Buoyed by their victory the previous day a much strengthened Pacific line up arrived at an overgrown Ruislip for this bank holiday cup fixture. The lengthy grass required extensive mowing before play reducing the game to 45 overs and the boundaries were moved in due to boggy patches in the boundary areas.
Pacific won the toss and fielded first. Wilkinson and Gleadow provided a tidy start in blustery conditions as Ruislip proceeded to 33 off 11 overs. Chandler removed Milne with a good ball and Gannon injured himself and had to retire hurt and the game was evenly poised at 70 for 1 off 20 overs.
Vanderpump was bowling well and his left arm spin kept a brake on the Ruislip innings but Ingram was beginning to find his range against the quicks. Ingram, a powerful left hander, was soon demolishing the frequent full tosses and long hops with some massive sixes but he also rode his luck as chances were dropped and he played and missed a few times as well. With O’Driscoll providing good support to Ingram Ruislip powered away to 264/3.
Their scoring was poor and this resulted in Vanderpump and Chandler bowling more than their allocated nine overs. Jon Webley’s dad had kindly fielded for us to cover the tardy Charles and Davies.
Pacific’s powerful batting line up faced a big ask and it got harder when Gaffin departed to a grubber of a ball for a duck. Chandler and Davids played very nicely in a partnership of 54 but against tidy bowling were not able to score quickly enough. Chandler was bowled having batted well for 42.
Webley was champing at the bit when he went in and promptly set about the bowling. He hit four sixes in astonishing 43 off 22 balls that got Pacific back in the game before he fell to an excellent catch.
After that there was a regular clatter of wickets as batsmen tried to keep up with the run rate. Davids made a solid 39 off 72 balls. Ingram and Patel wrapped up the tail and when Wilkinson declined to bat, bad back, Pacific were all out for 150.
A 114 run defeat was not the massacre it might seem looking at the scorecard. Ruislip batted well but their game was very aerial and if we had held our catches and had more luck with the ball going to hand it could have been a different story. "We bowled too many full tosses and they capitalised. Ingram displayed great power in his hundred and all credit to him. Our batting was a familiar story of two or three getting runs and too long a tail. Ruislip were the better side on the day but a good Pacific performance would have been beaten them. " said James Gleadow.
XI: , Jim Davies*, Jon Webley, Tim Vanderpump, Conrad Chandler, James Gleadow, Nigel Wilkinson, Charlie Davids, Kimball Lucas, Matt Holliday, Paul Charles, Richard Gaffin
Middlesex Shield game on Monday - start time 1pm. Please note the earlier than usual start - we should get to the ground at 12.30.
Lifts - please email if you need a lift and have not already said so. Nigel - can you get in touch with Matt direct to do your usual! Many thanks.
Please also send me your mobile number if I don't already have it - just in case it's raining etc.
