Lichfield Nomads Cricket Club : Match Reports 2004

Nomads second best to Church Eaton
A poor performance all round from the Nomads as they were outplayed by a much changed Church Eaton side. The positives were a solid performance by captain Heslington, a wicket for Fearon, a lively debut? for Rob Coleman and a spirited batting performance from the tail.

Church Eaton won the toss and inserted the Nomads who started solidly enough with the trusty partnership of Gardner and Heslington. A couple of sharp chances went down at cover and slip but apart from that the pair looked well set and had reached 51 at drinks. Upon resumption, the curse of the drinks break struck and Gardner fell for 25.  Ted Osborn then added 6. Richard Caygill made a welcome return to the team after suffering with his Belgium tour rib injuries but only managed 1 run before a direct hit meant he was run out attempting a sharp single. Heslington lobbed up a simple return catch to McKenzie to depart for 38. Nomads then hit the self destruct button as first Fuzz was clean bowled first ball and Fearon followed despite looking in good nick and scoring a couple of twos. He departed lbw, via the dreaded finger from Pickering, attempting to steer a leg side delivery to fine leg. Fearon displayed his obvious disappointment at the decision. The bowling was somewhat wayward but was proving effective. The lower middle order and the tail were then tasked with ensuring that they batted out the overs. This they duly did thanks mainly to John Hoddy 23 not out and cameos from Rob Coleman (6), Pete Blackburn (9 including two fours), Graham Coleman (6), Dave Pickering (3*). The Nomads total of 144 for 9 always looked below par but was a lot better than it might have been.

Heslington opened with himself from the pavilion end and Blackburn from the far end. The Church Eaton openers played sensibly. Keeping out the good balls and pouncing on anything short or wide.  There was not much cheer, as Church Eaton piled on the runs and the Nomads began to wilt in the balmy conditions. The bowling early on was OK but without a cutting edge. Indecision in the field meant that a chance went begging at mid-off and all too often there was one bad ball in the over (Usually the last ball of the over!) that the batsmen helped themselves to.
Some lively fielding from Rob Coleman brightened up the proceedings. Fearon started to extract some swing with the help of chief polisher Weir and struck for the only wicket of the innings. A Jaffa which swung away off the seam to rattle the off stump. But the breakthrough did nothing to stop the onslaught and the Nomads went through the last rites to lose by 9 wickets with almost 14 overs to spare. Credit is due to the Church Eaton batsmen who played well in difficult conditions, especially Giles who made an entertaining 79 not out.