After thrashing Chigwell by seven wickets at the end of May, Pacific were unable to repeat the feat yesterday.

Losing the toss and being inserted, we lost opener Tom Ireland early as he drove loosely at his second ball and was caught at cover. I think he said it was his first Pacific duck. The in-form Aly didn't last too long at No 3. Then Paul Rajkumar and Toby put on a decent stand for the third wicket. Paul, thanks to a few chances, whacked his way to 62. Toby was adjudged caught behind on 22. Riz probably made 10 or so before being caught from a leading edge. Ben Burnham and Pranav had a good partnership but then both were run out by direct hits. Kieran and Vamsi tried to carry on where they left off but, due to a scoreboard mess-up, Kieran went for a big hit thinking he was facing the last ball of the innings and was bowled. Somewhat stretching the rules, Toby declared the innings and then, when it transpired that only 43 overs had been bowled, he undeclared. Vamsi was then out, followed straight away by Ahmed, leaving Tony T on nought not out at the non-striker's end without having faced a ball.

Pranav and Tom Ireland bowled brilliantly economically but when they were spent Chigwell took to the attack. The New Zealander Dave Colwick lived up on this occasion to his egocentric chutzpah and negotiated Chigwell past Pacific's 162 with two or three balls to spare. So it was another tight match against our old rivals.