Chequers' fielders snapped up all the Pacific batters' chances that were on offer including the key wickets of Jon Webley & Darren Temperny at the long on & extra cover boundaries to stymie the flow of runs that had looked to see the Londoners comfortably home. Instead it was the Crouchsiders who kept the pressure on bowling on a slow but bouncy pitch which neither set of batters truly came to terms with bar Chequers' opener Broad who made 60.
Broad had certainly kept his side in the game scoring half of what seemed a below par total. Pacific's bowlers lead by the unluckily wicketless James Gleadow had kept things reasonably tight & all the support of Fuller, Korgaonkar, Temperny, Hollman & Purcell seemingly had restricted the home side to what should have been a difficult score to defend.
Confidence was high, after all, for the latter half of a disappointing season it had been a case of the bowlers being unable to defend par & above totals - however, on this slow but bouncy track , putting the pace on the ball against the slower bowlers often meant going aeriel & thereby living with the consequences should it go wrong, which was a shame as 3 an over was not beyond the batting by any means. Indeed despite lurching to 55-5, Sammy Purcell, before being sent back & run out, was well set & playing steadily but Nick Fuller as if trying to make the amends played his best innings to date & but for some canny field placement again from the home town skipper when he was smartly caught at leg gully by Jossling, would have seen his side home for sure.
Aroon Korgoankar continued to marshall the tail but the unfortunate loss of Hollman batting down due to illness left Gleadow & Korgaonkar with 12 required from the last over before Gleadow soon gave the 8th & final catching opportunity trying to score the requisite boundary.
Despite the loss, this inaugral fixture was played in excellent humour & spirits which both sides thoroughly enjoyed & the re-match date was set immediatly afterwards.
Chequers Fixture Sec Steve Josslin said "Thanks again for a great game yesterday, played in the spirit it was meant to be by a great bunch of guys."
XI :- Joe Bennett, James Gleadow, Matt Holliday, Peter Hollman, Steve Lay, Sammy Purcell, Jon Webley*, Aroon Korgaonkar, Nick Fuller, Darren Tempany & Ali Pritchard.
12th:- Moses Hutchinson-Pascal,
