A glorious morning greeted the Willowers and the lads from Ashburton College. The Mid-Canterbury boys were keen to improve on their 3/10 record at the ‘home of cricket’ and their captain Will Graham elected to bowl first.

Will got Mid-Canterbury off to the best possible start by bowling his father (and coach of Ashburton) in the third over. Tim McConnell then hit some signature drives to get The Willows out of the blocks. Tight bowling from the opening bowlers kept the run rate in check and the Ashburton boys were rewarded with regular wickets until Henry Winchester and Andrew Nuttall constructed a solid partnership through the middle. Some lusty hitting from Riley Wilson and Callum Cameron saw The Willows through to 220 on a pitch that was starting to crumble.

In reply, the visitors struggled early losing three wickets in the first two overs. Luke Courtney and Callum both collecting a couple of poles before the spin twins of Riley Wilson and Andrew Nuttall were introduced to mop up the tail. Ashburton College were all out for 56. Valuable lessons learnt in constructing an innings and assessing conditions were discussed with the team after the match.

Thanks to Mark Wood and Rohit Sachdeva for officiating and to everyone at The Willows who made the day such a success.