With the game on the 8th October being washed out, the second Willows match of the season took place against the visiting Marlborough Boys’ College 1st XI on the 15th October. Like the first match of the season, The Willows chose to bat first and found scoring to be slow once again. Valuable contributions came from Mark Reid (20), Michael Singleton (23) and Jeremy Wilson (26), but The Willows were kept in check for the most part by some tight and miserly Marlborough bowling. The Willows were restricted to 159/5 in their 50 overs and were grateful for a bright and breezy 33 not out by Adrian McFedries in the last five overs.

Marlborough likely started their innings with high expectations, but these were quickly dashed when the opener Woollcombe was bowled by Millar in the third over for 0. Then a fourth wicket stand of 60 between Ivory-McCullum and Holdaway gave the visitors some hope. However, when the opener Ivory-McCullum fell in the 29th over, the match was in the balance with 87 runs needed from the 21 remaining overs with six wickets in hand. Enter Andrew Nuttall and Robbie Frew to the bowling crease. Nuttall has become known for the prolific wicket-taking form that he has shown at Jaguar Oval, and he found an unfamiliar foil in the form of former first-class cricketer Frew. The collapse brought about by this pair saw Marlborough Boys’ slump from a promising launching pad to be all out in the 42nd over for 101 runs.