2nd XI off to a flying start

Dartford CC 1st XI vs HSBC 1st XI scorecard
Canterbury 2nd XI vs Dartford CC 2nd XI scorecard
Pembury 1st XI vs Dartford CC 3rd XI scorecard
Dartford CC 4th XI vs Blackheath 6th XI scorecard

Dartford 2nd team got off to a flying start to life in Division 1 with a resounding win over Canterbury on a wet and cold day at the Polo Farm. The 2’s lost the toss and were duly put in, however thanks to a solid opening stand of 80 by Joe Murphy (38) and Sunny Birring (50) the Darts could post a very good total of 191. With Mark Lewis-Ranwell (MLR) hitting a fluent 64* and Adam Ferris chipping in with a quick fire 14* before skipper Shaun Parker declared with 2 overs to go on 215-4.

Canterbury got off to a solid start without losing any wickets for 7 overs however when Craig Partridge (CP) took the first wicket they started falling on a regular basis. CP ended up on 2-40 which should have been better had MLR reacted better in the slips. However MLR made amends with a direct hit run out 3 balls later. Lee Gray used his head well and bowled intelligently picking up 2-22 off 7 overs. The silver fox John Cullingham was unplayable and returned figures of 3-6 off 5 overs. Mark Collyer also picked up a wicket. The match ended on a comical note with Adam Ferris dropping an absolute sitter which totally distracted the batsmen and resulted in a run out due to the mix up! There will be tougher tests this season but what a great all round team performance it was.

Elsewhere the 1st and 4th team games were washed out due to the weather in Dartford, and the 3rd team were edged out in a close game away to Pembury 1st team which was reduced to 40 overs per side. On a cold wet and misreable day in Pembury, the Darts were asked to batt first and appeared in control with a good 71 run 2nd wicket partnership between Gregg Dassrath (66) and Alex Farmer (24). Both fell in quick succession leaving Dan Supple (22*) and Ryan Carter (19*) to guide the Darts to 166-5 off 40 overs, 20-30 runs lower than we were on course for.

Pembury started their innings well but were pegged back with 3 wickets from debutant Callum Lucking. At 54-4 the Darts appeared to be in control but the 5th wicket proved elusive and Pembury utilised the short boundary well and crept home with a couple of overs to spare.