“Burley Brothers” Jim Davies (118) and Kurt Rademaker (6-18) starred as Pacific battered the Barbarians into submission on the first hot day of the summer. Aussie “Radiohead” had missed us so much that he decided to return to the UK from Australia after only a few months away! It was certainly worth the trip as he amazingly took a hat-trick with the first three balls of his first over back as a reincarnated Pacific player! An impressive entrance by anyone’s standards!! That left the Weasels reeling at 1 for 3 – chasing a target of 226, it left them with only a draw to play for after tea.

However Tim Vanderpump’s incredible direct hit run out from side on – with the ball landing on top of the bails – and wickets for Jon Webley (2-4) made that seem unlikely. However a resolute 8th wicket stand took the game into the final 20 overs, before further wickets for the “Radiomaker” in his second spell brought things to an end. The Weasel’s rearguard had been boosted by a guest appearance by Pacific’s own Ian “Turncoat” Lay.

Pacific’s total was built around a patient 118 from Jim Davies – who toiled away in the heat on a good wicket that sat in the middle of a huge outfield. With the slow bowling not coming onto the bat – it required many 3s to be taken where normally there would have been boundaries. In fact the remainder of Pacific’s batsmen only managed 3 between them to add to the old Welsh Warhorse’s 11 – so only 56 runs out of 226 came in boundaries, surely a record? It was certainly hard graft for the batters – with diminutive South African opener Guy Wiehahn marking his first appearance of the season with a solid 26 in a partnership of 97 with Davies. Skipper Steve Lay (21) then added 57 with the Welsh left-hander, before a late clatter of wickets gave the persevering Weasel bowlers some due reward.

“In the end it was a comfortable win, on a lovely day in superb surroundings” said skipper Steve Lay afterwards. “The highlight was Kurt’s incredible return to the Pacific team. A hat-trick with his first three balls – we couldn’t ask for much more than that!” he added.

X :- Steve Lay*, Jim Davies, Jon Webley, Kurt Rademaker, Jai Rajaraman, Peter Hollman, Simon Smith, Tim Vanderpump, Ian Lay, & Guy Wiehahn+.

Pacific v New Barbarian Weasals

Pacific innings  R  M  B  4  6 Guy Wiehahn   c Haddock b Parker   26  0  66  1  0   Jaikishan Rajaraman   b Owen   0  0  5  0  0   Jim Davies   c Moaimer b Parker   118  170  166  11  0   Steve Lay   lbw b Iqubal   21  0  54  0  0   Tim Vanderpump   c Parker b Parker   3  0  6  0  0   Jon Webley   c Joshi b Iqubal   18  0  16  1  0   Kurt Rademaker   not out    3  0  3  0  0   Peter Hollman   c Sub (Vanderpump) b Parker   10  0  8  1  0   Simon Smith   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0   Ian Lay   did not bat    0  0  0  0  0     did not bat    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 7, lb 4, w 11, nb 2) 24      TOTAL (52.0 Overs) 226-7 dec

Fall of wickets:  1-7 [Rajaraman] , 2-104 [Wiehahn] , 3-161 [Lay] , 4-180 [Vanderpump] , 5-207 [Davies] , 6-212 [Webley] , 7-226 [Hollman]

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Owen   9  5  12  1    Iqubal   22  1  86  3    Joshi   4  0  35  0    Parker   15  0  72  3    Wilson   6  2  10  0

New Barbarian Weasals innings  R  M  B  4  6 T Pagan   c Wiehahn b Rademaker   1  0  0  0  0   Mortimer   b Webley   2  0  0  0  0   Joshi   b Rademaker   0  0  0  0  0   Knoppert   b Rademaker   0  0  0  0  0   Iqubal   b Webley   4  0  0  0  0   M Parker   run out Vanderpump    0  0  0  0  0   Maddock   b Rademaker   2  0  0  0  0   Wilson   c Smith b Rademaker   32  0  0  0  0   J Owen   b Rademaker   22  0  0  0  0   I Lay   not out    0  0  0  0  0   D Wheldon   absent    0  0  0  0  0    Extras (b 0, lb 0, w 0, nb 0) 0      TOTAL (32.0 Overs) 68 all out

Fall of wickets:

Bowling  O  M  R  W    Jon Webley   7  4  4  2    Kurt Rademaker   10  4  18  6    Simon Smith   5  0  22  0    Tim Vanderpump   6  0  15  0    Peter Hollman   4  1  8  0