Clapham Nomads (& Kingston Taxes) v Touring Theatres - 16/6/13

Nomads were originally due to play a 3-cornered 15-overs-a-side tournament involving the 3 teams mentioned in the title.  This was arranged by, and in honour of, South London cricketing legend Chris Kennedy who has played for all 3 sides regularly.
In the event, only 5 of the Taxes were able to make it so 4 of them teamed up with Nomads to make a 14-man outfit while 1 of them played for Theatres, making 13.  Nomads won the toss, batted, and Mahesh and Gul made a cautious start against Theatres openers who must vary more in mph than any new ball partners I have seen.  Seethal, distinctly sharp off a short run-up and Cal Robertson, a very slow off-spinner who flights and varies it a great deal. 
Robertson was surprisingly taken off after 3 overs which had yielded just 2 runs and was replaced by the 14-year-old Robert who was creditably economical apart from one early boundary.
Nomads' openers gradually began to exert dominance over a very widely varied attack.  Chris Kennedy's son-in-law, Conan, was probably the pick with a rapid 4-over spell but by the time Mahesh was first man out with the score on 93, Theatres were already using their 8th bowler.
Gul passed his 50 as Nomads passed 100 but another excellent knock from our star opener ended on 124 for 2.
Anthony, of Kingston Taxes, joined Darwin and dominated the rest of our knock, stacking up a splendid half-century at better than a run a ball and scoring 54 of the 83 that Nomads accrued from the time Anthony came to the crease.  Darwin was run out and then Abdul and Amir fell to Theatres' experienced seamer Naseef during the slog.
In retrospect, the contest had a slightly lop-sided slant as Nomads (who are something like 22-3 up in games against the Theatres) had somehow bagged most of the Taxes' best players.  We also had, of course, 2 opening bowlers who are as effective as they are legendary; Emil Todorow and Andrew West - The Hair Pair.  It was Andrew who struck first with 2 early wickets, with Emil responding with one of his own to reduce Theatres to 29 for 3.
Anthony and Adam Paz took their turn and the Theatres staged a brief fightback, led by Bournes, who played some fine aerial shots off Paz.  Anthony struck the decisive blow in removing Bournes - 79 for 4.  Paz recovered to bowl his usual accurate Medium Fast.  Chris Kennedy strode out to tumultuous but couldn't capitalise on a drop by Lefebve in the gully - I wish I could say it was deliberate - and departed soon afterwards.
The afternoon tailed off somewhat as the bowling was shared out,  Steve of the Taxes recorded a double-wicket maiden as Theatres were finally all out for 95.
There was some thought as to whether this should count as a proper Nomads victory but after a short period of deliberation (about 5 seconds) we decided that it should.  Man of the Match was Anthony whose 54 was the most entertaining batting of the day. He also took the important wicket of Bournes.  Fielder of the Day was Abbas who took 2 excellent catches at Gully.

Clapham Nomads (and Kingston Taxes) - 207 for 5 from 35 overs

M. Vyas   27
Gul   67
Darwin   22
Anthony (Taxes)  not out 54
Abdul Khan   1
Amir   9
Amit (Taxes) -  not out 0

Did not bat; Lefebve, A. Paz, Steve (Taxes), Ken (Taxes), Abbas Khan, Todorow, West

F.O.W. - 93, 124, 170, 178, 190

Touring Theatres (and Kingston Taxes)  -  95 all out from 32.3 overs

Bowling;

Todorow  6-0-14-1
West   6-2-19-2
Anthony (Taxes)  4-2-9-1
Paz   6-0-30-1
Abbas Khan   4-3-9-2
Abdul Khan   3-0-3-1
Steve (Taxes)  2-2-0-2
Ken (Taxes)  1-1-0-0
Amit (Taxes)  0.3-0-2-1

Clapham Nomads won by 112 runs