Weekend Round Up  27^th and 28^th May 2023.  Twos and Fours Take Important Wins.  Ones on Backfoot. 3s T20 Success  Plus Paul Ian and Phil send word. Extras Watch!

Ollie, Kash, Aaron,Chris and Owen have good days. While Mike Burney puts in star performance!

It’s been a mixed weekend around the SCMG with some amazing results and performances. However, as we reported yesterday our Threes lost at Ditchling while the Ones faced a wide margin reverse at Middleton. Let’s start this report with a very pleasing and hard-fought battle on our North Square where Gatts and our Twos get over the line in Division 3.

Twos Move up to Third in the Table after Ansty Win!

In the preamble we pointed out that Ansty were looking strong with the ball and that’s how it proved as Ollie and then Owen (batting at 11!) dug in to see us over the line by one solitary wicket.

Gatts takes up the story.

The seconds welcomed Ansty back to the SCMG, with the outcoming being much more exciting than the 10 wicket win we recorded in the T20 a few weeks back.

As common practice, we lost the toss and were asked to field.  The openers got us up to a steady start, bowling tight channels and not letting the Ansty get away.  They were back up by the first change bowlers who carried on where the openers left off, picking up wickets while keeping the scoreboard in check.  Owen bowled particularly well, with figures of 2-18 from his 9 overs and Jaques also picking up 2-30.  Then came the turn of the spin twins of Baalaaj and Kash.  On a turning bouncing wicket, the Ansty lower order struggled to get bat on ball, in which we eventually bowled them out for 155.  Baalaaj picking up 1-28 and Kash 4-23.

The run chase started well, and we were cruising at 137-4, with the skipper for the day making 59 and Arron 47, with 19 runs to win it all went wrong….it started with the youthful Kashif making the school boy error of not seeing the fielder move and then hitting it straight to him.  Very soon after we lost another wicket, meaning we now needed 19 to win with 4 wickets left.  At this stage, most of us were expecting Owen Kernan to walk to the crease, however after already showering and making himself look pretty (ish), he slowly moved himself down the order.  We managed to get a few more runs, with us now requiring 8 to win with 4 wickets left, then it went wrong again big time,  with us losing 3 wickets for no runs.  Having gradually relegated himself to 11, now was the time for Owen to come to the crease.  We would like to think we bluffed Ansty into thinking he was a number 11 and them keeping their field up, but either side of a very nervy James Amor over, Owen managed to get us the 8 runs to seal victory.  Hero or villain, you decide.

Ollie Gatting

 

This is a real feel-good story and hopefully it has given everyone around the club a huge lift. Its nice to dominate games but sometimes it feels extra special to get on the right side of a close one.  Ollie, Kash and Aaron contributed to the bulk of this win but for me Owen’s 10 not out at the death typifies the man. For years he has been a legend around this club and yesterday he demonstrated again his passion and love for PNCC.  Against immense pressure he calmly steered the team to victory!

Our Twos are back on the road this Saturday with a tricky trip to Cuckfield where they will be on the Main Square.

Fours Up to Mid Table (Div 9) After Burney’s Century! 

Last week we followed our 4s to Ansty where they put up a great performance in a losing bid. After the game skipper Stephen Oliver confidently predicted that a 4s win was just around the corner.  Aided by our 1^st league ton of the season that win duly arrived.  Stephen talks us through it!

Victory…

At last, I am able to write about winning a game of cricket!
The 4th team put together a match winning team performance, starting with the bowlers who all kept to tight lines and good areas. Wickets were shared amongst all as a result.
The fielding was good, catches held and Tate was tidy behind the stumps.
After tea, Mike was patient and had good partnerships with both Tate and Charlie. The pressure built on the opposition bowlers who could not respond, and Mike got us to the winning mark with a flurry of boundaries.
A great team performance and having scorer, umpire, tea and a great pitch made the day even better.
Winning is good!!!

Huge congrats to Mike who clearly read the early morning preamble and came up with the goods. I was looking out for our first 2023 league ton and Mike truly delivered. Indeed, that’s the second time he has completed that honour.  We shall catch up with him soon and get the story on here.

From the report above you can get a real feeling of the joy and pride as our fours taste the excitement of a win. And for good measure it’s taken them up into a comfortable mid table position. They get another chance to shine on Saturday as they travel north to Mid Sussex and the pretty village surrounds of Ardingly.

Ones Suffer Middleton Sussex Premier Loss as Top Order Falter. Sheat takes 7 Wickets!

After two excellent Sussex Premier League wins Nav and boys would have travelled to Middleton in confident mood. However, the hosts were ready for the challenge as Heather scored a ton and then Fraser Sheat ripped out the top order.

Navin takes up the story.

It was an extremely flat wicket and I would’ve also like to bat first but unfortunately lost the toss.
I thought the guys stuck to their guns throughout the whole Middleton innings and did well to restrict them to 285 when 350 looked very likely.
Sean Heather batted very well and held their innings together.
We were guilty of gifting too many extras with 6 front foot no balls.
With the batting innings their kiwi overseas bowled a great spell which completely destroyed our top order. Got to give credit where it’s due and that was a fantastic spell which we didn’t have an answer for.
I managed to score 50 and strung a couple of partnerships together with Colly and Zayn at the end to add some respectability to our score and come away with some valuable batting points.
Back to the drawing board and we go again next week.

As Nav suggests our first team have a great chance to reset and go again on Saturday at the SCMG as Cuckfield travel. It’s a top of the table clash. Let’s Go Ones!!!

