SIDLEY'S LUCK HOLDS FOR A DRAW

When the sides met on the opening day Sidley missed out on 16 points as Nomads' obdurate last pair held firm despite being way short of their target.

But on this occasion Sidley were rescued from another batting demise by a gutsy eighth wicket stand between Ian Phillips (47 not out) and Paul Matthews (38) and still walked away with more points than their opponents. Despite falling 19 runs short of their opponents 219, Sidley still had three wickets standing and so forced the draw.

Skipper Scott Woodroffe said: "It wasn't too bad. It was as good as we could expect. It was a case of what might have been really. We played pretty well for the first half of the game and managed to claw it back because at one stage they looked as though they could get away from us.

"It was the same thing really with the batting - our top and middle order haven't really done us any favours. There was some rash shot selection from our top order and we were never really in the hunt for it. Ian and Chunky got us up to 200 but at one stage we were looking as though we were heading for a certain loss."

Two factors that did go in the visitors' favour were the fact that Sidley were forced to field first in the stamina sapping heat and then had to bat on a deteriorating pitch that showed occasional signs of uneven bounce.

The experienced Steve Gatting (41), William Davis (34) and David Smith (54) made hay in the afternoon sunshine but the fit-again Tyrone Wildman (5-38) pegged them back to a surmountable total.