January 29 was a special day for The Willows with both the St Bede’s annual fixture and the St Thomas’s charity match taking place. With Mike overseeing the charity match, Jim took the helm for the first time with great success.

St Bede’s won the toss and elected to bat first on an excellent track. Early wickets spelt trouble for St Bede’s following a solid spell of opening bowling from Ireland and Henry. The fresh faced middle order kept their nerve with Watts, Doherty and Ziolo doing the hard grind through the middle order working in partnership to build the total. Clark, Vanner and Wakefield added useful contributions with the ball restricting St Bede’s to a score that looked a few short given the conditions at 144/8.

In reply, the Willows top order witnessed an outstanding spell of genuine fast bowling from Tucker who ended up with figures of 2 for 26. He was supported well from Doherty and Hanrahan.

Vanner fought hard for a well compiled 29 followed by a partnership of 96 between Wakefield and Teale, which brought The Willows home in what was a solid display with the bat.

The scoreboard certainly did not detract from an enjoyable and eagerly contested match. The annual fixture was well attended by both friends and family and is a real pleasure to have this on the Willows fixture list each year. I look forward to playing alongside many of the St Bede’s players in the future.