With the late withdrawal of John Green with a bad back, P were 1 batter short of surpassing a modest if by no means daunting target.
BoE: 139-9 dec. (J. Kendall 51*, Richard Bielby 9.3 3 20 3).
Pacific: 128-8 (P. Hollman 54, Simon Eadles18 4 46 3, J. Kendall 10 0 43 4)
This year it was off spinner John Kendall's opportunity to impress with the bat as together with his son they bailed the Bank out from the dire position of 57-7, Kemble Senior reaching his half century on the stroke of tea. Earlier, Pacific had mixed fortunes in the field but highlights were a stunning left handed catch low to his left at square leg by Matt Ralph to dismiss Kesler (1) & an impressive debut by right arm seamer Richard Bielby who extracted good movement from a generally benign pitch.
The reply focussed around Peter Hollman's half century & with the Bank only using 3 bowlers , Hollman was eventually dismissed by the Captain, Simon Eadles towards the close of his unbroken 18 over spell, 4 overs before stumps. The target had remained steady at 5 an over but there was an accompanying regularity about the fall of wickets at the other end. An uncharacteristically quick fire 20 off 23 balls from Paul Attwood was abruptly ended & clever field placing by Eadles kept the stranglehold in place.
If Hollman had stayed to the end, Pacific may well have taken the honours again, but his dismissal was followed by those of John Baglivi (0) & Richard Bielby (0), leaving the last pair of Frank Baglivi (5*) & Chris O'Grady (4*) with 16 to reach off 2 overs but Captain Steve Lay was prepared to stick with what he had in the bank & sought the sanctuary of a draw without any further alarms.
P: P Hollman M Ralph S Lay* J Hill J Hardisty P Attwood+ F Baglivi J Baglivi R Bielby C O'Grady (J Green - absent injured)
