Incredibly, it is 20 years today since Clapham Nomads played our first match. After a busy though unsuccessful first season, we went through quite a shambolic period where it seemed doubtful at times that we would last beyond the end of the evening, let alone 20 years. Since 1999 though, we have become a solid, reliable club with an above average playing record and in the last few years (I hope) a pleasant team to play for and against.
Thanks to all the players who have turned out for us in that time - it must be between 100 and 150.
The first game was an Away match at Joseph Hood Rec Ground in Raynes Park, a ground we still use, against Tulse Hill. The scores;
30/4/94 (Time match)
Tulse Hill - 98 all out
Forthwick b Todorow 9
Draper b John Chance 27
Hill c Smith b Joe Chance 2
Proctor b Joe Chance 0
Richardson c Jenkins b Smith 7
Studert c Saberton b Jenkins 6
Wilkins c Contractor b Jenkins 13
D. Davis c Lefebve b John Chance 4
Nye not out 16
Swan b John Chance 0
Forey c Crossland b Jenkins
Nomads Bowling;
Joe Chance 8-0-21-2
Todorow 9-3-23-1
Smith 3-0-18-1
John Chance 9-1-15-3
Jenkins 8.3-0-20-3
Clapham Nomads - 63 for 7 from 35 overs
Sai To c b Davis 1
Peter Saberton b Draper 13
Des Smith c b Forthwick 5
Simon Sparssis c b Forthwick 7
John Chance not out 19
Nick Lefebve b Draper 2
Neville Contractor c b Davis 5
Joe Chance b Draper 3
Emil Todorow not out 0
Did not bat; Ian Jenkins, John Crossland (capt / wkt)
F.O.W. - 2, 13, 26, 34, 48, 57, 62
Match Drawn.
Chasing a low total on a very slow pitch, Captain John Crossland called off the run chase when the 4th wicket fell at 34. "We are not going to lose our first game", he decreed, It was pretty turgid stuff but we held on quite comfortably for the draw, scoring at the paint-drying rate of 1.8 per over. Still, it somehow didn't put us off. Emil Todorow took the first Nomads wicket, Sai To scored our first run and Des Smith took the first catch. Brief biographical notes of our 11 to follow, which will probably be about as exciting as this fixture.
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Clapham Nomads v Surbiton Imperials - 27/4/14
Whatever happened in this match it had to be an improvement on last year's equivalent fixture at freezing, desolate, Beverley Park. A game so depressing that 3 players told me it made them consider quitting cricket - and 2 of them were on the winning side.
We booked Barn Elms for this game; a rather more cheerful venue and a well-organised place. The pitch was a touch on the green side - one player asked if it was Astroturf - but it played reasonably well if a little slow at times.
Nomads bowling line-up was potentially strong with the fast-medium variations of Hassan, the raw pace and bounce of Abbas, the accurate outswing of Sami, the full-length awkwardness of Rashid, the uncanny ability to dismiss left-handers of Riaz Khan and the mystique of Emil Todorow. The batting was strengthened by the very welcome return of Mark Bradshaw, but we were missing 3 reliable sources of runs in Gul, Prasanth and Darwin.
Skipper Emil Todorow lost the toss for a change and Surbiton chose to bat. Sami provided the early breakthrough with a full-length LBW decision before the score had reached double figures, but this brought the consistent, left-handed, Siddik out to join the right-handed Ashley and Imperials entered their usual mode of relentless run accumulation. Siddik stoked it around nicely while Ashley, who was turned inside out by Hassan Khan leg-cutters at least twice, chanced his arm a bit more. Sami's line wavered on occasion as left-hander and right-hander rotated the strike, but his figures were decent. Emil Todorow replaced him and one of his early overs went for 11. Three an over became four an over as the halfway drinks interval was approached. Abbas looked lively though, and mixed it up with a couple of bouncers.
At drinks, the decision was made to switch from 35-overs-a-side to 30 overs.
Emil began to find his line and the tide began to turn. The hirsute medium-pacer tricked Ashley into chipping the ball up to Jonnie Randall at Square Leg and then 2 wickets in an over from the captain - including a rather unlucky played on from Johnny, Imperials' hardest-hitting player - gave Nomads the initiative. Siddik continued to play nicely for his 41 but fine bowling from Rashid and Riaz and 2 excellent run outs engineered by the razor-sharp Rashid (an excellent substitute for Abdul in the infield) dismissed 10-man Surbiton for 102, their lowest total against Nomads, from 27.5 overs.
A fine bowling performance from a strong line-up but the fielding was especially pleasing; one difficult chance went to ground and there was one overthrow but I am struggling to remember any other mistakes.
