We couldn’t even blame home advantage for the result as it’s not even their home ground, even though we were playing at London Fields. Apparently without their best batsman they still had a frightening amount of ammunition in their line up and handed us an old skool hammering.

An early update from Dan and Jack told us we were on a wicket to the near side (pub side) of the square.

Maybe we were too relaxed after a few wins in a row, but we lost the toss and basically struggled thereafter.

Sid was 20 mins late and in that time we leaked a few early boundaries. We did bounce back and controlled the run rate for the next 10/15 overs but we only took one wicket and they were 100/1 at drinks.

A solid and sometimes fiery spell by JK (bowled through) meant their top order had to be watchful, and we only dropped one catch in this period, but we were certainly behind the eight ball.

Captain Jarvis organised a huddle, and we were told what was expected of us from the last 15 overs.

Maybe we were just too pumped, as the next ball was a half tracker that was dispatched over midwicket, and the carnage didn’t stop until the last ball of the innings which also disappeared over the boundary rope.

They plundered over 200 runs after drinks and their aggressive batting, especially against spin really seemed to unnerve us.

Special mention to Dan (catch), JK (good low catch on the boundary), and a stumping for Luke.

The sun was beaming down when JB and BOC took to the crease and as we all know - suns out guns out as Jamie smashed the first ball of the innings straight back over the bowlers head (bowling down the hill) for six, and preceded to take 14 from the first over.

An enjoyable 30 minutes followed as we got stuck in and cruised to 63 from nine overs with both batsmen getting into the 30’s.

At this point the Umpire suddenly thought he’d better start doing something to earn his corn, and this spelt bad news for PCC as both openers were adjudged LBW. Jamie definitely wasn’t out as it pitched outside leg (bowler didn’t really appeal), and BOC obviously said his was dodgy as well.

Dan completed the trio of ticked off batsman as the finger also went up to him even though hemiddled it. This carries on a run of bad luck for the Mackem (something we heard about regularly for the next few hours) but his spirits were raised slightly with the news that after a long search, Sunderland AFC had appointed a new manager (Regis Le Bris - ex Lorient).

Siddarth (No.3) took his time and was rewarded with a flurry of boundaries later in his innings, but the match as a contest was done n dusted.

The high/lowlight down the order was Skips attempting to reverse lap/scoop his first ball. He did get bat on it but only enough to send it looping into the safe hands of the Gulley fieldsman.

All out for 138 in 27 overs. We’d been taken down by bowlers Nathan, Paddy and Troy which makes it sound like we’d been skittled by a two-bob Irish boy band.

Both teams hung around after the game for a while without really mixing, and the PPC crew (Inc Tim, Luke’s friend, and girlfriend) then sloped off to the Ship to talk some utter nonsense late into the night.

We were also supported during the day by Noor and his dog, Tristan and his dog, and Manav and his bike.