Saturday May 14th v V and A Cricket Club

Match 21 NOMADS CC v V and A CC at Stonor CC Stonor Oxon RG9 6HF Saturday May 14th 2022 11.30am Time Game, 20 overs from 5.30pm

Result: Match Drawn Toss:   V and A Umpires:ME Blumberg & Others Scorers:Various Debut  :Joe McCarthy   V and A CC Innings J Tetlow       c & b        Marshall 90 P Chande       lbw        b MacVicar  7 O Marsh        c Consett  b Page     67 N Derewlany    not out               86 N Constantine+ run out               12 L Niebor       not out                9 Extras                                9 TOTAL         (4 wkts dec, 46 overs) 292 Dnb:M Shenfield,M Wright,C Jonkers,A Jacot,P Price(on loan).   Fow:1-7(2),2-147(3),3-216(1).   Bowlers – Consett 11 0 70 0,MacVicar 8 0 51 1,Singh 5 0 32 0,Page 11 0 64 1,Marshall 11 1 64 1.   NOMADS CC Innings J Singh     c &b Marsh    8 R Hayley    bowled          Marsh   14 S Reeve     c Constantine b Niebor   4 R Ormiston  lbw           b Marsh   64 J Lascelles bowled          Jonkers  2 J McCarthy+ bowled          Nieboor 27 D Pitlarge  not out                 14 C Page      lbw           b Marsh    0 D MacVicar  bowled          Marsh    8 A Marshall* not out                  0 Extras     (b12,lb1,w9,nb5)         27 TOTAL      (8 wickets,42 overs)    168 Dnb:W Consett   Fow:1-20(1),2-31(2),3-32(3),4-34(5),5-123(6),6-135(4),7-135(8),8-163(9).   Bowling – Nieboor 14 4 38 1(w1,nb2), Marsh 12 3 20 5(w3,nb3), Jacot 4 1 15 0,Jonkers 7 2 31 1(w2),Constantine 3 0 33 0(w2), Derewlany 3 0 12 0(w3).

Nomads Underwhelm but hang on for a draw

Nomads have been around as early as mankind walked out of Africa while the Victoria and Albert Museum was founded in 1852.  Nomads as a cricket  club was founded in 1903 and The V and A cricket club in 1975.  The word Nomad  derives originally from the Greek  νομάς  and via Latin nomadene  into mid French  nomade  and hence into the English language in the 16th century. Naturally therefor Nomads CC membership is  a ‘Broad Church’,  we have Italians, a Greek  and a Frenchman within the club and for this match members drove from as far as Kent and West Midlands. The membership is also broad in age range from teenagers to near octogenarians but this Saturday side was seriously veteran.

Our selection of Saturday games is  primarily arranged to keep our veteran and non  league players involved and playing for Nomads.  When former Nomad  and Virgin XI member Dennis de Caires became Fixture Secretary of V and A it seemed most apposite to Nomads President Michael Blumberg who had played for Invalids, Kensington and Cricketers Club of London against V and A to arrange a match. Dennis was wary. Nomads will be far too strong, he declared. Not on a Saturday replied Blumberg and so in the end a fixture was agreed for 2018. Since that drawn match the weather and Covid had scuppered any further visits to Stonor.

Dennis scored two fifties for Nomads against Leatherhead and Concord and a century on tour in the Isle of Man 2003. He once bowled in bare feet on the synthetic surface at Chateau de Thoiry and lived to tell the tale. His Virgin XI stats may be found here.

The original team for Saturday changed as the date neared as is often the case but with a much smaller pool to pick up substitutes from as it was a Saturday match. Sajjad Shawl’s younger son had a rowing competition, Tom Brockton excused himself as he was preparing for a week’s golf in France. Sanjay’s wife Lucy reminded him they had a lunch date and Keith Juriansz’s wife broke her toe so he became chief carer! Lastly former Test cricketer Robert Vance delayed his arrival in UK. Such was the vigour of the replacement activity that we ended up with 13 so the President dropped himself and umpired. V and A were short a player so Peter Price volunteered to play for them whereupon they put him number 11 in the batting order!. Nevertheless this revised Nomads side was short of Batting and Bowlers and as Professor Page would say “ You’ve got a load of statues in the field today”.

