A side full of youthful exuberance was assembled under blue skies for the annual St Bede’s fixture and after seeing that the pitch looked its usual self, we were confident of batting first and setting a good total. That confidence was soon shaken when The Willows slumped to 6 for 61 after a demanding opening spell from James Tucker and Hagen Schulte. The Willows loan player Jack Boyle, along with Matt Henry, then restored the innings. Jack fell just short of his half century while Matt went on to make a very good 70. The icing on the cake was applied via some late innings hitting from Alex Rowe and James Tapper to get The Willows through to a very competitive 232.

St Bede’s got off to a good start with Matt Vanner and Hamish Teale adding 70 for the second wicket with Hamish run out just short of his half century. Edward and Andrew Nuttall then applied the brakes with the ball and St Bede’s weren’t able to keep up with the rate eventually finishing their 50 overs at 191 for 7.