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Goa Tour Report


NOMADS CC   TOUR  TO  GOA  INDIA  2011   

 
 
 
 
 

Nomads undertook a very enjoyable tour to Goa in February. In switching the original earlier date of the tour we lost our two tall seamers Dawood Shah and Shameen Neebar and this was to prove costly in terms of runs conceded. We nearly had Jason de la Pena for the second week but he got stuck on Sky TV and Gavin Scovell could not find a flight from Colombo to Goa to fit his broadcasting schedule. Matt Cannon of Lord Gnomes XI nearly made the tour together with daughter who  had played for England Women. Suraj was supposed to be with us but was found arranging nets at Lord’s for Ranjit and Saurabh then Shahzeb failed to make the tour as his visa never arrived in time. Then Johnno Gordon had to pull out which left us bereft of bowling to say little of our batting prowess. Had the party included some of Shah, Neebar,Shahzeb,Cannon,Scovell,de la Pena and Gordon our performances on the field of play should have been transformed!  However we were a party with two umpires and two scorers!

We had warned our local contact Atul Surve that we were weak and he said he remembered Nomads sides he played with in the 1980s and would find suitable opposition.! This was Nomads first tour as such to Goa although a remnant of the centenary tour party ended up in Goa and some in Kerala at the tail end of that tour. We negotiated a very good price even though the delay in paying for the airtickets costs us £30 or so and that eat into our tour travel and garb provision. For this tour we had a tour shirt and tour cap!

In the end a good body of personnel arrived at Heathrow where we met Wisden Almanack editor Scyld Berry en route to Dubai for the ICC judgement on three Pakistani cricketers. We had none such in our  tour party we assured him. 

We had a very pleasant journey to Goa with Qatar Airways. It would have been even better on arrival at Goa airport  if our coach driver had not hidden for an hour chatting to his mate. Luckily the President recognized his name writ large and suggested to the driver wallah that perhaps he was expecting the Nomads.” Yes sir but you have not arrived yet” was his enigmatic response yet shortly afterwards we had loaded up the character coach and set forth to our hotel.

 

    

                                                    Welcome for the Nomads                                                       The Toast Wallah                                                


It was heartening to be greeted with a large banner  and after some confusion everybody found a bedroom and slept a bit or more for it was dawn. The bedrooms were clean though somewhat 1960s in vintage but the   rest of the hotel facilities proved to be good-bars, swimming pool etc. However the Wartime Russian Breakfast was not what had been anticipated in the bed and breakfast charge. The Toast Wallah proudly announced that he had been making toast for six years now and indeed it sometimes seemed like six years waiting for some brown and crisp toast. Nomads had meant to donate a new or additional toaster to the hotel in memory of our enjoyable stay but somehow we forgot. Another time perhaps.Quickly many Nomads found the beaches  to which they were to return on many a day.

No sooner had we arrived than three tour members made a lightening and wearying trip to Mumbai and back-Professor Andy Frank Smith, Vicky Croatia, India Norf Lun’on which ever way you choose and ever cheerful Grumpy Umpire Bob. They arrived back just in time for our extensive trip to North Goa and  many  Churches, Cathedrals. Monastries and more  followed by a visit to a Spice Farm where Grumpy had a ride on a elephant.

Not all the party flew together. Keith Alexander and Veronica who have an apartment of their own had come some days earlier while Vince and Helen and Charles Peerless joined us a couple of days later as did Paul Wakefield from Tashkent. Charles Peerless’  negotiation of Mumbai and Goa airport with assistance by mobile phone from Hugo and Charlie was nearly an epic in itself but arrive, he did.

By the time of our first  match the Nomads party was well relaxed and well fed. Nevertheless in the absence of two more expected players we hired the services of a local young star. Our Character Coach reported in injured that morning, an ill omen itself, but we went to our first match in high spirits.   Having been thrashed by over two hundred runs we retraced our steps  to the hotel in the evening  and and revived our spirits at the bar.

      Nomads and Student Opponents at Birla Pilani Engineering  College of Technology & School 


Our opening attack was one veteran and one mid teenager. Our follow up bowlers included two who had barely bowled for two years  yet that did not explain  our batting short comings.

On another tour the team performance will exceed the sum of the parts but on this one the team underscored the sum of the parts, on paper at least, by some margin. Wakers should have scored at least two centuries and Peerless, Alexander and Stewart-Liberty a fifty or two.  In the event we did have two good opening partnerships and one cameo each from young Callo, Peerless and Charlie S-L.  If Wakers had not keep running himself out that would have helped too.  As to the bowling,well that started to go wrong when the President tripped over, arse over tit, in London thanks to a slightly upturned pavement landed on his right shoulder and has not bowled since.

A complete lack of pre tour nets did not help the rest. Vicky went in the groin in the first match. Wakers just got more and more angry with himself  but would not rearrange his field to compensate for his poor accuracy. Micky Callo had some dreadful and some good spells despite the endless vociferous coaching from Keith and took most wickets.   Veteran Andy Smith finally had a beautiful spell in our last match, drifting the ball away. Charlie Stewart-Liberty fielded throughout with great vigour and powerful throwing in.  However when it mattered most  he did his best to concede four overthrows which miraculously Keith leapt up and caught but it was too late for the run out!

Cheerful Grumpy umpire Bob invited us all to join him for his 68th birthday at dinner and this was a splendid occasion and many thanks to Bob for his generous hospitality. Vegetarians please skip this next piece. The main course consisted of two roated whole Lambs stuffed with chickens stuffed with hard boiled eggs and rice saturated with Indian spices. Delicious! The hotel also gave a dinner and evening’s entertainment for Nomads which was pretty good too! The eating on tour was considerable and the prices remarkable as we seldom if ever exceeded £10 for a three course meal with wine and or beer!

 Charles F-S and Brian Phillips took a trip to Bangalore and saw two World Cup warm up matches as well as taking in a visit to Mysore.  Several members discoverd the late nighlife of Candolim but whether the Scandinavian, Russian or Ukrainian females enjoyed the prowess of any Nomads is unknown and inappropriate herein  anyway. While several lounged upon the beach and also eat well at lunch some others walked miles in particular Vince and Helen and and Frank, exploring further a field and living to tell the tale. Vince and Helen also found an upmarket location to play tennis on several mornings.

We played four  cricket matches and lost all of them. We turned down the offer of a fifth even when the oppo’ offered us their opening bowlers so as to make it a more even contest because so many of us by that time were injured. Those that suffered impairment to their physique were Bloomers, John Callo, Charles Peerless, Vicky Bhanabai, Andy Frank Smith,  Vince Gavin! and to top it all Keith’s brother went in the fetlock when we played ‘Beach Cricket’ and lost.

 Whereupon later that same evening Veronica Alexander twisted her knee and finally on our last day Keith injured his right knee tring to break into his own apartment unaware that by that time another key had been found and his wife and brother were already inside.

Vince and Helen fell asleep the last night instead of drinking all night with the rest of us and missed the coach but still arrived in time for the flight.  Peerless flew on to Hong Kong, Wakers hung around busy with his laptop for another couple of days and Keith and Veronica eventually hobbled home a week later....but of course Grumpy Bob missed the connection in Doha but was put on the next available flight at no extra cost!

Despite the defeats this was a great tour wherein almost everbody got on well with each other whether or not they had met before. Much credit must be given to Keith for his tireless organising of the trip.

The weather was fantastic with barely a cloud all fortnight. Just what one wants on a cricket tour.

See also individual match reports