Wimbledon United v Clapham Nomads - 23/6/19

Nomads were inserted by the hosts in another local derby against Wimbledon United at Cottenham Park.  A fine opening partnership of 55 (our best 1st wicket stand of the season so far) between Mahesh and Abdul got us off to a very solid start, though economical spells from Peter Brown and Ian kept a brake on the scoring rate.  First-changer Patel made the breakthrough in what must have been about the 18th over. Despite missing star all-rounder Hasan, Nomads had a hard-hitting middle order and local householders must have been quaking in their boots - and glaziers and garages rubbing their hands in anticipation - as Riaz and Zia prepared to clear the short boundary and the trees and rattle nearby windows and cars. They achieved a six each but United's bowlers just have that knack of popping up with wickets at the most inconvenient time and a match-changing mini-collapse took us from 94 for 2 to 98 for 5. Nomads' late-middle order, including new man Shairy, kept chipping away but a further burst for the home side took Nomads from 144 for 6 down to 148 for 9. Thankfully an excellent 10th wicket partnership between KK and John dragged us up to semi-respectability on 170 before KK was caught behind off the returning Ian on the penultimate ball of the innings.
This is the sort of total we have reached in a number of games against Wimbledon, and we have won some of them, but United's historically strong batting seems to have moved up a gear in the last year or so, judging by their scores, despite the loss of star man Dave Hitchman. All Nomads' main bowlers returned respectable figures, particularly Zia, but John and Emil told me that the home side progressed to the target with comparatively little difficulty and won by 6 wickets with almost 5 overs to spare.  Still a reasonable perfomance against a team whose batting is becoming formidable and a nice tea as usual. 

Clapham Nomads 170 all out from 39.5 overs

Mahesh  19
Abdul  38
Rafi  8
Riaz  25
Darwin  0
Zia  31
Shairy  7
KK  25
Abbas  0
Emil (capt)  0
John  3 not out

F.O.W - 55, 61, 94, 94, 98, 123, 144, 144, 148, 170

Wimbledon United  171 for 4 from 35.2 overs

Nomads' bowling;

Zia  8-1-20-1
KK 8-0-35-0
Abbas  7-1-28-2
Riaz  6-1-35-1
Abdul  2-0-23-0
Emil  3-0-19-0
Shairy  1.2-0-8-0

Nomads lost by 6 wickets

Man of the Match - Abdul
Fielder of the Day - to be decided

Energy Exiles v Clapham Nomads - 9/6/19

Clapham Nomads made a great return from our break for Ramadan and Eid with one of our most convincing wins over local rivals Energy Exiles at Nursery Road on Sunday.
Exiles were missing a few regulars; notably Simon Gundry, Keith Roberts, Chris Plume and Bernard Leuvennink, and it was pretty much a full-strength Clapham selection but it was still a fantastic win.
Exiles won the toss and, after a good start, collapsed somewhat but then made a recovery with a fine 10th wicket stand of about 40 between experienced campaigners Andy Wingfield and Phil Ling. Emil claims credit for eventually breaking this stand by getting fielders to come up and crowd Ling. The final total was 180 which Exiles felt was 30 or so below par, but Nomads' keeper John Crossland said later he felt the game might have slipped away.  I haven't seen the bowling figures but it was our best bowling of the season so far. Emil, despite being at his own admission not at his awesome best physically, bowled a good spell of 5 overs and took a wicket.
Exiles new "Tea Lady" provided quality refreshment before Nomads began their reply.
It was good to have Abdul back at the top of our order but, despite obdurate resistance from Mahesh and some quick runs from Darwin, Exiles had us in considerable trouble at 48 for 3. Fortunately we had the reliable firm of Hasan and Zia - "destroying opposing attacks a speciality" - in reserve and they did not disappoint. A fantastic unbeaten partnership of  135 took Nomads past the home side's total with around 8 overs to spare. Both Hasan (top scorer) and Zia made half-centuries.
John picked out Zia as the pick of the bowlers.  I'll have to check the stats to see if this was our most convincing win over the Exiles - it must have been close; a great win.

MORE DETAIL TO FOLLOW WHEN I HAVE SEEN THE SCOREBOOK....

Energy Exiles - 180 all out in 38.1 overs

Nomads' bowling;

Sami  8-1-35-2
KK  6.1-0-25-1
Abbas 8-1-45-3
Zia  8-1-34-3
Riaz  3-2-5-0
Emil  5-0-29-1


Clapham Nomads - 183 for 3 from 32.1 overs

Mahesh  4
Abdul  5
Darwin  18
Hasan  76 not out
Zia  64 not out

F.O.W. - 8, 30, 48

Did not bat:  Riaz, Abbas, KK, Emil (capt), Sami, John (wkt)

Clapham Nomads won by 7 wickets.

Man of the Match - Zia
Fielder of the Day (2 catches) - Abbas