Darts march on with win in Minster

Date of story: 23 May 2010

Sat 22 May match reports - 1st, 2nd, 4th XI's win again...

Darts stroll to win in Minster
Minster 1st XI vs Dartford CC 1st XI scorecard

Dartford’s away match with Minster on the Isle of Sheppey started in strange fashion after they were greeted with a wet wicket after a week of glorious sunshine. Minster won the toss and decided to bat first despite the conditions. Sam Jewiss (1-18) and Brinn Osland (1-43) the two Dartford quickies struck early, however a couple of partnerships by the Minster middle order started to build a decent score for the home team. Adam Clarke (2-30) then came into the attack and removed another two Minster batsmen, however the home side battled on and passed the hundred mark with 5 wickets in hand. It was at this point that spinner Mark Collyer (4-20) and the legend Ian Rossiter (2-36) combined to strangle the Minster line up and restrict them to 162 all out from their 50 over’s.

Dartford knew that a positive start would all but kill off the game and Darts Captain Garry Cook together with Jay Dassrath provided that. The wicket continued to be difficult but the Dartford openers managed to put on 91 for the first wicket. Dassrath was dismissed LBW for 27 which meant Jim Lowrie then came to the crease. Lowrie attacked from the start and blasted a quick fire 33 before being caught in the deep. With 15 runs required Ron Turner was the new batsman and immediately hit a huge six over the bowlers head. With ten over’s remaining Cook (68 not out) then dispatched Minsters off spinner into the adjacent houses for six to seal a convincing win by 8 wickets. The Darts now have two wins from three games so far this season with the first game a no result due to the poor weather at the beginning of May. Cookie

2nd XI stay top of the table

Dartford CC 2nd XI vs Harvel 2nd XI scorecard

Dartford were asked to bowl first against Harvel after losing the toss on the hottest day of the year so far at Hesketh Park. The Darts started well with both openers taking wickets; Craig Partridge 1-33 and Lee Gray 2-47. Callum Lucking then took his first wicket on his debut (1-17) to leave Harvel 60-3 at the drinks break half way through the innings. First ball after drinks some sharp fielding from Shaun Parker at cover produced a run out which put Dartford firmly on top – no 1’s to the Nosey! Scott McMillan (3-33) replaced Partridge and picked up the scalp of the Harvel skipper who was looking dangerous after some counter attacking stroke play for 44. Spinner Sunny Birring (1-16) provided good support before Gray returned to strike again to leave the visitors on 160-9 off 50 over’s at tea. The total included 22 wides so some tidier bowling would have seen the Darts chasing a lower total.

Darts skipper Kevin Webb (59) and Birring (32) provided a solid start to the Darts reply before Birring departed with the score on 59. Scott McMillan helped Webb push the score onto 111-3 at drinks before a cluster of wickets fell with Adam Ferris, Lee Crane and Lee Gray all departing without troubling the scorer. Shaun Parker (24 not out) and Mark Baker (22 not out) then took control and guided the Darts home with 14 overs to spare for a victory by 4 wickets to maintain the 100% start to the season. Webby

3rd XI go down away to RASRA
RASRA Eagles CC 1st XI vs Dartford CC 3rd XI scorecard

After the obligatory losing of the toss for not having an umpire we must have been one of very few sides invited to bat first across the county and things didn’t get off to a great start, losing Farm Dog in the second over. After seeing off some tight bowling and putting away the very occasional bad ball we appeared to have recovered after Fitzy and Randy got the score up to 72-1 off 19 overs. However the recovery proved to be short lived as with a mixture of good bowling and lack of application with the bat we proceeded to lose our next 6 wickets for 9 runs and were in desperate trouble at 79-6. We continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and managed to muster 125 before being bowled out in the 30th over.

With such a small total on the board, early wickets were required but unfortunately this didn’t happen as RASRA got off to a flying start and at tea were 48-0 off 10 overs. The introduction of Pav was a turning point as he proved difficult to get away and managed to frustrate the batsman into giving their wickets away and with Ross Thompson impressing at the other end on his debut we were given a very slim chance at 84-4. Despite Pav’s best efforts picking up 4-43 the runs were knocked off in the 29th over for 6 wickets down and we were condemned to our 3rd successive defeat. Fitzy

4th XI chase down big target to win again
Dartford CC 4th XI vs Sydenham Sports CC 2nd XI scorecard

Match report to follow