A beautiful sunny Sunday greeted the arrival of all players to The Willows and it was nice to see Nelson College’s Coach, Gary McDonald, back on Canterbury soil.

The Willows ‘won’ the toss and the Nelson players elected to bowl first. All the Nelson bowlers were steady and restricted The Willows to 219 on a fast outfield. F Murray was the most economical of the Nelson bowlers with 1/22 off 9 overs and Mike Allcock, who opened the batting, produced a well compiled 44 off 84 balls. The experienced Paul Knight, making his debut for The Willows, scored a handy 43 off 57 balls.

In reply, the Nelson batsmen were restricted to 3½ runs per over for the first 40 overs with Paul Knight bowling 6 overs for 10 runs and Mitchell Ross bowling 7 overs for 9. The best batting of the day however, came from J Walker-Bowell (68) and J Clarkson (67 off 80 balls). Despite these good innings, Nelson College were always a little behind the chase and were finally dismissed in the 49th over, 18 runs short.

Thanks once again to the umpires, E Brownlee and A Scott for their faultless contribution and Tony Campbell for his excellent work in the scorebox.