Captain Andre Mishra backed himself, with Jim Davies & James Smith at the crease, to bowl the last over with 9 needed to win. Davies meanwhile was his usual unconfident self at the non-strikers end!

6 to win were needed from the the last two balls when Davies came on strike. A boundary through extra cover came off the penultimate ball. Despite Andre's best efforts, with 1 needed to tie & 2 to win, Davies snicked down to third man & the old Welsh warhorse reluctantly scrambled back for 2. 80 exciting overs punctuated by cricket right across the scale came to a climatic end.

Earlier in the day, Rob Bastin lost the toss & excellent spells from Webley, Smith & Rees pegged back the batting on what was 2 paced & a many more dimensional bounce type of pitch. Unfortunatley for Pacific, what looked to be the key moment was when Rees induced a huge top edge from dangerman Mishra when on 2 that went miles vertically only for keeper Holliday to spill the chance. All Pacific heads dropped fully aware of the importance. Indeed Andre Mishra went on to top score with 67 & laid the foundations of what Rose beieved would easily be enough to win on - but Rose's bowling & especially the fielding didn't match the ability of Black Rose's batting - neither was Adrian Duthie's superb innings something the bowlers could contain - despite the vagaries of a pitch now deteriorating - indeed the key partnership of Rajamaran & Duthie was only broken when the former was trapped in front to a shooter.

Duthie's partners came & went but with Jim Davies padding up hope continued to reamin. Indeed it was well placed hope as Davies lived up to his billing & reputation as a finisher as the anguished cries emanated firmly from the direction of the Rose Capatin as he bore his loss.

XI:- Rob Bastin*, Adrian Duthie, Matt Holliday+, Peter Hollman, Shayne Rees, Joe Bennett, Matt Callender, Jon Webley, James Smith, Olly Bacon & Jaikishan Rajamaran.

Kit with JW. Book & ball w/RB. Meet at ground by 1.30pm For the keen amongst you, net practice is available from 12.30pm

Black Rose of Highgate CC v Pacific

Black Rose of Highgate CC innings  R  M  B  4  6 Latham   c Rajaraman b Webley   8  0  0  0  0   Sandler   b Webley   1  0  0  0  0   Shah   c Webley b Rees   18  0  0  0  0   Vinnay   b Smith   6  0  0  0  0   Thomas   b Webley   24  0  0  0  0   Mishra   c Rees b Bastin   67  0  0  0  0   Shiva   run out Callender    13  0  0  0  0   Middleton   b Webley   1  0  0  0  0   Navio   not out    5  0  0  0  0   Shaw   not out    0  0  0  0  0   Lahari   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 11, lb 0, w 17, nb 1) 29      TOTAL (40.0 Overs) 171-8

Fall of wickets:  1-15 [Sandler] , 2-20 [Latham] , 3-33 [Vinnay] , 4-41 [Shah] , 5-144 [Thomas] , 6-157 [Mishra] , 7-161 [Middleton] , 8-165 [Shiva]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Jon Webley   8  0  25  4    James Smith   8  3  17  1    Shayne Rees   8  4  13  1    Peter Hollman   8  0  53  0    Rob Bastin   8  0  53  1

Pacific innings  R  M  B  4  6 Adrian Duthie   run out    59  137  82  7  0   Peter Hollman   b Middleton   0  3  3  0  0   Jaikishan Rajaraman   lbw b Thomas   43  94  82  3  0   Jon Webley   c Shiva b Mishra   5  10  13  1  0   Shayne Rees   c Mishra b Thomas   1  11  6  0  0   Matt Holliday   c Vinnay b Shah   10  21  15  0  0   Joe Bennett   run out    2  9  4  0  0   James Smith   not out    3  26  10  0  0   Jim Davies   not out    22  24  17  3  0   Rob Bastin   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Matt Callender   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 8, lb 5, w 12, nb 2) 27      TOTAL (40.0 Overs) 172-7

Fall of wickets:  1-2 [Hollman] , 2-83 [Rajaraman] , 3-93 [Webley] , 4-108 [Rees] , 5-135 [Holliday] , 6-141 [Duthie] , 7-141

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Middleton   6  1  13  1    Navio   8  0  30  0    Shah   8  0  30  1    Shaw   3  0  20  0    Mishra   8  0  35  1    Thomas   7  0  34  2