After the disappointing cancellation of Saturday’s game Pacific undertook the two hour trek on Sunday to Oxford having been promised sun by the skipper. Unfortunately, instead of dreaming spires and a beautiful day we were greeted by a rather scrappy surroundings (excepting the pavilion) and an overcast muggy day.

The Oxford University Club (OUC) won the toss and opted to bat on a rock hard flat deck with a supremely quick outfield. Cawley soon had the scoreboard ticking over quickly. Long bowled well and deservedly removed the other opener (a good catch in the gully). Cawley and Dines added 131 for the 2nd wicket and looked in complete control as Roberts, Wakash and Gleadow toiled in vain on the flat deck and 250+ looked inevitable. However, Cawley then ran himself out and Davies and Mohammed bowled tidily to prevent the OUC from putting the game beyond us.

There was no tea! This provoked much complaint and a few players ventured into town for grub during the break.

Hollman departed early to a good ball but Wiehahn (32) and Picknett (31) laid a good platform for the chase but the Pacific middle order failed. Rees was undone by a change of pace, Mohammed went first ball, Davies survived a very controversial caught behind decision (did it hit the ground or the wicketkeeper’s boot on the way to first slip) before a horrible mistimed shot to square leg did for him and Atkin looked good before a poor drive into the covers. This left Long and Wakash as pretty much our last hope but they produced a fine partnership exploiting the lack of depth in the OUC’s bowling. The partnership was 101* and was the second largest for the 8th wicket by the club.

Overall, it was a pleasing victory for Pacific and an enjoyable day where we were once again well supported (five spectators). We benefited from having more depth to our batting and bowling in comparison with the OUC’s reliance on four players. A lot of praise should go to Wakash and Mohammed on their Pacific debuts and Long was Man of the Match.

XI: Jim Davies *, Chris Atkin, James Gleadow, Adam Long, Peter Hollman, Miles Picknett, Darryl Roberts Shayne Rees, Guy Wiehahn +, Wakash Ali, Jaan.

Oxford University Club v Pacific

Oxford University Club innings  R  M  B  4  6 R Lenkin   c Gleadow b Long   18  0  0  0  0   D Cawley   run out Mohammed    67  0  0  0  0   P Dines   c & b Mohammed   55  0  0  0  0   S Shemion   run out Wiehahn    29  0  0  0  0   T Wrobel   b Davies   4  0  0  0  0   T Ball   not out    8  0  0  0  0   Howell   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Iqbal   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Shemirn   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Von Dorst   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Ashton   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 14, lb 5, w 11, nb 3) 33      TOTAL (40.0 Overs) 215-5

Fall of wickets:  1-34 [Lenkin] , 2-165 [Dines]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Chris Atkin   4  0  23  0    Adam Long   7  1  23  1    Darryl Roberts   4  0  19  0    Rakesh Wakash   8  0  36  0    James Gleadow   5  0  34  0    Jim Davies   5  0  27  1    Jaan Mohammed   7  0  34  1

Pacific innings  R  M  B  4  6 Peter Hollman   b Iqbal   8  23  16  2  0   Miles Picknett   b Barker   31  50  55  4  0   Guy Wiehahn   c Wrobel b Barker   32  30  28  7  0   Shayne Rees   b Shemim   10  19  14  2  0   Jaan Mohammed   b Shemim   0  2  1  0  0   Jim Davies   c Ashton b Shemim   7  12  11  1  0   Chris Atkin   c Ashton b Shemim   10  22  23  0  0   Adam Long   not out    36  30  29  6  0   Rakesh Wakash   not out    46  27  27  8  1   Darryl Roberts   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   James Gleadow   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 10, lb 2, w 19, nb 4) 35      TOTAL (37.3 Overs) 219-7

Fall of wickets:  1-14 [Hollman] , 2-59 [Wiehahn] , 3-91 [Rees] , 4-91 [Mohammed] , 5-104 [Davies] , 6-116 [Picknett] , 7-118

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Howell   8  2  43  0    Iqbal   7  1  37  1    Barker   8  0  36  2    Shemim   8  1  33  4    Von Dorst   3  0  28  0    Ashton   3.3  0  22  0