Hi Nomads

1st of all huge thanks to David Dale for gathering the information and also to the Managers for their input.

Settle back

Let’s Hear from the Junior Section

Junior team summaries

U9

2024 has been another successful year for the mighty U9’s. We had the benefit of carrying many U8’s through from last year, and were joined by several new team members (a couple completely new to cricket). Despite a slightly wet start to the season, games got underway quickly and we continued our winning ways from 2023 and succeeded in winning all of our league matches. So exciting to see such a strong group at Nomads, with many of the team strong enough to represent older age groups across both boys and girls. Bring on 2025!

Ben Poate

U10

In our last season of soft ball cricket, the improvement the Under 10’s players have shown has been so good to see. We’ve won just over half of our soft ball games this season but have been competitive in every game.

We’ve had encouragingly large numbers at training this season and have managed to give a large amount of players game time. All have shown a great willingness to continually improve their game.

As the season wore on our focus slowly turned to transitioning from soft ball to hard ball cricket, playing a couple of excellent friendlies before taking part in the Under 11’s festival, representing Nomads as a ‘B’ team. Despite being made up entirely of Under 9’s and 10’s we more than held our own against more experienced Under 11 teams, coming so close to a deserved victory before securing a draw in our last game against Arundel. Very promising signs for next season!

Our awards this season were collected by Henry Holland (batting), Joshua Owusu-Sekyere (bowling) and Aryav Clitus (coaches award).

Tim Holland

U11 Girls

A wonderful season was had by our young, inexperienced U11 girls team, missing out on the league championship by a single match decider to a vastly more experienced older team. However, there was more to come! Bravely playing through adverse weather conditions & delays in their festival week, the girls emerged victorious to win, and lift the Shield for the club’s first time. Another first was had, being crowned County Cup Champions, by winning the regionals at BACA, both cup competitions were won with a 100% win rate. The highlights for me however was firstly achieving this all in our first year together as a group, having not being able to even fill a full side until the third game in! Watching the girls maturing, game after game, and with a camaraderie that was second to none, having the right levels of listening, support & encouragement to each other, energy, commitment, skill, discipline, fun and laughter, it balanced into a winning formula for the girls, families and coaches alike. Lastly, it was amazing to see the progressive journey of the girls through the year, with many of the girls having the confidence and bravery to play for the mixed teams at the club, and some up in years, and eventually even competing in hardball games, which was not thought possible at the start of the season. A most rewarding and enjoyable season and always with a smile, thank you girls and well done!

Roy Pook

U11

A mixed bag of results for our U11s, our first season of hard ball cricket, we finished with an even record of 8 wins and 8 losses across all competitions. The standout achievement was undoubtedly our league cup campaign making it through to the final. Although we finished as runners-up to a very strong Horsham team, it was an incredible journey and a fantastic achievement. Our highlight game of the season was definitely the gripping win we had at Ditchling in our opening cup game. Many of the boys played in the U12 festival shield team where they lost only one game by just 2 wickets. We had a tough draw in our U11 festival where we had a couple of heavy losses and a game conceded on us but they recovered well for a great win in their final game. I have really enjoyed the energy, encouragement and enthusiasm from all the kids throughout the season.

David Dale

U12 Sharks

The Nomads Sharks team finished the season in 3rd place in the league. We had 10 games and finished with 6 wins, 2 defeats and incredible 2 tied games. In total 18 players played for the Sharks team. The boys had a great season and always played with a supportive, positive team spirit, backing each other up and encouraging each other. A massive thanks to all the parents for your support and Jennifer Bidnell for scoring the matches.

Adam Rowland

U12 Braves

The Braves had a great 2024 season winning two thirds of their games with only one washout. What was great to see was the team sticking together, supporting each other at all times and having fun. We welcomed half a dozen new players to the team who quickly integrated and enjoyed the Nomads ethos. A few special mentions: Oli Baker played every game. Seb Poate for throwing himself into keeping duties. Tom and Rupert for their 1980s sunglasses look. All the boys bowled in every game and often the more medium paced lads turned up trumps. There is a lesson there for every level of the game. Wishing everyone a good winter!

