Pete Gardner 20,000 Not out

History was made at Betley on Sunday, not just that Nomads won their 3rd game in a row but Pete Gardner achieved , a never to be surpassed, except by himself, record of 20,000 runs in his Nomads' career.
In a lovely venue on a hot day, the opposition gave Nomads the option of batting. Terry, unfortunately, was out again, without scoring, to a chip into the covers. A shot he definitely needs to cut out. However Hutton, making up for a lack of cricket, and Gardner raced along on an excellent batting track. At about 36 for Gardner, cheering and applause erupted from the spectators, to the bewilderment of the opposition, until it was explained that Gardner had just reached 20,000 career runs for the Nomads. Pete did not stop there and proceeded to take charge of the bowling until he was finally out for 72. However Hutton was going even faster and imperiously despatched the ball over the boundary ropes on several occasions. Mahmood, Rolfe and Basi were out cheaply but Turnbull and Ellis scored quickly to give an outstanding total of 273 which I believe might be the Nomads 3rd ever highest score.

A massive total, but on an excellent batting track against unknown opposition, Nomads were taking nothing for granted Lee and Mahmood spearheaded an excellent bowling attack, but as expected the opposition scored quite briskly albeit below the required run-rate. Mahmood took a wicket but even with Cartwright now bowling no more wickets fell. So Hoddy was brought on and bewildered the opposition with his wily wiles. Started off by an excellent catch by Cartwright, Hoddy’s subtle variations of pace gave him a further 3 wickets, all bowled. This broke the back of Betley’s efforts to chase the total and after a further two wickets, D Towers and Mountford showed how good the wicket was by batting on untroubled to reach scores respectively of 56 and 37.

After the match a presentation was made to Pete by Club Chairman ,Keith Stanley, of a souvenir bat signed by the players and a bottle of bubbly. A splendid occasion for all involved.

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

Date: 13th Sept 2020
Start time: 12:30pm
Venue: Betley
Competition: 40 overs Friendly
Scores: Lichfield Nomads 273 for 6, Betley 195 for 7
Result: Lichfield Nomads beat Betley by 78 runs
Toss: Offered to the visitors. who chose to bat.
Scorer: J. Hoddy
Umpires:
Report: J. Hoddy
Weather: Hot and sunny

20/09/2020