Clapham Nomads v Wimbledon United

Nomads played an absolutely classic match against local rivals Wimbledon United on Sunday.
For a change, the venue was Wandsworth Common; a ground with a resonant history for the Nomads as it was the scene of Emil Todorow's first competitive game and also featured one of Andrew West's most memorable moments. I think there was also a 50 partnership between Emil and John Crossland about 15 years ago - must have been a thing of beauty.
It is also the sort of ground that makes many cricketers who have played there involuntarily rub the sites of long-forgotten bruises on their heads and upper body and, in fact, when we arrived, a crowd of players was examining a very green strip with extreme scepticism. Thankfully, when I returned with the tea, the groundsman had put us on a strip on the Prison Side which is basically for kids but has lines for Adult matches as well. This played pretty well as you will see from the scores.
Nomads batted by arrangement (some of our batsmen were late) and we were soon in difficulty at 30 for 3 . The third man to fall was Mahesh to an LBW decision off the bowling of Greg Dean which looked a little unlucky (? a touch high - I wouldn't have given it, anyway) but this brought together the Old Firm of Hasan and Zia and they quickly showed this pitch was more than playable with an excellent stand of 61 for the 4th wicket before Zia fell to another LBW from Dean - a ball that kept a little low.  There was always hope for the bowlers on this pitch with some irregular bounce both high and low but quick scoring was eminently possible, helped by a short boundary on the Tennis Side.
Zia's departure brought Imran who hit a nice boundary before making way for Riaz who was at his entertaining best; the highlight being a Flat Six that never got above head height. Hasan was making very good progress at the other end (racing from 30 to 50 aided by a couple of sixes) and, when Riaz was run out for 39, Hasan assumed command. He had fine support from Abbas in taking himself to an excellent 77 not out and Nomads to a more than satisfactory 206 for 6 from the full 35. As our batsmen left, Wimbledon United remained out in the middle in a sort of huddle and for a brief period I didn't think they were going to come off at all. I was unsure whether they were displeased by a rather adjacent run out appeal going against them late on (I doubt it, they had been given 2 LBWs, which is quite a result against the Nomads) or whether it was a form of motivational exercise.  If it was the latter it certainly worked.
United began their reply fairly steadily with Curtis Phillip looking particularly obdurate; dare I say it, almost Boycottesque at times with a very stout defence. Opening bowlers Abbas and KK kept the rate somewhat below what was required and the screw was really turned when Riaz and Emil came on around the 10th or 12th over. There was a bowled for Riaz and a catch (smartly taken by Abdul) and another bowled for Emil. 46 for 0 had become 54 for 3. United's skipper Gary Saxby came in and quickly looked dangerous, playing it straight but with aggressive intent. There was a massive moment when Saxby toe-ended a full-pitch from Emil and skied it to Short Mid-Wicket where it was put down.  For a while after drinks, the required rate was oscillating around the 8 mark but the batsmen were achieving this in most overs with the occasional tighter over bringing the rate up to almost 9. Saxby was dropped again off Todorow - a much harder chance. Nomads still seemed in charge but I recalled a game 4 years ago where United scored over 100 from the last 12 overs to beat us and something similar was always on the cards. Phillip finally got the measure off Todorow in the veteran's final over from which he milked 12 or 14.
The stand reached exactly 100 before Riaz produced a potentially match-winning burst with 3 wickets in an over (the first of them a fantastic catch from Abdul right on the fence to dismiss Saxby) but Curtis Phillip was playing with increasing assurance and took the 8 or 9 needed from most overs with ease. Another wicket fell at 184 and at the end of this over the target was 31 off 3 - more than 10 an over for the first time. The new man was Rohan who to be honest looked the cleanest hitter of the lot. Amid scenes of unbearable tension, and talk of a One-Day Final-style Extra Over - ideally to be bowled by Emil - United faced the final 6 balls needing 16. Nomads slight favourites but 6, 4, Dot, 4 from Rohan blew us away and the 1 to win was achieved with yet another boundary off the penultimate ball.
A classic match and a brilliant 93 not out for Curtis Phillip, just 3 short of his best score for the Wimbledon side. There was just a nagging feeling though that they had it under control throughout and engineered a final over victory just to annoy us.
Nomads' bowling and fielding were pretty good - it was just a rampant batting display from the Dons.
Zia had to leave and was unable to bowl but let's take nothing away from the visitors - it was a brilliant win for them.