The weather was glorious and the setting stunning as Nomads skipper  Andrew Marshall and V and A’s captain Nick Constantine walked out to the pitch to toss. Nick suggested a 35/35 overs match with   bowling restrictions but Andrew countered that on such a wonderful warm day surely a time game would be more appropriate. On reflection Nick agreed. Nick won the toss and so V and A batted first.
Nomads opened with Will Consett  and David MacVicar. Now Will is usually a proficient exponent of seam bowling being tall with a swift arm action. However on Saturday, short of match practise and perhaps with  a touch of anno domini creeping in, he struggled to find   consistent length and direction though he did beat the bat now an then. At the other end David, a tour de force 30 and  40 years ago, trundled slow medium seam somewhat straighter than  Will. For the V and A’s opening batsmen this was friendly stuff. However Chand managed to mis judge a dead straight one from MacVicar which hit him full toss on the front pad leaving the umpire no alternative but to raise his finger. (Tetlow contests this)
Marsh joined Tetlow and these two added 140 either side of a grand lunch which despite the quality sadly lacked the volume required for 24 gannets. On resumption Marsh miscued one from Page and  Consett hung on to the catch. There were some snicks out of reach of slip and a dropped catch. There were many runs down to a vacant third man, some hit firmly and some less so. The introduction of Jai Singh produced neither a wicket nor much reduction to the flow of runs. The introduction of  curmudgeon Professor Page  only added to the run flow and even Andrew Marshall  with his usually miserly economy rate did little to disrupt the younger  men at the crease.

Derewlany joined Tetlow and these two added 69 before Tetlow was caught and bowled by Marshall on 90. Skipper Constantine was run out for 9  but Derewlany strode on to 86 not out before the declaration,292-4 off 46 overs thus leaving Nomads about 42 overs to chase down the total and for V and A to take ten wickets.

On another day Jai Singh may have scored a ton. He did so on Wednesday for Middlesex Over 50s.We needed   big scores from him, Stuart and Ross if we were to get close. V and A had two excellent opening  seamers. Lachlan Nieboor we know well for he has taken several  fifers for Nomads. The other seamer was the tall Olly Marsh who produced a succession of prodigiously deviating leg cutters. However both batsmen were to fall to full tosses. Jai smacked one back over Marsh’s head only for the bowler to reach up and take the catch. Then Robin Hayley played across a straight full toss and was bowled. Stuart Reeve misjudged a short one from Lachlan to give a simple catch and then Jeremy Lascelles was bowled by Jonkers. Nomads were now 35-4. Any chance of a successful chase had disappeared.
Ross Ormiston and debutant Joe McCarthy did add 89 useful runs somewhat savaging skipper Constantine’s three overs before a returning  Nieboor  bowled  McCarthy.  The equation now was whether our veteran tail and Ross could withstand the rampant seam attack of Nieboor and Marsh.

It was a close run thing with Marsh taking three more wickets. He trapped both Ross and Pagie lbw (I could not see the ball complained the curmudgeon!) then bowled David MacVicar after he had stroked two boundary fours.

David Pitlarge however was  defending  with  skill and determination and indeed  he and skipper Marshall saw out the remaining overs to achieve a draw. In retrospect an earlier declaration would most probably have resulted in a win for V and A, deservedly so as although they had some veterans for the most part they were much the younger, fitter and better side on the day. 220 would have been a challenge and 240 par. 292 was always a bit too far.
Having assisted with the return of the chairs and tables to the club house and the collection of the flotsam and jetsam to the rubbish bin Nomads lingered for a few more beers enjoying the evening sunshine and the fine view. Once told of the pub to go to most of the Nomads repaired to the Golden Ball but only two senior members of V and A came.  Thus the kitty, ready to buy jugs of beer for our hosts, was unused and  so after a couple of rounds  Nomads judged it prudent to return home.

Many thanks to V and A and, in particular, Nick Constantine for fulfilling all his onerous tasks as match Manager, Skipper and Caterer.

Mr Tetlow has a rather different view of the match and critical view of Nomads CC’s strength and lack of Nomads club cricket garb on show on the day. We do assure him that Nomads are a most convivial bunch of cricketers who play exclusively ‘Friendly’, predominantly time cricket, linger long after games socially and love the game.   We wish Mr Tetlow a load more runs this season and the V and A club convivial success for the rest of the season.

Previous Matches 
2021 Cancelled weather
2020 Cancelled Covid
2019 Cancelled Weather
2018 Match Drawn

V and A Cricket Club

Matches Scorecards & Tours 2022

May 9, 2022 4:48 pm

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