MATCH 52 Nomads CC v Royal Household CC Frogmore Windsor Berkshire,Sunday September 19th 1.00pm 
 
Result:Match Drawn
Toss:Nomads
Umpires:Brian Wilson & Another
Scorers:Various
 
NOMADS CC Innings
J Lascelles     c Hawkes    b Jarratt 37
A Stokes        c P Goddard b Pearce  58
J While         c & b         Pearce  22
A Crummy        lbw         b Bray    12
J Al-Darraji+   not out               43
V Gavin         c Dore      b Pearce   0
A Marshall      bowled        Pearce   4
C Lamb          c M Goddard b Pearce   6
J Hyams+        c & b         Pearce   3
O Croom-Johnson run out                2
Extras         (b8,lb4,nb1,w2)        15
TOTAL          (9 wkts dec,47 overs) 202
Dnb:ME Blumberg*
 
Fow:1-78,2-108,3-139,4-139,5-141,6-150,7-176,8-198,9-202.
 
Bowling-Jarratt 14 5 36 1,Nutt 7 0 40 0,Pearce 16 1 60 6,Bray 10 1 54 1.
 
ROYAL HOUSEHOLD CC Innings
A Bray       c Al-Darraji b C-Johnson 24
P Ide        bowled         Crummy    23
T Dore       lbw          b C-Johnson 20
M Goddard*   run out                  24
J Hawkes+    bowled         Marshall  45
G Pearce     lbw          b Marshall  16
N Summerhaze bowled         Marshall   0
S Nutt       not out                  10
P Goddard    not out                   4
Extras      (b18,lb5,nb0,w0)          23
TOTAL       (7 wkts,40 overs)        189
Dnb:S Highmoor,P Tarrant.
 
Fow:1-52,2-56,3-82,4-156,5-156,6-162,7-181.
 
Bowling-Croom-Johnson 12 1 56 2,Al-Darraji 3 0 18 0,Crummy 17 3 53 1,Marshall 8 0 40 3.

Croomers was not amused   
 

This was a curious match to say the least. To start with the team lost significant members daily before the game.Wakers withdrew as he had to fly to US on business, Charles F-S discovered his car was injured and so would be unable to transport him to Cheshire for a wedding and back for the game, Doc Bell then reported that his wife had just told him she was going to hospital on Sunday for a knee op' and lastly poor Keith reported that his son had been brutaly assaulted by burglars and was in hospital and he had to attend therefore to other duties..and so Jermey Lascelles replaced Wakefield, Vince Gavin replaced Doc Bell, Charlton Lamb replaced Charles and Octogenarian Jack offered to play for Keith and keep!. By ths time Joe Ireland who had wanted to play was committed to soccer. A changed side indeed! and yet the fact that Nomads reached 11 in the circumstances was good. Noteworthy also is the fact that only three of this side played the previous two Sundays meaning 27 Nomads had played over the  three Sundays. Strength in numbers undoubtedly.

Nomads won the toss and elected to bat on a strange looking pitch. On reflection in terms of achieving a win a decision to chase may have been wiser.  Lascelles and Stokes opened and perversely it was Lascelles who outscored Stokes hitting a 6 and eight 4s in his breezy 37. In general Nomads batsmen seemed to find the swinging ball and variable bounce of the pitch difficult especially as they insisted on driving with feet firmly glued to the ground on a slow track. Progress was steady as RCC Chairman Jarrat bowled very tidily, 5 maidens out of a spell of 12 overs for 30. James While hit some mighty drives before succumbing to a brilliant caught and bowled by Pearce. Left arm spinner Bray bowled a shooter to remove Anthony Crummy at 139 whereupon what should have been the partnership of the match between Stokes and Darraji came to nothing as Stokes attempted an ambitious pull which had some height but little else and so was caught by Goddard off Pearce, 141-5. Pearce then captured Vince Gavin’s wicket for a duck!.

Now certain veteran cricketers had assumed their batting would not be required and so had taken up residence at the bar. As a result they were not ready and so Andy Marshall joined Darraji. Now Andy though spending most of his life at 10 or 11 is in fact a capable correct batsmen. On another day he would have served as an excellent foil to the mercurial Jemile but not this Sunday. Having struck an excellent square cut for 4 he then raised his head to the heavens and when clean bowled by Pearce who was having something of a field day, explained that the ball just was not coming on the bat ! This was, of course, a correct observation which one would have hoped Andy might have noticed earlier while his team mates batted.

Nomads were now in some difficulty,150-6 with a fixed tea looming. For Nomads to reach a decent score Darraji needed most of the strike thereon. In fact 52 were added as Charlton, Hyams and then Croomers kept him company. Miscounting the balls and thinking there was to be one more over Jemile failed to respond to Croomers’ furious call on the last ball and so the latter was run out and seriously displeased,202-9dec.

Nomads and their guests enjoyed an excellent tea so much so that the resumption was a triffle delayed. However Royal Household’s openers got off to a terrifc start as Nomads fumbled, misfielded and then compounded that by wild overthrows at a bewildered 84 year old wicket keeper. Croomers was seriously not amused, indeed reduced to utter despair when Vince dropped a sitter. Jemile racing in from the far end had unleashed a serious of long hops which were gratefully despatched so when Crummy having replaced Darraji bowled Ide with the score already on 52 there was a visible sigh of relief from the fielding side even more so when Darraji caught Bray soon after off Crrom-Johnson. Dore made a swift 23 before falling lbw to C-J and then there followed an interesting period of play. Skipper Goddard and youngster Hawkes first consolidated not without problems and then struck boldly to build a partnership that threatened to win the match. However a creaky Marshall replacing C-J bowled Hawkes and very soon after James While roused himself to throw straight and fast for Darraji to run out skipper Goddard. Marshall then accounted for Summerhaze(a great cricket name that!) for a duck giving Nomads a sniff of victory.

Another wicket did fall to Marshall but the innings was to close on 189 just 14 runs short with 3 wickets intact in the gloom. Somehow with all those overthrows, snail like chases to the boundary by Lascelles, Charlton and Bloomers together with the endless sightscreen moving resulted in the last 20 overs taking over 75 minutes as did the first 20 and this with a slow, no run up, bowler bowling 17 overs. This was an over rate very unlike Nomads but which in this instance deprived RH of possible victory. Nomads had bowled 40 overs at 3.25 minutes per over while RH had bowled 47 at 3.50 per over !

An enjoyable day despite the frustrations for some but there was no assauging Croomers’ disgruntlement. "I was going to play at Leatherhead next Sunday but not after this comedy." + and that after the experiment with an octogenarian wicket keeper was ended mid way though RH's innings(Jemile took over).

+ OC-J did play at Leatherhead.

Previous Matches
2003 Nomads won by 6 wkts