It’s a testament to Nuggsy, who I’m told was not only a capable cricketer but also a lovely human, that Pacific and Old Citizens continue to find a weekend to play and remember him, and Saturday in Hampstead Garden Extension saw another instalment of the James Gleadow Memorial match.
The quality of cricket on this occasion however, did not live up to the occasion largely due to a significant error made by a certain Pacifico.
The late change in venue, from the traditional met grounds to Hampstead Heath Extension created two issues from Pacific. First, a result of the keenness of Pacific’s most timely member, who arrived early to the ground and determined that we must of course be playing on the sloping, garden-lawn-resembling wicket with the long outfield - and not the neatly mowed and rolled wicket a few hundred meters away.
The second, which was arguably the fault of the skipper who didn’t anticipate the excitement Sam would feel when being selected meant Sam did not clock the late venue change. It was only after explaining on the phone to this writer at 1.30pm and after two trains and walking for 20 minutes after the bus never showed up, that he had gone to the wrong location - nothing that a 30-minute uber wouldn’t fix.
Anyway - with 10 players and the wrong pitch, Pacific kicked things off. Taking the concept of a ‘ball with your name on it’ seriously, Tristan holed out on his second ball. A flurry of activity there was not, as Mutz, Saad, Amandeep and Manav all nudged and scratched around to slowly move the scoreboard forward but also falling to balls with their names on them.
Pacific made it to a perilous 25 for 4, as Rowan - moving into his hot-girl-six-hitting summer, showed everyone how it’s done, racing his way to 26 supported admirably by Aakash who got to 19. The bottom four came and went barely bothering the score, leaving Pacific with a challenging to defend 96 from 28.
Heartened by a classic Tim-team talk, Pacific looked to make amends for their poor batting performance with Aakash and Hishaam from either end. The Hampstead lawn proved to be equally challenging for Old Cits, with the wickets tumbling from the first over.
Stellar performances from all the bowlers brought Old Citizens to a close having just scored 54, with Seb taking 4, Sam 2, and Aakash, Hishaam and Tim finishing on 1 each.
