The new season, a new pitch, a newly decorated pavilion, some exciting new players, some new laws & Pacific's 1000th fixture ahead. Same old chilly April though !
Juniors 160-9 (40 overs) P Attwood 44, L Faisal 5-0-21-3
Seniors 161-7 (38.5) D Murray 73, J Davies 55, M Boonaert 8-2-17-3
Seniors won by 3 wickets (with 7 balls to spare).
The new season, a new pitch, a newly decorated pavilion, some exciting new players, some new laws & Pacific's 1000th fixture ahead. Same old chilly April though !
Despite the coolness in the air, the teams were keen to see how the new pitch behaved & having won the toss Club Captain, Nigel Wilkinson reserved that privilege for his Seniors' bowlers & In particular 2000 leading wicket taker Mike Alexander who's early season form impressed.
Paul Attwood (44) with typical stout defence held the Juniors' innings together before he was caught low by Ray Hill at square leg off Neil Wright 3 overs from the end.
Bright knocks by Shayne Rees (24) & Darryl Roberts (24) interspersed with some otherwise undistinguished batting, some fine restrictive bowling from Rob Allum 8-3-11-0, fast attacking bowling from Lucius Faisal 3-21 & some very rusty fielding as 7 catches went down.
The reply came unstuck early on as Marcel Boonaert & Jason Gannon made early inroads to leave the Seniors on 7-3. But with the coming together of left hander Jim Davies & right hander David Murray, they made a bedrock match winning partnership of 122 to bring victory within sight. Marcel Boonaert was the bowling highlight with his pace & movement & he was well supported by the other seamers, Jason Gannon 2-35, Ian lay 0-30, Darryl Roberts 1-24, Dougall DeKeller 1-27.
The Juniors thought the game turned back to their favour following Davies' dismissal to Paul Attwood at gully off Marcel Boonaert & 3 more wickets fell quickly after this, but the Captain, Nigel Wilkinson & all-rounder Rob Allum saw the oldies through with 7 balls to spare, although not without more scares as the Juniors contrived to put down several chances themselves. Peter Hollman "Overall a useful exercise for all, despite the cold. Mostly the catching was disappointing as soft hands purveyed, but some fine bowling spells & top innings from comeback man David Murray + Paul Attwood & Jim Davies. Rob Allum & Marcel Boonaert being the pick of the bowlers."
Stat corner:- This was only the Seniors 2nd win in 14 years & the 1st since 1994.
Opening bat Ben Hardisty said "despite the cold it was a pretty good game - fantastic to see DM back on track. From my 13 seasons with Pacific, I would say we have the strongest squad that I can remember. Marcel and Shayne are great lads and good players, can see why Rob is so good, 8 overs of pure gold !"
Seniors: B Hardisty+, P Hollman, D Murray, J Bennett, J Davies, L Faisal, R Hill, R Allum, N Wilkinson*, M Alexander, N Wright
Juniors: P Attwood, S Rees, D DeKeller, M Holliday, M Boonaert, C Pettet, K Alexander, D Roberts, I Lay, J Gannon, T Mileham*+
