Nomads just lost out yet again to those run-chase specialists the Energy Exiles in an exciting and pretty good-tempered match. Nomads scored 163 for 7 from 30 overs with some entertaining pinch-hitting from Mahesh and Bilal early on, followed by something of a slump to 129 for 6, though Mahesh did complete a useful 28 and top-scorer Abdul and Khalid added 48 for the 4th wicket. Some quick, late runs from Hassan helped us up to a respectable-sounding total of 163 for 7 at the interval. Perennial thorn in the side Simon Gundry starred with 3 for 20 at good pace; we even gave him an LBW decision. He also recorded his 100th wicket for the Exiles - congratulations to the big man.
The only moment of real controversy was a very confident caught behind shout against Khalid Harris (who was playing his first Nomads game for 3 years.) The appeal was turned down and Khalid wandered out of his crease, only for his bails to be whipped off. Only diplomacy kept him at the crease but it was a brief stay of execution as he was bowled the next ball.
Exiles fielded their 5 most regular bowlers against us and all bowled well. If there was a bowler we could perhaps have scored more off it was Gwyn Thomas. Thomas is slower than the other 4 but is still a canny performer who has taken nearly 200 wickets for Exiles. Batsmen can sometimes get after him but they have to read him first, and I heard a couple of our guys refer to him as "The Spinner", which shows they hadn't really worked him out. To me, Thomas is more of a slow-medium bowler who was drifting it away from the batsman in this game.
Anyway, with our strongest bowling line-up in ages, and Exiles missing one or two batsmen, we were by no means disheartened at tea.
Justin Lamprecht led Exiles' counter attack with some big shots and, crucially, Exiles kept their momentum up better than we did in the middle 10 overs. John Parker-Jones anchored the innings and John Tither looked classy for his 30-odd runs but Matt Winkle top-scored with 42 and some excellent running between the wickets, particularly when Barry Whiteman was at the crease. Whiteman had scored 80 plus in his previous game but confidential sources had revealed he might be vulnerable to something quick-ish and straight. Sure enough, Tahir did the job with a stinging caught and bowled.
58 were needed from the last 10 but some leg-side hitting from Mike Phillips put Exiles back in command. Nomads' hopes revived when Abdul set up the run out of Phillips on 149 and Khalid took a great catch to dismiss S. Gundry on the same score. 10 were needed off 2 overs in autumnal gloom but Andy Wingfield took advantage of the last of the light and finished it in the penultimate over.
So Exiles win the series 2-1. We are pleased for them...of course we are. Any consolations? Well it seems we are all friends again. Also, there were emotional scenes as we celebrated Andrew West's 100 wickets for the Nomads. Finally, Nomads may be ahead on run rate over the three games. I'll definitely check on that at some point.
Man of the Match is tricky but I would go for Tahir who took 2 wickets in the most economical spell by any bowler from either side and also managed 12 quick runs and a fine catch. Fielder of the Day was Khalid with his 2 catches including the excellent late one that accounted for Mr Gundry and gave us fleeting hope. Quote of the Day came from Exiles' skipper Martin Thomas at the conclusion of an early Andy Wingfield over in which stand-in opener Bilal had taken wild swings at every ball and connected , after a fashion, with one. "He's not exactly Bradshaw", the skipper observed.
So Andrew West and Simon Gundry both celebrated 100 wickets for their teams. I really think a joint lap of honour around Nursery Road would have been in order, but instead John Crossland and West shared champagne and reminiscences until late in the night and apparently became quite merry. I wish I'd been there.