A large tea was enlivened by the presence of Andrew West who had arrived halfway though Surbiton's innings in a sour mood and had even threatened to go home and miss tea (that was never going to happen!) The food improved his humour and he took the field to adjudicate - a great treat for all fans of the David Shepherd of South London Sunday Cricket.
Mark Bradshaw resumed his successful opening partnership with Mahesh Vyas and the pair put on a steady 27 with few alarms, despite some vigorous appealing, before the deceptively tricky veteran Eric dismissed Vyas leg before for 12. Riaz Khan, promoted to No. 3 after back-to-back 50s last September, was a trifle unlucky to smack a long hop straight down Square Leg's throat. 33 for 2.
Nomads' innings then mirrored Surbiton's in that a slightly rocky start was followed by the best batting of the innings. In fact M. Bradshaw and H. Khan's stand of 39 was probably the most accomplished batting seen in the whole match. There was something very reassuring about having these 2 back together again. Hassan cracked on and hit the awkward Siddik out of the attack with 2 successive fours while Mark's best over featured a really well placed 2 through the gap in front of point and a sparkling Cover Drive which - by the general consensus of both sides - went for 4, only for a fielder to announce, once our guys had stopped running after the second - they could have run 3 or 4, that it had not reached the faint boundary line. I wouldn't say this was crucial, but it doesn't take much to turn a match as tight as this one.
The pick of the Surbiton bowlers was probably the pacy Mohammed, who swung it both ways, but oddly both our star men had most trouble with innocuous loop bowler Russell who had a big LBW shout against Bradshaw and then tempted H.Khan out of his ground for a smart stumping by keeper J. Rosenthal.
72 for 3 but No. 5 Jonnie Randall looked solid with a sound technique. Another 7 valuable runs were carved out before a sharp piece of fielding ran Randall out as a second run was being attempted. Mark Bradshaw was looking in good touch but there was a touch of uncertainty about the rest of the batting line-up, most of whom had not played or batted for Nomads for a while, or had not made a substantial score for a while. Sami proved incredibly quick running between the wickets - a new Gopi ? - but was 5th man out with Clapham still 10 short of their target. A cracking 4 from the classy Rashid Ahmed eased our nerves as tension - and frequency of field changes - reached fever pitch. Siddik returned and produced the ball of the day with subtle late outswing clipping Mark Bradshaw's leg stump.
Nomads began to unravel a bit. Rashid was bowled with 4 still needed. Nick Lefebve came out to join Abbas and the field came up comically and, had Eric strayed down leg side, dangerously close. The wily veteran maintained a good off stump line though. 4 to win off 2 overs. Abbas was on strike and he has a reasonable eye. He connected twice but straight to leg side fielders saving the one. Perhaps frustrated, he holed out on the third ball. Out strode Emil Todorow and the veteran pair managed a single on each of the remaining deliveries of the penultimate over to level the scores with 6 deliveries remaining.
The final over was bowled by Eric, supported by a close field. He kept it accurate apart from a borderline wide 2nd ball. With very little pace on the ball; flicking, cllipping or edging a one would not be easy and, with a combined age of 115, quick singles could not be taken for granted with these two at the crease. A firm middle would probably have secured victory but it was not forthcoming. We should have won but, in fading light and with little batting practice for months, it was not quite the disaster that some Nomads (well...one actually) presented it as afterwards. At least the tie was secured.
In fact, if you think back to those televised Gillette Cup / Natwest Trophy semi-finals from the 70s and 80s, if the scores finished level, a not out team would progress at the expense of an all out team so, by that token, it would be the Nomads going to Lord's in September. I think I will stick to that story and claim that that was our plan. Actually, I have a horrible feeling that this match is going to be recalled as extensively as the famous Lancashire v Gloucestershire Gillette semi-final from 1971 (see YouTube.)
Nomads v Imperials is starting to become quite an interesting fixture. There is just a touch of Handbags developing between the sides, but no serious animosity. It makes life exciting I suppose. The overall totals now are Surbiton 4 wins, Nomads 3 wins and 1 Tie. One of the Imperial victories was way back in 2004 though, with largely different line-ups. In this decade and with the current players we stand level.
Fielder of the Day is close between John Crossland, who conceded no byes, and Rashid Ahmed, who was consistently sharp and set up 2 run outs. I think I will give it to Crossland, whose keeping was excellent, and award Man of the Match to Rashid who also had the most economical bowling, almost the best bowling strike-rate, and hit the late 4 which took us so close to the winning post that we really should have passed it.
