Pacific overpowered new opponents Strongroom as the Islington side put in one of its best all round performances of the season. Back on the Astroturf of Wray Crescent and with an outfield looking like it needed a bit of a haircut; the visitors suffered an early setback when their car was ticketed as kit was being unloaded! Great welcome from Islington Council!
However they won the toss on a sunny autumn day and opted to bat first. Pacific’s players were struggling to come to terms with the earlier start time, so possible opening bowlers James Smith and Lucius Faisal were not available to skipper Jim Davies. So the old Welsh warhorse stepped into the breach himself, along with James Gleadow. Neither man gave much away and the skipper was delighted to see two sharp catches taken at gully by Sammy Purcell. There was even more surprise as Davies produced an unexpectedly sharp bouncer that struck batsman Jon Gower on the chin, though he was thankfully spared serious injury thorough a mixture of his beard and the bowler’s lack of pace! However a helmet was quickly called for - and Davies took this his cue to replace both bowlers with left arm duo Smith and Aussie Shane “I’m in denial about the Ashes†Mundie.
Kurt cuts a dash
There was no respite for the visitors as each bowler quickly claimed a scalp – thanks to catches from debutant Adam Long and the late arriving Faisal. This left Gower and skipper Simon Ray to rebuild the innings in the face of two excellent spells of bowling. Whilst Mundie beat the bat with regularity in an excellent effort, it was Smith who produced the amazing figures of 8 overs – 6 maidens – 1 wicket for 3 runs. Given that it was on Astroturf in a 40 over game, it was an exceptional effort.
With both batsmen set, newcomer Long and soon to return to Oz Braden “Wait until next year†Grigg also kept things tight, although the batsmen were forced to take the initiative to get the rate moving. Ray was bowled by Long and Gower went to a tumbling return catch from Grigg. The tail wagged a bit – despite a farcical run out – but the return of Gleadow brought two wickets in two balls (on a hat trick next game?) to end the innings.
Jai plays it straight (nice high elbow)
132 all out always looked a both light, unlike burly stand-in opener Aussie Kurt “Ashes – what Ashes?†Rademaker. Along with fellow in form batsman Jai Rajaraman, he faced a testing early spell from Ray – who generated pace and bounce off the wicket. However with runs coming from the other end, both men soon settled in for a long stay. One pull from Rademaker from a length ball on off stump was remarkable.
The Aussie skilfully only offered chances out of the setting sun, giving the fielders in the deep little hope of seeing the ball, much less catching it. Boundaries flowed as various bowers were tried without luck and the stand had passed 100 when Jai was well held from a top edge. Lucius Faisal soon went, swinging across a straight half-tracker from slow bowler David Gower, but that was the last alarm as Pacific raced to their target in little more than half their overs. For the second game in a row Rademaker was the star with the bat – following up his 94 not out of two weeks ago with a blistering unbeaten 89 from only 73 balls.
With a number of imminent departures, there were encouraging debuts from Adam Long with the ball and in the field; and Charles David, who was excellent behind the stumps. “A great team effort!†said skipper Davies afterwards.
Strongroom's Jon Gower said "We really enjoyed it, apart from getting soundly beaten, and would definitely like a home and away re-match for 2006. Certainly no complaints about the conditions at Wray Crescent - I love the variety of different settings in London, and it's actually a really nice setting for a ground. We'd happily play there again.
We were certainly short of certain individuals from our strongest team on Saturday, but as I'm sure you know, it's difficult to predict exactly the strength of your team for each game throughout a season. We were impressed with the general attitude of your players, who responded well when a couple of iffy decisions went our way.
"
XI:- Jim Davies*, Braden Grigg, Sammy Purcell, Kurt Rademaker, James Gleadow, Jai Rajaraman, Adam Long, James Smith, Shane Mundie, Lucius Faisal & Charlie David+. 12th Peter Hollman & Rory