Clapham Nomads - 163 for 7 from 35 overs
M. Vyas b Patel 28
Bilal c and b M.Thomas 11
P. Pattiyil c Wingfield b G. Thomas 8
A. Khan b Gundry 32
K. Harris b Wingfield 20
Tahir b Gundry 12
N. Lefebve lbw Gundry 9
H. Khan not out 25
E. Todorow (capt.) - not out 2
did not bat; J. Crossland (wkt), A. West
Bowling
A. Wingfield 7-2-42-1
M. Thomas 7-0-25-1
N. Patel 7-1-25-1
G. Thomas 7-1-28-1
S. Gundry 6-1-20-3
J. Lamprecht 1-0-15-0
F. O.W. - 22, 56, 60, 108, 126, 129, 160
Energy Exiles 164 for 6 from 34 overs
Nomads bowling;
H. Khan 7-1-32-1
E. Todorow 7-0-41-1
Tahir 6-1-16-2
A. Khan 7-1-33-1
A. West 4-0-17-0
K. Harris 1-0-12-0
Bilal 2-0-8-0
Energy Exiles won by 4 wickets
Monday 26 September 2011
Friday 16 September 2011
Clapham Nomads v Surbiton Imperials - 11/9/11
A Council error meant that our pitch was double-booked. Thankfully the Supervisor found another vacant pitch and, even though the groundsman had us listed to play, we trooped off down the road, minus an apology or thanks from the team playing on our pitch and minus an hour and a quarter of playing time.
Surbiton had elected to bat and, after waiting 2 hours for some action, one of their openers was unfortunately out 3rd ball, chipping a Hassan Khan lifter up to Jim Joyce.
As usual, Hassan and Emil Todorow made a formidable new ball pairing. Another wicket fell quickly and cautious progress took the score to only 9 after 6 overs. Some nice shots then began to flow, especially whenever Todorow dropped it short, and the 12-over mark saw a score of 39 for 4. Nomads' ground-fielding had been impressive with yet another run out from Abdul Khan the feature. The lethal Abdul had 4 shies at the stumps from distances of between 15 and 25 yards; 3 direct hits (the batsmen just got home) and the 4th one straight into the gloves of keeper John Crossland who completed the run out.
Abdul also bowled a good spell of swing bowling at fair pace and Terry Bruce-Mills yet again found his knack of making batsmen hit him in the air - 2 fine catches in the deep from Hassan and Abdul were his reward.
Beyond about the 10-over mark, Imperials kept up a healthy scoring rate and developed a habit of targeting bowlers late in their spells; the final overs from Emil and Terry both went for over 10, as did Abdul's penultimate over.
Some of the most interesting bowling came from Rashid Ahmed with his rapid leg-spinners scything into the left-handers. Crossland was at his best behind the stumps to prevent a string of byes as the turn was just too much for some of the batsmen. There was another run out, quite a comical one as, with both batsmen at one end, Emil missed the stumps and the wicketkeeper. Luckily the ball went straight to Hassan who was backing up and threw the stumps down from 10 yards with the batsman just out of his ground. Well, it was funny at the time.
Nomads had hopes for a while of dismissing Imperials for under 110, as 80 for 7 became 95 for 8, but powerful late hitting from Siddique and former Nomads player Khalid Harris took the score to respectability. Yet another final over (Rashid's) was carted to take the score from 122 off 28 up to 136 off 29. A good final over from Abdul, in which Siddique was dropped twice yielded just 3 runs and the innings closed on 139 for 9.
We would probably have settled for a target of 140 at the start as Surbiton have some good attacking players, but when we looked up after tea the sky had turned uniform dark grey and the ground was bathed in a beautiful half-light.
Imperials' opening bowlers, Suraj and Siddique, would be a tricky proposition even with normal visibility and, though initial progress was slow, it didn't seem to matter much as dense rainclouds covered an area stretching from the edge of the pitch to somewhere over Hampshire, and completing the game seemed a long-shot. The opening spells were negotiated safely and runs gradually came against the change bowlers. As 20 turned to 30, we noticed that the wind had changed direction and torrential rain was falling away to the North, hopefully on the team that had taken our pitch.
Mark Bradshaw and Mahesh Vyas were starting to look assured. Vyas even played a cracking off-side shot which is normally a signal that his eye is in. Unfortunately, Mahesh chipped a catch up to Siddique shortly afterwards but the 1st wicket stand had realised a valuable 41 runs.
Prasanth Pattiyil played a nice leg-side shot off Khalid but, looking for a repeat, he clipped the ball firmly to Siddique's left. Surbiton's star man took an excellent diving catch.
50 for 2 off around 14 and skipper Todorow was urging acceleration. He had just the man for the job in No. 4 Jim Joyce, returning to the side after missing several matches due to weddings and a Jack Russell chewing his phone. Jim managed a quick 10 and this was matched by Mark Bradshaw before Jim was bowled by Hitesh; 70 for 3.