Quotes of the Day; (John Crossland to Emil, regarding Eric's bowling) - "You weren't facing Michael Holding out there." Another player (to Emil) - "You could have relaxed a bit. After all, we still had John's batting to come."
Surbiton Imperials - 102 all out from 27.5 overs (Siddik 41, Ashley 30)
Sami 6-1-23-1
H. Khan 6-0-20-0
E. Todorow 5-0-28-3
Abbas Khan 5-1-13-0
R. Ahmed 4-0-10-2
R. Khan 1.5-0-5-1
Clapham Nomads 102 for 9 from 30 overs
M. Bradshaw b Siddik 28
M. Vyas lbw b Eric 12
R. Khan c Siddik b Martin 1
H. Khan stumped Rosenthal b Russell 28
J. Randall run out 5
R. Ahmed b Ashley 5
Sami c Siddik b Eric 5
Abbas Khan c b Martin 0
N. Lefebve not out 1
E, Todorow(capt) b Eric 2
Did not bat; J. Crossland (wkt)
F.O.W. - 27, 33, 72, 79. 93, 97, 99, 99, 102
Match Tied.
We booked Barn Elms for this game; a rather more cheerful venue and a well-organised place. The pitch was a touch on the green side - one player asked if it was Astroturf - but it played reasonably well if a little slow at times.
Nomads bowling line-up was potentially strong with the fast-medium variations of Hassan, the raw pace and bounce of Abbas, the accurate outswing of Sami, the full-length awkwardness of Rashid, the uncanny ability to dismiss left-handers of Riaz Khan and the mystique of Emil Todorow. The batting was strengthened by the very welcome return of Mark Bradshaw, but we were missing 3 reliable sources of runs in Gul, Prasanth and Darwin.
Skipper Emil Todorow lost the toss for a change and Surbiton chose to bat. Sami provided the early breakthrough with a full-length LBW decision before the score had reached double figures, but this brought the consistent, left-handed, Siddik out to join the right-handed Ashley and Imperials entered their usual mode of relentless run accumulation. Siddik stoked it around nicely while Ashley, who was turned inside out by Hassan Khan leg-cutters at least twice, chanced his arm a bit more. Sami's line wavered on occasion as left-hander and right-hander rotated the strike, but his figures were decent. Emil Todorow replaced him and one of his early overs went for 11. Three an over became four an over as the halfway drinks interval was approached. Abbas looked lively though, and mixed it up with a couple of bouncers.
At drinks, the decision was made to switch from 35-overs-a-side to 30 overs.
Emil began to find his line and the tide began to turn. The hirsute medium-pacer tricked Ashley into chipping the ball up to Jonnie Randall at Square Leg and then 2 wickets in an over from the captain - including a rather unlucky played on from Johnny, Imperials' hardest-hitting player - gave Nomads the initiative. Siddik continued to play nicely for his 41 but fine bowling from Rashid and Riaz and 2 excellent run outs engineered by the razor-sharp Rashid (an excellent substitute for Abdul in the infield) dismissed 10-man Surbiton for 102, their lowest total against Nomads, from 27.5 overs.
A fine bowling performance from a strong line-up but the fielding was especially pleasing; one difficult chance went to ground and there was one overthrow but I am struggling to remember any other mistakes.
A large tea was enlivened by the presence of Andrew West who had arrived halfway though Surbiton's innings in a sour mood and had even threatened to go home and miss tea (that was never going to happen!) The food improved his humour and he took the field to adjudicate - a great treat for all fans of the David Shepherd of South London Sunday Cricket.
Mark Bradshaw resumed his successful opening partnership with Mahesh Vyas and the pair put on a steady 27 with few alarms, despite some vigorous appealing, before the deceptively tricky veteran Eric dismissed Vyas leg before for 12. Riaz Khan, promoted to No. 3 after back-to-back 50s last September, was a trifle unlucky to smack a long hop straight down Square Leg's throat. 33 for 2.
Nomads' innings then mirrored Surbiton's in that a slightly rocky start was followed by the best batting of the innings. In fact M. Bradshaw and H. Khan's stand of 39 was probably the most accomplished batting seen in the whole match. There was something very reassuring about having these 2 back together again. Hassan cracked on and hit the awkward Siddik out of the attack with 2 successive fours while Mark's best over featured a really well placed 2 through the gap in front of point and a sparkling Cover Drive which - by the general consensus of both sides - went for 4, only for a fielder to announce, once our guys had stopped running after the second - they could have run 3 or 4, that it had not reached the faint boundary line. I wouldn't say this was crucial, but it doesn't take much to turn a match as tight as this one.
