Pacific 15/07/23

After a night in the pub lasting until 2am, the Wanderers arrived at the ground to find the pitch still unplayable. However, Tom managed to get the reserve pitch ready for play and everyone decamped to this ground (except Conrad who had not yet arrived!) and Skipper won the toss, asking Pacific to bat in a 35-overs contest.

Stuart and Ben opened the attack and Ben got the tour off to a roaring start with a delivery that swung into the batsman and bowled him through the gate. Stu also picked up an opening batsman;s wicket with Tommy taking a catch. A rain shower had everyone running for cover but with the strong wind it only lasted 5 minutes and did little to dampen either the pitch or the spirits. Stu took the third wicket with a delivery that held it’s line and took off-stump. David (0-24) replaced Ben but struggled to keep his length bowling into the breeze. He was not helped by some errant fielding, Big Dog with a misfield that cost four and Mike Moore lifting his foot to allow it through for four and then performing a dance as the next went past him to the boundary.The Brill (2-26) bowled his allocation straight through and was replaced at the Cathedral end by Jon. Jon was the only bowler forcing Skipper to stand back, with his added pace and late in-swing causing difficulty for the batsmen Jon (1-24) was soon among the wicket takers with one that came back and clipped the pad on the way to the stumps, and was unfortunate not to take the Pacific top scorer with 2 close LBW shouts. By now Conrad had arrived and was soon asked to bowl, starting with a maiden as the batsmen struggled with the variation in movement, flight and pace. He took the new batsman as he played all around a straight flighted delivery. The new batsman was instantly run out when a mix up in the calling gave the Wanderers a chance. Skipper shouted for his end and Tommy fired it in, bouncing just short of the stumps and then hitting middle with the batsman not in the frame (99-6). He should then have had the top batsman with a run out chance in the same position, only this time he fired it in well over Skipper, who did well to catch it and stop overthrows, but the chance had gone. Tommy came on to bowl at the Cathedral end and, despite bowling a maiden to begin with, looked vulnerable to the now free-scoring batsman. However, chances were coming with one over leading to four dropped catches! First Jon with a ball off the middle of the bat at cover followed by Ben at deep-backward square-leg with a tricky chance. Mike Moore declined a sky ball at long-on only to watch it go past for four. Then the chance we were waiting for – a hoick to cow-corner where Tom was positioned. He came in well but as he slid in the catch evaded him. Conrad (1-50) was hit for an enormous six that landed on David’s car and Ben (1-41) bowled the final 3 overs at that end without too much incident. Tommy bowled the last over, with the batsman thinking tea had arrived with a delightful buffet being served. The over finished with a run-out breaking a partnership worth 118. The innings finished on 217-7.

Skipper opened the batting with Big Dog and was off the mark first ball driving off the back-foot for four. A replica shot 2 balls later and the Wanderers took 9 from the opening over. Big Dog played on next over without score bringing Tommy to the crease. Progress slowed as the bowling became increasingly accurate. Tommy hit 3 singles in his first 15 deliveries and Skipper slowed down. After 10 over the score was just 36-1, needing 182 from 25 overs! Skipper (25) top-edged a sweep and was caught behind square. Jon partnered Tommy and this was a profitable partnership following a change in the bowling. Tommy found a rhythm and Jon started to find boundaries, first on the ground but then increasingly by driving hard and high for sixes. At 20 overs the score was 98-2, with the asking rate still at 8 an over. Tommy (48) was bowled by one that kept slightly low bringing Tom to join his brother (117-3 from 22). Tom accelerated after a steady start. Jon (55) was stumped in the 27th over trying an expansive drive to cow-corner (166-4). Tom put the game out of doubt in one over of mayhem, when he was dropped twice but took 27 runs (6,4,4,6,1). Conrad (10*) clubbed a couple of fours and survived a catching chance when he scooped it straight up in the air where the captain fumbled a simple chance. Conrad was nearly run out when standing watching out of his ground but the shy at the stumps missed. In the end the Wanderers won by 5 wickets over 2 overs remaining.

It was then all back to the White Hart for an evening of beer.