MATCH 12 PINK ELEPHANTS CC v NOMADS CC at Vincent Square Sunday May 22nd 20111.20pm

Result: Pink Elephants won by 7 wickets
Toss:   Nomads
Umpires:Richard Moseley & Bob Cruthers
Scorers:Various
Debut(s):Ian MacKinnon

NOMADS CC Innings
J Smith      c Massey b Cave-Bigley 33
K Sutherland bowled     Johnson      6
J Lane+      c Sparks b Massey      18
J Gordon     lbw      b Ireland      3
I MacKinnon  lbw      b Fair        11
A Smith      c Jamesb   Fair        22
B Hyam       lbw      b Cave-Bigley  0
GC Lamb      lbw      b Ireland      4
D MacVicar   not out                 2
ME Blumberg  lbw      b Kemball      7
AN Absent
Extras       (b14,lb3,w10,nb3)      30
TOTAL        (All out,41.5 overs)  135
 
Fow:1-17,2-51,3-60,4-83,5-101,6-101,7-119,8-120,9-135.
 
Bowling-Johnson 7 1 22 1,Kemball 6.5 3 16 1,Ireland 10 1 29 2,Massey 6 0 18 1,Sparks 2 0 10 0,Fair 7 1 12 1,Cave-Bigley 3 0 20,1.
 
PINK ELEPHANTS CC
S James     lbw         b MacVicar  5
S Massey    c MacKinnon b Gordon    2
G McConnell not out                53
A Johnson   c J Smith   b A Smith  29
J Kemball   not out                28
Extras     (b5,lb5,w5,nb0)         15
TOTAL      (3 wickets,28.3 overs) 136
Dnb:C Sparks,A Mylne,J Ireland,B Buist,N Fair,R Cave-Bigley.
 
Fow:1-6,2-18,3-63.
 
Bowling-Gordon 9 5 14 1,MacVicar 7.3 0 40 1,Hyam 6 0 32 0,A Smith 3 0 22 1,GC Lamb 1 0 4 0,MacKinnon 1 0 8 0.

Pink Elephants Prevail

Nomads rather underperformed at Vincent Square on Sunday. On a blustery day including one heavy shower which fell upn one half of the ground while the other half was bathed in sunshine. As the afternoon wore onthe weather settled but there was little improvement in Nomads cricket. 

Generous as ever we gave Pink Elephants an eleventh man as we assumed Keith Alexander was on his way.In fact he was enmeshed in hospital visits to wife and daughter whom we hope will be well very soon. So we substituted a fielder for PE as their tenth man was late and played ourselves, batting and fielding with ten!

Nomads won the toss and batted.The pitch had variable bounce and the bowling was with exceptions erratic providing us with 10 wides and 3 no balls to bolster our total to say nothing of 14 byes and 3 leg byes.Indeed extras were second top score!. 

Five of our batsmen were adjudged lbw, all to low bouncing balls. That the opposition only succumbed to one lbw was partly due to their batsmen avoiding cross bat shots except for genuinely wide long hops.Sutherland was bowled driving across the line, Lane was caught at mid wicket failing tohit a leg side long hop along the ground!. Andy Smith was caught off a skyer after a cameo including two long sixes and James Smith who battle away for a long time was caught at deep mid on mishitting an intended boundary blow.

 The ninth and last wicket added 15 before another lbw sent Nomads to tea from 41.5 overs, all out a miserable 135. Some contrast to the run fest the previous Thursday!

After tea Pink Elephants started slowly. After 7 overs the score was 7. As a result of 5 overthrows and a 5 wides ball the score accelerated to 18 off 8. Indeed after 14 overs the total was a mere 34-2. Johnno Gordon bowled very well and on another day may have picked up a fifer. However on this Sunday the batsmen just played and missed. He should have had a second wicket when left hander McConnell was dropped at gully by an outstretched left hand when that batsman had barely scored. 

Perhaps frustrated he bowled a couple of long hops to blemish his figures,9 5 14 1. Perhaps a longer spell may have changed the game. However the skipper turned to the spinners Andy Smith and Ben Hyam.

When the umpires called 20 overs Pink Elephants required 75 runs to win. Smith removed Johnson for 29,68-3 soon after  but from thereon in too many boundary balls were bowled so that McConnell and Kemble cruised along under no pressure. 

With the return of David MacVicar and the introduction of Ian McInnon 28 runs flowed from just 15 balls in stark contrast to the start of the innings. Pink Elephants won with 9.3 overs to go and McConnell had completed a fifty. 

Getting out Simon James proved to be a great mistake!Charles Fellows-Smith arrived from Lord's just as we were leaving for the pub and joined us as we imbibed several ales trying to understand how we had played so poorly. Mind you Joe Ireland was a happy lad and he had not had a bat!