the two leading run scorers in the league. Our best performance of the season meant that this line up was unable to fire, and we won the game comfortably in the end. This left us with just one game against Easton, which we were also able to win. Sadly though other results did not go our way on the final day and we were left painstakingly close to promotion in 3rd position.

Despite not going up we are pleased to improve on our previous league finish, and feel that if a few other factors had gone our way we may have had an even better season. The experience of close run promotion push should stand us in good stead and we are hopeful of using this as a building block towards reaching County 3 in the future.

1st XI match report vs St Cross:
The first XI ran out convincing winners against St Cross. Having been put into bat on a damp wicket, our openers did a good job in seeing off the new ball. After a solid partnership of 48, Wayne Good was dismissed by a good slip catch. Garry Masters continued his good form by making 48. He timed the ball and looked composed at the crease before being bowled just before reaching his 50. Grant Good played another powerful knock with some big shots (including one that got stuck on top of the nets) before being caught for 40. A middle order wobble threatened to leave us short of a par score, but Peter Brown came to the rescue. He used all his experience and pulled out a few trademark Browner straight drives in a quickfire 29 that helped us to 161.

Although not a big score, we always felt this would be a competitive total in the damp conditions. St Cross' openers looked promising but luckily both were removed early. First Ben Osborne had one caught at mid off by Arlo Tidy, and then Rich Peters got the important wicket, dismissing their best batsmen with one that nipped through the gate. After getting these wickets the pressure was on St Cross, and Tom Moore stepped into centre stage to win the game for us. He bowled a highly accurate spell, making the most of the variable bounce on offer. A good catch from debutant Alex Mitchell started the carnage, and Jeral Cooper took a couple of sharp grabs when the batsmen gloved rising balls. There was also a steepler taken by Rich Peters and another calm catch from Arlo Tidy. By the end of Tom's spell the game was all but over. Rob Field came on to claim the final wicket, bowling their number 11 off his pads. St Cross were dismissed for 81, leaving them a long way short of our total. Next week we travel to Basingstoke hoping to build on this latest victory.

1st XI match report vs Whitchurch:

The 1st XI travelled to Whitchurch in what was predicted to be a close encounter. Both teams had enjoyed a successful pre-season and had won their first league games.

On winning the toss, Whitchurch put us in to bat on a tricky pitch. Our openers Garry Masters and Ben Hardy (on debut) managed to keep their wickets in tact despite the two paced nature of the surface. They build a solid platform of 33 for the first wicket against some tidy bowling. When Ben was bowled by a good one that nipped through the gate, Grant Good came to the crease and was able to take advantage of the good work that our openers had done in seeing off the new ball. Grant and Garry had a big partnership, Garry accumulating well and Grant putting the bowlers to the sword. Garry was looking good on 43 when he was run out with a direct hit. By this point it was time to accelerate and our middle order played in an attacking fashion, although none of them really got going, which was a reminder that this was a difficult surface to start on. Much to his annoyance, Grant did not get much of the strike in the final overs and finished 91 not out. Our total of 193 looked a good one, although at the time we were disappointed not to post 200.

Luckily this was a trivial annoyance in the end. When the 'Hill bowlers got the ball in their hands, they made the most of conditions and ruthlessly destroyed the Whitchurch batting line up. The opening bowlers started strongly; Axel Du Plessis bowled a tight spell with good pace from one end, while Ben Osborne took regular wickets from the other. First change bowlers Arlo Tidy and Richard Peters both bowled with great control and took wickets with good deliveries, before James Du Plessis came on to finish the game with his only ball! A flighted off spinner came back and hit the off stump of the Whitchurch no.11, who had been frustrating our bowlers with stubborn resistance despite not scoring many runs. We were delighted with the win and hope to carry on our good run this week against Rowledge.

1st XI match report vs Medstead:

The 1st XI got their season off to a great start with a thrilling win at Medstead. Despite the awful weather, and the sightscreen taking off a few times, some good cricket was played on both sides which led to a tight match.

Medstead got off to a flyer, with captain Ben Trepess dispatching any ball on the wrong line to the boundary. There were a few close calls, especially from the other opener who chipped it slightly over fielders on several occasions, but after the first 10 overs it looked like Medstead were on for a big score. However, once Rob Field managed to dismiss the skipper, caught at point smartly by Grant Good, a batting collapse soon followed. Grant managed to run out the other senior batsman with a direct hit, and in truth the rest of the order did not cause us too many problems. Medstead were eventually bowled out for 139.

The chase got off to a steady start, and accelerated well in the middle order with Grant Good and Jeral Cooper striking the ball nicely. Grant and Jeral were then dismissed in quick succession, leading to a nervy conclusion to the match. Luckily Brodie Good kept his nerve in a fine innings of 36 not out. The game went down to the final over, with Brodie and Arlo Tidy needing to score 4 runs to win. After the pressure building with a dot ball first up, Brodie dispatched the second ball over mid on for 4 and the game was ours. There was a loud cheer from the boundary and a sigh of relief was let out by most of the onlookers. It was great to get some early points on the board and hopefully we can carry this momentum into our next game at Froxfield.

