This was the match that had everything. I've run out of time to do the report but there will be a lot to put in it when I do. A few of the home side were less than impressed but Nomads were examplary in every sense and, as you will see from the scores, were very well-matched opponents for the home side. Ham and Petersham are an excellent club - over 200 years old - with fine facilities. It was one of the most enjoyable Nomads games and was a privilege to be a part of - even though I am still only umpiring, due to injury.
A few points. This was the Nomads highest-ever successful run chase and, I believe, our highest total batting second. Hassan also passed the fantastic landmark of 5,000 runs for the club - full tribute to follow. He also appeared to have made his highest score for Nomads but something has gone wrong with the adding up of individual totals (no problems at all with the team total, I hasten to add) and he appears actually to have made only 105 rather than the 122 John arrived at after a hasty tally. We will sort this out next week. I would be severely cheesed off if my scorebook total was ever reduced by 17 but that is because it would usually leave me with a minus score - I suppose ending up on 105 is not so bad.
Time game.
Ham and Petersham 262 for 4 from 35 overs.
Nomads' bowling;
Hassan 6-1-23-1
Emil 6-0-37-0
Abbas 8-0-64-1
Zia 6-0-43-1
KK 4-0-49-0
Mudassar 2-0-19-0
Abdul 2-0-13-0
Javed 1-0-8-0
Clapham Nomads 263 for 5 from 40.4 overs
Mahesh 8 (Returned after retiring hurt in 3rd over.)
Abdul 10
Javed 63 (originally recorded as 58)
Hassan 105 not out (originally recorded as 122 not out)
Darwin 0
Zia 66 (originally recorded as 55)
KK not out 4
Did not bat; Abbas, Emil (capt), John (wkt), Mudassar
F.O.W. - 47, 114, 119, 128, 244
Clapham Nomads won by 5 wickets with 8 balls remaining.
Man of the Match - Hassan (a fairly easy choice)
Fielder of the Day - Mudassar
As I say, there was absolutely no problem with John's recording of the scores or the team total. He just added up some players' totals wrongly (I noticed this this morning when I realised Zia's 55 looked a bit low for the amount of boundaries he had hit.)
So Nomads have one more game before our mid-season break. Wimbledon United - always difficult opponents but we have, in Hassan, a man who is averaging over 250 with the bat.
FULL REPORT TO FOLLOW.
UPDATE - Nomads arrived promptly and all on time for this fixture - arranged in midweek via The Fixture List - against Ham and Petersham at their excellent Ham Common ground. Nomads skipper Emil Todorow, in his 249th successive appearance for the club, won the toss and elected to bat, maintaining quite audibly that this gave us the additional option of drawing this Time Game if things didn't go well. This had the result of causing H & P to underestimate us slightly, which might have been of benefit later on.
The home side got off to a good start with their more senior opener milking the short square boundaries well; however we had a stroke of good fortune when he edged one from Hassan into the ground and it rolled languidly back onto the stumps - approx 20 for 1.
From then on it was hard work for our bowlers and fielders. I had a long chat with Ham's Fixtures Secretary Bobby Jordan who told me some of the history of this 202-year-old club. They have close links with the mega-rich Goldsmith family. The former MP Zac Goldsmith has played on the ground along with, I think, Imran Khan, Shane Warne and several Crystal Palace footballers. It was an interesting conversation but, when I looked up, the score had moved on to about 65 for 1. The batting was very sound but Nomads were not quite getting the rub of the green when several close LBW shouts rebutted and a couple of fiery overs from Abbas which produced a string of edges flying harmlessly over the keeper and slips.
We kept our shape in the field for a long while - though Emil was unlucky with several misfields off his bowling - but Mudassar, the youngest member of the side, showed us the way with some excellent stops and running dragbacks just short of the rope. He then finally caused the breakthrough with a well-judged catch at Short Third Man.
Ham kicked on in the second half of the innings. Excellent batting from the young Reddish, aged 15 or so and he represents his district at his age group, was a highlight. Nomads fielding became a little ragged with three Overthrows for 4 causing unnecessary runs. A nice catch was taken by Darwin at Square Leg and it was good to see Abdul back on the pitch and close to his deadly best with a Direct Hit from two-thirds of the way back and a good throw in to KK which resulted in a run out - our only other wicket. The declaration came at tea with 262 for 4 on the board. Nomads' over rate was 14.5 per hour which was not too atrocious given the amount of time we had spent collecting the ball from various parts of Ham Common, and the lack of spinners in the side. Hassan had the only really decent bowling figures with 1 for 23 off 6. Everyone else went for above 6.
Nomads were a little downhearted while we munched the excellent tea but one of the opposition did assure us there were still plenty of runs in the pitch.
As we commenced our reply, it was clear H & P were going full throttle for the win. At one end, the distinctly quick and bouncy S. Khan roared in, encouraged by vocal close up fielders, and looked a handful. At the other end. A slow bowler fed us short-ish stuff in what was clearly an attempt to gift us some runs and keep us interested in the chase. In the third over, a bouncer from Khan caught Mahesh on the top edge of his visor and our opener had to go off with facial bleeding. One of the Nomads implied that the level of concern shown to Mahesh by the home side was not exactly overwhelming but, as umpire, I am not sure that was the case and anyway, as former Nomads' paceman Jason Srhoj put it; "it's not a softcock game;" (even in Sunday non-league fixtures.)
