Having made the trek up to Loburn on one of the driest weekends of the year, Southland Boys’ were invited to bat in the reduced 45-over format in order to catch an early flight home. Having been thrown the new ball Leighton Johnson did an excellent job with his off spinners bowling through his allotted nine overs to finish with the excellent figures of 2/9. Excellent spin bowling seemed to be the order of the day with great support from Patrick Croker, whose leg spin at times seemed to be a mystery to the SBHS upper and middle order, and Will Macfarlane whose first delivery spun dramatically and knocked the top of off stump. Their efforts were backed up well by Paul Miller and Mike Chatterton in the hot, dry conditions. The Willows were able to keep the pressure on throughout with attacking fields maintained deep in to the innings. It took some intelligent batting from Jack Mockford, Blake Harper and Tom Capil to see Southland Boys’ through to 170/8 off their 45 overs.

Tim McConnell set about chasing this total down in his usual “measured” fashion and was well supported by some clean hitting by Tom McDonald. In the end The Willows comfortably chased down the visitors score in the 28th over for the loss of five wickets which allowed Southland Boys’ plenty of time to make their return flight home. A good win for The Willows and a pleasure to play amongst a group of young men who were a credit to their school.