There were several things that threatened to destroy today's cricket. The weather forecast had been a bit iffy in the run up to the game, but came through lovely in the end. The footballers starting at 12.40pm when we were scheduled for a 1.30 start was inauspicious. That they'd brought a small sound system with them wasn't great news either – seemed they were planning a Wrayve after they finally vacated the field (and the music they were playing was utterly terrible - although maybe I'm just past it and not down with da kids anymore). We finally got them off at about 2.20pm, after the rather toothless intervention of a stab vest clad Parks ranger, who promised to write the council a really sternly worded email about it. Anything else would have escalated the situation apparently, and appeasement is in both Islington Council and Pacific CC's interests probably, though it was frustrating at the time. After that, it looked briefly like we might lose our skipper, as the hitherto unknown “no dogs at Wray Crescent” rule looked like it might force Stocko off for dog care duties. He'd bought his new puppy Fish with him, who was now banished from the ground, unfortunately forced to retire from mascot duty before really getting going. Thankfully James Soden's missus Theresa was able to pick Fish up for doggy day care, and we retained the potent weapon that is Stockton.

So, onto the cricket. New skipper Stockton won the toss, a one hundred percent record this season which surely bodes well for the future. He chose to bat, and Toby Chasseaud and Rahul Raviskrishnan stepped out to open the Pacific account. They gave a good account of themselves against decent bowling, the London Field's opener Lucas in particular looking a very useful player. He was unlucky to finish wicketless, but bowled an excellent spell to restrict early scoring opportunities. Rahul was the first to fall, bowled for 29 after some nice stroke play. He'd been the more aggressive of the openers, scoring at 4x the rate Toby was at the start I seem to remember. However it was Chasseaud's patience at the crease that brought the first 50 of the game up, the Chairman eventually reaching 71 off 76 balls, having upped his run rate aggresively in the latter half of his innings. Rob Dinsey was unfortunate to get a good ball early on and departed without troubling the scorers. This brought Stockton to the crease, who looked in good nick from the start. He hit a pugnacious 52 off 40 balls, 45 of them in boundaries (9 4's and a 6). He will not run if he does not have to, and who can blame him when he's weighed down batting with something the size of a tree trunk. It seems to work for him though, so whatever.

I can't remember whether Toby or Stocko went first, but whoever it was, they were bowled. Every Pacificothat fell was bowled today, which feels unusual but there you are. I'd like to say it's testament to PCC's expert control of the ball, only hitting in the air to the gaps, but we all know that would be a lie. Tom Gane was next to the crease, and what a find he looks to be for Pacific. Some lovely shots, and following the skippers example doing it almost exclusively in boundaries. He scored a quickfire 42 off 21 balls, the ball going to the rope 9 times. Why run if you don't have to? Sensible cricket. He hits the ball hard, as one member of LF who was at a sort of short cover can attest. Tom absolutely middled one down and into the ground, which then bounced up to collide with the fielders head quite sickeningly. He looked to be out for the count, but was thankfully back up on his feet very quickly and able to continue, which I'm not sure any passing doctors would have approved of, but his fortitude is definitely to be admired.

There was a flurry of wickets at the end, as Pacific looked to hit out to increase the score with plenty of men left in the shed in the dying overs. Soden, Joe Deighan and Korgy all had small cameos with the bat as Paul Teasdale, the usual London Fields wicketkeeper cleared up at the end with 3 quick wickets from a tidy left arm over line. Pacific finished on 231-6 from our 35 overs, what felt like a defendable score.

Fields came out to bat, with Hugo Forrest and James McGinnigle the opening bowling pair for Pacific. MaccyG had the early breakthrough, thanks to a fantastic bit of work in the field from Korgy, moving round and then diving to his left at square leg to hold onto a tough chance that looked like it might pop out when his elbow hit the turf. Thankfully he held firm, and we were away. Fields were scoring slowly at this point, having reached around 80 at drinks (more or less on par with where we were at the same point). For both teams, the acceleration came when the ball had softened a little, and after Hugo had bagged himself a couple of wickets bamboozling batsmen with his canny seam, Fields accelerated. Jody and Soden bowled well, Soden eventually removing the LF opener Leo. Garrett came on and bowled some utter dross (though his figures should be at least 4 runs conceeded less because there's no bloody way the batsman got anything on that one that ran away to the boundary for what should have been four bloody byes and the umpire was just blatantly bumping his mates figures the utter bastard and they both lied about it but we won't mention that*).

Korgy then had a great spell with the ball, possibly even his best at Wray. With the guile dial turned up to 11, the Pacific legend turned, tweaked, floated, finagled and flummoxed Fields middle order, taking the important wicket of Teasdale, who was sharply taken caught behind attempting to cut the wrong ball. He also accounted for two other LF wickets, bowling Trista and drawing the dangerous Lucas out of his ground to allow Walt to whip off the bails for a sharp stumping. Special mention should go to non specialist keeper Rob Dinsey here, who (as so often for Pacific in any variety of roles) stuck up his hand and volunteered to keep wicket. He threw himself all over the park, and made some athletic stops behind the sticks. Certainly a few byes got through, but a sharp stumping and very well held catch suggests a decent aptitude.

Tom Gane bowled 3 overs which were far more expensive than they had any right to be, the LF players at this point accelerating and needing to score quickly to keep up to the required rate. He picked up the wicket of LF's opening bowler Muffi, well held by Jody off a skied top edge. LF's acceleration had been timed to perfection to give them credit where it's due, and with LF needing 9 off the last over, Stocko chucked the ball to Rahul for his first bowl of the day. Sadly they did it in 3 balls, seeing it well at that point.
A good day was had by all and all that, and the match was played in excellent spirit by all throughout. A few of us went on to the WB Yeats.

*Garrett's figures are still shit when this is taken into account