Nomads CC

Wednesday 22nd July: Sussex Martlets vs Nomads

On a glorious day at Horsham CC, Nomads won the toss and elected to bat (unsurprisingly) on what was as normal a very flat surface for seam bowlers. Derek Horsham enjoyed his first outing for the Martlets so much that he wanted to continue his overs bowling many no ball in the first few overs! He did deservingly get the wicket of one of the openers who smashed a very quick 50 on short boundaries. Ben Jackson opened the bowling at the other end and bowled tightly for his 6 overs, only conceding 23 runs. This pressure brought about the wicket from Om Knott who also bowled very tidily picking up one for 27 off his 7 overs. With it being a 80 over match, Martlets probed away with spin for the vast majority of the overs as some turn and bounce was on offer for the array of spinners Rebbetts had at his discretion. Rebbetts did manage to pick up a wicket himself with a horribly short and wide delivery that was hit straight to Trotter at backward point. Rebbetts’ response to the lucky wicket was “spinners get wickets off bad balls all the time, why can’t seamers”! With a maximum of 14 overs left, it was down to Trotter’s leg spin and Joe O’Gormans left arm off spin to continue to dangle the carrot. After a couple of overs settling in, Trotter really got into his stride with a couple of wickets with dipping gogglies. At 169-3 Nomads would have been very happy, but Martlets were showing some fightback after their thrashing at the weekend. It was always looking like 250 was a minimum score on a wicket of this flatness and the batting talent in the locker for Martlets. A timely run out of their most fluent scorer after a mix up between the batsmen looking for an over throw summed up Martlets cricket excellently! A bad first throw followed by an excellent piece of backing up and throwing down the stumps. Joe picked up a well deserved wicket himself with a great catch by Om at mid on left them realling at 200-7, an excellent come back from Martlets. Trotter was in the thick of things again with two wickets in two balls left him on a hatric ball, but was to no avail. Only to then drop a caught and bowled chance to complete his 5fer… Lucky enough the ball cannoned off the umpire, the batsmen attempted a run and got run out instead! A strange way to end the innings, but 212 all out left the Martlets very happy after conceding only 42 for the last 7 wickets. Trotter the pick of the bowlers with 4/24 off 7 overs.

Toby Pullan and Tom Haynes opened the batting and looked assured immediately. Pullan had the pleasure of using his brand new Keeley for the first time and looked in the mood to knock it in prolifically. They took advantage of the short straight boundaries as well as the little movement offered to the seam bowlers cruising to 100 before the 15 over mark. Haynes did take advantage of two dropped chances before trying to catch up Pullan who was racing to the first martlets 100 of the season. Haynes being hampered by a wrist injury took to sweeping and ramping the medium seam bowlers who tried everything to take a wicket, but once these two were in, it didn’t look like they were getting out. Pullan was the first to get to 100 with another monstrous six down the ground, one of seven maximums! Pullan scored 86 of his runs in boundaries; a mere 79% of runs scored in boundaries. We felt for the opposition that they caught Toby on a very determined day alongside the solid Haynes. The challenge was now to ensure that Haynes reached three figures as well, with some good farming of the strike, Haynes got the scores level and himself on 97. A loose ball down the legside and an excellent clip off the legs got Haynes to the 100 he deserved. A brilliant chance enjoyed by the many watching at Horsham CC who were brilliant hosts on another wonderfully hot day in July.

Spare a thought for Marcus Campopiano who sat for 28 overs with pad rash at number three. But also, nomads can count themselves lucky they didn’t have the pleasure of bowling to the class of Campo as the score of 212 was never enough. Charlie Lewis also didn’t get a chance to impress on his martlets debut, but there will be many more chances this summer with a tightly packed schedule for the second half of the season. A really pleasing victory for Martlets who have repaired the damage from their loss on sunday with their own infatic 10 wicket victory today. We look forward to hosting Nomads again next year.

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