The pick of the Surbiton bowlers was probably the pacy Mohammed, who swung it both ways, but oddly both our star men had most trouble with innocuous loop bowler Russell who had a big LBW shout against Bradshaw and then tempted H.Khan out of his ground for a smart stumping by keeper J. Rosenthal.
72 for 3 but No. 5 Jonnie Randall looked solid with a sound technique. Another 7 valuable runs were carved out before a sharp piece of fielding ran Randall out as a second run was being attempted. Mark Bradshaw was looking in good touch but there was a touch of uncertainty about the rest of the batting line-up, most of whom had not played or batted for Nomads for a while, or had not made a substantial score for a while. Sami proved incredibly quick running between the wickets - a new Gopi ? - but was 5th man out with Clapham still 10 short of their target. A cracking 4 from the classy Rashid Ahmed eased our nerves as tension - and frequency of field changes - reached fever pitch. Siddik returned and produced the ball of the day with subtle late outswing clipping Mark Bradshaw's leg stump.
Nomads began to unravel a bit. Rashid was bowled with 4 still needed. Nick Lefebve came out to join Abbas and the field came up comically and, had Eric strayed down leg side, dangerously close. The wily veteran maintained a good off stump line though. 4 to win off 2 overs. Abbas was on strike and he has a reasonable eye. He connected twice but straight to leg side fielders saving the one. Perhaps frustrated, he holed out on the third ball. Out strode Emil Todorow and the veteran pair managed a single on each of the remaining deliveries of the penultimate over to level the scores with 6 deliveries remaining.
The final over was bowled by Eric, supported by a close field. He kept it accurate apart from a borderline wide 2nd ball. With very little pace on the ball; flicking, cllipping or edging a one would not be easy and, with a combined age of 115, quick singles could not be taken for granted with these two at the crease. A firm middle would probably have secured victory but it was not forthcoming. We should have won but, in fading light and with little batting practice for months, it was not quite the disaster that some Nomads (well...one actually) presented it as afterwards. At least the tie was secured.
In fact, if you think back to those televised Gillette Cup / Natwest Trophy semi-finals from the 70s and 80s, if the scores finished level, a not out team would progress at the expense of an all out team so, by that token, it would be the Nomads going to Lord's in September. I think I will stick to that story and claim that that was our plan. Actually, I have a horrible feeling that this match is going to be recalled as extensively as the famous Lancashire v Gloucestershire Gillette semi-final from 1971 (see YouTube.)
Nomads v Imperials is starting to become quite an interesting fixture. There is just a touch of Handbags developing between the sides, but no serious animosity. It makes life exciting I suppose. The overall totals now are Surbiton 4 wins, Nomads 3 wins and 1 Tie. One of the Imperial victories was way back in 2004 though, with largely different line-ups. In this decade and with the current players we stand level.
Fielder of the Day is close between John Crossland, who conceded no byes, and Rashid Ahmed, who was consistently sharp and set up 2 run outs. I think I will give it to Crossland, whose keeping was excellent, and award Man of the Match to Rashid who also had the most economical bowling, almost the best bowling strike-rate, and hit the late 4 which took us so close to the winning post that we really should have passed it.
Quotes of the Day; (John Crossland to Emil, regarding Eric's bowling) - "You weren't facing Michael Holding out there." Another player (to Emil) - "You could have relaxed a bit. After all, we still had John's batting to come."
Surbiton Imperials - 102 all out from 27.5 overs (Siddik 41, Ashley 30)
Sami 6-1-23-1
H. Khan 6-0-20-0
E. Todorow 5-0-28-3
Abbas Khan 5-1-13-0
R. Ahmed 4-0-10-2
R. Khan 1.5-0-5-1
Clapham Nomads 102 for 9 from 30 overs
M. Bradshaw b Siddik 28
M. Vyas lbw b Eric 12
R. Khan c Siddik b Martin 1
H. Khan stumped Rosenthal b Russell 28
J. Randall run out 5
R. Ahmed b Ashley 5
Sami c Siddik b Eric 5
Abbas Khan c b Martin 0
N. Lefebve not out 1
E, Todorow(capt) b Eric 2
Did not bat; J. Crossland (wkt)
F.O.W. - 27, 33, 72, 79. 93, 97, 99, 99, 102
Match Tied.
Thursday, 10 April 2014
2014 season
Hi all. I hope you have had a good winter. The first Nomads match of the 2014 season will be on Sunday 27th April against Surbiton Imperials in Barnes. Emil will be in touch in the week beginning Monday 21st April with full details.