Rashid Ahmed came out in drizzle, which soon turned torrential. The match hung in the balance as we took shelter; Nomads needing 70 off the last 10 overs, but the downpour was such that the only people who seemed capable of winning this game were Duckworth and Lewis. Kit was being stashed in car boots but Surbiton's skipper was particularly keen to complete the game and was rewarded when the rain stopped after half an hour.
Play resumed on a lovely evening - lovely unless you were batting, bowling or fielding as the ground and soon the ball were saturated. Mark Bradshaw had some problems with the grip on his bat and only 2 runs came from the first over after the break.
Once Mark had resolved his grip problem, he joined Rashid in having a valiant crack at the target; though the saturated outfield and the poor light were making it a tough ask. Rashid is very powerful and slightly unorthodox and this seemed to wrest back the initiative for Nomads. Imperials had two aces up their sleeves in Siddique and Suraj and Siddique did remove Rashid for 16 which came at better than a run a ball. Crucially though, Nomads scored 7 and 8 from Siddique's final 2 overs. Mark Bradshaw was beginning to play quite brilliantly and marshalled our chase as the required rate crept down. 41 were needed off 40 balls just after the arrival of No. 6 Hassan Khan, but this was down to 27 off 30 balls. Bradshaw, in particular, showed an impressive range of attacking shots all around the wicket and, with 3 overs to go, 14 were needed. The light was becoming a serious issue as Mark faced the awkward Khalid, who had only allowed 6 scoring shots in his 4 overs until then, but Mark just blew any doubts away with 2 absolutely cracking off-drives off successive balls, the first of which brought up a fine half-century, leaving Nomads with 6 to score from 16 balls. The umpire jokingly offered our lads the light at this stage. In the following over, somehow locating the ball somewhere in the gloom, Bradshaw wrapped it up with a 2 and a 4 to secure our second successive victory over these tricky opponents and transform a day which had began horribly.
Man of the Match is clearly Mark Bradshaw. A measure of how well he played was that in his match-clinching 5th wicket stand of 47 with Hassan Khan, Mark scored approximately 26 compared to Hassan's 18. Few players at this level can out-score Hassan by such a margin, particularly using orthodox cricket shots. Mark told me later that he was feeling off-colour having been kept awake by a neighbour playing Status Quo all night. For a Prog Rock fan to have to listen to a band who have about as much variation as Andrew West's bowling must have been distressing; all I can say is that I hope he plays this type of innings "again, again, again, again.." Fielder of the Day was Abdul again. The man is magic. The trouble is he prevents us team-mates of a similar age group from using our age as an excuse for our dodgy fielding.
Quote of the Day is from one of the team that took our pitch; "But this is a vital League Match. You just play village cricket." Hmmm.... Clapham...a village. I think a career in Estate Agency beckons him.
Surbiton Imperials 139 for 9 from 30 overs
H. Khan 6-1-10-2
E. Todorow 6-0-27-1
A. Khan 6-0-31-1
T. Bruce-Mills 6-0-36-2
R. Ahmed 6-0-31-1
Clapham Nomads 143 for 4 from 28.2 overs
M. Bradshaw 63 not out
M. Vyas 16
P. Pattiyil 3
J. Joyce 10
R. Ahmed 16
H. Khan 18 not out
F.O.W. - 41. 50. 70. 96
Clapham Nomads won by 6 wickets
Surbiton had elected to bat and, after waiting 2 hours for some action, one of their openers was unfortunately out 3rd ball, chipping a Hassan Khan lifter up to Jim Joyce.
As usual, Hassan and Emil Todorow made a formidable new ball pairing. Another wicket fell quickly and cautious progress took the score to only 9 after 6 overs. Some nice shots then began to flow, especially whenever Todorow dropped it short, and the 12-over mark saw a score of 39 for 4. Nomads' ground-fielding had been impressive with yet another run out from Abdul Khan the feature. The lethal Abdul had 4 shies at the stumps from distances of between 15 and 25 yards; 3 direct hits (the batsmen just got home) and the 4th one straight into the gloves of keeper John Crossland who completed the run out.
Abdul also bowled a good spell of swing bowling at fair pace and Terry Bruce-Mills yet again found his knack of making batsmen hit him in the air - 2 fine catches in the deep from Hassan and Abdul were his reward.
