Pacific arrived at a parched looking BoE playing fields to be greeted by the gentile sights and sounds of one of our most popular fixtures. Late arrivals led Captain Bastin to bat first after winning the toss on a patchy looking wicket. A timed game was agreed with Hollman and Lay making a solid start against some erratic seam bowling. The replacement of the opening seamers with spin brought the vagaries of the pitch to the fore. Scoring was difficult against an accurate attack on a pitch offering 'inconsistent' lateral and vertical movement - the pick of BoE attack was Eccles who bowled unchanged for 14 overs. Bastin (69) was the only batsmen to assert any authority whilst others succumbed to a succession of mistimed strokes. Our scoring rate was low until the last few overs and we managed to declare on a competitive 201-9. The opposition got a bit tetchy (plenty of arm waving and watch tapping) about the amount of time taken to declare but only 44 overs were bowled in three hours despite 22 overs of spin.
A nice tea was hurriedly taken to maximise the number of overs we could fit into the second innings. Pacific's opening bowlers - Gleadow and Brown - bowled well in tandem with Gleadow reaping the rewards of a good line and length on a very erratic pitch. Brown was unlucky to see a catch dropped at short cover after setting the trap before the delivery. Gleadow took five wickets including three caught behind to a number of airy wafts. Roberts was introduced to exploit the wicket - his brand of flight and guile accounted for two middle order wickets including a glove behind to give Bastin his fourth catch of the innings. Pacific were in the ascendancy at the beginning of the 20 over time limit. Smith bowled with little accuracy but picked up two wickets leaving one wicket required with eight overs to go. Despite rotating the bowlers Pacific were unable to prise out the last wicket leaving the game as an unspectacular draw.

Pacific v Bank of England

Pacific innings  R  M  B  4  6 Peter Hollman   c & b S Hasan   22  44  43  4  0   Steve Lay   b S Hasan   14  57  43  1  0   Jon Webley   b Eccles   24  25  29  5  0   Rob Bastin   c Powell b Powell   69  103  63  13  0   Darren Tempany   b Eccles   0  14  8  0  0   Jonathan Hardisty   c Eccles b Eccles   2  25  18  0  0   James Smith   b Eccles   6  15  20  1  0   James Gleadow   c & b Herbert   9  14  17  1  0   Allan Roberts   c & b Herbert   0  7  9  0  0   Luke Hollman   not out    0  20  11  0  0   Jon Brown   not out    9  8  8  2  0    Extras (b 37, lb 1, w 5, nb 3) 46      TOTAL (44.0 Overs) 201-9 dec

Fall of wickets:  1-47 [Hollman] , 2-58 [Lay] , 3-78 [Webley] , 4-86 [Tempany] , 5-121 [Hardisty] , 6-131 [Smith] , 7-157 [Gleadow] , 8-163 [Roberts] , 9-188 [Bastin]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Kendle   7  0  25  0    Herbert   7  0  48  2    Eccles   14  3  39  4    S Hasan   8  1  37  2    Powell   8  1  27  1

Bank of England innings  R  M  B  4  6 Broughton   c Tempany b Gleadow   6  0  0  1  0   Wildman   c Bastin b Gleadow   19  0  0  3  0   L Hasan   c Bastin b Gleadow   13  0  0  1  0   Cummins   b Gleadow   0  0  0  0  0   Gallimon   c Gleadow b Roberts   1  0  0  0  0   S Hasan   c Bastin b Roberts   14  0  0  2  1   Herbert   c Bastin b Gleadow   0  0  0  0  0   Powell   b Smith   9  0  0  2  0   Kendle   b Smith   12  0  0  3  0   Eccles   not out    13  0  0  3  0   Kendall   not out    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 5, lb 0, w 3, nb 0) 8      TOTAL (33.0 Overs) 106-9

Fall of wickets:  1-10 [Broughton] , 2-31 [Wildman] , 3-37 [Cummins]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    James Gleadow   10  3  24  5    Jon Brown   6  1  16  0    Allan Roberts   3  0  19  2    James Smith   7  3  18  2    Jon Webley   3  0  13  0    Luke Hollman   3  0  10  0    Darren Tempany   1  1  0  0