Pacific were back in Hampstead Garden Suburb and hoping, idly, that the pitch at Lyttleton Playing Fields might have miraculously repaired itself since our last game there just two weeks ago. The match report for that earlier fixture usefully traces the history of Hampstead Garden Suburb, transporting the reader to the world of late Victorian social reformism, although omitting any discussion of the eugenic overtones of such philanthropic endeavours (note here that Henrietta Barnett served as vice-president of the National Association for the Welfare of the Feeble-Minded in 1895). This reporter takes issue not with that oversight, however, but with another. Because while that first report from Lyttleton takes us on a journey back in time, it ends up not taking us far enough.

After all, the first question must necessarily be: where did Dame Henrietta Octavia Weston Barnett get her money from? In fact, it turns out her father, Alexander William Rowland (1747-1823), was a wealthy barber-turned-businessman who made his money selling and patenting Macassar Oil, a product for strengthening and smoothing down hair, which was popular with gentlemen (and ladies) throughout the 19^th Century (the poet Byron facetiously called it "thine incomparable oil").

Macassar Oil was manufactured from ingredients purchased in the port of Makassar in the Dutch East Indies, the oil being extracted from the seeds of the Kusum tree, harvested on the island of Sulawesi, in present day Indonesia. As such, to properly understand the fortune accumulated by Alexander Rowland, and by extension his daughter Dame Henrietta Barnet, one needs to consider the global and imperial circuits that made such accumulation possible. Indeed, it was the adventures of the VOC (the Dutch East India Company) from the 17^th Century onwards that made possible the marketing of Macassar Oil in the 19^th (for those interested, Amitav Ghosh’s new book provides a deep history of the climate crisis via the VOC and the story of nutmeg). One might expect this to warrant comment from a Pacifico who not only takes his history seriously, but also spent several years living in the Netherlands. Alas.

The cynical among you might think that the author of that previous report omitted the global and imperial origins of the Hampstead Garden Suburb because of some underlying, perhaps Whiggish, commitment to British history as an ‘island story’ (a la Michael Gove). But in the end, the reasons might be both more prosaic and more personal.

The wondrous benefits of Macassar Oil were said to include a cure for baldness. Macassar Oil, that follicular tonic, became hugely popular in 19^th Century Britain, and it was aggressively advertised with extravagant claims of its effectiveness in that regard. We live now in the long shadow of that false promise. No such miracle cure exists, a source of great pain and regret for the follicly challenged (some of whom dwell among us). The lesson, then, is that historical omissions within the archive of PCC match reports reveal not only lazy parochialism, but also hint at some of the painful and intimate afflictions that befall those honourable members of the club who volunteer to keep the records.

Macassar Oil:“An Oily Puff for Soft Heads”

There is more. Due to the tendency for Macassar oil to transfer from the user's hair to the back of his or her chair, the antimacassar was developed. This is a small cloth (crocheted, embroidered or mass-produced), placed over the back of a chair to protect the upholstery. Some Pacificos might be old enough to remember antimacassars adorning the chairs of their grandparents…the rest of us will at least have seen their vestiges on train seats.

Antimacassar adorns old chair

Fast-forward to 21 May 2022, and the Pacific 11 require not antimacassars to protect chairs, but helmets to protect heads. The pitch, of course, had not improved, and when I Don’t Like Cricket Club (IDLCC) won the toss, they surprised no one by sending Pacific in to bat.

Tom Williams and Jas Bas went out to open. Three balls an over were unplayable, hitting the deck, stopping in the pitch, and popping up at head height from a good length, with the odd one staying low, leaving the umpires puzzled as to whether to call a no-ball for two bounces. Still, Tom and Jas Bas went at a good clip, at five or six an over, punishing the bad balls, and welcoming the many wides (there were 46 by the inning’s end). It was difficult to time the ball – although Jas hit a couple of lovely pull shots – and yet, on 54 without loss after 10 overs, things were looking up.

However, Jas soon fell caught and bowled, and Tom Williams went soon after. Burnham came in at three and hit a couple of hammering shots to the boundary, before ambling down the pitch, like a Victorian philanthropist dizzy with self-adulation, to a flighted one that bowled him before he could be stumped. Luke and Tom Gane then set up a nice partnership, hitting boundaries and running well between the wickets. There was a point where the IDLCC skipper looked rather despairing, unsure who to bowl as neither his spinner (himself) nor his pace bowlers could find a way through.

Then Tom Gane got bowled to one that stayed low, and Soden was out at the non-striker’s end when the bowler dropped Luke onto the stumps. JD was out for a duck trying to help a wide one down leg side, but chipping it up to the keeper on the follow through. Mutz came in and hit some glorious shots, although some familial bickering with Luke in the middle, and a ball he smashed into his own ankle, portended further misfortune in the second innings. Luke was run out on 63 in the last ball of the penultimate over trying to steal two, and PCC ended the innings on 224-8 (Mutz making 24 not out).

Hopeful that PCC could win, and lively in the field for it, the second innings started well, with IDLCC’s No. 1 chipping the first ball from Sam H straight up to Soden at mid on. Tom Gane and Sam H found some dreadful spots in the pitch, clattering the helmets of two IDLCC players with balls that seamed, bounced and jagged. There were two more quick wickets from Tom Gane and James Soden in the early overs (both bowled), and IDLCC were on the rocks.

But while the pitch was hard to bat on, it was also difficult to take wickets. Once the batters got used to leaving the deliveries that popped, they only needed to punish one or two bad balls an over. Unfortunately, the PCC bowlers offered them up a little too readily – and the short boundaries didn’t help. Batters 4 and 5 got into their stride, and put on a devastating partnership that took the game away from PCC.

There were some close calls, with Luke leading a hearty appeal for an LBW that seemed very likely to hit the top of middle, and JD protesting a not out decision in what appeared to be a clear glove from the left-handed number four, caught deftly down the legside by Mutz. He went on to make 71, playing some excellent and frustratingly aggressive shots, before being bowled by Tim. Luke and Soden looked most likely to take wickets on a pitch that favoured medium pace, but only Soden took the one.

Meanwhile, Mutz took another shiner to the same ankle, and had to leave the field injured. Tom Gane took the gloves and tried, zealously but somewhat ungraciously, to stump their No. 5 from a distance, one glove off, hidden behind his back (strange technique, we know…Luke took the gloves at drinks). With a pulled hamstring and an over-spritely runner, that same batter, the lesser-spotted right hander among their line-up, soon went on to make his fifty, and the game was drifting out of reach.

Club captain Timbob bowled well on his much awaited return, getting some real grip. He was rewarded with two wickets. Eppy didn’t get much chance to impact the game. In the end, the IDLCC captain saw them home, grinding out a 47 not out, as they knocked the runs off in the 34^th over.

What had seemed like a very challenging target at tea, turned out not to be. Pacific lost a second NELC league game in three, and the players hobbled and scurried out of Lyttleton Playing Fields in all directions – longing for Hackney, longing for a better pitch, and longing for that fabled tonic that might bring back lost hair and revitalise routed cricketers. In the end, a few of us settled for a more dependable post-match tonic, back in familiar climes, in Finsbury Park, at the Stapleton Tavern.

Penned in Kingston, Jamaica (29 May 2022)