All players were surprised and relieved to arrive at the ground to see the pitch and outfield ready for play as the weather conditions in Christchurch the night before had been atrocious. The Loburn ground receives its own blessings from above!

After “winning the toss” The Willows agreed to bat. The Sri Lankan Tour XI made use of eight bowlers who all bowled economically and The Willows were only ever able to maintain a scoring rate of just 3 runs per over.

Bowlers, Tim Braid and Dexter Marsh were both rewarded with two wickets a piece and spectators observed some very attractive shots from Tim McConnell, veteran Brad Doody and Danny Dowds. The best batting, however, came from Christchurch Boys’ High School player Daniel Stanley who scored 22 not out at the end of the innings at better than run a ball.

The Sri Lankan Tour XI were left with the task of scoring 157 and were always ahead of the required run rate with some attractive batting coming from Alex Marshall and Ben Drake. The best batting came from the winning partnership between Freddy Anderson (26) and Dexter Marsh (20 not out) who steadied the innings. The Tour XI were at one stage 116/7 but these two very promising players took the game away from The Willows and scored the winning runs in the 47th over.

The highlight of the match was the superb off spin bowling of Tony Gray who varied his pace and spin and flighted the ball with real skill. The “arm ball” that went “through the gate” will be remembered by many for years!

Many thanks once again to Tony Campbell, Graeme Evans and Bernie Hamilton for another faultless performance.