On paper, the PCC visitors looked like a very strong contingent filled with "freshers" and seasoned campaigners ready to plough the fields of Surrey and enjoy a healthy harvest.

Much like the high hopes of 2018 Russia Football World Cup final ("its coming home"), the local contingent spearheaded by club legends "Prefect" Wolledge and newly appointed club Secretary Spencer lead the chorus on the WhatsApp sub group for a pre match shindig at the neighboring watering hole intended to witness greatness over at Terra Australis.

Over the course of the morning, our players arrived in dribs and drabs to the pub that was eventually packed to the rafters with all tables fully sold out in the hope of many decades of misery coming to an end via rose-tinted memories of ecstatic England homecomings.

As the minutes ticked on towards 1.00pm kick off, the atmosphere turned from hope to despair with the game creeping towards the full time whistle with the scoreline going against the grain ushering in air of melancholy.

Coming to the realisation "it's not coming home", the PCC visitors shuffled their way to the WCC club house for the coin toss.

Once completed, it was straight down to business as PCC were in to bat on a rather capricious wicket drawing vivid memories of the old Hollies surface with lots of uneven bounce.

New recruit, McGurn has been an exciting prospect this season, much like Zac Crawley's red ball revolution leadership at the top of the order for England. Chief of fantasy team "Saturday Singles", he can take pride from setting the Surrey stage on fire in his 1st season as we are sure he will be looking forward to redemption after an unfortunate 5 ball duck.

Julienne, on the other hand looked very assured and composed as our run rate was going at the smell of an oily rag courtesy of Bolsch'esque opening bowling by the oppo who thought we brought our 1st x1 team down from DSG. Unlike his New South Welshman prodigy in Steve Smith who struggled for ascendancy during the most recently completed Ashes series, Julienne was poised for a clinical century much like Captain Cook's voyage to discover the East Coast of Australia.

Good length deliveries were kept out and short pitched deliveries dispatched with disdain square of the wicket as Alex has shown as an early career top order batsmen since recruitment in 2020, a season to remember for many of us. Alex was not afraid to run quick singles against a polished outfield particularly when boundaries were extremely hard to come by much like the grounds our Bordeaux touring x1 played on in the middle of 2019 season.

Unfortunately for the Sydneysider, the innings was cut short on 53 off 83 deliveries courtesy of the local Muralitharan who had the ball on a string with plenty of extract from the pitch. By his admission, he left a few runs out there however can hold his head up high with the confidence of producing the Rock of Gibraltar up until the 30th over when we needed to accelerate.

Wolledge, Parks and Crane all provided sterling middle order cameos particularly after PCC lost 2 early and cheap wickets. Wolledge, a.k.a. "Student" by much of the membership as a tribute to his discounted nightclub ticket exploits, looked in good fettle despite a considerable hiatus away from the game over this season and deserved to go on and make a half century; hard lines mate.

Parks, our fixtures secretary sensation, looked poised to better his recent run of half centuries and looked in control against the resident "dibblie dobbler" that wasn't doing much apart from putting the cherry on a good length and letting the pitch do the talking. Unfortunately for Leon, the reward for effort wasn't quite there shortly after getting into double digits as we're sure he'll be back out there at runfest in the very near future as a couple of us marvelled at his batting exhibition at the WCC nets.

Crane has started to stake his claim for a middle order spot and brought a glimmer of hope to a faltering innings establishment on the back of his maiden half century over at nearby Banstead not too long ago. Unfortunately for Simon, the WCC pacers were too good with their no.2 in Brown rattling his timber.

T-Rex, staked his claim for a higher spot in the order with a Brad Hodge type cameo which featured one delightful hoist to cow corner when the innings was at risk of falling short of 100.

Sawyer, produced a swashbuckling 15 runs and deserved to go on for the remaining innings. In his debut season, Oscar illustrates versatility and is not afraid of having a dash even when the middle order is back in the shed.

Sawyer along with the rest of the tailenders in Viberg and Tailor were unfortunately cleaned up through the gates akin to Kulasekara's penetrating seam/swing bowling that left Southern Stars like Clarke seeing well pretty much stars at the Gabba during the 2013 CB ODI international series.

With a paltry 137 runs on the board, Parks geed up his troops during the tea break instilling confidence that we could defend on that difficult wicket.

Viberg and Spencer got things underway with lots of plays and misses synonymous with Southbank's seam sensations. Viberg deserved better with lbw appeals not rewarded over 7 overs inc. 1 maiden.

Spence looked set for a 5'fer bringing his Saturday league sizzle to the fore. Over 6 overs inc. 2 maidens, he staked his claim for the bowling trophy as the batters could not penetrate the offside ring.

Sawyer, fair to say, produced close to an "Oscar winner", leveraging from Spence's good deeds over 5 overs inc. 1 maiden. Witnessing his pace drills at the nets, he gets the batter fishing outside off stump but can rattle the timberwork when on song which is a captain's delight. No doubt deserved more than 1 wicket. And to top it all off, Oscar produced an absolute worldie at cover that would have sent tremors around a jam packed cricketing colosseum. Drawing on trusted video vaults, it was up there in the echelons of the Adam Dale one hander screamer at the Gabba vs NSW blues crunch game as well as Fatty Vautin's one handed catch of the century in the Alan Border exhibition game...far out give that bloke a brand new car and 1 month's pay cheque!!!

James Barron, was arguably pick of the bowlers yielding 3 for 21 off a decorated half a dozen ish overs as the skipper's slow bowling options dished out more pies than a St John's Wood delicatessen. JB truly showed how to bowl during the business end of an innings much like Stuart Broad's fairytale finish of his career at the Ashes Test 5 Day 5 at the Oval. Well done James, a fine recruit with a bright future ahead of him.

In the end, PCC took the game into the last 10 overs but couldn't quite clean up the tail losing the game by 4 wickets.

A tough pill to swallow but an opportunity to reflect and learn how to compete against elite Sunday outfits well atuned to pitches which are the total opposite of a road.

Acknowledgments accorded to:
- WCC for a warm welcome to Woodmansterne and for a clinical exhibition in bowling that was far too good
- Parks family and Jessica (Partner of Spence) for the boundary line support particularly when it was a tough away game against formidable opposition; we appreciate the attendance of and encouragement by PCC fans
- Leon Parks for keeping spirits up and enterprising bowling changes when the chips were down

Match report produced by Niraj Tailor