As Jacob Wolt sat under the veranda musing over the title of his next book “discussions in the pavilion”, The Willows batsmen went about their work. Having won the toss and elected to bat (a difficult decision in light of the green tinge to the batting surface), progress could be described as being consistently adequate.

That was until Willie Lyons was trapped leg before wicket by the promising young Hamilton. Two more batsmen came to the crease, and soon thereafter departed, leaving the ever-youthful Brad Doody with much work to be done. Doody set about his task with aplomb. Heartened by the lunch break, he then struck consecutive boundaries to raise a magnificent unbeaten 103.

When the dust had settled at the end of the innings, a glance at the scoreboard indicated that The Willows had accumulated an imposing total of 311 runs.

The Country boys then set about chasing the target. Following the dismissal of both openers, Messrs Paterson and Pringle set about chasing the total. Progress was steady until the introduction of The Willows’ “spin twins” – Wilson and Kelly. I’m not sure how much spin was involved, but when all was said and done, they had accumulated 8 wickets between them. Unfortunately for the Country boys, they had only scored 179 runs.

All up, it was another fantastic day’s cricket. The wicket was good, the outfield fast, and the refreshments up to their usual high standards. The Country boys will be back stronger next year.