Clapham Nomads - 206 for 6 from 35 overs;

Mahesh  5
Abdul  12
Darwin  0
Hasan  77 not out
Zia  23
Imran  5
Riaz  39
Abbas  16 not out
Did not bat: KK, Emil (Capt), John (Wkt) - Sub-fielder - Rayan.

F.O.W. - 21, 21, 30, 91, 112, 159

Wimbledon United - 210 for 7 from 34.5 overs (C.Phillip 93 not out)

Nomads' bowling;

Abbas  7-1-40-0
KK  7-0-35-0
Riaz  7-0-18-4
Emil  6-0-37-2
Imran  3-0-17-0
Hasan  3-0-26-0
Abdul  1.5-0-28-1

Clapham Nomads lost by 3 wickets.

Man of the Match - Hasan is very unlucky not to get this after an excellent 77 not out, but Riaz produced some very entertaining batting, was unluckily run out and had by far our best bowling figures with 4-for 18.
Fielder of the Day - Abdul

SW United v Clapham Nomads - 4/8/19

Nomads beat SW United in a low-scoring game at London Gymkhana's ground in Tolworth yesterday.
It was a great perfomance in the field with all 7 bowlers taking wickets; 2 each for Abbas, KK and Zia with Emil being the most economical with 1 for 9 from 5 overs. 5 catches were taken as we dismissed the home side for 112 in 30.1 overs.
Emil and John were very impressed with SW United's bowling and, looking at the figures, I see that their main 4 bowlers had only 28 scoring shots taken off them in 27 overs, so they were seriously hard to get off the square. The early order were gritty but we were in trouble on 23 for 4. It took a brilliant 58 not out from Zia, the only man to reach to double figures, to turn it around for Nomads and we eventually reached the target for the loss of 6 wickets with 10 balls to spare.

MORE TO FOLLOW SOON...

SW United - 112 all out from 30.1 overs.

Nomads' bowling;

Abbas  5-1-12-2
KK  6-1-13-2
Zia  7-0-22-2
Emil  5-1-9-1
Imran  2-0-20-1
Riaz  3.1-0-20-1
Abdul  2-0-14-1

Clapham Nomads - 115 for 6 from 33.2 overs

Mahesh  6
Abdul  7
Darwin  4
Imran  0
Hasan  9
Zia  58 not out
Riaz  4
KK  8 not out

Did not bat; Abbas, Emil (capt), John (wkt)

F.O.W. - 8, 19, 21, 23, 55, 69

Nomads won by 4 wickets.

Man of the Match - Zia
Fieler of the Day - to be decided.

Clapham Nomads v Gentlemen of Hampstead - 28/7/19

Brief summary - more to follow soon.

Nomads started well on a very slow pitch with 40 for the 1st wicket from Mahesh and Abdul. Wickets then fell steadily with the middle order missing out (by their usual high standards) for a change. People were whispering that 150 would be a good score and it took excellent late hitting from Abbas (45) and KK (20) to take us well past this and we closed on 165 for 9
The Gents replied steadily at first in the face of some decent Nomads bowling and catching.  With 15 overs to go they needed about 100 and were 3 down but had some well-set batsmen in, especially the excellent left-handed Cleeve.  Despite the awkward pitch, Hampstead gradually took charge near the end and it looked like being a last over finish but a flurry of boundaries took them over the line with 11 balls to spare in the end. Much more detail to follow soon.....

