Pacific – lead by Captain Rizwan – gave it all they had on Sunday in very overcast conditions at Hurst Avenue, but they came up just short as Hadley Wood Green limped over the line with one wicket to spare.

It’s fair to say that HWG like to chase. Having won the toss and only having 8 players at the ground, they decided to field. This seemed to spook Ben OC as his short stay at the crease was ended when he lobbed a leading edge up to cover.  

This brought Mohan (Karaikudi – SE India) to the crease to join Dan Humphrey (Sunderland - NE England) and a treat they did serve for all of us watching from beyond the boundary. This included Jas and Shaline who’d moved on from their pleasant morning in St John’s Wood.

Mohan attacked from the off with some meaty blows to all parts of the ground. Dan moved along at a steadier pace, favouring the legside, and the field soon scattered. The running between the wickets was a real highlight, the ones and twos were not neglected, and the scoreboard ticked over at a fair old pace.

The partnership (130) was only ended when the oppo brought on their useful (when he got it right) Leggie. He bowled at a good pace and got one to catch the edge of Mohan’s bat and it was snaffled at slip.

The second wicket stand had set us up perfectly for the big push, but we then went through a period of mediocracy and lost the next 4 wickets for not that many runs.

Dan (six 50’s this season in 11 innings for Pacific and Belmont & Edgeware) was caught at midwicket trying to get things moving again, and it looked like we were going to let slip our good position. But wait a minute……the clean-shaven, two pairs of pants but no jock strap Rahul and Jahangir had other ideas. They provided us with our only other noteworthy partnership (53). It mirrored the earlier one with Rahul playing more of an anchor role (one six over cow, and one sumptuous cover drive all along the floor aside), and Jahangir producing the goods from the off. He only faced three dot balls in his enjoyable cameo and hit five boundaries, taking us to a competitive total of 238.

The boundaries weren’t huge, but the pitch was slow and playing a few tricks. The clouds lifted without ever parting, and we were certainly happy with our score.
Special mention to Manav who umpired the full innings.

We only had 11 minutes for tea. This was enough time though for BOC to get food envy as he looked on longingly/lovingly at the Pizzas ordered by Mutz and Rahul. His Tesco meal deal hadn’t quite done the job, but his Cutter’s Choice dessert just about got him through this tough ten-minute spell.

We started poorly in the field. Jahangir and Jithin didn’t quite get it right, the fielding was sloppy and the energy levels were low. Their openers took full advantage and smashed it from the off and they were going at 10 an over after 7.

Skips called us all together and told us to up our game. He made his move quickly and decided to take pace off the ball so on came Mohan and Manav. Mohan has bowled well with the new ball recently but today it was Manav who struck to remove both openers in his second and third overs. His first wicket was caught by Mohan at point and a superb LBW appeal won him his second, which was greeted with a Nadal like fist pump celebration.

The next 10-12 overs were frustrating as we couldn’t winkle out another batsman. We were able to get back control of the run rate but after their flying start, they were always ahead of the game. 20 overs were due to be called at 5pm and by this time, we had already bowled 25 so 45 overs per side – fair’s fair.

Now was the time to pounce and we certainly did that – claiming 4 scalps in the next 6 overs. Riz coming up the hill started his spell by bowling full and straight and was rewarded with one bowled and one LBW. Ahmed coming down the slope out foxed the batsmen with his dip and was unlucky not to have one very adjacent appeal turned down, but he did pick up two wickets, with calm catches claimed by Jithin at point and Ben Burn at mid-wicket.

In the next few overs we picked up another couple – Ahmed eventually won an LBW and there was also a run out (Jithin throwing in to Mutz from the fine leg boundary). It looked like we’d have to remove their No. 4 bat, and MutzCam has proven that Ahmed should have had him stumped down legside, but their umpire kept his hand in his pocket. It’s yet to be confirmed, but rumour has it that Mutz’s millions of fanatical tick tock followers have demanded to know the umpires home address……

We needed two wickets and they needed 15 runs. All looked to be lost as the tiring John (No.4 bat) chanced his arm and got away with it but with 3 runs needed for victory, he advanced on the returning Jahangir and yorked himself.

Alas, we couldn’t carve out another chance in the next few balls and in the following over they edged one down to fine leg and victory was theirs.  

It was a tough one to take. The wicket played much better the more it dried out, which was mentioned in the debrief that took place in the WB Yeats, with six Pacificos making the short car journey down to the boozer.

The ground and venue were deemed a success and we return there on Sunday, chasing a victory and hoping for a dry wicket at the start of play.