Richmond Nomads 28Aug05

On yet another glorious summer's afternoon Kings welcomed Richmond Nomads to Kempton. Kings, with two games in two days, found their resources stretched and fielded a somewhat weakened side with many regulars missing. James Melligan was brought in for only his second appearance for Kings whilst young Joshua Tighe made his debut. Having lost the toss Kings were asked to bat first.

The inning was led off by Dave Miller and Joel Miah and both made reasonable starts against some tidy Nomads bowling. However Nomads made the first impression on the game when Miller was superbly caught at point off Morrison (26-1) and when Miah was caught off Barnett the Kings batting line up started to look exposed (30-2). The fall of the second wicket brought James Melligan in to make his batting debut for Kings and he looked nervous at the start, playing and missing on several occasions. Melligan was then dropped by Charteris in a miss that was to prove expensive. Having survived this close call Melligan and the experienced Paul Norman saw the score to 48 before Morrison struck again when he bowled Norman.

However the miss of Melligan was about to become expensive as he started to find his feet with some superb drives and pulls. Well supported by Dave Miah these two started to swing the game towards Kings especially as Melligan was in full flow now and seemed a different player to the one who had started so nervously. These two added 52 for the next wicket before Miah departed to Morrison for just six (100-4). Melligan was now joined by Nick Tighe and the Kings all rounder proved to be the perfect foil as with a superb array of shots and some excellent running they feasted on the Nomads bowling.

Melligan soon chalked up his maiden fifty and in no time at all they added 70 for the fifth wicket before Tighe was bowled, for a seasons best of 34, by Moss (170-5). With the tea interval approaching there was still time for Owen Mears, with a rapid 16* and Melligan to propel the score to an impressive 195-5 with Melligan finishing on a superb 87 not out, the highest score ever made by a Kings player on batting debut. He could, and surely would have, gone on to make a maiden century had not Nomads only managed to bowl a very disappointing 35 overs in the 2.5 hours of play.

In response Nomads made a slow start in chasing, what on the Kempton pitch was an achievable score, but they were finding it tight against some good bowling from Tighe. However the usually restrictive Richard Sones was not hitting the groove and Smith was able to prosper against some wayward bowling. However Raby was soon captured by Mears off Tighe to give Kings an early breakthrough. There then followed a good partnership between Smith and Morrison in adding fifty for the next wicket.

However Tighe then made a double breakthrough when Melligan pulled off a superb one handed catch to dismiss Smith (65-2) and Swan was bowled without scoring (65-3). This double blow seemed to signal the intention for Nomads to shut up shop and the scoring rate dropped completely as all thoughts of chasing the game went. Kings were unfortunate not to get a couple of breakthroughs a catch was put down and they had a strong lbw appeal turned down. However the introduction of Paul Norman broke the deadlock when he bowled Elliott (81-4) and then Mears bowled Lamb (106-5). However Morrison was hanging in there stoutly to try and frustrate the Kings bowlers but he finally departed for a slow 26 having been caught by Norman off the bowling of Mears (111-6). Although Bygrave struck one more blow for Kings, having Coach caught by Mears (116-7) Neesham and Charteris held out for the final overs to secure the draw.

For the third time in as many weeks Kings had been frustrated by not being able to dismiss the tailend batsmen. In the Nomads innings Kings had bowled 37 overs , two more than their opponents had managed in a longer period of time. For Kings the disappointment of the draw was more than over shadowed by the superb performance of James Melligan whose innings was the outstanding moment of the game.