The last home match of the season proved to be memorable, but for meteorological rather than cricketing reasons, as a spectacular tropical downpour flooded the pitch during the tea-break and brought a premature end to the first clash between these teams. Guest Farooq Malik said it was as heavy as the monsoons in his family seat of Lahore. No player on the ground had ever seen such rain at a cricket match. It was heavier even than the storm that broke just after Denis Howell was appointed Minister of Drought in 1976. By six o’clock, the ground was a foot deep in water, water was cascading off the pavilion roof and drivers had difficulty in steering through the lakes that had formed in Balaclava Road. They will probably not believe it, but even West XI would not have continued, it was that bad.

Nomads and The Gents were in negotiations for this fixture in 1998, but a date could not be agreed. They play West XI and London Saints of the teams on The Gents’ card, beating the Beggars and losing to the ex-pats already in 1999, so a close game was expected. David Blundell won the toss and batted on a sunny, airless afternoon. Faroq Malik looks to have modelled his action on Shoaib Akhtar. Nothing wrong with that, it is good for a young man to have such a bowler to look up to. It is just that the pace is not yet there, currently about Sanjay’s. Still, he often beat the bat, though his first wicket had a hint of luck, Hewitt chopping a back-foot defensive shot onto his stumps. Snarler was successful in his fifth over, yorking Wood and the hosts were on top. Slowly but surely, however, Armes and Brett turned the innings round, pushing ones and twos into the gaps, running well and striking the odd boundary. Swiss Tony eventually bowled Armes, and must have been close to outing Siddiqui leg before second ball, but the umpire decided in favour of the batsman. Reprieved, he went to an excellent fifty, his on-drive past the vacant mid-on being especially impressive.

Church Street Nomads have been outed in a rival fanzine as social cricket’s great procrastinators, so it was with some amusement that their umpires were heard to chunter about The Gents’ over rate. True, 37 overs in two and a half hours was not a rapid rate, but it was a hot day (airless and choking hot during the Nomads’ innings) and most of the overs were bowled by the seamers. There were a few minor fielding blips, and the absence of an eleventh player, for the first time this season, added to the pressure, but the bowling was pretty good all afternoon. The innings was declared on the fall of Brett’s wicket, a few seconds before 5pm, whereupon the heavens opened. The match was abandoned within twenty minutes. The Nomads seemed a pleasant enough bunch, and it was sad that all but two of them disappeared straight after the game. One of the Black Lion attendees, Siddiqui, was particularly distraught, as his lift had headed home with his gear and wallet. So, The Gents’ losing run was halted, but not in the way they would have liked. Well done to the ten who did play for keeping going in difficult conditions and to the Nomad top-order for some attractive batsmanship.