On a cool but fine Friday afternoon The Willows won the toss and for no reason in particular chose to bat. A solid opening from Jon Davidson (43) and Nic Hill (37) saw The Willows nicely placed at 54 for one after 15 overs and ready to kick on. The Craz, however, had other ideas and through a solid all round bowling effort kept chipping out wickets and restricting the runs with The Willows finally stumbling through to 141/9 off 40 overs. For the Craz, Chapman (2 for 9) and Frazer (2 for 10) were the best but all eight bowlers were miserly on a holding wicket.

142 has not often been a winning score for games at Jaguar Oval but as the weather cooled The Willows attack warmed up. Grant Stewart with four for six was into his work immediately and had the Craz two for none after 3 overs. Mike Johnston (36) and Richard Breitmeyer (26) though steadied things with the day’s biggest partnership of 47. However, with Breitmeyer’s exit wickets fell regularly until the Craz stood at 94 for 5 and the game was in the balance. Enter Jon Davidson. Jon has a throwing arm which is a big advantage in this fixture and first Hugh Frazer and then the stoic Mike Johnston failed to appreciate this and were run out. Stewart then bowled Bob Masefield and Pavey with balls probably wasted in this game before a reluctant Davidson was cajoled into bowling by the captain. He immediately grabbed a wicket with his first ball and the game was over, the Craz losing their last five wickets on 94.

Another chapter in the history of Willows v Craz games had been completed, and all that remained was to reflect on what might have been and past battles over a couple of beers.