Perhaps the standard Willows decision to bat first wasn’t the best idea today.

After a top order crumble and being a lot down for not many, Mike Dormer was pacing up and down the steps muttering to himself about how T20 is ruining batsmen!

David Wakefield came in and steadied the ship with Craig Wallace. He looked a million dollars but unfortunately fell for 41, when the ball clipped the top of the bail in the most bizarre fashion. Hamish Kennett put his hand up and showed a bit of grit. That, combined with some timeless experience from Richard McGuire, and we were looking at quite a respectable total, considering our earlier performance!

148 seemed quite defendable on a green, seaming wicket especially given the start we had with the ball. Adam Hastilow, who ended up getting 5 for 39 bowled a sensational spell with the new ball, to have Christ’s College 55/6 at tea.

Unfortunately for us, we witnessed a fantastic display of batting by Jakob Kerr, who batted sensibly and with a great deal of maturity for his matchwinning 43.

The day itself had a number of ups and downs, and for us, we finished on a down! It wasn’t all bad though. Watching some of the fielding of the College boys, and the batting at the end, really did show that schoolboy cricket in Christchurch is still strongly competitive, and the talent coming through is a positive sign for years to come.

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