After a few wet weekends it finally looked like the weather gods might be shining on PCC on Sunday. The days oppo were South Laughton who joined us on what was hopefully to be a dry afternoon at Hurst Avenue. The preceding days’ soaking had taken its toll though, resulting in a nervous Noor dropping by the wicket in the morning with his damp meter. Unlike your usual damp proofing salesman however, Noor gave the green light to PCC, allowing our very own boy band from Guildford to head up the motorway. For reasons unknown, the boy band didn’t sort out their timings and it looked like a late start for the game. Rumours of a happy meal were swirling but needless to say, Riz put the oppo in to bat and PCC took to the field with just 8. Tommy G and Noor opened up with some toight [sic] bowling. One screamer, and I do mean screamer, from Tom ripped the off stump from its soggy perch sending it cartwheeling towards the slip cordon. It didn’t take Tom long to add another, this time with Tom removing the middle stump in stupendous fashion, and the oppo were soon two down before Ahmed and his backing singers arrived. Noor soon picked up the other opener before Riz rang the changes and brought Ahmed and Ali into the fray. By this point the oppo has settled into a somewhat Australian-style of cricket, clearly triggered by Ali’s sartorial choice of headwear (a topshop bucket hat). Nudging and nurdelling, the oppo built their score despite Riz, Ali and Mohan all grabbing a wicket each. Ahmed was unlucky to miss out though, with a few expected drops and a moment of comedy as we all watched a skied ball ball drop 3m from Mutz who was momentarily blinded by his own YouTube stardom. Special mention to the wicket as well, which was accurately described as a “pudding” offering simultaneous bounce, slowness and zip off any delivery. The oppo scraped to 145 from 45 overs which seemed both too little and potentially challenging given the divots littered across the wicket from PCCs bowling. Mutz and Tristan started things off for PCC and played with caution given the wickets misbehaviour for the oppo. A few nice shots from Mutz were enough for him though as he quickly ran himself into difficulty when returning for a “two…I think”. Loud celebrations from the oppo and Riz did the brotherly thing to send him back to the changing rooms to reflect on his poor behaviour. Mark stepped up to wicket and, inspired by the oppos snoozeball approach, settled into his innings, determined to demonstrate the true meaning of “playing for time”. Tristan had a slog however and frustrated by Ahmed behaving like a true ‘bowlers umpire’ and calling runs ‘short’, soon fell to the off spin of the only player in the game for the oppo. Faisal stepped up next and inspired by Mutz ran himself out as well. Joe D then joined Mark before holing out to mid-wicket bringing Mohan to the crease. Mohan proceeded to hit the biggest six of the day to mid-wicket before seeing himself caught by the oppos only player. By this point Mark realised he actually liked cricket and didn’t want to bore everyone to death, or he was fed up with the heckling from the cameraman, and started playing some sweet drives through the lush outfield. This brought plenty of twos and yet another call of a short run from umpire Ahmed – clearly dissatisfied with Mark getting on top of the bowlers. Both Tommy G and Noor joined Mark in the middle to get PCC over the line with 15 overs to spare in the days play with Mark top scoring on 47 (off 80-odd balls I might add). A good days cricket for PCC with yet another win in the results column.

South Loughton v Pacific Toss won by Pacific

South Loughton innings  R  M  B  4  6 C Cauvein   b Gane   0  0  0  0  0   S Chuehtal   c Kumar Raja b Khandwala   18  0  0  2  0   A Chuehtal   b Gane   1  0  0  0  0   M Stokes   c Sub b Siddiqui   29  0  0  2  0   C Mcmanus   b Safi   2  0  0  0  0   B Soomro   not out    38  0  0  2  0   H Smith   st Siddiqui b Kumar Raja   29  0  0  2  1   J Perera   c Sub b Safi   1  0  0  0  0   M Foulser   not out    1  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 12, lb 4, w 8, nb 2) 26      TOTAL (0.0 Overs) 26

Fall of wickets:

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Noor Khandwala   9  1  33  1    Tom Gane   4  2  5  2    Ali Safi   11  4  24  2    Mohan Kumar Raja   5  1  23  1    Rizwan Siddiqui   9  2  16  1    Ahmed Hussain   7  1  29  0

Pacific innings  R  M  B  4  6 Murtaza Siddiqui†   run out    6  0  0  0  0   Tristan L-Gordon   b H Smith   46  0  0  6  2   Mark Mehta   not out    47  0  0  3  2   Faisal Ali   run out    8  0  0  0  0   Joe Deighan   c H Smith b C Corbain   1  0  0  0  0   Mohan Kumar Raja   b H Smith   13  0  0  1  1   Tom Gane   c & b H Smith   8  0  0  1  0   Noor Khandwala   not out    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 2, lb 0, w 1, nb 1) 4      TOTAL (0.0 Overs) 4

Fall of wickets:

Bowling  O  M  R  W    D Smith   11  2  29  1    M Fousler   3  0  23  0    H Smith   11  0  44  2    C Corbain   6  0  28  1    Asad   3  0  12  0