Some cricketers are best remembered for swashbuckling innings or heroic rearguard actions; others for blistering pace bowling spells or remarkable deliveries; others for off-the-field incidents involving drink, drugs, night-club hostesses and match-fixing; others still for unsavoury scenes on the field of play; some even for hair (Ballard, Todorow) or incredible statistics (Todorow again). There cannot be many players at any level of the game, however, who have packed such an incredible variety of incidents into a cricketing career as Nomads' very own headline-grabber Andrew West. How can you condense such a career into just 25 Memorable Moments. Well, we can only try. Here are numbers 25 to 21.
25) - You never forget the first time you see a legendary sportsman in the flesh. I saw George Best for the first time on New Years Day 1974. He hardly touched the ball and he quit Manchester United later that week but I've never forgotten it. In September 2007, Mark Bradshaw (then an Energy Exiles player) saw Andrew West for the first time and described it approximately thus in his match report; "An older chap turned up, late, on his bicycle and proceeded to trundle down 7 overs of reasonably accurate Medium Pace but then, his work done, he trundled off to Square Leg and spent the rest of the innings chuntering about anything and everything." This somehow encapsulated Andrew on one of his uneventful days - but there weren't many of those.
24) - At Mayow Park, in June 2013, Caribbean Mix batsmen gave us an absolute hammering, belting the ball all over this most depressing of venues. Nomads' fielders showed good attitude and attempted to do whatever was necessary to stop the ball. Andrew West even used his testicles and saved 2 (runs, that is). That was a nasty enough injury but, an over or 2 later, he got under a skied shot and the crack of bone echoed around the park. We did offer to get him to hospital but he refused. Trouper that he is, he even stayed on to umpire and so shared in the glory of a freak draw that torrential rain granted us. It turned out later he had broken his finger in 2 places. Luckily, he didn't use this finger while umpiring (few Nomads' umpires ever do.)
23) - This should really be higher but I only just remembered it. The only known film of Nomads in action was taken by the opposition when we played Old Leagonians at John Ruskin Sports Ground in Croydon in September 2011. I think it is still available on You Tube (If you put in the words Clapham Nomads You Tube on a google search, you should find it.) The film has it all; a classic Run Out from Abdul, Hassan and Emil bowling, rare footage of former Nomads players such as Chris Kee but, best of all, it has Andrew chasing a straight drive on a slow outfield but slightly downhill. He puts everything into the chase and it looks all the way as if he is going to prevent 4 but the ball just picks up pace and crawls over the rope leaving Andrew gesticulating and mouthing; "****ing B***ocks" right at the camera. Brilliant Camerawork. Eat your heart out, Spielberg.
22) - On 2/8/09, Andrew turned up at Abbey Rec for a match against Kingston Lefthanders in a skin-tight, figure hugging blue T-Shirt. I think it impressed several of the opposition as it roughly matched the colour of the cans of Tennants Super some of them were drinking from. Nomads scored 176 for 6 and skipper John Crossland controversially declared. Lefthanders had recently brought in some new players though, and they started making a good fist of the run chase. Crossland turned to West, who immediately began to peg back the batsman. They looked at him in blue and probably thought they should hit him out of the park but they just couldn't - he was too accurate. In one over, he appealed deafeningly for LBW on each of the first 4 balls. I was fielding near the Lefthanders and they were chuntering like mad about this, even though the shouts looked fairly adjacent. The 5th ball - another deafening shout from the bowler, more chuntering from the batting team, but then they noticed that the stumps were shattered and the bails were on the ground. This was the turning point. Andrew took 13-4-22-2 and we won the game in the final over.
21) - Another season, another team, another colour. Nomads had 12, Touring Theatres had 8 and so Andrew, this time wearing purple, was loaned to the opposition for this game on 22/8/10 at Raynes Park. Looking at the Theatres bowling line-up, Andrew was probably either their best or 2nd-best bowler on paper that day but things didn't go entirely to plan. Well, they did for the Nomads. Sumith, in one of his last games, took an absolutely massive liking to Andrew's bowling and raced to one of Nomads' fastest fifties. Andrew's figures were 3-0-45-0. I wasn't there that day but I have a hunch he wasn't the happiest of bunnies.
I'll post the Top 20 at the weekend. It should have everything; laughter, a few tears, sporting drama, technology (mobile phones), fashion, wildlife and surgery (Orthopaedic Surgery and Tree Surgery.)
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