Broadstairs recorded their third victory of the season with a commanding win at home to Nonington CC on a blustery afternoon at Park Avenue.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, the Broadstairs opening partnership of Alex Hogben and Nathan Fox got the innings off to a perfect start, reaching 125-0 by the half-way mark. Their batting was noticeably more positive with boundaries interspersed with well-judged singles and excellent running between the wickets and confident in the knowledge that there was plenty of strong batting still to come.
As they looked to move through the gears after the break, Hogben (61) was the first to fall, just failing to clear the outstretched arm of Paul Betts. He was soon followed by Andrew Bailey (12) who fell victim to the first of two run-outs involving some sharp fielding by Harry Harding. With the score on 160-2 and still 20 overs remaining, overseas Jayojit Basu joined Fox at the crease, scoring a sprightly sand superbly controlled 34 before a misjudgement caused him to hole-out at long-off.
Basu was replaced by Noah McLennan who together with Fox put of a further 21 runs in a partnership that would see Fox record his first ton of the season before being run-out on 105. McLennan continued to score freely in an innings the included a couple of sublime paddle-sweeps and the partnership between McLennan (42) and George Kidd (17) brought the final total for Broadstairs to 294; a total the felt confident in defending.
When opener Riaccardo DiCicco was dismissed second ball of the Nonington reply with a catch by Tom Marshall off the bowling of Harry Carter, the remainder of the innings had a slow inevitability about it. Eventually, the Broadstairs bowling attack worked their way through the Nonington line-up with each of the seven bowlers used claiming at least one wicket and included excellent catches by Carter and Basu. Eventually, the final wicket fell in the forty-second over off the bowling of Basu with Nonington 130 runs short of the target.
The victory reinforces Broadstairs’ credentials as genuine promotion contenders with a batting line-up that seems to be growing in confidence week-by-week. They will be determined to extend their recent run of good form next week when they travel to fellow high-flyers Harvel CC.
Broadstairs 294-5
Nathan Fox 105, Alex Hogben 61, Noah McLennan 42, Jayojit Basu 34
Nonington 164 all out (41.3 overs)
Wickets: George Kidd (2), Noah McLennan (2), Chris Kidd (2), Jayojit Basu (1), Harry Carter (1), Oli Frewin (1), Fred Ashton (1)