Our longest standing fixture was reborn in 2017 when Crossbats having shrunk their fixtures began to expand them again. Unfortunately, & I don’t say this often, we overwhelmed them & for the fixture to be retained the drastic idea of playing their aging side was born by the founding of a Pacific vets side.

In 2018, a seriously losing draw was attained when there were not too many Crossbats vets in attendance. So here in 2019, Pacific drafted from players who had made their first appearance prior to 2000.

Sadly our gentle nod towards a less unathletic side was trumped in extreme by the sight of a youthful bullish opposition whose only concessions were original player Alan Carter amongst their XI & an uncontested toss. With Pacific batting first in a 40 over game, the pedestrian over rate eventually meant Webbo left early, Steve Richards never appeared & John Hill had other matters in mind all of which caused Matt Patel to be pressed into action. Shockingly the Crossbats captain declined to offer a substitute fielder until we were down to 9 players with Webbo’s departure. Unsurprisingly Alan Carter was either pressed into service or volunteered - I suspect the former- joined us in the field as we chased leather until the inevitable target was reached in around the 30th over.

I would like to thank all those who came & took part & for their contributions. Also the oppo who’s attempts at catching helped us reach a respectable total NB I was one of the few actually caught! Bit it was fun while it lasted.

So as for the highlights JB Webbo & Lucius all bowled v well. Mark Woodland kept & batted well but tbh the change bowling was too variable & the fielding fairly un athletic with some odd exceptions. We did though just drop 1 catch which was far less than them.