For the second successive week it was off to Cottenham Park, this time for the 27th meeting with our friends and hard-but-fair rivals the Energy Exiles.
Unfortunately, Hassan was injured after last week's exertions and Nick Lefebve came in as replacement. Abdul and Gul withdrew and organiser Todorow was in despair with a fast-shrinking line-up of 9. Happily, Riaz produced yet another discovery from his never-ending production line of talent - the excellent Khusro (known as KK) - and a 10-strong Nomads side prepared to face the music as we recalled last year's games against Energy.
There were a fair few of our long-standing Exiles favourites on view; Andy Wingfield, Phil Ling, Keith Roberts and, inevitably, Simon Gundry who rarely misses an Exiles/Nomads contest. Simon was sporting a retro West German football away strip from the early 70s with which John Crossland was much impressed. The back of this garment honoured "Der Bomber" a sobriquet given to legendary goal-poacher Gerd Muller but which could equally apply to the big Exiles' paceman.
Emil won the toss and put the Home side in. There was a fairly quick reward with a splendid diving catch by keeper John Crossland off the bowling of Zia. Keith Roberts was the other opener and he began to play his trademark forcing off-drives and flicks behind square to leg. He is a very interesting player to watch and clever at finding gaps and taking the single to rotate the strike. His partnerships with our own Mark Bradshaw for Exiles in the mid-2000s were an essential feature of Exiles play at that time. If anything, he seems to be hitting it slightly harder these days. If he has any weakness, he can on occasions become a little bogged down and I think perhaps we should have opened with our most accurate bowler, Riaz. As it was, Abbas and Zia bowled fine and hostile spells but Roberts was able to use the pace of the ball to good advantage. No. 3 batsman quickly impressed and Exiles looked comfortable moving it on at about 5 an over. It took a freak wicket to finally remove Roberts as he top-edged a high but dipping full toss gently into the gloves of Crossland.
Tea was taken at 20 overs with score around 95 for 2.
The second phase saw Energy plough serenely on. There was something of a reprieve for Clapham when Exiles' hardest hitter Gundry was caught by Darwin fairly early, but the batting order is deep. As our fielders moved back, singles were taken pretty much at will and there were a few big overs thrown in to demoralise us. Having said that, we stuck to the task pretty well in the field. Only one catchable chance went down and KK and Prasanth, in particular, got through loads of work in the deep.
200 was passed in the 34th over and suddenly there was all action. A suicidal single was attempted and the bowler Riaz threw the stumps down. 201 for 5 and we trooped off. I had assumed it was a 40-over game (I was knackered, half-deaf and also we had taken tea at 20 overs) so this sudden cessation was a delightful surprise. I told John Crossland I had expected 40 overs and he said; "Christ, if you want to be tortured there are places in the West End you can go if you have got the money." It is the sheer range of life experiences the Nomads players possess that makes playing for this club so worthwhile.
I had also not realised that Exiles' No. 3 was on 95 which accounted for the attempted single. Unfortunately he missed out on his ton but it was an excellent innings.
I wouldn't say we were over confident as we began our reply, especially when Andy Wingfield produced a beauty with his 4th ball to uproot Mahesh Vyas's leg stump. The debutant KK then "played himself in" against Akhtar by attempting to smack his first ball over long on for 6. He did not get that close and the second ball hit him on the knee roll for a decent LBW shout. KK continued to try to hit almost every ball out of the ground but without success. This did not look particularly promising. Suddenly, he connected off Akhtar and it sailed for 4. He repeated this with 2 resounding boundaries off Wingfield. Nomads had discovered a pinch-hitter. No. 3 Prasanth began to play nicely after a careful start and skipper Chris Plume turned to Gundry. Andy Wingfield had been bowling rapidly, with keeper Plume taking it above his head on occasions, but Gundry just increased the tempo with a rapid spell of bowling downhill. Prasanth did well to see his 4-over spell off and both batsmen continued to force the pace against Akhtar.
An absorbing knock from KK ended when a clever slower one from Akhtar pegged back his off stump with the score on 49.
Darwin joined Prasanth to continue the good work. Our high-point was 81 for 2 with a fair bit of batting to come. Prasanth had survived a hostile spell of fast bowling (and also a run out appeal - a 20-yard direct hit by Gundry - that was extremely, some might say controversially, close). When 3rd change Terence Moynihan bowled him a gentle long hop, he unfortunately mistimed the pull shot straight back into the bowler's hands to end a decent knock of 30.
2nd change Phil Ling was plying his trade up the hill and producing some really alarming in-swing (described by Umpire Todorow as "banana balls.") Riaz and Darwin were coping well until Ling produced some very late in-swing from outside off to hit the top of middle and leg and remove Darwin. Possibly the ball of the day.
Riaz and Zia probably represented our last real hope and they made an excellent fist of it. Both brilliant natural hitters, they suddenly took a liking to Ling's bowling and took 34 from 8 of his balls, including 26 off an over (not quite a Nomads record) and 4 sixes in an over (which I think is a record.) It took the return of Simon Gundry to finally break this exhilarating stand with Riaz caught above head height right on the Square Leg boundary.
Abbas and Nick didn't last long but they managed at least to ensure that Der Bomber's overs were used up before Emil and John came out to support Zia.
Skipper Plume had a slight dilemma. He obviously brought back Wingfield downhill but at the other end, instead of turning to a part-time bowler, he bravely threw the ball back to Phil Ling, who was 1 for 46 from 4, to bowl his final three. This gamble worked out well as Ling bowled shorter and quicker than before and neither Zia nor Emil Todorow could really get him away. The gathering gloom did not help Ling only conceded 2 scoring shots in his final 3 overs and Wingfield only conceded a single in his last 2. Nomads' innings rather petered out but our final total of 164 for 7 was our best innings of the season so far, and scored off arguably the strongest bowling line-up we have faced this year.
So respectability was achieved with some entertaining cricket in an enjoyable match. We did consider that, had Hassan been fit, we would probably have conceded 10 or 15 fewer and scored a few more, but that is clutching at straws. Energy often find another gear anyway when they need it.
Man of the Match was Zia for his 57 not out and his best bowling of the season so far. Fielder of the Day was John Crossland.
Energy Exiles - 201 for 5 from 35 overs (No. 3 bat - ??Craig? 95 not out.)
Nomads' bowling
Abbas Khan 7-0-44-0
Zia 7-1-34-1
E. Todorow 7-0-36-0
R. Khan 7-0-26-0
KK Khusro 6-0-43-2
D. Gunawardena 1-0-11-1
Clapham Nomads - 164 for 7 from 35 overs
M. Vyas b Wingfield 0
KK Khusro b Akhtar 22
P. Pattiyil c and b Moynihan 30
D. Gunawardena b Ling 18
R.Khan c No. 3 bat b Gundry 19
Zia not out 57
Abbas Khan b Gundry 0
N. Lefebve lbw Gundry 0
E. Todorow(capt) not out 3
Did not bat - J. Crossland(wkt)
F. O.W. - 1, 49, 81, 83, 135, 147, 147
Energy Exiles won by 37 runs
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