Lichfield Nomads Cricket Club : Match Reports 2003

Bugbrooke v Lichfield Nomads
Date: Sunday 6th July 2003.  Time: 2:30pm
Venue: Away.   Competition: Friendly - 40 Overs.
Result: Won by 52 runs.
Conditions: Warm and humid with sunny spells
Toss: Lost
Scorer: Cartwright etc
Umpires: Jennett et al
Match Report by: Dave Forster.

Nomads struggled against some tight Bugbrooke bowling, achieving one of the season’s lowest totals of 113.
Having lost the toss, Nomads were invited to bat and the developing reliability of the Gardner-Hussein partnership again looked as if it would bear fruit. However, scoring was not easy, particularly with Gilforth extracting considerable away swing to the right hander and bowling repeatedly outside leg to Gardner. The score had moved on to 31 in the ninth when Hussein left the gate a little too open and snicked an inside edge which dribbled onto his stumps, 31 for 1, a steady start that Nomads could look to build on. But only two runs had been added when Gardner edged one to the youthful keeper, 33 for 2 in the 12^th. Heslington and Pinfield were struggling to move the score along and the rate was dropping below the minimum 3 an over they would have preferred. Nomads were having a hard time of it as first Heslington and then Pinfield fell to catches, at 46 for 3, then 49 for 4. Higginson was taking the attack to the bowlers and beginning to spread the field, however he tried one attacking shot too many and was bowled for a quick dozen, 61 for 5 and Nomads in some disarray. Shortly they were even more disarrayed as Cartwright touched one down the leg side, 65 for 6, then rapidly 66 for 7 as Hoddy added a gonad to his collection missing one that left him by a couple of nanometres and took middle. It was clear that Nomads needed to get their heads down and bat out as many of the overs as possible, as Coleman joined Forster with fourteen overs left and a sad-looking 66 on the board. This is just what they managed to do, blocking the good balls and attempting to hit the occasional loose one. Together they hoisted the score to 108 in ten overs, before Coleman was bowled, 108 for 8. Fuzz Weir marched to the wicked with the instruction to get his head down and see out the overs, unfortunately he neglected to take a guard and left at least two stumps visible to the bowler behind his legs and inevitably they were both hit second ball, 108 for 9. Greaves fended a couple off, trying to give Forster the strike, but after scoring a single backed away once too often and lost his middle stump. At least Nomads had managed to put together a semblance of a score they could bowl at.

Heslington and Cartwright began the attack and the batsmen moved on serenely to 15 in the third, before Heslington trapped Hosking for 9. Despite keeping up with the required rate, which admittedly, wasn’t that difficult, Bugbrooke began to lose wickets, Heslington picked up Chalmers to an acrobatic catch by Gardner (giving Weir some keeping experience) who hung in the air for several seconds, at least! At the other end Cartwright was getting his “skidders” going and removed Gillespie, before Heslington struck again to remove Vaughan. At 23 for 4, Bugbrooke were looking in some difficulty, however Brain was looking strong. It was then that disaster struck as Brain hit a Heslington full toss to Forster at mid on, a little slip of the feet and down it went. A stunned field looked on in disbelief and Forster couldn’t believe that he’d put down his first real catch for Nomads after nearly 7 years. This could well have proved decisive. Cartwright , having taken a wicket with the last ball of his sixth over, had to come off with a tweaked hamstring to be replaced by Higginson. Brain seemed to take a liking to his shorter ball when he slipped in a yorker and uprooted his middle stump. From then on it was a matter of Bugbrooke trying to hang on as the Nomads bowlers attacked with ferocity. Another for Higginson and then Greaves bemusing the youthful tail with his flight, picking up the last three at a cost of one run and Nomads had got out of jail, much to Forster’s relief!!

Despite not batting to their best standards, Nomads bowlers had stuck to their task and bowled really well to achieve a 52 run win after scoring only 113 was a great effort.

So now it’s 5½ to 7½  and just the sniff of a curry starts to tingle the nostrils, but Nomads have some tough fixtures in the next few weeks and with reduced availability they will have to fight hard.

Go to it boys!!

Interestingly some of the Bugbrooke players seem to have been to the Registrar during the tea interval as a number of clear name changes appear in the book!