MATCH 42 Nomads CC  v  Watford Town  CC   Sunday September 9th  1.00pm Horseshoe Lane Garston Watford Herts WD2 7HH-40 over per innings 9 max overs per bowler       

Result:   Watford  won by 62 wickets 
Toss:     Nomads CC
Umpires:  Elmer  & others
Scorer:   Various
Debut(s): Gul Riaz,Aquib Riaz,Nikel Vyas,Fred Smith       

NOMADS Innings 
J Lascelles c Sampat   b Smith  58
B Patel     c Humphrey b Afridi 30
G Riaz      retired            102
K Alexander c Knox     b Smith   0
C Page      c Douglas  b Sampat 13
C Lamb      not out              6
A Riaz      c Afridi   b Sampat  0
N Vyos      not out              1
Extras     (b5,lb2,nb6,w3)      16
TOTAL      (6wkts,40 overs)    226
Dnb:ME Blumberg,M Mann,F Jones.  

Fow: 

Bowling-Manzoor 7 0 30 0,Reid 4 0 24 0,Knox 6 0 23 0,Afridi 4 0 27 1,Smith 4 0 23 2,Humphrey 3 0 15 0,Samuel 5 1 30 0,Sampat 7 0 44 2. 

WATFORD TOWN CC Innings
C Douglas  c Patel      b Lamb 22
A Knox     c Patel      b Page 46
L Humphery bowled         Page  5
M Manzoor  c G Riaz     b Page 16
C Smith    st Alexander b Page 21
V Vee      c Charlton   b Page 23
B Bradley  c & b          Page  2
S Sampat   not out             41
S Samuel   bowled         Vyos 15
T Afridi   not out                  22
Extras    (b11,lb3,w2,nb0)     16 
TOTAL     (8 wkts,37.2 overs) 229
Dnb:W Reid.  

Fow:1-60,2-71,3-97,4-98,5-140,6-147,7-167,8-186, 

Bowling-Mann 4 0 31 0,Patel 3 0 22 0,Page 9 0 43 6,Lamb 9 1 50 1,Blumberg 6.2 0 47 0,Vyos 5 0 22 1,A Riaz 1 1 0 0. 

                        Nomads Absent without Leave  

T he circumstances of this match was a serious indictment of the modern club cricketer.On Friday morning four people cried off.However by Saturday evening we had recovered to 11. ...and yet on sunday morning two members,one young, one mature were too drunk to leave their beds and two teenagers were not home when Keith went to pick them up and their parents knew not where they were.UGH   

Luckily  Watford  who were aware beforehand of the instability of our eleven had 12 themselves and a teenager who wanted a game. This restored us to nine.Gul offered his young son and he brought in his even smaller mate.Therefore we were 11 once again. Phew! 

In the circumstances it was a brave decision to bat first but the openers maintained a decent rate ad then did Gul Riaz with Jeremy Lascelles. As with Barratt Patel just as Jeremy looked to be storming to big innings he holed out. The rest of the innings was dominated by Gul Riaz  who finally reached a hundred and retired demanding his young son went in next and why not?  

Had Keith Alexander not holed out flicking his first ball to square leg Nomads should have reached a challenging total.As it was 226 was respectable against a very varied attack consisting of eight bowlers.

After an excellent tea Nomads took the field with a mix of the ancient, non running, immobile,very small indeed, several  non catchers,two who could run and one of these thank goodness could catch.

After a few overs of seam against which the Watford openers made a good start.Then with the introduction of Chris Page and Charlton Lamb  wickets began to fall.Thankfully two hit high in the deep to Barratt Patel and Charlton Lamb took a slip catch. Keith made a stumping and Chris Page completed a caught and bowled to make it 6-42. At which point although well up with the clock Watford were 167-7.  If only Barat Patel could have fielded everywhere. For then we would have won! 

Nic Vyos, our teenage guest, took the eight wicket but two vital catches were dropped and some not reached by infirm limbs off Blumberg's bowling as Sampat and Afridi  added some 43 runs including some big hits and mishits.Afridi with a lot to live up to played a couple of astonishing reverse slogs but was equally lucky not to be bowled by the several he missed.

After the accomplished looking but non running Sampat played out a maiden to the diminutive Aquib Riaz, Afridi missed two completely and then reverse slogged the skipper to the cover  boundary. Nomads had lost but played valiantly.

Watford had a large stock of wine at £1.50 per small bottle and agreat deal of this was consumed before most Nomads completed a complicated manoeuvre to exit the car park and motor home.

A beautiful afternoon's weather was thus made good use of. It was a shame so few Nomads were there to enjoy it.Regular Shropshire tourist Emma (nee Mann) and family provided support for much of the afternoon.

Previous Matches 
 2006 Nomads lost by 6 runs with Paul Wakefield on 94 too tired to hit the last ball for six!

  Watford Town CC  Website