Nomads 12 June 2025

Manager Nick Pykett

Lost by 8 Runs

Nomads 137 all out (Jamie Bates 5-0-7-3, Louis Stanfield 2-1-8-2, Jacob Eaton 8.4-1-23-2)

SOA 129 all out (Nick Pykett 57, Pat Knightley 26)

Due to the skipper being otherwise engaged in the snoring clinic, Jamie Bates tossed up with stand-in Nomads captain Ben Butcher. The SOA ended up in the field and the opening spells of Aston Rowant's Jacob Eaton and Chearsley's antipodean Ben McCure bowled well early doors. But it was Bates, who was destructive with the ball, taking 3-7 in his five overs before being dragged off by the skipper in the hope that the game would last beyond tea, with Nomads struggling at 63-6.

Sam Down bowled nicely at the other end, picking up a wicket thanks to a fine catch running  back towards the fence from skipper Pykett. The Tiddington leg-spin duo of James Mackay and Louis Stanfield bowled well at the tail before Eaton wrapped things up after an elongated lunch, the Nomads ending their innings on  137 in the 38th over.

After losing Louis Stansfield to the first ball of the second over to the spin of Butcher, Patrick Knightley and Finlay Little took the score to 42-2 when Knightley was bowled. Then the procession started  with wickets tumbling, leaving SOA reeling at 54-6.

Pykett, batting with the tail, farmed the strike and had to work around a very defensive field set by Nomads, who seemed to have forgotten that SOA had taken earlier their foot off the throat to allow some form of extended game. Pykett was dismissed for 57 and was the penultimate man out with the score on 128-9, which was not added to by the final wicket, so the result was a narrow loss by eight runs.