Monday June 28th v Oratory School
MATCH 39 NOMADS CC v ORATORY SCHOOL Monday June 28th 11.30am Woodcote Nr Reading Oxon RG8 0PJ Time game,20 overs from 5.30pm.
Oratory hang on for draw
Nomads travelled to the picturesque surrounding of the Oratory School near Reading for this all-day fixture against the school’s 1XI. There had been heavy rain the previous evening and the forecast for the day was uncertain, but a full game was played albeit in dreary conditions throughout.
The school invited the visitors to bat upon winning the toss, and club captain Tom Brockton strode out to bat in his customary position accompanied by Buckinghamshire’s Stephen Croft, making his Nomads debut. There followed a period of high quality cricket as the two Winterbottom brothers hit their straps immediately, both batsmen drawing on all their experience to prevent an early breakthrough. Although the change bowling was perhaps friendlier, the slightly damp wicket was not conducive to strokeplay and Croft perished attempting to up the scoring rate. This brought Maidenhead & Bray’s Richard Lawrence to the wicket to partner Brockton, and this partnership would see the Nomads through the lunch interval.
A very tasty meal featuring a selection of cold meats & fish was enjoyed by the two sides, and Brockton was seen supplementing his with a bottle of lager. However one feels that this had no bearing on his dismissal shortly after the break, bowled by an absolute beauty by O.Winterbottom. Match Manager Tom Marshall settled quickly into his innings and played some delightful drives through the covers before edging behind off T. Winterbottom. By this point a declaration was on the horizon, and Raj Mendir proceeded to unfurl some excellent strokes over the leg side and scored at nearly a run-a-ball before being dismissed, all the while supported by Lawrence. A few more runs from Kyle Bradley and the Nomads were called in with 182 on the board.
Nomads would have 50 minutes of bowling at their hosts prior to the tea interval and while Harefield’s James Hamilton found a good area at once it was Ben Ralphs, playing against his alma mater, whose medium pace took the early wickets and indeed reduced Oratory to 9-2. A watchful partnership then developed between Thorby and O. Winterbottom and they took the home side to tea without further loss; not even the pre-interval introduction of Chris Page could tempt the Oratory batters to chance their arm.
After tea, the main feature of which was a seemingly never ending pile of scones, the Oratory batters began to show more intent against the Nomads spinners, but this was to be their downfall as T. Winterbottom, who had survived a couple of chances off the bowling of Butcher, was run out by an accurate throw from Ralphs at long-off attempting to take a second run. Ralphs would then be reintroduced into the attack and dismiss the set opener Thorby, who skied a catch to square leg attempting to up the ante.
At 94-4 and into the final hour, Oratory’s focus now turned to survival. This was made most challenging by the introduction Croft’s fizzing leg breaks into the attack, and wickets now began to tumble regularly, the first of which being a reaction catch at short mid-wicket from Brockton which, it was eventually discovered, had fractured the captain’s thumb. While Oratory would finish 9 wickets down, Nomads were unable to take the final wicket as Oratory’s number 6, Watts, proved to be resolute in defence. An excellent advert for “time” cricket; indeed the students were heard commenting on how much more enjoyable the format is than an “overs” encounter.
Interested spectators included Nomads president Michael Blumberg, various Oratory schoolmasters, and Ben Ralphs’ mother who was accompanied by a client of his local gardening business, Mower Man. With proceedings at the school completed Nomads repaired to a hostelry in the nearby village of Stoke Row, and were pleased to be joined by a number of the school players. A convivial hour or so was spent imbibing and going over events of the day before the Nomads began to wend their way home. Matches,Scorecards Reports 2021
Result: Match Drawn
Toss: Oratory School
Umpires:Tom Lord & Others
Scorer: V Devers
Debut: Stephen Croft
NOMADS CC Innings R B M 4s 6s
T Brockton* bowled O Winterbottom 41 86 110 4 0
S Croft c Akavarapu b Simmons 41 68 81 4 1
R Lawrence not out 33 84 110 2 0
T Marshall c Thorby b T Winterbottom 31 56 43 3 0
R Mendhir c Thorby b Ganagabalan 21 23 26 4 0
K Bradley not out 7 13 11 0 0
Extras (b1,lb3,w4,nb0) 8
TOTAL (4 wkts dec, 55 overs) 182
Dnb:B Ralphs,J Hamilton,D Ellis+,C Page,B Butcher.
Fow:1-74(2),2-91(1),3-141(4),4-167(5).
Bowling – O Winterbottom 10 2 22 1(w2),T Winterbottom 14 4 48 1,Simmons 8 1 40 1,Mew 3 0 16 0((w2), Thomas 15 0 45 0. Akavarapu 3 2 1 0,Ganagabalan 2 0 6 1.
ORATORY SCHOOL Innings R B M 4s 6s
H Thorby c Butcher b Ralphs 42 86 91 6 0
K Tappan c Ellis b Ralphs 1 8 10 0 0
O Winterbottom bowled Ralphs 0 12 8 0 0
T Winterbottom* run out(Ralphs) 33 57 54 3 0
G Ganagabalan c Brockton b Croft 14 20 29 1 0
D Watts not out 8 34 41 0 0
O Simmons c Mendhir b Butcher 1 4 4 0 0
C Thomas c Ellis b Croft 18 20 16 3 0
T Akavarapu lbw b Croft 0 2 3 0 0
A Vile bowled Croft 0 2 1 0 0
A Mew not out 0 2 4 0 0
Extras (b2,lb1,w3,nb6) 12
TOTAL (9 wickets,41 overs) 117
Dnb:12th Man not batting D Hobley.
Fow:1-3(2),2-9(3),3-75(4),4-94(1),5-103(5),6-106(7),7-127(8),8-129(9),9-129(10).
Bowling – Hamilton 7 3 5 0,Ralphs 8 1 28 3(w3),Page 7 1 32 0(nb2),Butcher 14 2 43 1(nb4),Croft 5 1 18 4.
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