Clapham Nomads - 165 for 9 from 35 overs

Mahesh  22
Abdul  31
Riaz  0
Hasan  11
Darwin  7
Zia  6
Imran  4
Abbas  45
KK  20
Emil (capt) not out 1
John  not out 4

F.O.W. - 40, 50, 63, 77, 79, 85, 87, 125, 160

Gentlemen of Hampstead  - 166 for 4 from 32.5 overs (T.Cleeve 74 not out)

Nomads' bowling figures;

Abbas  7-1-18-1
KK  7-0-26-1
Zia  6.5-0-33-1
Riaz  7-0-27-1
Emil  3-0-22-0
Imran  1-0-15-0
Hasan  1-0-14-0

Nomads lost by 6 wickets

Man of the Match - Abbas (a great all-round performance)
Fielder of the Day - Abdul

Northfields v Clapham Nomads cc - 21/7/19

Nomads crossed the river to the pleasant ground of our friends Northfields cc last Sunday with hopes of at least making it as close as the classic fixtures in the last 2 seasons - a 1 run win and a 1 wicket defeat. The home side batted and I'm told by John and Emil that their top scorer made around 80 but was dropped 4 times. Northfields closed on around 188 but at least we managed to dismiss them; a reasonable bowling performance. In reply Nomads somehow found ourselves on 8 for 4 - John started to give me a very grim post-mortem on this in the pub but thankfully we soon all started arguing about a more cheerful subject (Brexit) instead. Nomads did well to recover somewhat from this, with Riaz hitting a fine 36 or so, before he had to go off with a foot injury. KK and John stuck around for a while at the end but we finished up on about 138 - better than it could have been anyway.

More details when I get the scorebook next week.

Northfields -  188 all out from 37.5 overs

Nomads' bowling figures;

Abbas  5-0-27-0
KK  7.5-0-18-4
Zia  7-0-44-1
Hasan  8-2-31-1
Riaz  4-0-19-2
Emil  4-0-29-0
Imran  2-0-10-1
Abdul  1-0-10-0

Clapham Nomads - 138 for 9 (innings closed) from 31.4 overs

Mahesh  4
Abdul  1
Imran  1
Hasan  39
Darwin  0
Zia  12
Riaz  retired hurt 37
KK  7
Abbas  19
Emil  0
John  1 not out

F.O.W. - 6, 7, 7, 8, 49, 89, 113, 113, 138

Nomads lost by 50 runs

Man of the Match - KK
Fielder of the Day - Imran

Clapham Nomads v Ruislip Orientals - 14/7/19

Nomads did not have a scheduled fixture on this date but, despite the likelihood of the World Cup Final being shown on Proper television, we agreed to get a fixture via Internet or Conference. I arranged a match on the Wednesday against a team who sounded very keen, only for them to drop out on Friday as they wanted to watch the Final. Congratulations to **cc, you became the first team in 26 seasons (about 70 short notice fixtures) to cancel a game arranged at short notice via Conference or Internet against the Nomads. I hope you were cheering on New Zealand...(by the way, how was the Final? I heard it was a half-decent game.)
Anyway, I managed to get yet another replacement fixture against Ruislip Orientals and, knowing the strength of Middlesex clubs, prepared to face the music.
The opposition had some interesting ideas such as bowling 10 overs in a row from one end and then reverting to the other end for the next 10 overs to save time (which actually does sound like a good idea) and also adopting the "free hit" rule for No Balls but, Nomads being about as traditionalist a Sunday team as you can get,  we eventually settled on normal rules.
After an early wicket, Ruislip made progress which alternated between the steady and the remorseless and the second wicket did not fall until Emil came on just before drinks in the 18th or 19th over. The score was well over 100. I had been sub-fielding and I came off to prepare the tea and, for a while, this coincided with an improvement in our fortunes, with Emil taking 2 further wickets and Riaz claiming a couple. However, Orientals must have re-asserted themselves dramatically while I was opening food packets and warding off dogs as, when Hasan took the last 2 wickets in the final over, they had recorded 269, which I think is the 3rd-highest score made against the Nomads and possibly the highest in a 35-over a side game.
This was an extremely tall order and Nomads could not have started much worse with Darwin falling early on, followed by Mahesh to a confusing run out and then, surprisingly, Hasan. Nomads were 4 for 3. The visitors were thoroughly enjoying themselves and were in giggling, chucklesome form. Mind you, nothing deflates the cricket comedy quite like a star batsman being given Not Out to an extremely adjacent LBW appeal and that is what happened. I had to leave shortly after this - not just because of the decision; I had to go to work - but Zia was already beginning to make rapid progress, supported by the very impressive and correct-looking left-hander Imran, brother of KK.
When a copy of the scores dropped through my door the next day I was pleased to find that, although we had almost inevitably lost, we had at least made it fairly respectable, with Zia, Imran and also KK making very useful contributions with the bat.
Not quite as dramatic as events at Lord's but still a useful recovery from a terrible position. A great perfomance in the field from Abbas as well with 3 catches and a run out.

