Nomads Struggle at Wednesbury

Travelling to Wednesbury proved easy for some of our players but difficult for others. Walking distance for Brannigan and Westwood but Hoddy yet again arrived late having been confused by roadworks en route. Is Hoddy becoming the stand-in for Dave Pickering?

However once we got started Hoddy was brought on as opening bowler partnering Westwood, both of whom employed a mixture of line, length and pace to keep the openers quiet. Hoddy managed to claim a wicket and was unlucky not to claim more with a number of catches, albeit not easy, being put down. This proved costly as the 1,3 and 4 batsmen all scored heavily. Westwood claimed 4 wickets when brought back on and took a fine catch on the boundary to give Loxley a wicket thus earning the MVP award contested also by Brannigan who bowled his new style of slower bowling very well and kept the batsmen in check. Turnbull bowled some very good balls but needs a bit more consistency to put the batsmen under pressure. Cogzell, Loxley and Basri made up the overs and took the brunt of the attack. After the first 4 batsmen, Wednesbury did not have much left and so a couple of more early wickets could have made all the difference to the result.

Nomads never really looked like contesting the required target of 249 with some tight opening bowling especially from Patel. Terry had to retire due to knee problems and looks doubtful for next week. Brannigan and Rolfe scored a few runs with contributions also from Loxley and Turnbull but only a couple of overs from Buck, no disrespect, made the total look respectable. A well beaten Nomads side had the promise from the opposition that not such a strong team would be selected next season, although a couple of catches sticking would have made things more interesting.

The 4th defeat of the season reflects, perhaps, that the opposition are giving stronger players a chance to play. We are also missing the consistency and choice of bowlers such as Hutton, Cartwright, Fearon and Heslington as well as the all-round ability of Moss amongst others.

[Disclaimer: Any offence caused by this article is unintentional, any praise is well deserved]

Date: 2nd August 2020
Start time: 13:00pm
Venue: Wednesbury
Competition: 40 overs Friendly
Scores: Wednesbury 249 for 9, Lichfield Nomads 148 for 5
Result: Wednesbury beat Lichfield Nomads by 101 runs
Toss:
Scorer: J. Hoddy
Umpires: Heslington et al
Report: J. Hoddy
Weather: Sunny intervals

04/08/2020