As the Hawkswood and Willows teams assembled at Jaguar Oval for the annual pre-Christmas match, it was apparent (at least to The Willows skipper) that man for man we were giving away a few years, and we were going to have to play well if we were to be considered for selection in 2017.

With that in mind, winning the toss, we elected to have a bowl on what looked to be a greenish seamer, under overcast skies. Opening bowlers Ryan Burson and Chris O’Connell started very well and were hard to play, O’Connell snaring two early wickets including Dave Kelly for 3. However, from 41/2 Hawkswood put on 109 for the third wicket, seeing them in a commanding position at the lunch break, The Willows staring at a possible 300 run chase.

However, after lunch The Willows bowlers started to come right, holding Hawkswood to 248, with some fine death bowling from evergreen Stan Wooliscroft (that and perhaps the 10min break in play while Santa and the hoards descended on the oval). Standout for Hawkswood was opener Willie Lyons who carried his bat scoring an unbeaten 98, that would have easily been a century had it not been for leg cramp restricting Lyons to singles in the final overs. Lyons was supported in the middle overs by St Alban’s seniors keeper James Richard scoring 53.

The Willows got off to a rollicking start, with Tim McConnell and Jonathan Davidson finding the boundary at will. Unfortunately wickets fell all too regularly to see us 85/4, before Jeremy Wilson (53) and Ben Blair (33), put on 80 for the 5th wicket, giving us at least some hope. However, 160/4 quickly became 166/7 and all of a sudden we were squarely on the back foot. Some rear-guard action from Burson and skipper Sam Davis gave us a mathematical chance, but when the 50 overs were up we were languishing on 227, some twenty one runs short.

So all in all, The Willows were convincingly outplayed. The difference being a superb 98 from Lyons, and a few dropped catches from The Willows. Another great day out, however, and we look forward to next year’s re-match.