It was back to our favourite home venue, Joseph Hood Rec, for another visit from long-standing rivals Kingston Lefthanders. Once again, half the Nomads team was late but the Lefthanders didn't mind as they were able to continue their long, liquid lunch while they waited.
A 35-over game eventually got underway and Mark Bradshaw was soon out of the blocks with a trademark cut for 4 off the bowling of the excellent Paul Thatcher. This was to be the only boundary off Thatcher who was "Not for Turning" into quick runs and improved steadily throughout our innings.
Experienced leg-spinner Dave Connett shared the new ball and controversy soon reared its head. Distracted by banter while the bowler was running in, Mahesh Vyas took 3 strides down the pitch and blocked the ball with his pads. A preposterous LBW appeal was answered by umpire Todorow giving the "Dead Ball" signal. A bit of backchat escalated into a tirade of obscenities from a fielder to Todorow which our umpire did well to ignore. There does seem to have been a bit of bad blood between the two sides lately, possibly dating back to the Dead Crow match in 2008 and our supposed use of Australian ringers, one of whom hails from Lincolnshire. I suppose we have hardly been blameless over the years; especially Mr C and the player referred to in one of Kingston's reports as "Shorts Knob."
Thankfully, this was as bad as it got and, as the alcohol was absorbed, a reasonably pleasant game continued. Bradshaw and Vyas made good, steady progress against some decent bowling but Vyas unfortunately missed a short, leg-side Connett delivery which appeared tailor-made for him and the leg bail was clipped - 27 for 1.
Bradshaw was looking in good touch and heading for a 50 at least, so it was unfortunate when he was hit on the pad in front of leg and middle in the 9th over. This was the last over in the first spell for Thatcher, comfortably the best bowler, and Mark looked set to cash in on his hard work, but at least the LBW decision prevented a mass throwing-out of toys from prams by the fielders, as happened in the reverse fixture in June.
Prasanth Pattiyil and Hassan Khan settled in against the second-string bowling pair of Matt "Brains" Ashburn and Nick Crouch, Sunday Cricket's slowest, most tempting, but occasionally deadly bowler. Ashburn is usually a reasonable bowler but had radar problems this time and Pattiyil, Khan and Extras all took a toll on him. Both batsmen played Crouch the textbook way, if there is one, by sauntering down the pitch and clipping him behind square on the leg-side. One of the best fielders was placed in the key Deep Backward Square position and saved a stack of runs. We almost had a chance to cash in when he abandoned his post to urinate behind a tree at the start of one over, but the bowler noticed just in time.
Nomads raced to 100 as each of Crouch's first 18 balls went for runs. His 19th ball, however, produced one of his notorious dippers and the ball sneaked under Prasanth's bat and rolled exhaustedly onto the stumps, just about removing a bail. This is just the way he always used to get John Chance out, but Prasanth is a gentleman so there was no pad throwing or finger pointing, nor any suppressed laughter from the Nomads.
Abdul Khan made the most of the rest of Crouch's spell with a series of boundaries before falling to Ashburn. Riaz Khan then joined Hassan and the serious acceleration could begin.
At drinks, Kingston's captain revealed he felt aggrieved at skipper Todorow's insistence on an Overs Game despite Lefthanders being very short of bowlers. We hadn't realised quite how depleted they were and so Todorow sportingly agreed that the 2 opening bowlers could bowl 9 overs each, rather than the normal 7. This had quite a bearing as the returning Thatcher soon bowled Riaz for 12.
Nick Lefebve joined Hassan Khan but unfortunately jinxed his partner by exhorting him to go on and get a ton. Thatcher promptly bowled Khan for 86 to impose savage cuts on our scoring rate. Gopi walked out at 179 for 6 but Thatcher quickly had him glove a catch to the keeper. The bowler, with his 2 extra overs still to bowl, looked like running right through us for a score under 200. At this point the captain, Tugboat, seemed to make an error; he seemed determined to claim Emil Todorow's wicket for himself and came on at Thatcher's expense. Neither batsman had much trouble with him and he gifted Lefebve a couple of juicy leg-side treats. The veteran pair put on 31 in good time until the returning Thatcher bowled Lefebve with an Exocet missile in the final over to complete a high-class five-fer.
Nomads closed on 210 which is considerably more than Lefthanders have ever scored against us, even with stronger batting line-ups than Sunday. Defence was not an option on this occasion though, so who knew.
The usually obdurate Crouch opened but seemed slightly demoralised and swung aross the line to Hassan Khan. Tut tut. 0 for 1. The green-shirted Nicholas thumped a lusty 4 off Todorow and was badly dropped in attempting to repeat the feat. This merely galvanised the Slavic-Speaking Legend and he bowled the Man in Green next ball with ease.
Our two opening bowlers, who are getting better and better as the season goes by, matched each other with a further 2 wickets apiece to reduce Lefthanders to 12 for 6 and give our visitors a shot at breaking a long-standing record; the 31 all out recorded by Stratford in 1994 in the teeth of a fast-bowling gale from Joe Chance - the lowest total Nomads have ever conceded.
Gideon Reeve and Gopi Pala took over after 6 overs and kept up the good work. At 18 for 7, 24 for 8 and even 29 for 9 the record was still on. Reeve produced some of his best bowling of the season, clipping the bails with a quick-ish beauty for the 8th wicket. Paul Thatcher and Dave Connett came together and proved the best batsmen as well as the best bowlers in taking the score up to 59 in a breezy stand before Connett smacked the ball straight back at Gopi who accepted the chance very nicely to wrap up a comfortable 5th victory of the season, which now equals our 5 defeats.
With an outstanding one-handed catch, 3 wickets for 7 and 86 runs, Hassan Khan is Man of the Match by the width of Kingston Marketplace, but I'm sure he must have batted better on occasions for half the score he made in this game. The most consistent fielders were probably Gideon Reeve and Prasanth Pattiyil and, since Prasanth kept his cool for a juggling catch, I will award him Fielder of the Day.
CLAPHAM NOMADS - 210 FOR 8 off 35 overs
M. Bradshaw 14
M. Vyas 12
P. Pattiyil 23
H. Khan 86
A. Khan 15
R. Khan 12
N. Lefebve 17
G. Pala 0
E. Todorow 14 not out
G. Reeve 0 not out
J. Crossland did not bat
F.O.W. - 27, 29, 101, 126, 164, 179, 179, 201
KINGSTON LEFTHANDERS - 59 all out off 13.3 overs
H. Khan 3-0-7-3
E. Todorow 3-0-10-3
G. Reeve 4-0-22-2
G. Pala 3.3-0-11-2
Clapham Nomads won by 151 runs
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