Concorde v Nomads

Match Report

‘STONEWALL’ ANNING SAVES THE DAY AFTER CALAMITOUS COLLAPSE!

Last week saw a ‘topsy turvy’ match where we initially thought we were in control after reducing the visitors to 5 down for under 100, then rather let them off the hook to get 192, but we then reached nearly 150-1, before losing 7 wkts for no runs in about three overs, before hanging on at the death to earn a draw.

After racking up 220 plus the previous week, we went into this game woefully thin on batting having lost the services of Messrs. Haddow, Fernandes, Symondson & the skipper during the course of the week so we were relieved when The Nomads chose to bat first on a warm afternoon. In Nick Freeman’s absence, young Josh took the gloves and overall did an excellent job, with good hands & tidy work but it did deprive us of his bowling. However, with Adam partnered by Simon Duke, backed up by Brandon, we still uhad a quite formidable young pace attack.

Adam struck early, bowling the Rt.Hon Jeremy Lascelles for one, then an intense battle ensued between two good batsmen against the nagging line & length of Adam & the ‘skiddy pace’ of Dukey! Runs came at about 4 an over but mostly off thick edges which flew through the slip cordon down the hill to the third man boundary.Simon bowled with great hostility and kept both batsmen on their toes but it was Adam who enticed a faint outside edge from the opener and Josh snaffled the catch to make it 40-2. Adam gave way to Brandon who bowled another excellent spell which produced a third wicket, clean bowling the no.3, then produced one that popped on the no.4 and Adam took the catch at slip. George replaced Simon and promptly took a wicket first ball as the powerful looking left handed no.5 swept, got a top edge and Simon took a nonchalant catch at deep square leg in front of the scoreboard having just trotted out there. With the score at 100-5 we felt reasonably in control, and even more so when visiting skipper, Ross Ormiston , a former first class player in NZ, retired hurt for 2 with a shoulder strain caused by a fall the week before. However, Nomads fought back with a gritty stand with the no.7, a former Oxford blue scoring a well crafted 40, and the no.8 a quick fire 20 before he also got a top edge sweeping George and the writer took the skied catch at backward square leg. The no.9 then turned out to be the regular opener who was batting down the order after arriving late and he scored a swift 27 before Nomads declared at tea on 192-6 with 2 wkts for Adam, Brandon & George.

At tea I asked our top four batsmen to bat responsibly fearing the fragility of our tail, and how right I was! Against a very decent attack, Adam fell early, bowled for 4, before Nikhil & Brandon forged a lovely partnership of over 130. Nikhil demonstrated again what a class player he is and Brandon again showed great maturity & skill for a 16 year old! With us needing over 6 an over, the last twenty overs became a war of attrition as the two opening bowlers returned with Brandon in particular pinned down by the Ealing first team bowler who was ‘right on the money’ for about 4 successive overs offering virtually nothing to score off. Both batsmen reached well deserved fifties but with 5 overs to go the rate was up to nearly 10 an over. It looked to be petering out into a fairly pedestrian draw when Brandon perished, caught off a skier off a thick edge at backward point for a gutsy 63. That dismissal initially seemed incidental to the result but actually sparked an amazing turn of events when we suddenly lost 6 further wickets for no runs in under three overs with Josh, Simon, Richard Garner, & Nigel all bowled for 0 at the pavilion end, whilst Will Stewart edged one to the keeper for 0, at the same end and then Nikhil got a beauty from the Ealing first teamer and ‘nicked’ one to the keeper for a well crafted 59. Incredibly, we were suddenly staring defeat in the face but with George surviving one ball at the pavilion end, it was left to Mike Anning, in only his second game of the year, to survive against the opening bowler, leaving anything off the stumps and getting right behind anything straight!

An amazing finish, losing 7-0 in about 10 minutes, but ultimately another draw, and we continue to search for that elusive first win this season.