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Trent Copeland - The Nomads to Australia - continued
As I mentioned in November; New South Wales, Northamptonshire and Australia paceman Trent Copeland is now the most famous former Nomads player, replacing Graeme Douglas (the Lead Guitarist with Eddie and the Hot Rods) - as holder of this dubious title.
Admittedly he only played one game for us. What happened was that we used to hold an open net session at Clapham Common every April and, for a couple of years, we attracted some pretty decent Australian players. Two of the best were Cameron Russell and Chris Macdonald who played 6 or 7 games for us. One Sunday in May 2008 we had arranged a Conference fixture in Southall and - surprise, surprise - we were short; most Nomads think that anywhere west of Fulham is Welsh. Fortunately, Cameron and Chris had a mate called Trent who visiting London for the weekend and spending the summer as wicketkeeper-batsman for a top Irish club.
Anyway, Emil Todorow somehow put a full team out and, for the only time in Nomads' history, a near-majority were from the Land Down Under (either 5 or 6 - I genuinely cannot remember anything about No. 11 Nick Hall except that he was a nice bloke.)
Trent Copeland opened the batting with his University mate Cameron Russell and even I could quickly tell that he was a class above. He just had that crucial bit of extra time to play his shots and he middled almost everything. The pair soon saw off the openers and the home side put on a fairly unthreatening spinner. Trent took him for 10 off his first 2 balls; the six was rather large. "Easy, mate," Cameron called out (implying don't hit him out of the attack just yet.)
Trent was first out for 41 out of a partnership of 79 from around 12 overs which set Nomads up for a total of 225 for 8 off the full 35 in which most people chipped in. Not realising, he had a future Aussie Test opening bowler in the side, Emil put Copeland at slip, where he had a series of conversations with glovesman John Crossland (who recalls Trent as a really nice guy.) We are not sure if this is what made Copeland give up wicketkeeping.
Nomads won by 131 runs and Emil generously drove out of his way to drop Cameron, Chris and Trent off at Marble Arch. Sadly this wasn't enough to persuade Trent to become a regular Nomads player. He returned to Ireland and then to Australia where he played in top Grade Cricket in Sydney and, at some point became a Fast-Medium opening bowler. Excellent performances attracted State selectors and he was turning out for New South Wales within a year, taking 8 wickets in an innings on his Sheffield Shield debut. Another 18 months on and he donned his Baggy Green.
The relevant scorecards are below;
18/5/08 at Warren Farm Sports Ground, Southall.
Clapham Nomads 225 for 8 from 35 overs
Cameron Russell 48
Trent Copeland 41
Chris Macdonald 5
Adrian Mercuri 36
Abdul Khan 30
Chris Kennedy 7
Nick Lefebve 11
Emil Todorow (capt) 0
Dave Selleck not out 16
John Crossland (wkt) not out 2
Did not bat; Nick Hall
F.O.W. - 79, 108, 108, 142, 181, 184, 184, 210
Ealing Christian Centre 94 all out from 18.2 overs
Nomads' bowling;
Abdul Khan 4-1-31-2
Emil Todorow 6-0-27-2
Nick Hall 6-0-34-1
Dave Selleck 2.3-0-18-2
Catches; Crossland, Russell (2), Khan (2), Selleck
Clapham Nomads won by 131 runs
Fast forward just over 3 years to 31st August 2011 and, while Nomads were entertaining Old Leagonians at the John Ruskin Sports Ground in South Croydon, Trent Copeland was making his full test debut against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium. The scorecard;
Australia - 1st innings - 273
Shane Watson 22
Phil Hughes 12
Ricky Ponting 44
Michael Clarke (capt) 23
Mike Hussey 95
Usman Khawaja 21
Brad Haddin (wkt) 24
Mitchell Johnson 14
Ryan Harris 1
Trent Copeland c Paranavitana b Randiv 12
Nathan Lyon not out 0
Bowling;
Welegedara 1-61
Lakmal 3-55
Herath 3-54
Randiv 2-76
Dilshan 2-27
Sri Lanka - 1st innings - 105
Paranavitana lbw b Watson 29
Dilshan (capt) c Ponting b Copeland 4
Sangakkara c Clarke b Lyon 10
D.Jayawardene run out (Copeland/Haddin) 11
Samaraweera lbw b Watson 26
H.Jayawardene (wkt) lbw b Watson 0
Mathews b Lyon 5
Randiv c Ponting b Lyon 9
Herath 0
Lakmal not out 2
Welegedara c & b Lyon 1
Bowling;