Beyond about the 10-over mark, Imperials kept up a healthy scoring rate and developed a habit of targeting bowlers late in their spells; the final overs from Emil and Terry both went for over 10, as did Abdul's penultimate over.
Some of the most interesting bowling came from Rashid Ahmed with his rapid leg-spinners scything into the left-handers. Crossland was at his best behind the stumps to prevent a string of byes as the turn was just too much for some of the batsmen. There was another run out, quite a comical one as, with both batsmen at one end, Emil missed the stumps and the wicketkeeper. Luckily the ball went straight to Hassan who was backing up and threw the stumps down from 10 yards with the batsman just out of his ground. Well, it was funny at the time.
Nomads had hopes for a while of dismissing Imperials for under 110, as 80 for 7 became 95 for 8, but powerful late hitting from Siddique and former Nomads player Khalid Harris took the score to respectability. Yet another final over (Rashid's) was carted to take the score from 122 off 28 up to 136 off 29. A good final over from Abdul, in which Siddique was dropped twice yielded just 3 runs and the innings closed on 139 for 9.
We would probably have settled for a target of 140 at the start as Surbiton have some good attacking players, but when we looked up after tea the sky had turned uniform dark grey and the ground was bathed in a beautiful half-light.
Imperials' opening bowlers, Suraj and Siddique, would be a tricky proposition even with normal visibility and, though initial progress was slow, it didn't seem to matter much as dense rainclouds covered an area stretching from the edge of the pitch to somewhere over Hampshire, and completing the game seemed a long-shot. The opening spells were negotiated safely and runs gradually came against the change bowlers. As 20 turned to 30, we noticed that the wind had changed direction and torrential rain was falling away to the North, hopefully on the team that had taken our pitch.
Mark Bradshaw and Mahesh Vyas were starting to look assured. Vyas even played a cracking off-side shot which is normally a signal that his eye is in. Unfortunately, Mahesh chipped a catch up to Siddique shortly afterwards but the 1st wicket stand had realised a valuable 41 runs.
Prasanth Pattiyil played a nice leg-side shot off Khalid but, looking for a repeat, he clipped the ball firmly to Siddique's left. Surbiton's star man took an excellent diving catch.
50 for 2 off around 14 and skipper Todorow was urging acceleration. He had just the man for the job in No. 4 Jim Joyce, returning to the side after missing several matches due to weddings and a Jack Russell chewing his phone. Jim managed a quick 10 and this was matched by Mark Bradshaw before Jim was bowled by Hitesh; 70 for 3.
Rashid Ahmed came out in drizzle, which soon turned torrential. The match hung in the balance as we took shelter; Nomads needing 70 off the last 10 overs, but the downpour was such that the only people who seemed capable of winning this game were Duckworth and Lewis. Kit was being stashed in car boots but Surbiton's skipper was particularly keen to complete the game and was rewarded when the rain stopped after half an hour.
Play resumed on a lovely evening - lovely unless you were batting, bowling or fielding as the ground and soon the ball were saturated. Mark Bradshaw had some problems with the grip on his bat and only 2 runs came from the first over after the break.
Once Mark had resolved his grip problem, he joined Rashid in having a valiant crack at the target; though the saturated outfield and the poor light were making it a tough ask. Rashid is very powerful and slightly unorthodox and this seemed to wrest back the initiative for Nomads. Imperials had two aces up their sleeves in Siddique and Suraj and Siddique did remove Rashid for 16 which came at better than a run a ball. Crucially though, Nomads scored 7 and 8 from Siddique's final 2 overs. Mark Bradshaw was beginning to play quite brilliantly and marshalled our chase as the required rate crept down. 41 were needed off 40 balls just after the arrival of No. 6 Hassan Khan, but this was down to 27 off 30 balls. Bradshaw, in particular, showed an impressive range of attacking shots all around the wicket and, with 3 overs to go, 14 were needed. The light was becoming a serious issue as Mark faced the awkward Khalid, who had only allowed 6 scoring shots in his 4 overs until then, but Mark just blew any doubts away with 2 absolutely cracking off-drives off successive balls, the first of which brought up a fine half-century, leaving Nomads with 6 to score from 16 balls. The umpire jokingly offered our lads the light at this stage. In the following over, somehow locating the ball somewhere in the gloom, Bradshaw wrapped it up with a 2 and a 4 to secure our second successive victory over these tricky opponents and transform a day which had began horribly.
