Lichfield Nomads Cricket Club : Match Reports 2003

Dropped Catches let Nomads down 

Stand-in captain Pinfield kicked off the new season with the tried and trusted opening partnership of Gardner & Heslington at a wind-swept Swynnerton ground. Steady bowling by the opposition produced a slow start which may have induced Gardner to try a risky single resulting in his run-out for 3. Hussein came in at No.3 and after a nervous beginning was settling down when given out lbw attempting a sweep shot, scoring 4. Pinfield came in and was out to a good catch by the keeper standing up - out for 4. Next came Cartwright who never really got going and was out for a single. All the while Heslington was playing a steadfast knock to keep the innings on track at 41 for 4 after 18 overs. Weir came in and gave the Nomads innings a much needed boost hitting a lusty 15 off 20 balls to jump the score to 75 for 5 after 25 overs. Nomads boasted a solid lower order and Fearon coming in at No. 7 started to attack the bowling. A well deserved 50 for Heslington after 30 overs preceded his dismissal to a good catch on the boundary. Higginson’s innings was 4 off the first ball and yorked off the 2nd. Hoddy came in and saw off a dangerous bowler to enable Fearon to go for one of the lesser lights scoring 16 off the 36th over. Unfortunately he was caught off a top edge for 39. Hoddy was similarly caught for 5. Pickering and Greaves saw out the innings to give a total of 151 for 9. 

The opposition openers came in and rode their luck. Opening bowlers Higginson and Cartwright both saw catches dropped, with Higginson being particularly unlucky. The innings saw a total of 7 dropped catches of varying degrees of difficulty which destroyed any realistic chance of winning the match. However as always Nomads persevered and we eventually took a chance when Heslington caught and bowled opener Thomas. However a opening stand of 68 off 14 overs had given Swynnerton an excellent start. Greaves was given a bowl,  into a strong wind, and had some chances of a wicket but was proving expensive and so Hoddy was brought on. Living up to his newly acquired nickname of ‘clockwork mouse’, Hoddy immediately settled on a good line and length and tied down the opposition also claiming the wicket of the other opener for 52. Fearon was brought on and an intelligent spell of bowling saw him take 3 wickets. An outside chance of victory meant Nomads kept the pressure on but Swynnerton eventually coasted to victory off 36 overs for the fall of 6 wickets.

The match saw a lot of good things by Nomads - no gonads, good ground fielding, a never-say-die attitude, only 3 extras given away but we  let ourselves down by dropped catches and not enough players succeeding with the bat.

P Gardner        run out                  3
M Heslington ct Cheadle           51
A Hussein         lbw Robinson     4
M Pinfield         ct Robinson        4 
D Cartwright    b Osgathorpe     1
F Weir             b Watson           15
P Fearon          c Winnington    39
P Higginson      b Chris              4
J Hoddy           c Preston            5
D Pickering      no                       4
K Greaves        no                       2
extras                                          19
                                     - 151    for 9(40 overs) 

Fall 16-30-40-41-75-118-122-137-143

K Thomas        ct/b Heslington              32
S Capever        lbw Hoddy                    52
R Winnington    b Fearon                      27
C Palmer          ct Higginson b Fearon   0
A Robinson      ct Gardner b Cartwright  15
C Watson         no                                   14
J Osgathorpe    ct Gardner b Fearon     0
L Cheadle        no                                     9
   extras                                                      3
                                             -152 for 6(35.5overs)