Abdul kept up a stout defence against some fiery stuff from Khan while Javed creamed the slow bowler to the leg-side and straight boundaries - there was no-one deep - and raced into the thirties in no time. In the 9th over, with the score already on 47, Khan - who had had a half-hearted leg before shout turned down, got Abdul to glove one to the keeper. Abdul had showed guts to tough it out early on and boost our chances of achieving our target - at that stage, holding on for the draw.
Hassan came out and good, untroubled progress was maintained at both ends with the paceman tiring. Ahmed replaced Khan at the Park End and angled the ball in sharply at good pace. Runs were still on tap at the Pond End but Ham's ploy to keep us interested almost paid off as Javed skied one off the slow bowler, but fortunately for us it fell between 3 men. As the score passed 100, a paceman was also brought on at the Pond End. Javed and, particularly, Hassan were playing brilliantly but the game looked like petering out into a draw as we were well behind the rate. Then the game suddenly changed as Ahmed jagged one back to bowl Javed, Hamid bowled Darwin and Mahesh, brave and bandaged, resumed but did not last too long.
There was a very strong LBW shout against Mahesh which was turned down by Umpire Todorow resulting in the following gem from Ham's angriest fielder who was becoming incandescent with rage about .....just about everything. "They obviously don't give LBWs in Bulgaria." Interesting, as it seems they don't give a lot in Ham and Petersham either.
Around this stage, Ham's skipper got his side to start racing through the overs before the 6.30 deadline. The skipper emphasized that it was the clock on the scoreboard that counted and, at one point, I thought I heard him say that he had moved the clock back 5 minutes to ensure enough overs were bowled. Hmmm....
If this is not the case, I apologise, but if it was the case, then it backfired spectacularly. Ham bowled 15.5 per hour in the period up to 6.30 which, if you take into account that they scurried through the last few, was on a par with Nomads' rate.
After 6.30, the final 20 overs kicked in but Nomads needed around 150 and, once we were 4 down, a draw seemed to be the only target. A few more overs from slow or part-time bowlers were used to keep us chasing but this only had the effect of allowing Zia to play himself in and start to bat brilliantly, seeing it like a football. Hassan had been doing so for quite a while already. Ham seemed shocked by the power of our middle-order (a few whispers had indicated they had expected the opposite) as successive enormous sixes flew off Zia's bat - the second one right out of the ground.
Suddenly only around 65 were needed from the last 10. It was all out attack from Ham as Reddish and Ahmed steamed in, but it was sensible, controlled cricket from our boys as they chipped away at the rate.
Towards the end, Reddish bowled Zia for a fine 66. There was slight pressure on new man KK but he shrugged this off with a resounding pull for 4 (which actually looked like 6.) We were almost over the line and 5 were needed from 2 overs. Man of the Match Hassan achieved this in 4 balls to put a seal on what was a fantastic win for the Nomads.
It could be said - and was - that Nomads faced more overs than the opposition but remember that the home side did declare. Obviously, a tea-time declaration is expected but it was clear they thought they had enough runs on the board to avoid defeat and were going all out to maximise their number of overs to go for the win.
Their ploy of gifting us runs and trying to induce shots was worth a try. I could see the point in it but it backfired with Nomads having batsmen as destructive as Hassan, Javed and Zia. Overall though, it was a splendid match between two sides who were a very good match-up in terms of batting (we had slightly the most destructive players), bowling (Ham had the best bowler), scoring rate and over rate. Ham had the edge in fielding but both sides had very good wicketkeepers.
I don't know if they will want to play us again. The vibe was that they won't, but it will be a game to look forward to if they do.
Man of the Match - Hassan. Originally it seemed he had made 122, his highest Nomads score, but after a recount it looks like 105. Still probably his second-best Nomads innings of all time. He was the best bowler as well. He also brought up his 5,000 runs for the Nomads. This is well clear of any other Nomads player and will almost certainly not be achieved by anyone else. I cannot think of anyone else that has managed 5,000 runs for a club of our type. Full tribute to follow.
Fielder of the Day - Mudassar.
If you check out Ham and Petersham's website (search Ham and Petersham cc on google) you will find the details of this match.....kind of. Apparently H & P lost to Battersea Eagles. Oh, close one! Clapham and Battersea do have a kind of symbiotic relationship (Clapham Junction station is in Battersea town centre). And then there is that whole Nomads and Eagles connection.....well, maybe if you live in the Atlas Mountains. To be honest though, I enjoyed this win so much I wouldn't mind if it was credited to the Mitcham Turtles.......The plot thickens, not only were we the Battersea Eagles for this match but, according to Ham and Petersham's (fake) news department, our batting was opened by Jonny Rosenthal. They must mean the Surbiton Imperials skipper, which would be great if it was true - he is a brilliant player.
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