To mark the 10th anniversary of Nomads/Exiles fixtures we had another good game of cricket and what seemed at the time like one of the more controversial of the 17 contests between the 2 clubs.
Looking back after a week, though; apart from a little bit of toy-rattling, a few controversial decisions (surprise, surprise!) and a touch of rather stale sledging (more Nerys Hughes than Merv Hughes), there was nothing too drastic and, compared to a Kingston Lefthanders v Morden fixture, it was a positive love-in.
All Nomads reached the ground by 2 pm for the first time in ages but, due to the start being re-arranged for 1:15 (which was not in fact viable as the booking was from 1:30) we were still late. Anyway, a 35-over match was agreed to due to the Sunday evening tube strike.
Nomads' skipper Emil Todorow controversially inserted the Exiles but, as if to make amends, recovered from a wayward first over to impose a stranglehold early on, together with Hassan Khan, his trusty new ball partner. After 8 overs the score was only 10 and the home side were postively rattling through their work in the hope that Exiles would not notice their scoring rate was only 1.25 . Both Exiles openers, Keith Roberts and Quentin Davies, were put down early on but we hoped the lack of an early wicket might prove less significant in a 35-over contest than in the usual 40-a-side affair. Around the 10-over mark Davies grabbed the reins with 2 firm 4s but the introduction of the quicker Zia caused the threatening-looking opener to mistime and Mark Bradshaw moved smartly to take a good catch at mid-wicket.
No. 3 John Tither increased the rate only slightly at first against some accurate bowling. Despite some high bounce for the quicks at the Morden Road End, I thought it was a good pitch (several batsmen disagreed with this though - but at least there were none of the usual Merton Council pea-rollers.)
After 16 overs the score was only around 40 and Nomads cynically moved the drinks break from the usual 17 or 18 over mark to 19 overs in the hope that Roberts and Tither would continue to play cautiously up to the break. This ploy failed as Tither opened up in the 17th over taking at least 10 off Zia and he didn't look back from there, playing the latest in a series of fine knocks against us before finally being caught for 65 off only 48 balls including nine 4s and a 6. I met John Tither a few days later and he said he never really felt like he got in on that pitch. Well, Christ, I wouldn't like to bowl to him when he does get in. His stand with Keith Roberts realised 83 and put Exiles firmly in the driving seat. Nomads had only 4 recognised front-line bowlers but Darwin and Prasanth did a pretty good job in bowling the spare 7 between them. Darwin accounted for Wil Scott quickly but this proved counter-productive as it just brought our perennial nemesis, Simon Gundry, to the crease earlier than we would have liked. The big man's fans in the Exiles camp, and grudging admirers in the Nomads camp, were treated to the usual display of power-hitting as two towering sixes were the highlight of his 19-ball 25 not out.
As usual, Keith Roberts supplied obdurate and annoyingly-left-handed support for most of the Exiles innings. If you had to pick someone at this level to stay in to save your life, you could do a lot worse than pick Roberts. Even Emil couldn't prise him out this time and it took a brilliant 30-yard direct hit from Zia to finally send him on his way. Quickish runs from Amil Patel and Andy Wingfield helped the score up to a formidable 179 at the close.
Mark Bradshaw and Mahesh Vyas opened Nomads' reply and faced the usual pairing of Andy Wingfield and Naren Patel. This time though, it appeared that all eyes were on the men in white coats after the previous game's "revealing insight/sun and alcohol-induced rant" by John Crossland about Nomads' umpiring. Wingfield made a quick breakthough as Vyas unluckily deflected the ball onto his own stumps. Prasanth Pattiyil joined Bradshaw and the two made circumspect progress and, once again, saw off the opening pair for the loss of just one wicket. There were 2 massive shouts for LBW against Prasanth. One looked pretty close; the other - hitting the batsman on the toe a yard-and-a-half outside the crease at the bouncy end - was not so close. Nomads innings followed a rather similar pattern to Exiles' as we were in the 40s after 16 overs. The difference was that we were not quite able to accelerate at this stage as rapidly as John Tither had done. Having said that, Mark and Prasanth played well and moved past the 50 partnership (do this pair ever not make a 50 partnership?) Mark continued his fine run and accumulated another good score against his former club which cannot be easy as they know his game inside out.
Although the required rate was nudging 9 an over, Nomads had 4 genuine big-hitters to come so we weren't quite out of the contest. Prasanth finally fell for 31 and thus ushered in Batsman of the Year so far, Jim Joyce. Sadly he could only really connect with one of his big shots and fell quickly. No. 5 Nick Lefebve had captain's orders to either get the scoreboard moving or get Hassan in, and he soon achieved one of these objectives - the latter.
Our No. 6 has not been quite at his brilliant best in some previous games against these opponents but he made amends here with some excellent batting. Even S. Gundry got some tap. Bradshaw joined in another 50 stand - this one much more rapid - and at one point the asking rate dipped towards 8. What seemed likely to thwart us, though, was that Gundry and Wingfield both had overs in hand. Martin Thomas also bowled an excellent spell with the exception of one very expensive over. When I left with 5 overs to go, Nomads needed around 50. I'm told that 36 were needed off 4 and then 20 off the final over which featured a controversial run out call. Nomads came up 13 short but this margin possibly flattered us slightly. At no stage in our innings did Nomads really look in charge and, as a betting man, I would not have set odds of shorter than 5-2 at any stage of our knock. Mind you, Zia was caught on the boundary and I'm told the shot would otherwise have gone for 6. Exiles had the edge this time though, with Tither's batting and the extra depth and variety in their bowling being crucial. Not that it was a bad performance from the Nomads and anyone sad enough to tally up aggregate scores would notice that the 13-run defeat left us ahead over the 2 matches. Personally, I would have to deplore this kind of pettiness but also point out that the actual aggregate margin for 2011 is 61 runs.
Mark Bradshaw finished on 48 not out but a consolation for missing out on his 50 is that he now averages 53 for Nomads in games against the Exiles. Bradshaw was ahead on points for Fielder of the Day for taking yet another catch against the Exiles (a good one) and an excellent scrambling stop right on the boundary, but Zia's direct hit was enough for a share. I'm not sure about Man of the Match until I see the scorebook.
Man of the Match update; Hassan Khan - by far the most economical bowler and 37 runs in good time which put us back in with an outside chance at one stage.
ENERGY EXILES - 179 for 5 from 35 overs
H. Khan 7-4-13-1
Todorow 7-2-31-0
R. Khan 7-2-24-0
Zia 7-1-38-2
Darwin 5-0-39-1
P. Pattiyil 2-0-16-0
CLAPHAM NOMADS - 166 for 6 from 35 overs.
Bradshaw 48 not out
Vyas 1
Pattiyil 31
Joyce 6
Lefebve 1
H. Khan 37
Zia 9
R. Khan 8 not out
F.O.W. - 5, 61, 67, 69, 131, 157
Nomads lost by 13 runs
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