September 5th v Concorde CC
MATCH 46 Nomads CC v Concorde CC Sunday September 4th 2020 1.30pm Sendholme Surrey – Time Game
Result: Nomads won by 4 wickets
Fow:1-43,2-69,3-86,4-102,5-114,6-156,7-156,8-193,-9-194.
Bowling-de Caires 5 0 17 0,B Smith 7 1 30 2,Croom-Johnson 19 9 45 6,Bodie 5 0 38 1,O Smith 7 1 32 0,A Smith 5 0 23 0.
NOMADS/VIRGIN XI Innings
J Lascelles c Haddowb A Cudworth 32
P Bell c I Cudworth b Gibbons 25
A Hill c & b Gibbons 18
C Peerless c A Cudworth b Cliff 69
A Smith c A Cudworth b Cliff 36
K Alexander bowled Heggameyer 0
D de Caires not out 16
O Smith not out 1
Extras (b2,lb2,w2,nb2) 8
TOTAL (6 wickets,39.2 overs) 205
Dnb:B Smith,O Croom-Johnson,B Bodie.
Fow:1-44,2-67,3-81,4-187,5-188,6-188.
Bowling-A Cudworth 12 0 43 2,Gibbons 7 1 46 2,7 0 41 0,Fernando 7 0 41 0,Cliff 8 0 35 1,I Cudworth 2 0 37 0,Heggameyer 3.2 Century Partnership sees Virgin home Jeremy Lascelles reports
A fine all-round performance by the Virgads (or the Nomins) resulted in their first ever victory over Concorde at their beautiful ground in Send. Having discovered on their past two visits that this is a chasing ground, it was clearly a good toss to win, and the Virgin skipper was very pleased to be able to insert. In this case, the opposition.
A dogged opening stand by Concorde was broken by an arrow like throw from the deep by Andy Hill (and some underarm, backhand improvisation by keeper Keith Alexander) but the pace of the innings – slow – had been set. However, when veteran Oliver Croom-Johnson came on first change in the 11th over, probably not even he thought that he would still be bowling at the end of the innings. Such was the mastery of his marathon spell of medium pace swing bowling, that the Concorde innings never gained any momentum, so much so that they batted on and on... and then on again, before the re-introduction of young Ben Smith (very much at the opposite end of the evolutionary scale than his fellow bowler) finished off the innings with two quick wickets, this after 48 overs in the field.
We had done extremely well to bowl a team out on such a flaccid wicket, but it was the remarkable figures of 19-9-45-6 returned by Croomers that dominated proceedings. The Virgin innings, by way of contrast, started off with a bang, as you might expect with Doc Bell at the crease. It was a typical wham-bang-thank-you-maam Doc innings - five lofted fours then holing out – but we were up and running. Andy Hill and Jeremy Lascelles consolidated, but both got out when they seemed set, so it was left to Charles Peerless and Andy Smith (on his favourite ground) who put on 106 for the 4thwicket, to take us to within sniffing distance of victory.
However, never choosing to do things the easy way, we then lost three wickets for one run – first Smithy, then Keith Alexander second ball, and finally Charlie who had batted, well... peerlessly, for his 69. (Why do so many of our batsman like to get out on that score – is it wishful thinking?). Just when a Devon Loch-type collapse threatened to cause a full scale implosion, the calm heads of Ollie Smith, whose solid sensible batting showed a maturity well beyond his tender years, and Dennis de Caires (whose head has been described as many things over the years but very seldom as calm) saw us through, Dennis finishing the match with a slog (sorry, a magnificent straight drive) for 6.Hallelujah and amen.
I am pleased to note the more temperate language in this last report of Jeremy. The previous one on the Holmesdale match was rejected by the email provider of former Nomad 'great' Roger Kinsella in New Zealand for excessive use of foul language.
Toss: Nomads CC
Umpires: Roger Seymour and Others
Scorer: Several
Debut(s)
CONCORDE CC Innings
A McGuffie c & b Croom-Johnson 74
P Haddow run out (Hill/Alexander) 10
N Wright c & b Croom-Johnson 4
A Cudworth c de Caires b Bodie 4
E Fernandes bowled Croom-Johnson 9
C Turville c A Smith b Croom-Johnson 44
J Stockbridge c A Smith b Croom-Johnson 12
G Gibbons c Peerless b Croom-Johnson 0
I Cudworth bowled B Smith 8
W Heggameyer bowled B Smith 8
M Cliff not out 9
Extras (b12,lb7,w9,nb0) 28
TOTAL (All Out,48 overs) 203
We just had no idea that Roger was now living in a pure language ascetic spiritual retreat instead of imbibing long and deep on the memories of his fine bat and ball play for Nomads some decades ago!
MEB adds Croomers is no stranger to long spells for Nomads. On August 1st 1982 he bowled 23 6 75 3 against Old Dunstonians, a game in which a young Dr David MacVicar bowled 15 2 38 5.Indeed he was to repeat this herculaen effort again at Concorde. 