1st XI match report vs Oakley:
The First XI hit the ground running with a resounding success against Oakley. We were expecting to play their 1st XI in the pre-season friendly, but a late switch led to us facing their 2nds, and unfortunately the gap between the teams led to an uneven game.
Oakley elected to bat having won the toss, and were immediately on the back foot after an early wicket from Ben Osborne. Steve Peters bowled well opening up at the other end, putting Oakley under early pressure. In the 5th over of the game Osborne hit a purple patch. After fortunately bowling the other opener with a full toss, he found his length to the right handers and removed 2 more in 2 balls. Sadly, he slipped the hatrick ball down the leg side and the opportunity was gone.
After a good comeback partnership from Oakley’s batsmen, Grant Good broke the deadlock by bowling Josh Carpenter with one that nipped back. Once we had got this breakthrough we were ruthless in dismissing the tail, with Tom Moore and Yasir Bandie bowling particularly well on 1st XI debut. Oakley were dismissed for 110.
The chase was completed in a calm fashion by the top 3, although Carpenter did provide problems for the ‘Hill openers. After bowling a quick and accurate 5 overs, he managed to dismiss Wayne Good with his last ball, an absolute peach that took the top of off. Wayne had looked fluent for his 25, but younger brother Grant stole the show with an effortless 47* to carry us home. His knock included 10 boundaries including a sweep shot that he was very pleased with and a lovely straight drive to end the game.
We hope to take this momentum forward into our final pre-season game vs AWE Tadley on Saturday.

1st XI match report vs Odiham & Greywell

A performance to remember from the 1st XI gained us our first win of a difficult year in the Vector Cup. The win was well deserved and a great reward for the efforts of the whole squad since stepping up a level.

Bowling first, there was plenty of swing on offer with the new ball. Pete Newton repeated his heroics of a game versus Odiham years before, removing their opening batsman in the first over without scoring. This ball was the game's champagne moment, with a lightning fast edge deflecting off Jeral Cooper and somehow being caught by Grant Good at slip.

Things improved from there, when Ben Osborne bowled former captain Phil Thomas for a golden duck - his second on this ground! Osborne then bowled the current Odiham captain with a yorker, and they were left reeling at 0-3!

There was no let up from the Hill bowlers, with Mandeep Sharma and Richard Peters coming on to bowl very tight spells. Odiham did start to build a partnership, but this was broken when Peters bowled the dangerous Tom Wiltshire, who was looking for a big shot. Coming back on at the other end, Pete Newton then bowled the other set batsman and it looked like Odiham would be restricted to a low total.

They did make a come back in the death overs, with number 9 James Birch hitting a quickfire 56*. However, the final total of 165 was very chaseable and we fancied our chances.

The chase did not start well with Ben Osborne and Wayne Good falling early. However Garry Masters and Jeral Cooper were able to withstand the pressure brilliantly and built a big partnership. They both mixed defense and attack in good balance: respecting good bowling but putting away anything loose. These two carried us to 106-2 before Jeral was cruelly bowled when on 49, having just told the umpire to put the previous run down as a leg bye! A little dishonesty would have gained him his 50, but his knock still got the applause it was due having put us in a commanding position.

The pressure was back on briefly when Mandeep Sharma was caught at deep midwicket, but Grant Good steadied the ship brilliantly. He seemed to enjoy the freedom of batting 6, and counter attacked the bowlers with some big hitting. At the other end Garry continued his solid knock and brought up his 50.

Grant then finished the match in style by launching Thomas into the next field for a massive 6 - lost ball and lost pride for Odiham! Everyone at the Hill was understandably buzzing with the win, which shows huge progress from our previous game with this opposition. Over the past few weeks we have got much more competitive in all games, and this win shows the improvement we have made by challenging ourselves to play this standard of cricket.

2nd XI Match report v Aldershot 5:

A win - yes a win for Ashford Hill 2XI versus Aldershot.
Ashford Hill posted a very competitive total of 167 with the key being partnerships, Chris Parkinson anchored the innings with a solid 48 not out coming in at number 4, he and the free scoring Martin Hutchins (26) put on 44 for the 4th wicket and 31 with Rich Warner for the unbeaten 8th wicket.

Up top Stewart Freeman and Barry Monger saw off the openers and took the total to 50 and then Chris Parkinson took control and the total of 167 proved a big score on a slow track

In reply Aldershot never got going, the excellent opening attack of Steve Peters and mason took out their top 5 and all fell to Mason Saunders who finished with 5/27 off his 8, his opening partner bowled equally well but with no luck on the wicket count.

Then to rub salt into Steve Peters his brother and skipper Rich Peters took 4/6 off 6.1 overs including the winning wicket, he was supporting by the fast spin of Nick Gundry who bowled his 7 overs for 12 and taking a wicket along the way as well as bagging two fine catches at silly mid off.

All in all a cracking day of cricket and win, well captained by Rich and well fielded by all.

1st XI Match Report v Overton:

After losing the toss on a very green deck, it looked like batting would be a struggle. However, due to some good top order batting by Wayne Good and Matthew Pedley we were able to get off to a decent start. Jeral Cooper and Brodie Good then battled hard in the middle overs against Overton's best bowler Sam Miller. The platform they built allowed Mark Williamson and Ghulam Qadir to accelerate at the end of the innings, Qadir in particular hitting some huge sixes straight down the ground. Our total of 143 did not seem a lot but we knew it was a reasonable score on that wicket - Overton had successfully defended 120 the previous week.

Our fielding innings also started well, Mark Williamson and Ben Osborne providing good control with the new ball. Mark managed to pick up a couple of early wickets which gave us a foothold in the game. Overton opener Damien Smith played and missed at several swinging balls outside off stump from Ben Osborne, if only he had got a tickle on one of them we would have been into their middle order and right on top. After 20 overs we were still on top of the run rate but unfortunately we were never able to get Smith out, which meant he could accelerate towards the back end of the innings. He build a good partnership with Sam Monaghan and in the end took the game away from us, Overton chasing the score down with a few overs still remaining. Smith was left stranded on 94* unable to get his hundred, despite swinging hard to try and finish the game with a 6. Arlo Tidy could perhaps be suspected of deliberately bowling a wide to stop Smith reaching his ton, but he fiercely denies these rumours...