Acton v Clapham Nomads - 1/6/14 (Updated version)

Nomads played a Conference game on Sunday 1st June, making the long journey to Park Sports Ground, London W3; practically a tour match for Nomads' notoriously reluctant travellers.
The absences of star players Mark Bradshaw and Sami, plus a heel injury to Hassan (he played but had to bat lower down) probably meant that our real Conference strength was Medium-Weak (though able replacements were found in Gul and Jonnie Randall) while the home side's "Medium" status was "consolidated" by the presence of at least 2 first-teamers from the Middlesex County League.
After a little trouble finding the pitch in the large sports complex, Nomads arrived (punctuality rating; moderate to ordinary) and skipper Todorow inserted Acton on an excellent-looking flat track.  Perhaps noting Todorow's keenness to bat second and observing the age of the Nomads side (one player approaching 70, another in his early 60s, several in their 50s and only 2 under 30), the Home skipper sportingly suggested a time game.
The Super Six were reduced to a Famous Five by injury to Sami.  Hassan opened and bowled well despite his heel injury and made an early breakthrough comprehensively bowling Acton's opener who tried to give him the charge.  That was probably our high spot in Acton's innings.  First-teamers Forsdike and Fell batted remorselessly for a century and 60 odd respectively before retiring.  Acton acknowledged in their report that our bowling was a little unthreatening but difficult to get away.  Their top 5 all had a bat and at tea their skipper called it a day (as is customary at tea) on 245 for 1.
On one of the best tracks we have played on, we had to have a reasonable chance of the draw.  Winning it would have been extraordinary against an attack made up of a couple of young, lively and accurate quicks, at least one decent slower bowler and a smattering of part-timers.  Gul and Mahesh both contributed early on, Mahesh falling in the 5th over and Gul in the 10th, but then Prasanth Pattiyil played a superb defensive innings, looking unshiftable for 30 overs until Middlesex County League paceman Forsdike finally got him for 18.  Riaz began in the same vein until one of the fielders was given to remark; "can he actually play any shots?"  An emphatic boundary was the inevitable result.  Riaz went on to top-score with 32.  A slight flurry of middle-order wickets reduced us from 56 for 2 to 89 for 6 as the Home team went full throttle for the win, but Jonnie Randall stood his ground and used up vital overs. Hassan did the same but with a few attacking shots thrown in. I wasn't at this game but John pointed out to me how well Hassan batted. Perhaps most impressive of all was the veteran Chris Kennedy in his first outing of the season for the Nomads, having not faced bowling of this calibre for a while.  He saw off plenty of overs of spin - not his favourite bowling - and was pivotal in our rearguard effort.
Hassan Khan and Emil Todorow were together with 7 down and 5 overs to go and appeared to be on course to draw the game with ease.  Nomads rarely do anything the easy way though and, with 4 balls to go, Hassan was out and Abbas was on his way to the crease causing John to pad up.  Surely even Acton's bored "spectator" - see their report - (if he/she was still awake) must have enjoyed the drama of this moment.  Abbas managed to snick a single and there was no way past the obdurate Balkan-born legend Todorow for the tiring bowlers. Todorow even cracked Middlesex County League third-tier bowler Fell for 2 off the last ball to bring up the 120.
Not a victory then, not even a "small victory" but a very creditable draw achieved through a lot of hard-work and with something to spare .  I wish I had come along after all.  Emil told me we faced 51 overs.  I'm not quite sure how that is possible but, if it is true, then it was a well-deserved draw. (I've got the scorebook back now and, yes, 51 overs.)  This is the largest number of overs Clapham Nomads have batted in any of our 300-plus fixtures.  I've known many a team give themselves a hearty pat on the back after surviving far fewer overs to draw against much weaker bowling than Acton cc's.
I doubt there will be a return fixture but we could always book Fishponds Road Rec which might suit our bowlers better.. 
Quote of the Day came from one of Acton's young pacemen after hitting one of our middle-order batsmen on the bottom (with the ball I hasten to add - the ball must have been missing the stumps by quite a margin as this was our tallest batsman); "What are you even doing here?  Get out of here!"................Hohum.
Anyway, thanks to Acton for hosting us.  They are a fine club and we wish all their sides success for the rest of the season.
One final word on Conference ratings.  It has seemed for some years that Middlesex teams are stronger than Surrey teams with the same rating.  Some years ago, I was playing for the Open University and the captain Dave Hunter told us after a heavy defeat; "We'll be alright next week, lads, we're playing a team called Acton Town.  They're rated Weak."  Come 4.30 pm the following Sunday, 10 of us were glaring at Hunter over tea, having just conceded 234 for 0.

Acton cc 245 for 1 (Forsdike 103 retired) from 32 overs

Nomads bowling;

Abbas Khan   5-0-35-0
H. Khan    9-0-64-1
R. Khan   6-0-37-0
E. Todorow   6-0-53-0
Abdul Khan   5-0-34-0
J. Randall   1-0-11-0


Clapham Nomads  120 for 8 from 51 overs

M. Vyas   0
Gul  10
P. Pattiyil  18
R. Khan  32
J. Randall   7
Abdul Khan  1
C. Kennedy  4
H. Khan  21
E. Todorow  not out 3
Abbas Khan  not out 1
Did not bat; J. Crossland

F.O.W. - 4, 10, 56, 74, 81, 89, 108, 116

Match drawn

 
Man of the Match - Prasanth Pattiyil
Fielder of the Day - Hassan Khan (Chris Kennedy was second.)

Scores and adaptations to the report will follow when I get the scorebook back.  (Now done.)

Meanwhile read Acton's reasonably fair report on http://actoncricketclub.com/31-may1-june-weekend-round-up