WORCESTER Nomads got their 2018 Worcestershire County League campaign off to a winning start with a hard-fought 19 run victory over Feckenham at Bransford in a game that ebbed and flowed throughout.

Star of the show for Nomads was Cameron Blakey, who produced a fine all-round performance to aid the hosts success.

Winning the toss was always going to heavily favour the successful team in cloudy conditions.

With some early assistance for the seam bowling attack likely, there was little surprise when Feckenham inserted their hosts.

There was a brief rain break that reduced the contest to 42 overs per team.

In fact, the bad weather that was forecast for later in the afternoon failed to materialise and once the teams were back on the field there were no further interruptions.

The visitors attack was spearheaded by Tom Coulson and Matt Henning, who both bowled with purpose from the outset.

However, early successes were rather gifted to Feckenham with a series of ill-chosen shots providing the early breakthroughs.

In a hectic first 20 overs Nomads were reduced to 48 for the loss of five wickets.

Only Guy Davies showed any real resilience with 36 out of those first 48 runs before he was bowled by Coulson (4 for 27).

Nomad’s skipper Ben Schiffmann provided some quite respite with a well complied 22 but when he was ninth man out with the score at 92 it looked like Nomads were doomed to failure.

Enter young Cameron Blakey, who played with the maturity and calmness that was perhaps missing from the earlier part of the innings.

Blakey joined Tom Baker, who also played extremely well, to add a further 42 runs for the last wicket before Baker was caught off the bowling of Josh Stacey for 26. Blakey was undefeated on 15.

The visitors got off to a nightmare start with three fairly cheap wickets falling in the first 12 overs, leaving them on 30 for 3.

The swinging ball was certainly helping counter the pitch, which was playing true – a remarkable feat considering the hampered preparation many clubs have had during the past few weeks.

It was that airborne movement that enabled Schiffmann (2-33) to remove both openers cheaply.

A period of consolidation by Feckenham allowed them to edge to 50 without further loss, leaving them well-placed to mount an assault on the victory target of 135.

However, that well-known saying that adding two wickets to the score gives a true reflection of the game proved to be correct when the visitors lost two cheap wickets in the space of 8 balls to reduce them to 52 for 5.

Blakey had been introduced to give a spin option to the bowling attack, something that produced the desired effect quite quickly.

Tom Coulson then joined Stacey and the pair added a rapid 35 to take the score to 87 and Feckenham looked to have regained control of the match.

Then came the pivotal wicket, one which probably defined the outcome more than any other.

Stacey nudged the ball to short third man for what looked like a comfortable single but then failed to respond to his partners refusal when half way into the run; in the confusion the stumps were broken by a direct hit from Steve Emson and Coulson was out.

Next target for Feckenham was the winning draw score of 114, which they duly reached with five overs to spare but not without losing three more wickets.

With Josh Stacey, who also had a fine all-round match, feeling increasingly isolated and starved of strike, the win for Feckenham seemed remote.

Indeed, the draw was looking more likely until Stacey tried to tuck into a juicy long-hop from Blakey with just 11 balls remaining only to see the ball loop off a top edge to the eagerly awaiting O’Driscoll at square-leg – he made a gallant 47.

Blakey finished with 5 for 27 and was rightly Man of the Match.