R. Harris 8-5-6-0
T. Copeland 12-3-24-1
M. Johnson 9-1-26-0
N. Lyon 15-3-34-5
S. Watson 6-1-11-3
Australia - 2nd innings - 210
Watson 0
Hughes 28
Ponting 4
Clarke 60
Hussey 15
Khawaja 26
Haddin 0
Johnson 8
Harris 23
Copeland not out 23
Lyon 13
Bowling;
Welegedara 6-3-13-2
Lakmal 8-3-23-1
Herath 23-3-79-5
Randiv 14-3-61-0
Dilshan 8.2-1-26-2
Sri Lanka - 2nd innings - 253
Paranavitana lbw b Harris 0
Dilshan b Harris 12
Sangakkara c Hussey b Watson 17
D.Jayawardene b Harris 105
Samaraweera c Haddin b Johnson 0
H.Jayawardene b Harris 0
Mathews b Watson 95
Randiv c Clarke b Johnson 0
Herath c Copeland b Harris 12
Lakmal c Johnson b Lyon 5
Welegedara not out 4
Bowling;
Harris 20-5-62-5
Copeland 16-6-20-0
Johnson 19-6-56-2
Lyon 19.5-2-73-1
Clarke 6-0-16-0
Watson 13-6-19-2
Ponting 2-0-5-0
Australia won by 125 runs
Our man certainly made his mark in this match, especially in the second half, supplying 23 runs late in Australia's second innings and participating in a 10th wicket stand of 42 in 41 balls to set up a tough target of 379 for the Home side, and then tying 1 end up - going for 1.2 an over - in the run chase.
Australia won that series and Copeland played his part in the 3 games, with an overall economy rate of only just over 2, but he has not turned out in a Test match since. He came to my attention when I saw the county averages for 2013 and Trent had the best average of any regular bowler. He also scored plenty of runs at around 35 and was the main reason Northants got promotion. I remembered the name and a bit of internet research confirmed it was the same man. There was plenty of call for him to be recalled to boost a struggling Australia side in England last summer but this seems rather less likely to happen now. Anyway, we wish Trent all the best and hope he has forgiven Emil for not giving him a bowl.
Admittedly he only played one game for us. What happened was that we used to hold an open net session at Clapham Common every April and, for a couple of years, we attracted some pretty decent Australian players. Two of the best were Cameron Russell and Chris Macdonald who played 6 or 7 games for us. One Sunday in May 2008 we had arranged a Conference fixture in Southall and - surprise, surprise - we were short; most Nomads think that anywhere west of Fulham is Welsh. Fortunately, Cameron and Chris had a mate called Trent who visiting London for the weekend and spending the summer as wicketkeeper-batsman for a top Irish club.
Anyway, Emil Todorow somehow put a full team out and, for the only time in Nomads' history, a near-majority were from the Land Down Under (either 5 or 6 - I genuinely cannot remember anything about No. 11 Nick Hall except that he was a nice bloke.)
Trent Copeland opened the batting with his University mate Cameron Russell and even I could quickly tell that he was a class above. He just had that crucial bit of extra time to play his shots and he middled almost everything. The pair soon saw off the openers and the home side put on a fairly unthreatening spinner. Trent took him for 10 off his first 2 balls; the six was rather large. "Easy, mate," Cameron called out (implying don't hit him out of the attack just yet.)
Trent was first out for 41 out of a partnership of 79 from around 12 overs which set Nomads up for a total of 225 for 8 off the full 35 in which most people chipped in. Not realising, he had a future Aussie Test opening bowler in the side, Emil put Copeland at slip, where he had a series of conversations with glovesman John Crossland (who recalls Trent as a really nice guy.) We are not sure if this is what made Copeland give up wicketkeeping.
Nomads won by 131 runs and Emil generously drove out of his way to drop Cameron, Chris and Trent off at Marble Arch. Sadly this wasn't enough to persuade Trent to become a regular Nomads player. He returned to Ireland and then to Australia where he played in top Grade Cricket in Sydney and, at some point became a Fast-Medium opening bowler. Excellent performances attracted State selectors and he was turning out for New South Wales within a year, taking 8 wickets in an innings on his Sheffield Shield debut. Another 18 months on and he donned his Baggy Green.
The relevant scorecards are below;
18/5/08 at Warren Farm Sports Ground, Southall.
