diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/nutch/searcher/LuceneQueryOptimizer.java b/src/java/org/apache/nutch/searcher/LuceneQueryOptimizer.java
index 57a8371130..f6311ba657 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/nutch/searcher/LuceneQueryOptimizer.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/nutch/searcher/LuceneQueryOptimizer.java
@@ -104,8 +104,10 @@ public LimitedCollector(int numHits, int maxHits, int maxTicks,
       super(numHits);
       this.maxHits = maxHits;
       this.maxTicks = maxTicks;
-      this.timer = timer;
-      this.startTicks = timer.timeCounter;
+      if (timer != null) {
+        this.timer = timer;
+        this.startTicks = timer.timeCounter;
+      }
     }
 
     public void collect(int doc, float score) {