A warm summer’s morning greeted one of the youngest Willows team I have seen assembled. With an average age of approximately 23 I was confident I wouldn’t be chasing many balls to the boundary!

The day started with a short conversation that resulted in The Willows electing to bat first on your typical Willows pitch. After a solid start S Noster and H Kennett came together and placed The Willows in a strong position at 132/3 with both Kennett and Noster falling just short of deserved half centuries with 47 each. With that platform laid, N Roberts had a few lusty blows on his way to 43 and The Willows total of 228 all out. The St Bede’s bowling attack came back strongly after The Willows were poised to launch at 190/5 but some accurate bowling by C Sullivan taking 4/42 from 9.3 overs clawed St Bede’s back into the game.

After spending nearly 3¾ hours in the hot sun completing the 45.3 overs it took to bowl The Willows out, it was going to be a difficult run chase. Through L Campbell (27) and T Ziolo (35) they got off to a very good start and were well placed at 79/0 to chase down the total. That soon became 81/4 and things looked a little more difficult. T Irie looked to resurrect the innings and batted extremely well for his 63 but with the constant loss of wickets at the other end he ran out of partners and St Bede’s fell 23 runs short. The wickets were shared evenly with four Willows bowlers snaring two wickets each.

Once again a huge thanks to all those that put the work into making it such a great day for students and Willowers alike.

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