28/8/04 New Barbarian Weasels v Pacific @ Civil Service Sports Ground, Chiswick. CCC match.

NBW 160-7 dec. John Bishop 46. Boonaert 11-4-21-2 Bastin 7-1-23-2.

P 120-6 Sammy Purcell 54, Marcel Boonaert 21. Dyer 6-0-25-3

Match Drawn

In this blackest of Augusts, the match was preceded by a few words from Captain Rob Bastin & a minute's silence in memory of Tom Brown. Pacific's results have not been much to crow about either - without a win since 29th July, 11 matches ago ( W 0, D 3, L 6 & 3 cancelled), at least here the match's spoils were shared fairly & Pacific retained the honour, won back so emphatically last May by 10 wickets in Cambridge.

Of the 3 players who did play then, Sammy Purcell did not have a chance to bat, but yesterday he top scored in the match thereby showing the Weasels what they had missed.

His consolidating innings began patiently - picking up just 5 singles from 38 balls before he was joined by Boonaert & the tempo was increased - his 50 coming off 64 balls in 92 minutes, as he settled comfortably in against the change bowlers. Dyer's 3 mid innings' wickets including that of Boonaert & reverted momentum back to NBW & with Purcell himself getting stumped of Dyer at 111-6, Pacific were left with an improbable target of 50 runs from 3 overs with 4 wickets in hand. Earlier, Pacific's lack of depth in the bowling was less evident as Boonaert lead the attack with gusto picking up the key wickets of Michaels (17) & Wheldon (26) - but John Bishop's staying power & concentration saw him through to tea until Roberts got underneath a viciously spinning top edge at cover point to give the effervescent Mullin a deserved wicket.

After tea, the top 3 struggled to bat fluently & were 26-3 after 21 overs but then Pacific's latest bright young star Sammy Purcell came to the fore.

XI: P Hollman, J Moore+, S Purcell, S Lay, M Boonaert, J Hill, S Eastway, H Patel, S Mullin, R Bastin*+, A Roberts.