Hello and welcome CBHS Colts to the opening of The Willows season.

I never saw the bare paddock that our founding committee saw when commissioning the vision of the Dormer family in 1994 but the setting where we play cricket nowadays can only be described as beautiful and inspiring.

Batting first The Willows, although rusty, were able to put up a useful score. Kelly saw the early shine off the ball and then Nuttall and de Maine put on a 90 run partnership to complete our 50 overs. Mowat and Kenny were miserly bowling in tandem and finished with a wicket apiece.

CBHS’s response was one that drew on contributions from most players. Number ten batsman Heyns led the scoring with 23 not out, with five other batsmen making double figures. Stewart started well, running in hard and genuinely swinging the ball. But it was Vedder who delivered the knockout punch in the middle overs and de Maine cleaned up the tail end. Experience prevailed on the day but it was memorable to throw the ball to my eldest son James for his debut at Jaguar Oval.