It was a hot day at Wray but that didn’t stop Pacific notching up our first weekend victory of what has been a strange, Covid-delayed season.

Toby Chasseaud, skippering on the day, lost the toss and Pacific took the field. The quicks Keyana Sapp and Kaleem Luthra, making his debut, opened the bowling and were unlucky to go wicketless as the Elite openers put on a 76 partnership.

It took the introduction of Aroon Korgoankar’s Chinamen to bring the first breakthrough and then more wickets fell in a cluster as Elite were reduced to 109 for 6 before the tail wagged to lift them to 214 all out just shy of their allotted 40 overs.

Korgy would finish with four wickets and it would have been his first “Michelle” had it not been for a couple of catches going down, one by the unfortunate Harry Rogers, who suffered an avulsion fracture of his finger in the process and was replaced in the field by Irish John.

Tom Gane bowled very tidily and was rewarded with two wickets. John Deighan took one and Mark Mehta, bowling decent off spin, took two.

After relocating our kit and ourselves to beneath the much-needed shade of a tree at the practice net end of the ground, Rob “Walt” Dinsey and Mark Mehta strode out to bat. Mark was unfortunately caught behind off his second ball and the more watchful Walt was later strangled down the leg side and walked.

Toby, in at No 3, was able to overtake the legendary Jon Webley (10387 runs) to become Pacific’s all-time leading run scorer by lifting a low full toss for six over the tall fence at wide fine leg but was later caught and bowled by a diving Chandan off a leading edge trying to work a single into the leg side.

John Deighan immediately followed his first Pacific weekend 50 with his second and walked after edging or gloving one to the keeper. Archie Faulks, who had drunk a beer before batting, didn’t last long – much to Irish John’s amusement. The all-rounder Tom batted as well as he’d bowled, scoring 47 at a run a ball and the long-levered Kaleem and the veteran Mutz Siddiqui saw us over the line with 3.1 overs to spare.

The after-match drinks in the WB Yeats were most notable for Timbob trying to steal Freida the cavapoo by smuggling her into his rucksack. He was unsuccessful but it was nice for us to at least bag our first victory.


PACIFIC’S LEADING RUN SCORERS OF ALL TIME (as of Saturday evening)

Toby Chasseaud 10412 (242 innings)
Jon Webley 10387 (251)
Steve Lay 9713 (553)
Peter Hollman 9680 (655)
John McDougall 5377 (224)
Craig Jones 5009 (267)
Jonathan Campbell 4651 (167)
David Murray 4032 (124)
Jim Davies 3647 (129)
Mark Sams 3469 (227)

The winning team, plus Irish John (who’d come on as a sub fielder for the injured Harry), Timbob and the impressively dressed Alygator. Photo: Caroline Smithson

Senior pros Mutz Siddiqui and Toby Chasseaud enjoying victory at last. Photo: Caroline Smithson

Aroon “Korgy” Korgoankar looking pleased with his best bowling figures at Wray Crescent – 4 for 39. Photo: Caroline Smithson

Ouch: Harry Rogers’ injured finger – an avulsion fracture! Photo: Caroline Smithson

Elite CC v Pacific Toss won by Elite CC

Elite CC innings  R  M  B  4  6 Chirag Khadia   c Rogers b Korgaonkar   34  50  36  6  0   Mitul Patel   run out Chasseaud    35  80  60  6  0   Sagar   c Dinsey b Korgaonkar   6  0  3  0  1   Rahul Patel   c & b Korgaonkar   19  21  19  4  0   Jayneil Amin   b Gane   39  65  42  5  2   Ajinkya   c & b Gane   0  2  3  0  0   Chandan Singh   c Faulks b Korgaonkar   1  2  4  0  0   Tariq   b Deighan   25  51  35  3  1   Naman Patel   b Mehta   17  19  13  3  0   Hershil Amin   b Mehta   12  23  18  1  0   Bharat Patel   not out    1  4  5  0  0    Extras (b 0, lb 0, w 23, nb 2) 25      TOTAL (39.1 Overs) 214

Fall of wickets:  1-76 [Chirag Khadia] , 2-82 [Sagar] , 3-107 [Rahul Patel] , 4-108 [Mitul Patel] , 5-108 [Ajinkya] , 6-109 [Chandan Singh] , 7-179 [Tariq] , 8-179 [Jayneil Amin] , 9-211 [Naman Patel] , 10-214 [Hershil Amin]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Keyana Sapp   8  0  57  0    Kaleem Luthra   8  0  41  0    Aroon Korgaonkar   8  1  39  4    Tom Gane   8  0  31  2    John Deighan   5  0  33  1    Mark Mehta   2.1  0  13  2

Pacific innings  R  M  B  4  6 Rob Dinsey   c keeper b N Patel   5  0  31  0  0   Mark Mehta   c keeper b Hershil   4  0  2  1  0   Toby Chasseaud*   c & b Chandan   31  0  28  3  1   John Deighan   c keeper b Tariq   59  0  52  8  2   Archie Faulks†   lbw b Chandan   0  0  1  0  0   Tom Gane   c midwicket b Hershal   47  0  46  7  0   Kaleem Luthra   not out    19  0  23  1  0   Murtaza Siddiqui   not out    16  0  16  3  0   Keyana Sapp   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Aroon Korgaonkar   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Harry Rogers   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 0, lb 1, w 20, nb 2) 23      TOTAL (36.5 Overs) 215-6

Fall of wickets:  1-5 [Mehta] , 2-28 [Dinsey] , 3-72 [Chasseaud] , 4-92 [Faulks] , 4-92 [Faulks] , 5-139 [Deighan] , 6-184 [Gane]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Hershil   6.5  0  49  2    N Patel   7  0  28  0    Tariq   6  0  38  1    Chandan   3  0  26  2    Jay   6  0  16  0    Chirag   3  0  17  0    Sagar   4  0  26  0