MATCH 41 Nomads CC v St Edward's Martyrs St Edward's School Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 7NN, 11.30 am Sunday July 20th 

Toss:    Nomads CC
Result:  Martyrs won by 85 runs
Umpires: R Henwood & D Ward
Scorers: S Claridge
Debut(s):None

St EDWARD'S MARTYRS XI Innings             R  B  M  4 6 
R Willis     c Reilly      b Shawl        24 22 28  5 0
H Ward       c Budgen      b Blackburn    20 33 47  2 0
A Woodland   c Handampuily b Woolliscroft 22 35 40  1 1
T Hargreaves bowled          Brockton     11 20 37  1 0
A Hargreaves lbw           b Brockton      0  3  6  0 0
J Connolly   bowled          Brockton      2 11 16  0 0
T Powell     bowled          Brockton      7 16 22  1 0
T Armstrong  c and b         Shawl        28 77 83  3 0
F Simon+     bowled          Shawl        94 73 91 11 3
J Curtis     c Budgen      b Shawl         1  5  9  0 0
H Sutton*    not out                       4 11 14  0 0
Extras      (4b 0lb 0w 0nb)                4
TOTAL       (All out, overs)             217

Fow:1-36(1),2-53(2),3-73(3),4-73(5),5-80(4),6-81(6),7-94(7),8-190(8),9-202(10),10-217(9).

Bowling- S Shawl 13.1 2 52 4(0,0,R Blackburn 8.0 0 28 1, S Woolliscroft 15.0 3 56 1, T Brockton 7.0 3 16 4 0,M Budgen 4.0 0 34 0,S Khan 4.0 0 27 0

NOMADS C C Innings                          R  B  M 4 6
V Kandampully  c J Curtis   b A Hargreaves 12 35 63 1 0
R Blackburn+   bowled         F Simon       4  5  9 1 0
R Ormiston     bowled         A Woodland    0  4  5 0 0
T Brockton*    bowled         J Connolly   34 52 64 7 0
S Reilly       bowled         A Hargreaves  4  4  3 1 0
M Budgen+      lbw          b J Curtis     36 54 67 6 0
C Peerless     bowled         A Woodland    2 20 36 0 0
S Shawl        lbw          b J Connolly    0  1  1 0 0
S Khan         c J Connolly b H Ward        5  9 10 1 0
S Woolliscroft c F Simon    b J Curtis      3 36 32 0 0
M Blumberg     not out                      8 23 25 2 0
Extras        (18b 3lb 3w 0nb)             24
TOTAL         (All out,40.3)              132

Fow: 1-4(2),2-5(3), 3-63(1),4-67(5),5-77(4), *5-99(7rh),6-99(8),7-109(9),8-123(6), 9-128(10) 10-132(7).

Bowling-A Woodland 7.3 1 24 2 0 (0) 0 (0) 22.50 3.20 F Simon 6.0 3 22 1 0 (0) 0 (0) 36.00 3.67 J Connolly 8.0 3 20 2 1 (1) 0, A Hargreaves 6.0 0 20 2 1 (2) 0 (0) 18.50 3.33 J Curtis 7.0 3 17 2 0 (0) 0 (0) 21.00 2.43 H Ward 6.0 4 8 1 0 (0) 0 (0) 36.00 1.33

Nomads thwarted  by youthful Martyrs

Nomads were defeated at St Edwards on Sunday by a young Martyrs side whose oldest player was 28. Upon arrival the covers were still on the wicket/square and under cloudy skies, but with an ever improving forecast Nomads inserted the home side.

Sajjad Shawl and Robbie Blackburn opened up for the Nomads with the new cherry and although Blackburn ran in gamefully it was clear that a heavy night had put pay to Sajjad having much rhythm in the early overs. Saying that he struck having the aggressive Willis caught by Marcus Budgen wafting at a full/wide delivery. The home side were 50-1 from 11 overs but the Nomads would strike again, the burly figure of Sean Reilly pulling off one of the catches of the season at full stretch low to his right to snaffle a superb catch off the bowling of Blackburn, who fully deserved the wicket for his efforts.

