Having been skittled by London Fields for just 59 on Saturday, Pacific were keen to make amends, but, after winning the toss and electing to bat, we were in trouble at 13-3 against two good opening bowlers. With numbers 1, 2 and 3 – in the form of Dinsey, Woodland and Basi – all bowled out. Basi had showed early promise with some crisp shots but it became clear that the only partially cut outfield (the mower was still circling around the outfield during these early overs!) would slow up all but the most powerful of blows. Skipper Chasseaud came to the crease to try to steady the ship and looked in good touch. He was joined by Korgaonkar's Defra colleague Sam Farnham, who had been randomly recruited from the People's Park Tavern after a pre-season net at Victoria Park, and the pair built a solid partnership of 77. Farnham's calling was good and he would have certainly scored more with his lusty blows had it not been for the long grass. 

Locksbottom rotated their bowlers, with three promising youngsters getting in on the action. One was a handy inswing bowler but he did stray a bit short at times, one was a fighty leg-spinner, and another was a flat leggie. When Farnham became the fourth batsman to be bowled, Allum came to the crease. At some point around this time Chasseaud brought up his 50 with a single. 

Then, when the skipper was on about 60, a strange incident occurred. Chasseaud advanced down the wicket against the flighty leggie, realised the ball was too far outside off stump, so retreated back and grounded his bat clearly behind the line. The keeper took the bails off, there was an appeal, and, quite bizarrely, the square leg umpire, one R Dinsey, raised his finger. "What are you doing, Rob!?" exclaimed Chasseaud. "Your bat was in the air," replied the umpire matter-of-factly. Chasseaud trudged off but by the time he'd reached the boundary the fielding side, to their immense credit, called him back, much to the annoyance of Mutz Siddiqui, who was was already on the square by that point. It transpired that the umpire had been liveblogging the match from his smartphone at the time of the "stumping", which may well have distracted him from his decision-making duties. 

When the Chigwellian Allum, who had never quite got going, became the fifth batsman to be bowled, Mutz did get his chance and raced to 22 off 16 balls. This acceleration and show of intent had emptied the bar. Mutz looked like he needed some oxygen at a couple of points after some intense running demanded by the slow outfield. He was then caught behind, the only non-bowled dismissal of the innings.

By this point, Chasseaud had accelerated into his 90s with some straight drives, cover drives and the odd cut. He'd hit the old off-spinner back over his head for six and then cracked an even bigger one over wide mid-on (the thinking man's cow corner) to bring up his century.

Mutz's big brother Rizwan Siddiqui was not to be outdone and unleashed his own power hitting, with crushing blows and a highly profitable final over taking Pacific to 210, which was a very good score considering we'd probably lost about 40 or 50 runs in the long grass.

Obviously grateful to have been recalled to the crease, Chasseaud agreed to opposition skipper Patrick High's cheeky request that they finish mowing the outfield between innings(!). Will I come to regret this, thought Chasseaud, but as it turned out the mower seemed to either break down or run out of petrol after just a circuit or two.

A decent tea, made we think by one of the players' mothers, was devoured. It featured coronation chicken sandwiches using *brown* bread, which this correspondent doesn't think he's ever seen before.

When Pacific took to the field we actually looked pretty professional, with the little-and-large opening attack of McGinnigle generating good pace down the steep hill and Sheldon Greenland, playing his first Pacific match in several years, steaming up from the bottom end. Korgaonkar took a great catch off him in the gully and celebrated with the T-word. Maccy G, who had earlier been admired by the bank holiday crowds at London Bridge station wearing his full whites, removed their hard-swiping Aussie. 

Once Locksbottom were four wickets down for not many, it looked like only Pacific could win the match but a good partnership between the veteran Hollands and the youngster Mason steadied the ship. Korgy bowled with flight and accuracy and twice baffled the batsmen with his wrong'un. It was perhaps Korgy’s worst ball that brought him his wicket – a full toss well caught by Greenland at deep backward square leg, which the umpires had to consult over to check that it wasn’t a no-ball. Greenland was withdrawn from the attack for the sake of diplomatic relations to be replaced by Woodland, who bowled with decent pace and accuracy. He was in turn replaced by Dinsey, who was also pretty economical.

We had a look at Farnham charging in down the hill and he showed good spirit, if with a slightly suspect action. And then it was down to the experienced duo of R Siddiqui and Allum to close the game down at the death, with Locksbottom falling 27 runs short of their required target. 

So all in all it was nice to regain some pride after Saturday's crushing defeat. Onwards and upwards!