George Close-Brooks

U13 Girls

The Under-13 Girls’ season was nothing short of inspiring! As the season progressed, the team gained momentum and improved with each match, showcasing their growing skills and teamwork. We finished second in the league, however one of the highlights this year came towards the end of the season when we convincingly defeated the overall winners, a testament to our potential and determination. A heroic festival week saw the team pull together with an outstanding batting performance from Ella Davies reaching 73 not out. The cricket improved each day and it was a great experience for all. The incredible camaraderie and spirit within the team were evident in every game, making the girls a shining example to everyone at the club. The season awards were well deserved and went to Best Batter – Olive Hutchinson, Best Bowler – Heidi Trimmings and Coaches Player – Isabelle Broadstock.The team’s love of cricket is clear to see, and with this strong foundation, we’re excited to build on our success next year.

Lou Murie & Sarah Trimmings

U13

The team have really gelled and played with fairness and cricketing spirit throughout. The league started really well, tapering off slightly towards the end, as did the festival, but it was in the ECB cup where our best memories were made. After winning the Sussex County Cup, we progressed to the national stages as Sussex representatives, then onto Teddington for the regional finals. Unfortunately, after 8 games our cup run ended here, but joint 16th nationally is a fine effort to be proud of. We’ve learnt a lot this season and look forward to what we can achieve next season.

Ralph Scrase

U14

U14s had a good season with some strong individual and team performances throughout a long league campaign. We have a large cohort of cricketers at this age group so have been able to field two teams each week from May through to the end of July and also in the festival, which means there are plenty of opportunities for cricket even during a cooler and wetter summer!

We started the winter as indoor finalists only losing one game across the indoor leagues. In the league our A team finished 4th in their league and our B team 6th. In truth both teams could have finished higher losing some close games we had the opportunity to win.

Our festival week for the A team was rain affected and we narrowly lost to eventual finalists Eastbourne (another game we should have won). The b team did excellently against some strong opposition finishing with 3 wins. A number of the boys have taken great strides this year and really matured as cricketers and there’s been some great team performances against strong oppositions. We look forward to next year and the chance to add some consistency in performance across a really talented group of cricketers.

Huw Cahill & Phil Standen

U15 Girls

The girls section of PNCC has really blossomed this season – there are growing numbers, especially in the younger age groups and we’ve had our first 2 players in the Sussex pathway system. More girls are being nominated this year and so I’m sure this pathway number will increase in the coming few months.

I was really excited to see 16 teams enter the U15 league this year, but 2 pulled out before the season started and with a total of 21 matches conceded the girls only played 4 league games and a speedily arranged friendly.

Performance wise- It was a slow start – our first game was definitely a warm up against Lewes, the second, we faced a tough Brighton team and by the 3rd game against St James we put up a really good fight to eventually lose by a handful of runs. Our 4th game at St Peter’s was a triumphant win with Evie getting 4 wickets for just 2 runs and Ella, Miranda and Amelie getting the necessary run score in 9 overs.

We then played Lewes in a friendly and put right our earlier loss with Ella scoring enough to retire.

Then sadly our last 2 league matches were conceded. A great shame and with almost more games conceded than actually played in the u15s league, we have had to find other sources of cricket for the girls.

Evie and Ella have played in the U14b mixed festival team and league teams and Miranda and Evie played down in the U13 girls festival team last week. A total of 7 girls have also played in our ladies teams and a particular mention must go to Evie, Miranda and Heidi who have played in a lot of the slam games and significantly improved our bowling stats.

Sarah Corney

U15

The Under 15s have had a good season after winning the league by a few points in the end.

Two early defeats, one in the league to Brighton and Hove and one to rivals Three Bridges in the ECB Cup, threatened to derail the season before it started but with availability challenged by school matches and sickness we played both of those games without a full team so we needed to dig deep to turn the season around and we won every game from then on.

We are grateful and pleased to have been able to play a number of U14’s and U13’s in the team this season. Opportunities as always were given to all players who commit their time and energy to play for us so in all but one game everyone gets to bowl and throughout the season those who normally bat down the order got to have a couple of opportunities each much higher up the order. Adam Ibrahim captained the team well with my challenge to him to give everyone a game.

