On what was probably the hottest day of the year thus far, Wray played host to another sporting spectacle in which old heads came out on top of the youth of today.

When Raf was run out failing to ground his bat, this brought Toby to the crease. After picking up a few obligatory singles, he carried on from where he left off last week, showing little respect even to the returning Pacific powerhouse Tom Ireland, slashing him through the off side with the occasional straight drive and pull shot thrown in. Jon was tidily caught by Mark Woodland, scooping his hands underneath a ball that otherwise might not have carried.

After hitting yet another six off Imaad, Toby retired. Unfortunately the scorer (despite repeated pleas, most recently in essay form, from club statistician Steve Lay*) hadn't been counting balls faced, but the club captain had come to the crease in the third over and retired in the 18th, so his century must have been very fast as he seems to be leaving his "Boycott" tag behind. Riz's 50 included a couple of shots of sheer violence before he too retired. Aly hit his first six with his new bat. Steve Richards outpaced the injured Lahrie between the wickets. 

On debut, James Soden looked promising, wobbling the ball dangerously when he pitched it up. He has the distinction of being the man who bowled the only maiden over of the day. Gaurav Sharan also had a decent debut, taking a wicket and a catch. Shaz bowled some big inswingers amongst a few too many loose deliveries. The most junior junior, the 14-year-old Imaad also bowled some nice balls but the old pros were unforgiving against everyone that was thrown at them.

So despite their youth, the juniors were left looking rather flat by the interval and when they disappeared to Tesco in Tom's car, there was speculation that they had had enough and might not return.

Still, they were not to be written off as Sumeet and Kieran, whose new bat is going nicely, built a big opening stand. Kieran was spectacular caught off his own bowling by a tumbling Steve and Sumeet fell not long afterwards, bowled by the canny Jon Thornton trying to hit another huge six.

Tom Ireland looked like he might be able to pull off an unlikely win until, after surviving a valiant one-handed attempt at cow corner by Ahmed, his next skyer was caught by a diving Thornton at deep long-on. With him went any chance of victory. Shaz hit a couple of nice boundaries but didn't last long and the game was wrapped up when Imaad edged behind to Uncle Mutz, who had again supported the team vocally throughout the day and was rewarded with three victims for his efforts.

Well done to Raf especially for fielding for about 50 overs. He was proud to finally be presented with his Pacific cap at the end of the day by Kieran.

Quote of the day:

"Class is permanent. Knees are temporary." - Steve Richards (who else?)

* We also need to fill in the score at the fall of each wicket, as the statistician has repeatedly told us.