The match against an under strength Broxbourne - effectively their IIs whilst their Is entertained Watford Town in the cup on the main square - was evenly matched. The Broxbourne Captain immediatly decided to field with the toss won & making known that his bowler strength would be greater than the batting. No worries either for Captain Webley who wanted to bat too.
However, it was a slow if multi paced track & it was the slow bowlers who were the hardest to get away. Fruitfull partnerships did not come in abundance & some workmanlike bowling was enough to undo several batsmen with the 55 for the 2nd wicket of Ben Gibson (26) & Jon Webley (24) being Pacific's only half century.
Once Webley was caught at square to military efficient Sargeant at 90-5 at the half way stage, the innings could have gone either way. Chris Atkin (23) marshalled the tail & useful partnerships with John Hill & James Smith saw the total taken up to 175-9.
The tea at the interval was stunning as Jon Webley's triple cheese burger aptly illustrated. Similiar intake by Peter Hollman & it was clear that such cholestoral impaired enough for the pair to drop early catches at gully & slip off the unlucky Brown & Atkin. Sargeant (41) & Wilkins (41) capitalised on their good fortune before Jon Brown took a catch at square off Smith to dismiss the former.
The Broxbourne skipper's concern in the their batting was well placed & support from the middle & lower order did not match the openers resilience. Key change spells from Hollman & Smith, who picked up 3 key middle order wickets, kept the game in the balance. By now with Ben Gibson having departed with a migraine, gaps were not always easy to plug but Captain Webley did do well. He was further tested when the field went down to 9 when Sammy Purcell who had taken a brilliant caught & bowled split the webbing in his hand in the act to leave himself on a hattrick at his next game.
Still the target was attainable for the Landlords if calm heads could be kept. Webley's frugal bowling ensured that some were lost & John Hill who had had an excellent all round match, assisted in Broxbourne's 2nd wicket to go down the way of the run out.
White had ideas that he could connect & win the game single handedly & in an over that included a 4 , 4 byes & an enormous 6 over midwicket which cleared the adjacent River Lea & landed on the east bank but Jon Brown soon came back well to bowl him.
Atkin's return was also too good & it was the Skipper, Paul Close, who was last out, clean bowled by the Melbourner with the hosts still 9 runs & 2.1 overs away from their target.
Afterwards, Captain Webley refused to cite any one Pacific player as with any man of the match plaudit before eventually saying that it as John Hill's contributions that had given him the most pleasure in what was an excellent team performance in an excellent closely fort match & the honour regained.
XI:- Ben Gibson; Nick Fuller; Jon Webley*; Rob Bastin+; Pete Hollman; James Smith; Chris Atkin; Joe Bennett; Jon Brown; Sammy Purcell & John Hill.