Man of the Match is clearly Mark Bradshaw. A measure of how well he played was that in his match-clinching 5th wicket stand of 47 with Hassan Khan, Mark scored approximately 26 compared to Hassan's 18. Few players at this level can out-score Hassan by such a margin, particularly using orthodox cricket shots. Mark told me later that he was feeling off-colour having been kept awake by a neighbour playing Status Quo all night. For a Prog Rock fan to have to listen to a band who have about as much variation as Andrew West's bowling must have been distressing; all I can say is that I hope he plays this type of innings "again, again, again, again.." Fielder of the Day was Abdul again. The man is magic. The trouble is he prevents us team-mates of a similar age group from using our age as an excuse for our dodgy fielding.
Quote of the Day is from one of the team that took our pitch; "But this is a vital League Match. You just play village cricket." Hmmm.... Clapham...a village. I think a career in Estate Agency beckons him.
Surbiton Imperials 139 for 9 from 30 overs
H. Khan 6-1-10-2
E. Todorow 6-0-27-1
A. Khan 6-0-31-1
T. Bruce-Mills 6-0-36-2
R. Ahmed 6-0-31-1
Clapham Nomads 143 for 4 from 28.2 overs
M. Bradshaw 63 not out
M. Vyas 16
P. Pattiyil 3
J. Joyce 10
R. Ahmed 16
H. Khan 18 not out
F.O.W. - 41. 50. 70. 96
Clapham Nomads won by 6 wickets
Saturday 10 September 2011
Andrew West joins an elite club
Don't panic, members of the Garrick, the Groucho and Boodles; the club I refer to is the tiny band of Nomads who have taken 100 wickets for the team. These congratulations are a little belated as he achieved this feat - joining only Emil Todorow and Hassan Khan - with his second wicket in the game against Touring Theatres on 14th August.
There will be a tribute to this legendary figure on this site in due course and a presentation should be made. Any ideas?
There will be a tribute to this legendary figure on this site in due course and a presentation should be made. Any ideas?
Clapham Nomads v Old Leagonians - 4/9/11
It was another new venue for Nomads; the John Ruskin Sports Ground, a secluded semi-rural location at the end of a winding track in the Croydon stockbroker belt of Shirley. The pitch played well and there were good changing rooms and a pair of football-style dugouts.
The end of Ramadan brought 4 genuine all-rounders back to the side but unfortunately not until almost 3 pm, by which time the visitors had had to reverse their original decision to bat, and allow the Nomads to take guard in order to get the game in motion.
The steady rain cleared as Mark Bradshaw and Prasanth Pattiyil strode out. This was Old Leagonians' first game of the season but opening bowlers England and Turner were anything but rusty; England keeping a pretty consistent line and length while the left-armer Turner produced occasional sharp lift and movement. An early bouncer caught Pattiyil's handle but the chance was put down behind the stumps. Scoring was sedate early on in the soggy conditions but Prasanth clipped Turner for a couple of 4s down to Fine Leg in the 6th over to boost the rate. Bradshaw began to take singles almost at will, clipping anything on leg down to Fine and cutting short balls either side of Point, while pushing over-pitched deliveries up to Long Off.
Another chance went down but Leagonians ground-fielding was impressive with a series of diving and sliding stops.
"Hannibal" Frewin and the Australian "Mace" Smythe took over with the latter bowler having trouble keeping his footing on the damp run-up. Prasanth skied a return catch in Frewin's second over but a stand of 44 was an excellent foundation with plenty of batting to come.
No. 3 Chris Kee pulled across to Smythe and chipped a catch to the in-field but this brought Hassan Khan out to join Mark Bradshaw. Hassan was fortunate to survive early on, twice giving difficult chances which went down. The all-rounder admitted he was stiff and tired, having scored an obscenely large amount of runs in a League match the previous day. Once Hassan was into his stride with a series a steers to Deep Point, our premier pair settled down for one of their marathon stands. The drenched outfield made rapid scoring difficult but no fewer than 38 singles were taken in a remorseless stand of 90 as they saw off bowlers Mullard and the useful Rob Lowndes (recorded by John as Rob Lounge.)
