Pacific’s first game at Highgate this season was oversubscribed and the team sheet was peppered with players hot off the back of a hard winter of preparation and ready to impress on the green lawns of north London.

Sadly though, it isn’t just the farming communities suffering this spring but Pacific’s finest too, as the rain and weather led to a late change of venue. Or was it late, or was it perfectly timed by the captain to avoid the mass exodus that surely would have happened.

Nevertheless, Pacific met the Paddigton Rabbits on what started off as a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon on Pitch 2 on the Marshes.

After a long walk from the car park and with darkening skies overhead, Pacific kicked things off with the bat with Dan and Tristan opening up.

With the Astro deck performing like a regular Millfields minefield, both openers prodded and scratched around to move pacific glacially forward with the enlarged boundaries marked out by Pacific (to look after a certain leggy in their ranks) hampering progress as the long-grass thwarted anything along the deck.

Both opening bowlers made strong use of the dark Dukes they had and the prevailing wind soon taking Dan’s off stump. This brought Rohan to the wicket who quickly turned on his heels after his middle-stump was knocked over, bringing Ben to the crease on a hat-trick ball.

In true Ben style he attempted the burnham-chop to a ball outside off only to miss it by a bat and half, but avoided giving the oppo a hat-trick nonetheless. Ben’s cameo came to a quick end and Sid left without troubling the scorers much. Jas soon joined and he was still on a high from assisting one of the nearby football games by returning the ball too quickly (for one side) who went on to squeeze in one last play to win the game before the final whistle. Sadly for Jas, this was the only score he effected on Sunday afternoon.

Our resident man-bunned free marketeer led a resurgence, notching up 31 as Tristan clocked 50. Tristan soon departed leaving Riz and Mark to press on, who both obliged with some excellent aerial power-hitting over the extended boundaries.

Mark soon departed, followed shortly by Saad, leaving JK to play the supporting role to Riz’s best actor performance. With a strong traveling fan-club, JK amassed a solid 3 with Riz finishing on a well-deserved 47 and Pacific setting the Rabbits 183 to win.

After a wind-battered lunch break, the Rabbits set out on their chase.

A loose couple of overs from Saad and JK gave them a helping hand before both found their line and length. JK produced some inimitable stuff (despite his fan club heading off early) to limit the scoring and knock off one of the opening pair. Mark then joined in to show everyone that top-knots and off-spin can be cool.

With Ahmed and Riz soon taking up the ball, things were getting challenging for Rabbits. Riz decided he only wanted lbws or bowled on the scorecard so dropped a couple off his own bowling but excellent fielding elsewhere kept the Rabbits desperately chasing an ever-increasing run-rate leading to Pacific enacting not 1, not 2, but 4 run outs. Notable mention for Rohan who took an excellent catch in the deep and was rewarded with a cut to the hand.

Riz and Saad closed things off seeing Paddington Rabbits finished on 135 off 37 overs.