Clapham Nomads 225 for 8 from 35 overs
Cameron Russell 48
Trent Copeland 41
Chris Macdonald 5
Adrian Mercuri 36
Abdul Khan 30
Chris Kennedy 7
Nick Lefebve 11
Emil Todorow (capt) 0
Dave Selleck not out 16
John Crossland (wkt) not out 2
Did not bat; Nick Hall
F.O.W. - 79, 108, 108, 142, 181, 184, 184, 210
Ealing Christian Centre 94 all out from 18.2 overs
Nomads' bowling;
Abdul Khan 4-1-31-2
Emil Todorow 6-0-27-2
Nick Hall 6-0-34-1
Dave Selleck 2.3-0-18-2
Catches; Crossland, Russell (2), Khan (2), Selleck
Clapham Nomads won by 131 runs
Fast forward just over 3 years to 31st August 2011 and, while Nomads were entertaining Old Leagonians at the John Ruskin Sports Ground in South Croydon, Trent Copeland was making his full test debut against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium. The scorecard;
Australia - 1st innings - 273
Shane Watson 22
Phil Hughes 12
Ricky Ponting 44
Michael Clarke (capt) 23
Mike Hussey 95
Usman Khawaja 21
Brad Haddin (wkt) 24
Mitchell Johnson 14
Ryan Harris 1
Trent Copeland c Paranavitana b Randiv 12
Nathan Lyon not out 0
Bowling;
Welegedara 1-61
Lakmal 3-55
Herath 3-54
Randiv 2-76
Dilshan 2-27
Sri Lanka - 1st innings - 105
Paranavitana lbw b Watson 29
Dilshan (capt) c Ponting b Copeland 4
Sangakkara c Clarke b Lyon 10
D.Jayawardene run out (Copeland/Haddin) 11
Samaraweera lbw b Watson 26
H.Jayawardene (wkt) lbw b Watson 0
Mathews b Lyon 5
Randiv c Ponting b Lyon 9
Herath 0
Lakmal not out 2
Welegedara c & b Lyon 1
Bowling;
R. Harris 8-5-6-0
T. Copeland 12-3-24-1
M. Johnson 9-1-26-0
N. Lyon 15-3-34-5
S. Watson 6-1-11-3
Australia - 2nd innings - 210
Watson 0
Hughes 28
Ponting 4
Clarke 60
Hussey 15
Khawaja 26
Haddin 0
Johnson 8
Harris 23
Copeland not out 23
Lyon 13
Bowling;
Welegedara 6-3-13-2
Lakmal 8-3-23-1
Herath 23-3-79-5
Randiv 14-3-61-0
Dilshan 8.2-1-26-2
Sri Lanka - 2nd innings - 253
Paranavitana lbw b Harris 0
Dilshan b Harris 12
Sangakkara c Hussey b Watson 17
D.Jayawardene b Harris 105
Samaraweera c Haddin b Johnson 0
H.Jayawardene b Harris 0
Mathews b Watson 95
Randiv c Clarke b Johnson 0
Herath c Copeland b Harris 12
Lakmal c Johnson b Lyon 5
Welegedara not out 4
Bowling;
Harris 20-5-62-5
Copeland 16-6-20-0
Johnson 19-6-56-2
Lyon 19.5-2-73-1
Clarke 6-0-16-0
Watson 13-6-19-2
Ponting 2-0-5-0
Australia won by 125 runs
Our man certainly made his mark in this match, especially in the second half, supplying 23 runs late in Australia's second innings and participating in a 10th wicket stand of 42 in 41 balls to set up a tough target of 379 for the Home side, and then tying 1 end up - going for 1.2 an over - in the run chase.
Australia won that series and Copeland played his part in the 3 games, with an overall economy rate of only just over 2, but he has not turned out in a Test match since. He came to my attention when I saw the county averages for 2013 and Trent had the best average of any regular bowler. He also scored plenty of runs at around 35 and was the main reason Northants got promotion. I remembered the name and a bit of internet research confirmed it was the same man. There was plenty of call for him to be recalled to boost a struggling Australia side in England last summer but this seems rather less likely to happen now. Anyway, we wish Trent all the best and hope he has forgiven Emil for not giving him a bowl.
Nomads Annual Meeting 2013
Clapham Nomads had our Annual Meeting in Mid-December at the Chatkhara in Clapham South where, as usual, we enjoyed the excellent range of curries, tandoori and biryani dishes and the Bring Your Own Bottle policy. Chris Kennedy obliged us on the drinks front by supplying some cans of an excellent and flavoursome Polish lager.