Shortly after someone in the Home Dugout had congratulated Hassan on his 50, the batsman fell - for 48 - caught and bowled by Turner, a deserved reward for the most dangerous bowler.
A breezy cameo 23 from Rashid Ahmed began with a second-ball 6 and ended with two 4s as the outfield dried, before he was bowled by Smythe.
Mark Bradshaw needed 5 off the final ball for his 50 but this is a landmark he has achieved many times (well over 50 times in fact) and he was content to push for a single to take Nomads up to 174 at the close.
It was good to have Hassan back to restore some edge to our attack but the opposition set out to take him on. The first ball was struck straight to Short Mid-Wicket who not only dropped the chance but then, with a near-suicidal single being scrambled, "speared" a shaky throw wide of the bowler's feet. Encouraged by this into thinking that Nomads might just be a slightly dodgy fielding side (hard to believe, I know) Leagonians' openers attempted another very sharp single...to Abdul Khan. Not altogether wise. 1 for 1.
This rather set the pattern with Leagonians adopting an attacking approach even when the ball was on the stumps which, in Hassan's overs, it generally was. Hassan took 3 for 15 and narrowly missed out on a hat-trick. There were 5 economical overs from Emil Todorow and 4 from Andrew West, and only a minor injury to West - a groin strain caused by the ball hitting his foot. More acute injury was to our eardrums from West's continuous commentary on life in general, and cricket and the weather in particular.
Wickets kept tumbling as Abdul Khan produced a fine spell of outswing bowling with a touch of Reverse Swing to take 4 for 11. The highlight was a spectacular one-handed diving caught and bowled.
Rashid Ahmed bowled an interesting spell of 65 mph wrist spin, setting his sights with a short-pitched googly, scattering the stumps with the flipper and then, after a flurry of leg-side hitting from Leagonians' Man of the Match Chris Turner, rounding off the victory with a rapid Leg Break to take out off stump.
This win takes us to 7 victories and 5 defeats with 2 games to play, so we are guaranteed, at worst, a 50% record and mid-table respectability.
Old Leagonians used this match to honour the memory of one of their players who passed away in his early 40s a couple of years ago. We were honoured to stage the game and apologise that only 7 of our team were there to observe the minute's silence that preceded play.
Since lateness had quite an influence on the match, Man of the Match can only be one of the players who was on time, so Mark Bradshaw gets the vote as he held the innings together with a valuable 46 not out, full of his favourite shots. Abdul was Fielder of the Day.
There is video footage of the match on Old Leagonians website at http://www.oldleagonianscc.co.uk/2011season.htm . This features Abdul's run out and caught and bowled and, most thrillingly, footage of Andrew West bowling and chasing the ball. Any offers of television or film work must go via his agent John Crossland.
Clapham Nomads 174 for 4 from 30 overs
M. Bradshaw 46 not out
P. Pattiyil 24
C. Kee 0
H. Khan 48
R. Ahmed 23
A. Khan 3 not out
F.O.W. - 44, 46, 136, 170
Old Leagonians 84 from 23.5 overs
H. Khan 5-0-15-3
E. Todorow 5-1-17-0
A. West 4-1-12-0
A. Khan 5-0-11-4
R. Ahmed 2.5-0-11-2
N. Lefebve 2-0-14-0
Clapham Nomads won by 90 runs
The end of Ramadan brought 4 genuine all-rounders back to the side but unfortunately not until almost 3 pm, by which time the visitors had had to reverse their original decision to bat, and allow the Nomads to take guard in order to get the game in motion.
The steady rain cleared as Mark Bradshaw and Prasanth Pattiyil strode out. This was Old Leagonians' first game of the season but opening bowlers England and Turner were anything but rusty; England keeping a pretty consistent line and length while the left-armer Turner produced occasional sharp lift and movement. An early bouncer caught Pattiyil's handle but the chance was put down behind the stumps. Scoring was sedate early on in the soggy conditions but Prasanth clipped Turner for a couple of 4s down to Fine Leg in the 6th over to boost the rate. Bradshaw began to take singles almost at will, clipping anything on leg down to Fine and cutting short balls either side of Point, while pushing over-pitched deliveries up to Long Off.
