Opening Match Victory for Nomads

A switch of venue to Walsall after Meynell declared their ground unfit, saw Meynell bringing 10 players along after, at one time, only having 7. Also many of the players had had a drinking session at Uttoxeter Races the day before and were perhaps not in the best frame of mind for playing cricket. Nevertheless they elected to bat. Stand-in captain Hughes opened with Mahmood and Hoddy. Mahmood’s first over did not anticipate the carnage to come as Hoddy in his first over got a wicket with his first ball, a good catch by Mahmood at midwicket, then a wicket with his 2nd ball, a narrow miss on the hat-trick ball and another wicket with his 4th ball. A couple of dot balls saw Hoddy complete a 3 wicket maiden in his first over of the season. To be fair the batsmen got themselves out with rash shots rather than great bowling by Hoddy.
More wickets steadily fell to Mahmood, Hughes and Cartwright The match looked set for a very early finish, however the opener Jones, who had played a good standard of cricket in Cumbria, was allowed to have a 2nd go and gave the score some respectability before Bastable claimed his first Nomads wicket to finish the innings.

Gardner and Stanley opened the innings and proceeded slowly against some decent opening bowlers. However there was no scoreboard pressure and after one opening bowler was replaced , the run-rate rose. Gardner was out lbw and newcomer Ahmed was bowled leaving Stanley and Thakur to claim the victory.
Meynell let themselves down with their rash batting but nonetheless Nomads did what was necessary to claim an opening match victory.

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

Date: 5th May 2024
Start time: 2:00pm
Venue: Gorway Road, Walsall CC
Competition: 40 overs friendly
Scores: Meynell 70 all out v Lichfield Nomads 73 for 2
Result: Lichfied Nomads won by 8 wkts.
Toss: Meynell won the toss and elected to bat.
Scorer: D. Cartwright
Umpires: Various
Report: J. Hoddy
Weather: Warm, sunny

6 May 2024