The Willows welcomed a Waimea College 1st XI to Loburn that included several up and coming young players. With a school roll boasting close to 1300 pupils it was surprising to hear that those playing cricket throughout the school was well below 50. The Willows won the toss and took full advantage of the best Willows track of the season to date posting 300 on the scoreboard. There were valuable contributions and partnerships throughout the innings most notably by Alex Heenan 49, Patrick Croker 49, Brad Doody 51, Paul Miller 44 and C Bellis 41. Several of our men honourably retired as they began getting on top of the young bowling side who were struggling with the blustery conditions. To their credit, they kept at it throughout the 50 overs and did well to keep the score from blowing out further.

To counter the difficulty of the conditions, The Willows turned to spin early and in Stan Wooliscroft (3/10) and Englishman Patrick Croker (4/10) were able to dismantle the Waimea batting effort. The Willows were delighted to welcome back founding member of the club Willie Fairbairn who also pitched in with a wicket. Former Canterbury player Brad Doody spent a good half hour at the conclusion of the match addressing the Waimea players on the game, their strengths and weaknesses to work on, as well as giving them an insight as to the doors the opportunity of playing cricket had opened for him both on and off the pitch. All in all cricket yet again was the winner at The Willows.