The innings was turned on its head with the introduction of skipper Brockton who immediately found his line to take wickets in each of his first three overs, all with late in-swingers and when the ever reliable Stan Woolliscroft struck courtesy of a Vic Kandampully catch the home side had slumped to 80-6. Brockton then produced a cracking delivery to knock back the off-peg of Powell’s stumps and at lunch from a promising position The Martyrs were in dire straits at were now 106-7 from 32 overs.

As usual the Martyrs lunch was exceptional, but the Nomads were a little lacklustre after the break, no9 Freddie Simon cashing in against some wayward bowling from Budgen and Saif Khan to race to 50 from just 39 balls. The home side now had some impetus, Shawl was recalled to the attack (now sober) and his 2nd spell was far more impressive. However, Simon had the bit between his teeth and assisted by some pretty average Nomads fielding was able to farm the strike almost to his liking. A big appeal for caught behind was turned down but Shawl had the last laugh taking a fine tumbling caught and bowled to dismiss the limpet like Armstrong who had batted for 77 balls for his 28. Captain Harry Sutton was also dismissed by Shawl and he finished the innings by clean bowling Simon for 94, just 6 short of what would have been a swashbuckling hundred. Martyrs all out for 217 from 51 overs. From the depths of 96-7 just before lunch this was a fine come back from the home side. Shawl and Brockton shared 8 of the 10 wickets to fall.

The wicket was hard and true and the Nomads had a much vaunted batting line up (and had 50+ overs to bat) so 218 for victory was certainly well within reach. However, as has often been the case this season the innings did not start well, and it became apparent that the Martyrs bowling was very impressive. Opening bowlers Woodland and Simon bowled with pace and aggression, Blackburn and Ormison bowled neck and crop by the fired up young seamers. Brockton and Kandampully took the visitors to the tea break with no further alarm unbeaten on 30 and 12 respectively but the going was tough in the face of a genuine 1st XI league bowling attack.

After the tea break the Nomads collapse began, Kandampully so watchful in the early part of his innings mis-timed an intended on-drive and was caught, Sean Reilly left a nip-backer and was bowled offering no shot and then Brockton mis-judged an inswinger from the impressive Connolly and had his off-stump removed. Nomads now 77-5. Budgen (with family watching eagerly) and Peerless began to rebuild the innings, but Peerless then went in the back attempting his trademark cover drive and had to unfortunately retire hurt. Sajjad, so impressive this season with the bat was LBW for a golden globe to another Connolly inswinger and Nomads were now 99-7 and 218 was looking a long way off as the 20 overs started at 6pm.

Khan and Budgen got Nomads up and over the 100 mark, but Khan was caught behind and although Bugden looked to counter-attack with a few lusty blows he was adjudged LBW for a battling 36. Peerless bravely started to get padded up again, confident he could safe Nomads from a heavy defeat, but Blumberg and Woolliscroft were fighting, trying to preserve their wickets. Wolliscroft was caught behind off fellow leg-spinner Curtis and with victory in sight and an injured Peerless limping to the crease captain Sutton recalled his seamers. Blumberg was resolute, even hitting a sumptuous straight drive for 4, but Peerless clearly restricted in movement was bowled by the returning opener Woodland to end the game. From a decent position at tea Nomads had lost their final 8 wickets for just 70 runs and were 132 all out. A disappointing effort on such a good batting wicket, but credit to the Martyrs bowlers (and fielders). Average age of the Martyrs XI – 19, average age of the Nomads XI – 41. A telling statistic.

Our thanks to St Edwards school for an enjoyable day, the best surface we have played on all season and a fantastic lunch/tea. We look forward to the fixture in 2015.

A busy couple of weeks of cricket for the Nomads, Shropshire tour, and prestigious all day games vs Hampshire Hogs and The Wanders in the coming weekends. Please make the match managers / Michael Blumberg aware of your availability.