A lovely day greeted us for the annual fixture against St Bede’s. With no coin in sight it was decided The Willows would bat first and we got off to a good start to be 90 for 2. Hamish Teale after some early luck batted extremely well to score an unbeaten “ton” off 95 balls. He was well supported with a cameo 80 off just 58 balls from James O’Gorman including one of the biggest sixes The Willows has seen and a pedestrian 26 from Alex Nicholson to guide The Willows through to 279 for 9. Daniel Parker was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 37 while Angus Simmons also bowled well for his 3 wickets.

After losing an early wicket St Bede’s got into a very good position with opener Kieran Foote scoring 44. Although eventually falling 40 runs short, St Bede’s showed they are capable of chasing down big totals with Jacob Vanner batting extremely well in an anchor role eventually being dismissed for 61 and William Otte coming in at six and hitting a number of boundaries to finish with 71. St Bede’s were eventually dismissed for 237 with Matt Teale being the pick of the bowlers with four wickets. It was great to get away with a win that was not looking likely at times to keep Mike off my back for another year!