It was a good toss to lose for The Willows, as a green pitch offered a bit of assistance early on for the seamers, and flattened out later in the afternoon for our batsmen. After being asked to bowl, Chaney made the early breakthrough for The Willows with a rather fortuitous caught and bowled, however, opening batsmen Mycock and first drop Slee looked devastating as their 50 run partnership came in no time. MacDonald managed to strike a double blow, claiming the wickets of Mycock (31) and Slee (19), as the game became more evenly poised. Several Wanderers batsmen made starts, though a tight spell from O’Brien halted batsmen from getting any real momentum through the middle overs, and several crucial wickets at the death from MacDonald restricted the Wanderers to 205 all out.
The Willows made the best possible start to their run chase with openers Entwistle and Dunlop taking advantage of some loose bowling, to take the score past 50 in the first 10 overs. After Entwistle departed, Fitzgerald fell quickly to a spectacular run out by Tashkoff. Dickie and Dunlop kept ticking along for The Willows, as they respected the good balls and punished the bad ones. However, Tashkoff managed to take the scalps of Dickie and then Boyle, leaving the match in the balance. A good partnership between MacDonald (26) and Dunlop (100 retired) saw the score rise to 171, when MacDonald fell at the score of 5/171 The Willows were in control. Stove and Syme finished the game in style as The Willows won by five wickets, mostly due to a sublime innings by opener Tom Dunlop, who scored a very well compiled unbeaten century.
The game was very competitive and played in a very good spirit.
The Willows Youth XI, players in batting order:
- B Entwistle (Shirley Boys’ High School)
- T Dunlop (Riccarton High School)
- C Fitzgerald (St Thomas of Canterbury College)
- B Dickie (Christ’s College)
- M Boyle (St Bede’s College)
- H MacDonald (Christ’s College)
- L Stove (St Thomas of Canterbury College)
- R Syme (Christchurch Boys’ High School)
- W O’Brien (Burnside High School)
- M Munro (St Bede’s College)
- M Chaney (Burnside High School)