• Pacific beat league oppo in intriguing low-scoring contest 
• Stockton and McGinnigle dominate with ball 
• Chasseaud, Ireland and Siddique bros take Pacific over the line 
• Sam Howes sings gypsy folk with Irish music troupe in WB Yeats

Pacific arrived at a warm but muddy Wray Crescent boasting one of the strongest team line-ups this author can remember. 

After PCC lost the toss and took to the field, Ben Stockton pinned opener Hughes right in front of the sticks with just the second delivery of the match.

As the left-armer hooped the ball into the batsmen’s pads from the Playground End, James McGinnigle beat the bat outside off, at pace, from the Basketball Court end. James – described as ‘a better-looking Darren Gough’ by chirper-in-chief Riz Siddique – looks to be a great addition to the club and it wasn’t long before he took his first official Pacific wicket.

Stockton, running in with wrist cocked like the forelimb of a velociraptor (pleasingly reminiscent of Pacific legend James Gleadow’s approach), continued to trouble the Fields top order and made another breakthrough early in his economical eight-over spell, leaving the opposition struggling with three down and not many runs on the board.

It was arguably in these opening overs that the game was won. Fields went into survival mode, and with the outfield slow and Pacific fielding sharply, they simply weren’t scoring enough runs. Wickets continued to fall thanks to Oli Haill’s left-arm guile and James Soden’s bouncy seam, and at the 20-over mark Fields had only just passed 50 runs.

Skipper Tom Ireland did his best to ruin Pacific’s dreamy start with some inaccurate dross, before Riz and Toby tidied up the late middle overs. With 15 overs to go Fields started to look like they might sneak up to a decent total. Their Shane Watson look-alike Troy Turner passed fifty and their lower order started to crunch some serious maximums. Thankfully Toby snared Turner with five overs left, and McGinnigle returned to keep the death overs relatively quiet.

Fields had done well to get up to 180, but with Ireland deciding a batting order from 11 players who could all bat in the top five, Pacific ate their mid-innings picnic (chicken, brioche, melon, grapes, Pringles) with confidence.

When the game resumed James Hogg fell early to the wrong-footed eccentricity of Vincent Croft. But Toby had other ideas, crunching the former PCC man for a flurry of sixes and fours and out of the attack.

Toby eventually knicked off to the troublesome away-swing of Field’s tall seamer Sayer after his quickfire 37. Mutz showed off his classy drives and alongside Jay "Lay Jakhani" Lakhani, set about building the Pacific innings. But when Jay fell, he was followed shortly after by Stockton, Burnham and then Mutz too. Fields were jubilant and at 90-odd for 6, 181 started to look worryingly far away.

Thankfully Ireland and Riz steadied the ship, counter-attacking until the total was under 50 and then playing patiently to see off Fields’ returning openers. Although Ireland needlessly skied one with about 15 runs still required, giving Fields hope, Soden and Riz sensibly knocked off the remaining runs. The Pacific XI – who had by now been joined by Sam, Kieran, PBD, Babs and Tim – cracked some celebratory tinnies pitchside.

Fields were a good spirited and fun opposition, and not knowing that our entire tail could bat, maybe felt the game was closer than it was. They joined us in the WB Yeats for some post-match refreshments, where remarkably, Sam joined a troupe of traditional Irish folk musicians to sing "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" without any of us noticing, his Celtic crooning somehow going unwitnessed as we drank our beers less than ten feet away. 

In addition to an excellent start to the Pacific season, the day may also have resulted in the recruitment of three new Pacific players, including e-sports journalist Alastair Pusinelli and a random bloke who spotted Toby’s cricket-y get-up on the tube home.

TI

PS: Is Kieran checking a pregnancy test in Sam’s picture?