For the first time, the turn-out would have have been almost enough for us to field a full team. The line-up was;
Emil Todorow - Club Guru
Gul - Tooting's finest Barber and 2013 Batsman of the Year
Abbas Khan - 2013 Fielder of the Year and Bowler of the Year; Nomads' own Mitchell Johnson
Abdul Khan - Elder statesman and Carrom champion
Mahesh Vyas - 2013 Wicketkeeper of the Year
John Crossland - Scorer, resurgent wicketkeeper and general Mr Indestructible
Nick Lefebve - Club Secretary, blogger and Statto
Chris Kennedy - (Very) Social Secretary
Gul's Friend
Unfortunately Hassan couldn't make it but he was voted 2013 Player of the Year (for about the 4th time.)
For the first time, the turn-out would have have been almost enough for us to field a full team. The line-up was;
Emil Todorow - Club Guru
Gul - Tooting's finest Barber and 2013 Batsman of the Year
Abbas Khan - 2013 Fielder of the Year and Bowler of the Year; Nomads' own Mitchell Johnson
Abdul Khan - Elder statesman and Carrom champion
Mahesh Vyas - 2013 Wicketkeeper of the Year
John Crossland - Scorer, resurgent wicketkeeper and general Mr Indestructible
Nick Lefebve - Club Secretary, blogger and Statto
Chris Kennedy - (Very) Social Secretary
Gul's Friend
Unfortunately Hassan couldn't make it but he was voted 2013 Player of the Year (for about the 4th time.)
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Trent Copeland - Clapham Nomads to Australia
Congratulations to Trent, who played a match for the Nomads in 2008 and went on to make three full Test appearances for Australia in 2011, on dismissing Kevin Pietersen LBW for Australia A in Hobart recently. Apparently it was pretty plumb, but we wonder if it would have been given out in a Nomads match. Hope you win your Test place back soon, Trent.
Thursday, 19 September 2013
Clapham Nomads Averages for 2013 season
Batting (Qualification - 3 Matches played, 2 innings)
Zia 202 runs @ 40.40
Gul 256 runs @ 28.44
Hassan Khan 329 runs @ 27.42
Prasanth Pattiyil 189 runs @ 18.90
Riaz Khan 184 runs @ 18.40
Darwin Gunawardena 201 runs @ 18.27
Adnan Khan 54 runs @ 18.00
Jonnie Randall 34 runs @ 17.00
Abbas Khan 66 runs @ 9.43
Mahesh Vyas 122 runs @ 8.13
Abdul Khan 66 runs @ 7.33
Nick Lefebve 43 runs @ 7.17
Sami 10 runs @ 5.00
Emil Todorow 26 runs @ 4.33
Chris Kennedy 14 runs @ 2.80
John Crossland 1 run @ 1.00
Andrew West 0 runs @ 0.00
Bowling (Qualification - 3 Matches played, 2 wickets, 2 bowling spells)
Hassan Khan 22 wickets @ 16.23
Riaz Khan 12 wickets @ 19.08
Zia 9 wickets @ 20.00
Abbas Khan 20 wickets @ 21.95
Emil Todorow 14 wickets @ 25.21
Andrew West 3 wickets @ 26.00
Sami 2 wickets @ 33.50
Abdul Khan 7 wickets @ 37.14
Fielding
The highest number of dismissals was 10 by Mahesh Vyas (all as wicketkeeper - 7 catches, 3 stumpings.)
The highest number of catches by an outfielder was 8 by Abbas Khan.
Zia 202 runs @ 40.40
Gul 256 runs @ 28.44
Hassan Khan 329 runs @ 27.42
Prasanth Pattiyil 189 runs @ 18.90
Riaz Khan 184 runs @ 18.40
Darwin Gunawardena 201 runs @ 18.27
Adnan Khan 54 runs @ 18.00
Jonnie Randall 34 runs @ 17.00
Abbas Khan 66 runs @ 9.43
Mahesh Vyas 122 runs @ 8.13
Abdul Khan 66 runs @ 7.33
Nick Lefebve 43 runs @ 7.17
Sami 10 runs @ 5.00
Emil Todorow 26 runs @ 4.33
Chris Kennedy 14 runs @ 2.80
John Crossland 1 run @ 1.00
Andrew West 0 runs @ 0.00
Bowling (Qualification - 3 Matches played, 2 wickets, 2 bowling spells)
Hassan Khan 22 wickets @ 16.23
Riaz Khan 12 wickets @ 19.08
Zia 9 wickets @ 20.00
Abbas Khan 20 wickets @ 21.95
Emil Todorow 14 wickets @ 25.21
Andrew West 3 wickets @ 26.00
Sami 2 wickets @ 33.50
Abdul Khan 7 wickets @ 37.14
Fielding
The highest number of dismissals was 10 by Mahesh Vyas (all as wicketkeeper - 7 catches, 3 stumpings.)
The highest number of catches by an outfielder was 8 by Abbas Khan.
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