Another chance went down but Leagonians ground-fielding was impressive with a series of diving and sliding stops.
"Hannibal" Frewin and the Australian "Mace" Smythe took over with the latter bowler having trouble keeping his footing on the damp run-up. Prasanth skied a return catch in Frewin's second over but a stand of 44 was an excellent foundation with plenty of batting to come.
No. 3 Chris Kee pulled across to Smythe and chipped a catch to the in-field but this brought Hassan Khan out to join Mark Bradshaw. Hassan was fortunate to survive early on, twice giving difficult chances which went down. The all-rounder admitted he was stiff and tired, having scored an obscenely large amount of runs in a League match the previous day. Once Hassan was into his stride with a series a steers to Deep Point, our premier pair settled down for one of their marathon stands. The drenched outfield made rapid scoring difficult but no fewer than 38 singles were taken in a remorseless stand of 90 as they saw off bowlers Mullard and the useful Rob Lowndes (recorded by John as Rob Lounge.)
Shortly after someone in the Home Dugout had congratulated Hassan on his 50, the batsman fell - for 48 - caught and bowled by Turner, a deserved reward for the most dangerous bowler.
A breezy cameo 23 from Rashid Ahmed began with a second-ball 6 and ended with two 4s as the outfield dried, before he was bowled by Smythe.
Mark Bradshaw needed 5 off the final ball for his 50 but this is a landmark he has achieved many times (well over 50 times in fact) and he was content to push for a single to take Nomads up to 174 at the close.
It was good to have Hassan back to restore some edge to our attack but the opposition set out to take him on. The first ball was struck straight to Short Mid-Wicket who not only dropped the chance but then, with a near-suicidal single being scrambled, "speared" a shaky throw wide of the bowler's feet. Encouraged by this into thinking that Nomads might just be a slightly dodgy fielding side (hard to believe, I know) Leagonians' openers attempted another very sharp single...to Abdul Khan. Not altogether wise. 1 for 1.
This rather set the pattern with Leagonians adopting an attacking approach even when the ball was on the stumps which, in Hassan's overs, it generally was. Hassan took 3 for 15 and narrowly missed out on a hat-trick. There were 5 economical overs from Emil Todorow and 4 from Andrew West, and only a minor injury to West - a groin strain caused by the ball hitting his foot. More acute injury was to our eardrums from West's continuous commentary on life in general, and cricket and the weather in particular.
Wickets kept tumbling as Abdul Khan produced a fine spell of outswing bowling with a touch of Reverse Swing to take 4 for 11. The highlight was a spectacular one-handed diving caught and bowled.
Rashid Ahmed bowled an interesting spell of 65 mph wrist spin, setting his sights with a short-pitched googly, scattering the stumps with the flipper and then, after a flurry of leg-side hitting from Leagonians' Man of the Match Chris Turner, rounding off the victory with a rapid Leg Break to take out off stump.
This win takes us to 7 victories and 5 defeats with 2 games to play, so we are guaranteed, at worst, a 50% record and mid-table respectability.
Old Leagonians used this match to honour the memory of one of their players who passed away in his early 40s a couple of years ago. We were honoured to stage the game and apologise that only 7 of our team were there to observe the minute's silence that preceded play.
Since lateness had quite an influence on the match, Man of the Match can only be one of the players who was on time, so Mark Bradshaw gets the vote as he held the innings together with a valuable 46 not out, full of his favourite shots. Abdul was Fielder of the Day.
There is video footage of the match on Old Leagonians website at http://www.oldleagonianscc.co.uk/2011season.htm . This features Abdul's run out and caught and bowled and, most thrillingly, footage of Andrew West bowling and chasing the ball. Any offers of television or film work must go via his agent John Crossland.
Clapham Nomads 174 for 4 from 30 overs
M. Bradshaw 46 not out
P. Pattiyil 24
C. Kee 0
H. Khan 48
R. Ahmed 23
A. Khan 3 not out
F.O.W. - 44, 46, 136, 170
Old Leagonians 84 from 23.5 overs
H. Khan 5-0-15-3
E. Todorow 5-1-17-0
A. West 4-1-12-0
A. Khan 5-0-11-4
R. Ahmed 2.5-0-11-2
N. Lefebve 2-0-14-0
Clapham Nomads won by 90 runs
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