Threes Progress in Sussex T20 Trophy at Plumpton Today!

Our Threes shrugged off a poor league result to nicely progress in the Sussex T20 Trophy.  Chris Baker was the Nomads player of the Match with a brilliant 56 up top as we settled on 120 all out.  In a nervy chase Plumpton got rather close but Jamie Patrick 2 for 16 and Rafiullah Gul 2 for 12 got Nomads over the line and into round 3. Young Will Hutchinson and Angus Yule came in for special mention from the skipper. He said ‘both of them massive a impact’

Huge Congrats to Fas and the boys.

 

In other news we catch up with Paul,Ian and Phil to hear how things are progressing around the club.

From the Chair!

Cricket is a game to be enjoyed by all of the ages and at Nomads we certainly embody that from young Adam Ibrahim through to the “wily old fox” Ian Jones who took 3 wickets yesterday.

2 wins, 2 losses at the weekend was hard to take with our 1st XI on a roll and looking to maintain their top of the table position, however that wasn’t to be and from that defeat we should look to bounce back quickly and strongly.

To all players, practice hard, turn that work into excellence on the pitch and most importantly put yourselves out to be available to star in any of our teams.

Paul Hird

 

From the Middle!

After some of the grimmest weather Ive known in 30 years as a groundsman, at long last the sun came out, it warmed up nicely and the 1st X1 & 4th X1 returned to action at the SCMG for the 2023 season. To say the ground looked a picture doesn’t do it the justice it deserves. With cloudless skies, it looked stunning !!

Wicket prep had gone fairly well, and with the first dry week in a long time and a final cut down to 7mm, things felt good on both the north and south squares. For sure I could have been happier with the firmness, but as with many clubs, our pre-season rolling program had been more than interfered with by the terrible weather over the last 10-12 weeks.

This as you know is a new position for me, but the issues with the north outfield over the past few seasons, have been well documented. In all honesty, to get the surface back to where we all want it, isn’t an overnight fix. A focussed and thorough renovation in September, will be hugely beneficial and I think this time next year things will be definitely getting there. For now though, I have reverted to the criss cross banding of cut. I think for the south side with more undulations, the circular banding is fine but on the north side, for me it doesn’t work as well. One thing that needs some exploring, is the drainage on the north side. Im sure many have noticed how dry parts of the outfield look already, especially the area that was decimated by the leatherjackets 2 years ago in line with the grounds sheds. 3 weeks ago we were wading about and this week we have needed to irrigate to ensure we keep a healthy plant. With all vegetation starting to really grow it shows just how quickly things dry out. Having said that, I do think certain areas have bit more of an issue, which as I say needs a little investigation.

On the whole I am happy with how things are going, and hopeful if this weather continues that we can get more pace into wickets. At the very least I’m confident they will be good cricket wickets with something for both bat and ball.

Away from the cricket side of things, the work that Martin and others are doing with the ball stop fencing and driveway lighting looks fantastic. If you could see how much hard work has gone in so far you would see that it really isn’t an easy task. Other jobs on the radar are the new fence posts on the eastern side of the north outfield, the gate post which was broken last weekend, the hedge cutting around the north outfield and trying of areas around the main pavilion. I’m sure you can appreciate, there is lots to do but from mine and Biz’s point of view, it’s also an exciting time on making things look the way they should. Cheers Ian

From the Bar!

Bar / Pavilion Update

The season started with a pleasant evening back in February when over 60 people turned up in the depths of winter for a curry and quiz night. The bar took over £500 and the raffle raised £180 for the social club which we used to purchase a karioke machine which has already had some considerable use.
After a relatively dry February the rains came in March and didn’t seem to stop until May. The ground was left completely saturated and unplayable so much so that there wasn’t an adult game played in April an unprecedented situation for most connected with the club.
The proverbial rain tap has now been turned off, regular cricket has returned and the bar and pavilion are busy once again. Sales for the month of May are ahead of last year and we are steadily eroding the April deficit.
The social club in its inaugural year has some cracking events lined up for June with a Paella and Pimms / Sangria night lined up for the 10th and a summer luxury Bbq for the 24 th.
The launch of our very own Nomads  white wine has been a great success with 60 bottles sold already with many repeat purchases.
On other matters we have at some considerable expense purchased a much larger TV for the main clubroom  it will  make it  much easier to see the Albion goals go in whilst serving from the bar. Just another reminder that we now have a rather nice Nespresso coffee machine which will give everyone an excellent cup of quality coffee.
The quantity of cricket really ramps up in June and Maggie and I look forward to seeing you all hopefully with the sun shining.
Phil

 

Extras Watch (League Only)

1^st Team  week 1 19 week 2 18 week 3  26

2^nd Team week 1  23 week 2 18 week 3  15

3^rd Team  week 1  39 week 2 35 week 3  19

4^th Team week 1   12 week 2  26 week 3  34

Congrats to the 2 who are on a week by week improve. Despite a great win the 4s are going in the wrong direction while the Ones were guilty. Hopefully we can all get with the programme and send our collective tally to below 60 a week. I think that’s a realistic target!

 

From the News Suite I am looking for that perfect clean sweep of league victories to report on. Its early days in 2023 but you get the feeling that such a day could be just around the corner. All of our teams are highly competitive packed with talented cricket players, but everything will just need to click. One thing that needs to improve is our Extras ledger. You will note that Nav mentions it in his report and from the table above we are still giving away far too many runs out there, 94 yesterday!

Have a great week and let’s get wins on the board shall we!

Cobo  28^th May 2023.