Life felt good on the morning of the 5th. We were off to play the Exiles with a half-decent Nomads line-up. There was no more travelling by trolley and taxi as Emil Todorow had acquired a gleaming Renault Megane - one previous lady owner - and, on the back seat, we had an Australian ringer...sorry, debutant.
Contentment spilt over into something close to ecstasy as we found that Exiles had no Simon Gundry, no Naren Patel (lovely guy but always takes wickets against us) and John Tither was batting low down the order. Could Nomads actually beat the Exiles again? Stranger things have happened.
Inevitably we were brought back to earth fairly quickly as the 2 Wills - Clephane and Kent - took the intiative against Hassan and Emil's New Ball bowling. Clephane, on his Exiles debut, looked particularly impressive and, having survived an early caught and bowled chance, cracked an entertaining 51 off 61 balls including 2 large sixes. When we finally got him, No. 3 Jasper Searle just upped the ante with 24 at a run a ball to accompany Will Kent past his 50. Nomads had had high hopes for our spinner Oli Heywood, a Melbourne league off-spinner. He bowled pretty well but Exiles managed to take 35 from his 7 overs without losing a wicket and this was probably decisive. To be fair, I got the impression from talking to Oli that he gets a lot of his wickets from athletic catches in the bat pad area and other close up positions - something not seen particularly regularly by Nomads fans. Clapham hustled our way back into the game briefly with 4 wickets between 122 and 151, including the important one of big-hitter Andy Wingfield, and had a chance to face no more that about 160 but excellent power hitting from Wil Scott and particularly Marcin Zielenewski late on took Exiles up to a daunting 181 for 5 at the break.
Exiles' bowling attack had a slightly unfamiliar look to it but Marcin Zielenewski - a much-improved player in the past season or 2 - sent it down gun-barrel straight and true, only going for 6 from his first 5 overs. I picked the more entertaining end to umpire at and there was lavish swing, seam and trickery from Wingfield, who claimed the 2 important wickets of Adnan and Abdul in his first 8 balls, and Phil Ling, who moves it in the air as much as anyone at this level. Mahesh Vyas steadied the Nomads ship with 8 in around 12 overs and Hassan began to eke out some runs, particularly when joined by Heywood at 28 for 3. Decent stands between Hassan and Oli Heywood (46) and Heywood and Chris Kennedy (29) offered Nomads no more than respectability as we dragged behind the asking rate. 2 wickets fell on 103 and No 8 Nick Lefebve joined Heywood who suddenly seemed galvanised by the fact that victory was off the agenda and began to smack the ball to all parts. He took a liking to Zielenewski and smashed an awesome 25 off one over which prompted Exiles' Management Committee of Tither and Wingfield to give the stunned bowler a motivational pep talk; "You have to want to do this." Suddenly, only 34 were needed from 2 overs and, crucially, Heywood was on strike. 3 boundaries off the next over, to be bowled by Wingfield, could have made for a squeaky bum finish but the blond left-armer is too experienced for that and closed the game out by conceding just 1 run. Zielenewski showed good character by bowling the closing over for just 3 and Exiles won by 29 runs.
Another defeat for the Nomads (and scores spookily similar to the previous week) but an enjoyable game. Man of the Match for Nomads was Oli Heywood. He may not play that much for us this season but there is a special request for him to turn out on 18th August. Fielder of the Day was Chris Kennedy who took the first catch and threw himself around in the field - showing the benefits of a Wetherspoons breakfast with liquid accompaniment.
We heard from the Exiles that former Nomads opener Mark Bradshaw would be making the short hop across South-West London and rejoining them in a sensational return move. We wish Mark the best of success - in fact, he has already featured in a club record partnership for the Exiles this season - and thank him for his excellent 5 seasons with the Nomads. Tribute to follow now that I am catching up with reports etc.
Energy Exiles (181 for 5 from 35 overs) beat Clapham Nomads (152 for 6 from 35 overs) by 29 runs
Adnan Khan - 5
M. Vyas - 8
Abdul Khan - 5
H. Khan - 28
O. Heywood - 82 not out
C. Kennedy - 2
R. Khan - 0
N. Lefebve - 3 not out
Did not bat; E. Todorow, Abbas Khan, J. Crossland
F.O.W. - 5, 11, 28, 74, 103, 103
H. Khan 7-0-25-3
E. Todorow 5-1-18-0
Abbas Khan 4-0-18-0
O. Heywood 7-0-35-0
R. Khan 7-0-48-2
Abdul Khan 5-0-28-0
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