Ruislip Orientals - 269 all out from 34.3 overs

Nomads' bowling

Zia  7-0-31-1
KK  6-0-49-1
Abbas  6-0-62-0
Imran  3-0-24-0
Emil  6-0-34-3
Riaz  4-0-23-2
Rayan  2-0-10-0
Hasan  0.3-0-4-2

Clapham Nomads  209 for 6 from 35 overs

Darwin  0
Mahesh  0
Riaz  9
Hasan  0
Zia  76
Imran  56 not out
Abbas  6
KK  28 (retired)
Rayan  0 not out
Did not bat;  Emil (capt), John (wkt) -  Sub Fielder (19 overs) - Nick

F.O.W. - 0, 4, 4, 39, 134, 162

Nomads lost by 60 runs.

Man of the Match - Zia
Fielder of the Day - Abbas.

I will update the previous 2 matches with scores and more details once I have got the scorebook back, hopefully next week.

India Legends v Clapham Nomads - 7/7/19

Nomads made the long journey down to the excellent Bromley Common Cricket Club to play India Legends, who have beaten us in each of the last 2 seasons.
Nomads fielded and there was a return for Sami who roared in at good pace downhill and found the edge of the bat in taking the first 2 wickets to fall. A routine pouch by keeper John Crossland and one of his trademark reflex, diving efforts by Mahesh "The Cat" Vyas at slip.
Despite this, the Legends looked strong and they imposed a vice-like grip on early proceedings, moving up to 115 for 2 off 15 overs.
The introduction of slower bowlers seemed to change things round and Riaz and Emil bowled excellent spells. Emil, in particular, really got under the skins of the Home side with his mixture of deception and wizardry as he reverted to his old winning formula of alternating rank wides with deceptive, almost unplayable floaters on the stumps. The latter type of delivery accounted for 4 victims; 3 caught and a a plumb LBW. He had a further excellent shout for leg before turned down and, in his final over, with ardent Todorow fans and fans of free drinks roaring the veteran on, the batsman chipped the ball just short of the legendary figure, As Nomads' Poet Laureate John Crossland might have put it; "If he could dive, he would have had five."
Emil's 4 for about 20 was the highlight of the second half of Legends' innings, a period of 18.3 overs where they only managed 59 for 8 against some high quality Nomads bowling and fielding - particularly the catching. I think they just about all stuck.  Great work in the field from Darwin, Zia, Abdul and Hasan in addition to the people already mentioned.
Nomads faced a target of 170 for the win.
In reply, Mahesh and Abdul maintained their habit of getting us off to a decent start though there was an interesting incident. Mahesh was backing up too far and the bowler swiped the bails off. Umpire Todorow insisted that this should just count as a warning to the batsman. The bowler promptly did the same thing again in the following over and our opener was out. Sportingly, the Legends' captain Puneet recalled Mahesh to the crease and had his reward a few balls later in dismissing Mahesh with a full toss. Trouble soon followed as we slipped from 31 for 0 to 34 for 3. Thankfully we had Hasan and Zia to fall back on and last season's player of the year showed a return to his very best form with 10 off the first over he faced and he raced to 50 with the partnership standing at just 61. Hasan played a very sensible supporting role. This was all achieved against probably the best 2 opposition bowlers and the result did not look in much doubt once Nomads passed 120 and these bowlers had completed their spells. Hasan fell caught behind but Abbas strode out to complete the job. At 163 for 4 and with Zia on 89 not out, I pointed out to Zia that if he got all the 6 runs to equal India's score, or even 5 of them, and then won the match with a 6, he could notch up another ton. However, Nomads are just a ruthless winning machine on their day and Abbas just clouted 2 fours to wrap things up with over 8 overs to spare.
The Legends' skipper was quick at the end of their match to hint that they might not have been at their absolute full strength (probably true) and he invited us for another day out in Bromley on 15th September. Their thirst for vengeance will be strong.