Highlight of the season was a 20+ run win against Brighton and Hove at the Nevill to put us in the driving seat for the league with a destructive batting performance, making 148 with the loss of just one wicket. With Rudy, Adam and Tate all getting past 30 and Charlie 22no.

Tate Hector bossed the bowlers and topped the league run charts with 203 runs at an average of 102.50. Ronnie Packham led our wicket count with 9 wickets with his much varied left arm spin. And my coaches award went to Aiden Cahill who not only bowled well for us, his fielding has improved dramatically but Aiden stepped in last minute on a couple of occasions to ensure we had a full team. He wasn’t the only one willing to do this and this is testament to the team spirit and inclusivity we created.

We have an abundance of talent available to us so our ECB cup defeat in May was very disappointing but we were outplayed by Three Bridges and missed Charlie Davies that evening through sickness otherwise I am convinced we would have got to another regional final after our U13 success.

Charlie has had another solid season with the bat along with Adam and a Rudy who both bullied the bowlers at times this season.

We are very lucky to have such spin options available to us with Will Davies, Ronnie, Alfie Burton and Adam who all took several wickets this season!

George bowled lightning quick against Steyning clean bowling several of their team in a frightening early spell and Huey Pitcher got his pace up as the season went on and wobbles and moves the ball early to claim several wickets as always.

I thank our squad members this season for being available when they can and embracing everyone who played.

Other special mentions to regulars Ted Hutch, William Dale, Sonny Forsythe and Ollie Hewitt who always played with commitment! They were very much part of the U15 squad.

Gary Hector

U16

The U16s have had a ‘what might have been season’. We played some excellent cricket in the U16s league losing the title in a top of the table clash to Brighton & Hove. It was an excellent game; 2 competitive sides playing hard cricket against each other. We couldn’t quite make the runs needed to complete a run chase in failing light.

We had high hopes going into the Festival of making the Final. We comprehensively beat Horsham in the first game with Sam Knock taking 3 excellent leg spin wickets and Adam Ibrahim completing a sublime 74 not out in the run chase. We lost a last ball thriller on the Tuesday against Rottingdean; a fabulous game of cricket and excellent experience for the boys. The Rottingdean spinners turned the game in their favour and we didn’t quite make enough with the bat. The boys came back strongly to beat a very good East Grinstead side with Will Hutchinson standing out with bat and ball. Alfie Burton and Tate Hector combined for the ball of the U16 decade; vicious Warnesque spin leg to off, with Tate taking the bails off for a classy stumping. Our last game against Three Bridges was abandoned due to rain after 4.4 overs, meaning that neither side was able to qualify for the Festival Final.

These boys now bow out from junior league cricket. They have worked really well as a team and have been a credit to Nomads. The highlight of 7 seasons was their ECB U13 Sussex Cup win. A large number of the squad play adult cricket for Nomads and other clubs which is a proud legacy from a coaching perspective.

Tom Hutchinson

U18

A highly successful festival for the U18s beating old rivals Chichester Priory in the final following a week of fantastic team performances. A century by Skipper Joe M and a fifty from Adam I got us off to a great start vs Arundel but we were ultimately frustrated by their relentless blocking from ball 1, so had to settle for the winning draw. The team bounced back brilliantly from this setback, securing full points in the next three games. Jack B and Lian F both scored crucial fifties against Eastbourne, and Sam M took a decisive three wickets against Felbridge and Sunnyside. In our must-win match against Henfield, we not only had to secure full points but also had to win quickly to edge out Horley for a spot in the final. Blistering fifties from Felix V and Adam I allowed us to declare after just 29 overs, and Alex K’s six wickets completed the victory in quick time. Final place secured courtesy of net run rate superiority of 0.1 over Horley!
In the final against Chichester Priory, Felix V’s 49, Lian F’s 47, and Archie E’s magnificent 84 powered us to a formidable 255. Chichester could only manage 109 all out, with blistering pace and swing from both Felixes decimating their top order. Alex K’s four-wicket haul wrapped up the match, and our U18s were Festival champions. A hugely enjoyable week and with most of the boys returning for next year’s festival, I’m looking forward to it already!

Rob Kusel