Norwood v Clapham Nomads

Nomads made the short trip to South Norwood to play new opponents  Norwood cc last Sunday.

A major shock is that Emil Todorow missed a Nomads match for the first time since September 2002 - that's about 285 successive appearances. I want to re-assure fans of the great man that he's absolutely fine and will be back in a Nomads shirt very soon.

In the meantime, Hasan did a great job as skipper in his first full match as captain of the side.

Hasan won the toss and elected to bat - a departure from Emil's usual policy. After Mahesh was run out on 9, Abdul and Darwin put on 31 for the second wicket, which was basically resolute batting peppered with some boundaries from Abdul including a six. The bowling from Norwood was more than useful.

After the loss of Darwin, KK was LBW to the dangerous Khyber in the same over, but with Zia joining Abdul, we made good progress and at 88 for 3 had made one of our best starts of the season.  Abdul fell to a caught and bowled - Khyber again - for a fine half-century but there was then a slump to 108 for 6. Skipper Hasan turned things round with a responsible innings and shepherded the lower order up to a respectable 177 for 9 at the close. New man Qari making a useful 13 and Nomads' very own Steve Smith ** John Crossland was still there keeping Hasan company at the end.

** - Well he does look a bit like Smith (just draw a light brown moustache on a picture of the Australian star and you will see.) Also, the way Smith was out LBW at Lord's on Saturday was a bit reminscent of one of John's famous dismissals by Energy Exiles. Having said all that, John is pretty tough and I don't think he would be bothered by something like a blow on the neck.

For Nomads' reply, we were pleased to welcome back Sami, who shared the new ball with Abbas, and Sami chipped in with 3 wickets. KK bowled a very tight 6-over spell for only 17 and there were 2 late wickets for Abdul but the pick of the bowlers, as last week, was probably Riaz who got through some good  work against a strong batting side and finished with 5.3-2-14-2.

Norwood passed our total for the loss of 8 wickets with 15 balls remaining but John told me that it was not quite as close as it looked as 2 of their best players had retired (not hurt.)

Still, another decent game. Energy Exiles are next up.

Clapham Nomads - 177 for 9 from 35 overs

Mahesh  2
Abdul  51
Darwin  0
KK  0
Zia  31
Hasan (capt)  43 not out
Riaz  3
Abbas  18
Sami  0
Qari  13
John (wkt)  2 not out

F.O.W. - 9, 40, 40, 88, 100, 108, 136, 137, 170

Norwood cc  - 180 for 2 from 32.3 overs

Nomads' bowling;

Abbas   4-0-40-0
Sami  6-1-48-3
KK  6-0-17-0
Zia  4-0-24-0
Qari  4-1-20-1
Riaz  5.3-2-14-2
Abdul  3-1-4-2

Clapham Nomads lost by 2 wickets.

Man of the Match - Abdul
Fielder of the Day - 4 players took a catch each, including John, and John told me that there was an absolutely cast-iron, nailed-on edge which he pouched but it was not given out. He is always honest with that sort of thing so I will say that, morally, he took 2 catches and award him Fielder of the Day.