Fivefer Hughes

Nomads returned to Draycott & Hanbury for the first time since the 2017 season. This has generally been a close low scoring fixture and Nomads came with a strong team with this in mind.
Nomads won the toss and elected to bowl on a slowish, green surface. After a lot of rain the previous day the weather was set fair. Aneek Mahmood opened the bowling with Ian Hughes. Mahmood bowled at a good pace and the openers were lucky to get away with some edges through the slip cordon. However Hughes, taking some pace off the ball was more successful and although getting hit for a six claimed a handful of wickets. Three catches, yet another behind the stumps by Dave Rolfe, and 2 clean-bowled. Nomads had 7 good bowlers and Captain Dave Rolfe was tempted to take Hughes off to give some others a bowl, but having claimed his 4th wicket, Hughes was kept on for another over and he claimed his 1st five wicket haul for Nomads with John Hoddy taking a simple catch at mid-wicket. By good fortune his Mum and Dad and children were there to see this achievement. Paul Fearon and Jim Cogzell were brought on to claim some wickets and “death bowler” John Hoddy claimed the last wicket off his 5th ball.
With a good batting line-up, Nomads were confident of achieving the low winning total. However the opening bowlers, Jack Clark and Luke Bebbington were having none of this. Clark, in particular, bowled at a good pace and troubled the batsmen. With no scoreboard pressure Pete Gardner and John Loxley were content to keep the bowlers out and tick the score along. Loxley was bowled by Clark and then Luke Turnbull was caught off Clark’s bowling. Pete Gardner was slowly accumulating and was joined by Matt Barker to push the score along. Barker was bowled playing across the line and Aneek Mahmood joined Gardner. In his brief innings Mahmood hit a six which helped to bring his season’s average to over 40. These two saw the innings out with the total being reached after 15 overs.
Another excellent performance gave us our 7th win of the season.

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

Date: 22 August 2021
Start time: 13:00
Venue: Knightsfield Road, Hanbury
Competition: 40 overs Friendly
Scores: Draycott and Hanbury 65; Lichfield Nomads 66 for 3
Result: Lichfield Nomads won by 7 wkts
Toss: Lichfield Nomads won the toss and elected to field.
Scorers: Draycott and Hanbury
Umpires: Various
Report: J. Hoddy
Weather: Warm and sunny

Last update: 22 August 2021