It was with some trepidation that the skipper arrived at the ground, having narrowly avoided an accident with a duck crossing the road, with her multiple ducklings. Not a good omen when associated with playing cricket.

Losing the toss and being asked to bat soon realised the skipper’s worst fears – those ducks inhabited the scorecard. Four of the top 6 batsmen failed to trouble the scorer, with The Willows side precariously placed at 11 for 6, against some accurate bowling from Kurt Polson and Sean Strange. Luckily Brad Doody stood tall amongst all this carnage and was able to establish a couple of partnerships, before being 9th out at 82, with his score at 50. The Willows were finally dismissed on the stroke of lunch for 95, in 30 overs. Thomas Meyrick performed well with the ball for Mid Canterbury, with all the bowlers backed up well by excellent team fielding.

Unfortunately, the drizzle at lunch turned into steady rain, so the match was officially abandoned at 2.00pm. We will never know how the Mid-Canterbury XI would have coped with the spin duo of Mark Priest and Andrew Nuttall who would have opened the bowling for The Willows.

Match abandoned. The Willows retain the trophy!