Nomads Lose their Way in the Dark

In the first of a weekend double-header, Nomads travelled to play Fleckney at a local village Mowsley, due to a festival at Fleckney. It was a mixed Fleckney team with a lady and a couple of youngsters playing. Fleckney made a steady start but also lost a couple of early wickets to Mahmood. Then there was also a disastrous run-out when Hill became too eager to get to the non-strikers end .However a few high scoring overs saw Fleckney progress to 113 off the first 20 overs albeit having lost 4 wickets. Nomads hope was to grab a couple of quick wickets to get to the tail. However Atul and Yakesh proved obdurate and after shaky starts began to look confident. Cartwright and newcomer Dan Lamb bowled well to restrict the scoring somewhat but even with a couple of retirements to give the youngsters a couple of overs an imposing score of 214 was reached.
On a quick outfield, the score did not look insurmountable and the oldest opening pair in Nomads history kept just below the run-rate. A solid base was required to give our hitters, Mahmood, Barnnigan and Fearon a chance to take some risks. Indeed Brannigan and Mahmood proceded to push the run-rate along so that we were neck and neck with the Fleckney score Unfortunately in the 22nd over both wickets fell when the players were in sight of retirement at 50. Thakur and Bastable still kept the score progressing but then Fleckney brought on their quickest bowler as the light was beginning to dim. However the batsmen were still able to score off him and the win was in sight with only 45 runs off 10 overs, but Fearon succumbed and Rolfe and Cartwright were out cheaply, the former from a ball that deviated a lot off the pitch and the latter to a direct-hit run-out. Newcomer Lamb and Hoddy were left trying to get 26 off 6 overs. However the light proved too dim for Hoddy to pick up the bowling of Potter and Nomads fell 22 short of the opponents.
The Fleckney team was certainly better than their usual team and rather more ruthless but Nomads could quite easily have won if a couple of batsmen had not been dismissed when they were.


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

Date: 16 September 2023
Start time: 1:00pm
Venue: Laughton LAne, Mowsley
Competition: 40 overs friendly
Scores: Fleckney 214 v Lichfield Nomads 196
Result: Fleckney beat Lichfield Nomads by 22 runs
Toss:
Scorer: J. Hoddy
Umpires: P. Fearon, D. Rolfe, K. Stanley, A. Mahmood
Report: J. Hoddy
Weather: Cloudy, windy

20 Sept 2023