Energy Exiles etc.

Belated congratulations to Chris Plume and his all-conquering Energy Exiles side on recording their highest-ever number of victories - 15 - in a season.  I think Nomads' best is about twelve. 2015 was not Nomads' best season but at least we played our part in the Exiles achieving this feat.  Having looked through their list of wins, I would say that they had 4 victories more convincing than their triumph over Nomads in August, whereas our game in September was probably their 6th-most difficult win.  A bit of a sad stat, I know, but it shows that they are crushing some other teams even more resoundingly than us.
They have re-built incredibly well from a point a couple of years ago when things seemed fairly even between the sides, and a period of several years before that when Exiles had an edge but would tend to grind out incredibly gruelling and tense wins over us; usually in the final over.
Getting back to our match in September, I mentioned that there was incident and anecdote but there was nothing major really.  We had a very polite discussion in the pub about an LBW appeal that one of our umpires had turned down (You're shocked, I can tell) but apart from that the only strange moment came at the end of our innings when 2 wickets fell on the 4th and 5th balls of the final over, leaving No. 11 John Crossland to drop his scorebook hurriedly and scramble for his pads.  Some of the Exiles fielders and - oddly - one of our umpires felt that it wasn't worth John coming in or that he should be timed out (In fact I think John did just about make it to the middle within the required time - 2 or 3 minutes or whatever....who's counting in Sunday cricket?)  One Exile who certainly wasn't joining in the calls for John not to come out was Andy Wingfield - he was on a hat-trick.
I knew John would charge down the pitch and notch a "potentially crucial" run or leg bye and that is what happened.  In John's own words; "I came down the pitch and squirted it to leg.....and the ball as well."
As I am feeling masochistic, here is the overall record between Nomads and Exiles. (Cheekily, I am including the Exiles' 1 wicket win v Open University in July 1998, not just because I took 5 wickets believe it or not, but also because it was virtually a Nomads line-up with few or no Hunters - though bizarrely a Nomads regular was wearing Dave's trousers.)

Played 26
Nomads wins 8
Draws 2
Exiles wins 16