Betley end Nomads winning run

Nomads made the long journey to Betley, the scene last year of Pete Gardner’s 20,000 runs achieved for the Nomads. The weather forecast had not been promising but we arrived to bright sunshine. The pitch looked green and we would have bowled if we had won the toss but we did not and so we batted first with Pete Gardner and Rana Ghosal opening. The pitch seemed to be doing a bit and progress was slow but another fine opening partnership of 46 was achieved in 16 overs. Gardner was caught by the keeper Happe, who was of high standard standing up to everyone, and then Aneek Mahmood came in and pushed the score along with 3 sixes in his innings of 27. Unfortunately he was caught in the deep attempting another 6. John Loxley had a brief knock before he was caught behind. It was a confident appeal although the batsman did not think he had touched it. Rana Ghosal raised his PB for the 3rd week running and also reached his maiden 50 before being bowled on 51.
The two Bryars now batted together but neither lasted long. Jim Cogzell did not score many either but Dan Lee, having not batted for months, scored a splendid 21, followed by Dave Rolfe, who with the help of Darren Cartwright added another 30 runs, which might have been more had the scorers not been confused by the number of overs that had been completed.
The weather had deteriorated during the match and light rain saw the covers brought on. However tea was not extended by much and Betley went out to bat. Dan Lee, as usual, applied the pressure but the other bowlers could not match him on a pitch which seemed to have been made more placid by the rain. The two openers Cheetham and Simon made the most of the bowling and rattled along at over 5 runs per over reaching an opening partnership of 138 just after tea. However John Hoddy and Darren Cartwright had been introduced and the reduction in pace seemed to unsettle the opposition, 4 wickets falling in the space of 4 overs. A top edge went to Pete Gardner in slips and after a confident appeal for another caught behind was turned down, the batsman was out next ball to a marginal lbw. However the keeper Happe was a good batsmen and saw the innings out with sensible batting. Hoddy, bowled the penultimate over, despite the pleas of Rana Ghosal to be given an over, and took 2 wickets in 2 balls, with a catch to Jim Cogzell in covers just avoiding a collision with John Loxley and a clean bowled, but could not claim his hat-trick.
A feature of the season is Nomads never giving up hope and a spell of late wickets gave us slight winning chances. However it was all too little too late and Nomads winning run finally came to an end.

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

Date: 19 Sept 2021
Start time: 12:30
Venue: Betley
Competition: 40 overs Friendly
Scores: Lichfield Nomads 189 for 8, Betley 190 for 6
Result: Betley beat Lichfield Nomads by 4 wkts
Toss: Betley won the toss and elected to field.
Scorers: J. Hoddy
Umpires: Various
Report: J. Hoddy
Weather: Changeable

Last update: 21 Sept 2021