A beautiful warm summer's day greeted the teams at a picturesque Wray.  The public were out in force to enjoy the sun and watch Islington's finest.  The wispish clouds only highlighted the magnificence of a day that stood in contrast to so much of this damp Olympian summer.  The birds were twittering (and hopefully KP was not), the trees were resplendent and bushy green, the Porsche was shining, the ground was baked...

Ah well, I guess there has to be some mention of the cricket and our fourth heaviest defeat ever.   A punctual and well supported Pacific team were made to field (one hopes!) and despite good opening spells from Giaco and Satish it was soon clear that a lightning fast outfield and supremely flat astro would make for a long afternoon.  Well it would be 255 runs long before a wicket fell as the Washington openers exploited five dropped chances. The strange thing was that the bowling was not that atrocious - it was just a bad ball or  two every over and it got punished every time.  One opener played almost all correct and drove us through the covers whilst the other lofted to cow and straight.  It was partnership that would comfortably clear our record of 211 and would place it tenth on the all time ODI list or over a seventh of the runs towards England's must successful ODI partnerships final run tally (Knight and Tresco).   Of the drops Skip Ben at slip was the hardest chance and Giaco's unnecesarrily leaping effort at mid on the most inexplicable.  Eventually Croft snared both openers as Justin and Lahri finally demonstrated how to catch but Washington ended on 309/2 (the sixth highest total conceded by us)

A good tea provided some refreshment but sadly not to our hopes.  Soumik played well but too correct for the circumstances, Justin and Ben played good cameos and Luke nudged us past the 100 but it was not a display to be proud of.  Washington bowled well but not well enough to excuse a tame batting display.