Coming off the back of a first game defeat, into their first home game at one of their two new home grounds and against their 'bogey team' the Prince's Head from Richmond, the odds looked to be heavily stacked against the Nomads, despite the opposition not retaining centurion Matt the Aussie Yellow Cap. Invited again to bowl first, the Nomads went into this game making 3 changes. Russell (0-17) was entrusted with the job of opening the bowling with Sean(2-15). Sean was soon engaging in his favourite pastime as he made short work of the 'Head's two openers Si and Ananda, with George Boulter taking a running, juggling catch at deep mid-wicket. His spell of 7 overs, 2-15 was sublime. Suddenly, one brought two, brought three, brought four, with normal service resuming as Jamie (2-30) entered the fray once more.
Jonny 'Safe Hands' Govender pulled off another hatrick, this time a hatrick of catches including one where he dived low to his left at square-leg to take an amazing one-handed, left hand catch. The Greenwich Park faithful were in delirium, as I can say were the Nomads! There was a middle order partnership between number three Tam(41) and skipper Matt(52), but Niroshan's 2-28 which included Luke Crimmens's first catch (with a broken finger, no less!) and newbie Tauseef who warmed up after a tentative first spell to claim his first three wickets for the team (3-47) helped clean up the tail. Russell Roberts's second spell helped to tag back the opposition from getting ideas above their station...
The Nomads now found that with 35 overs to play with, they needed to get 168 for victory. Rory(68) with his swashbuckling new partner Jack(2) set about winning the game. Disaster struck as Jack got a stinker of a delivery which jagged up off the wonky wicket to hit the top shoulder of his bat, and loop up to the willing short fielder on the off side. Jamie walked into bat, knowing that what was needed was quiet accumulation, and that was what he and Rory began to do.
This is where one has to applaud the skill and endeavour of our top order batsmen. Rory and Jamie(43) took the Nomads from a worrying 9-1 to a fantastic 113-2, a partnership of 104, which ebbed and flowed during when they went from 59 to 107 in five overs (ovs 17-21). As Jamie fell, skipper Niro walked in to greet a set Rory, who shortly after reached his first 50 of the year and his secomd for the Nomads. Twenty runs were added, but a googly and a flipper later, he was sent back to the pavillion for 68, with the score at 144 for 3.
The Nomads were still at this point a good 24 runs away from the victory, with 5 overs to play. Safe Hands strode to the crease and played one of his dismissive, trademark drives for four. Niro drove one through the covers, followed by a flick off his pads to the square-leg boundary. It was in the penultimate over that 'gloryhunter' Niro refused what looked like a comfortable single out to shortish mid-wicket. Stand-in umpire Luke was intimating to his batsmen that they were giving him and the crowd 'the fear'. Gasps of disbelief emanated from the crowds and teammates before a cover drive by the skipper(22 n.o.) broke PHCC hearts and their stranglehold on the Nomad/PHCC record, registering the first victory of the season for the Nomads.
The performance in the field by the Nomads was agreed by all to have been the finest seen in the short time that the Nomads have been together. The batting up top essentially took the game away from the opposition with the 104 second wicket partnership a new record. The Nomads headed back to the pub with the opposition to acknowledge a perfectly paced victory. Could they top this sterling performance against the Bricklayer's Arms at their other home ground in Dulwich? These were dizzying heights....
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