After four consecutive defeats to the CBHS side The Willows hoped they had assembled a side that could break the drought. They also threw tradition out the window by bowling first after seeing a bit of green in The Willows wicket.

Sam Davis and Matt Parr took the new ball and looked likely but the CBHS opening combination of Hartland and Heard were solid and did a fantastic job of seeing the school through a difficult period. The ageless Andrew Nuttall was tough to get away and combined with Fraser Hill were easily The Willows best bowlers on the day and if not for their efforts The Willows would have been chasing more than 219.

The run chase started badly for The Willows with Fraser Sheat taking the prized wicket of his coach Matt Parr. A solid partnership between Fraser Hill and Ben Blair looked promising but unfortunately CBHS has some excellent slow bowlers of their own. Sidey, Hartland and Chapman were all tough to get away and picked up wickets regular intervals. The Willows never really threatened the CBHS total and had to resign themselves to a fifth loss on the trot.

The Willows selection committee will have to revisit their plans for 2017 but it was a fantastic day out. The Willows playing XI featured five previous captains of CBHS dating back to 1995 and it was also wonderful to see Richie McCaw make his debut for The Willows. As well, he picked up his first wicket and we hope that he will now be a regular visitor to Jaguar Oval.

The five Christchurch Boys’ High School 1st XI captains mentioned above were:

• SJ Davis 1995
• GN Brooks 1996
• KR Earnshaw 1997
• RM Dunne 1997 (while Kyle was injured)
• MJ Parr 1998