I got the call up to captain late the night before the game ... clearly this game is an important one for The Willows and no one else wanted the responsibility! Luckily I was presented with a talented side that saw The Willows through to a victory, sparing me from any wrath.

We chose to bat first on a fresh wicket that did a bit all day. Openers James Hantz and Brad Doody did well, however a flutter was sent through the camp when Hawkswood speedster Peter Rainer hit Hantzy in the head and his ear nearly fell off. After some patchwork he returned as Navjot Singh Sidhu and completed a gutsy innings. Former AB Ben Blair showed his cricket talent scoring a classy 43, and current AB Kieran Read was looking quite comfortable too until an unfortunate run out. Chris Harris did his usual thing near the end of the innings but when Harry got out we stumbled in the last few overs to end 20 or 30 short of what we thought was a decent total. Andrew Nuttall had much to do with this, with a typically miserly spell.

In reply, Hawkswood never really got started thanks to excellent opening spells from Sam Davis and Grant Stewart. They took two wickets each in reducing Hawkswood to 21/4, including the key wicket of Dave Kelly – out first ball. Then Carlos McGillivray backed up the openers taking three more cheap wickets and leaving Hawkswood at one stage 46/7. Peter Rainer backed his impressive bowling with a quality innings to see Hawkswood past 100 and he was the last out to Kieran Read’s off spin for 46.

So a convincing victory in the end to The Willows; however this day was more about what happened around the ground than on it. My thanks and congratulations to Mike and his team of helpers, including a trim Santa, for putting together such an awesome family day, especially for those children less fortunate that deserve a day of fun such as this. Merry Christmas!