India Legends - 169 all out from 33.3 overs

Nomads' bowling figures;

Sami  5-0-27-2
KK  5-0-27-0
Abbas  4.3-0-33-1
Zia  5-0-22-1
Emil  7-0-26-4
Riaz  7-0-25-2


Clapham Nomads - 171 for 4 from approx 24.3 overs.

Mahesh  8
Abdul  15
Darwin  1
Hasan  22
Zia  not out 89
Abbas  not out 18

Did not bat; Riaz, KK, Sami, Emil (capt), John (wkt)

F.O.W. - 31, 38, 38, 140

Nomads won by 6 wickets.

Man of the Match - Zia
Fielder of the Day - Mahesh

Clapham Nomads v Charing Cross Hospital Staff - 30/6/19

Following the collapse of Nomads' fixture against Surbiton Imperials (it was rumoured they found watching England v India in the world cup more appealing than playing the Nomads - hard to believe, I know) we found well-matched replacements in Charing Cross Hospital Staff cc for our fixture on Sunday.
Our visitors won the toss and batted - Nomads insisting on 35 overs a side rather than 40 that "The Medics" wanted. It was just as well we decided on 35 - more of that later.
Anyway, just a brief summary until I get the scorebook back.  Nomads' bowling and fielding was a little lacklustre at times, with a notable exception being an excellent juggling reflex catch from Zia. There was a wicket on around 25 and we were not too badly placed at drinks with the visitors about 85 for 3 from 17. The batsmen, cut loose rather in the second half, with several overs going for 15 plus. The pitch was excellent, some of the boundaries short and the outfield rapid but Charing finished on 225 for 7 at tea which looked a very tall order.
In reply, Mahesh and Abdul once again started fairly well with about 30 for the 1st wicket but 2 quick wickets - Mahesh and Darwin - then fell. At drinks we were in a roughly similar position to where Charing Cross had been, but we had Hasan and Zia just beginning to get going. Zia surprisingly fell shortly afterwards for a good knock of 25 of so but excellent attacking stroke play from Hasan and Riaz began to rattle the opposition, without it seeming as if Nomads were in a winning position. The announcement that Nomads were on 160 with 66 needed at just over a run a ball seemed to shake the fielding side but was also followed by the departure of Hasan for an excellent 74. Fortunately Riaz kept his head in difficult circumstances and, with fine support from KK, kept Nomads in with a shout. With 18 needed off the last 2 overs, there was a lengthy delay as the wicketkeeper removed his pads and gloves and prepared to bowl.  If this was timewasting it backfired spectacularly as 12 were taken from the over and then, following another lengthy delay as the keeper put his gear back on again, Riaz hit 2 boundaries in 3 or 4 balls to finish on a match-winning 72 not out and secure a famous victory for the Nomads.
There was a fair bit of controversy, more of which when I do the update.

Charing Cross Hospital Staff - 225 for 8 from 35 overs

Nomads' bowling;

Zia  7-1-28-2
KK 7-1-43-2
Abbas  5-0-48-1
Riaz  6-1-18-1
Hasan  3-0-24-0
Emil  3-0-28-0
Abdul  2-0-6-0
Rayan  2-0-9-1

Clapham Nomads - 228 for 5 from 34.2 overs


Mahesh  11
Abdul  17
Darwin  1
Hasan  74
Zia  19
Riaz  72 not out
KK  17 not out

Did not bat; Abbas, Emil (capt), John (wkt), Rayan

F.O.W. - 27, 30, 39, 111, 164

Nomads won by 5 wickets.

Man of the match - Riaz
Fielder of the day - Zia