We played a 40-over game starting at 1.00pm and on a cool, cloudy day, St Thomas’s won the toss and put us in. After losing Ben Laughton at 22 to a beautiful delivery, Brent Fleming and Jon Davidson settled into a long and profitable partnership. The school team had been somewhat handicapped by a wet ball after a couple of spells of rain. Both Brent and Jon upped the tempo very nicely and they weren’t separated until the score was 169. It seemed a score of at least 220-230 was beckoning.

As can happen, the runs frustratingly dried up and in the end it required a nice little cameo by Bruce Scott (in his debut at The Willows) to get us to just over 200. Brent ended up on 91 not out, a marvellous effort.

When we took the field it was with the rare experience of having three right arm leg spinners in our team, promptly nicknamed Warne, McGill and Benaud! Warne (Stan Wooliscroft) opened the bowling and in a superb spell he quickly removed both their openers. While when young Cole Harmer (McGill) from St Thomas’s but playing for us came on, he had the perfect start with a wicket from his first ball at The Willows. Cole was great value and we really enjoyed his company; he has an excellent attitude.

When coach Ben Rapson came to the crease and joined Connor Fitzgerald they had put on over 100 in an excellent partnership. After Ben retired we began to make some inroads and Connor eventually fell for 55. And when our third leggie Benaud (Patrick Croker) got a wicket, followed by a couple of run outs, St Thomas’s were 8 down with still a dozen to win. But the last two batted coolly and saw their team home, in the second to last over.

St Thomas’s totally deserved their win in a thoroughly good and enjoyable game. They were a most impressive team of young men, very well coached and led.