Christchurch turned on a balmy day for the fixture which promised to be a tight one. The Willows side comprising of several promising Canterbury youth players, won the toss and chose to bat.

After a steady start from openers Coffey and Hampton-Matehe, Coffey was out LBW. This brought Lyons to the crease who with Hampton-Matehe formed a solid second wicket partnership. Both batsmen scored fluently around the ground but weren’t really rewarded for shots as well as they should have been due to a slow October outfield. With both batsmen settled, Collegiate found the breakthrough they wanted and Lyons was run out from a sharp piece of fielding. The Willows continued their momentum with various cameos from batsmen, in particular Hyser who scored a quick fire 38 off half as many balls.

At the change of innings, The Willows had notched a very competitive 210 for 5 from their 50 overs.

In reply, Collegiate lost an early wicket and from there the wickets fell at regular intervals. Several batsmen made starts but were unable to convert, undone by tight economical bowling by The Willows side. The match looked comfortably in the bag for The Willows with the score at 117 for 9 but a fighting 10th wicket partnership from Collegiate saw the score up to 149 before the last wicket fell.

A good bowling and fielding display by The Willows was headed with Tapper, Andrew Nuttall and Lyons claiming two wickets each. Collegiate showed a fighting spirit throughout the match, however The Willows were too strong on this occasion.