What was an incredibly sad day for the Club with the sudden passing of Nick Davidson.

The Willows won the toss on arguably the flattest wicket in the country, batted, and had a good opening partnership. Gideon Welford was the mainstay with a fine 88 anchoring the innings, supported nicely by James O’Gorman, Brad Gordon and Tobias Delahunty. Some sharp fielding led to the Country Schools XI staying in the fight, ultimately restricting The Willows to 256. Country Schools had two stand-out bowlers in Harry Middleton and Kaden Fraser.

The Willows started well with the ball, with 15 year-old Baxter Bretherton the pick of the bowlers. He took 4 for 28 off ten overs and has a bright future in the game. His excellent line and length proved to hard to play, and he deserved a five wicket bag. Good tight bowling built dot ball pressure which meant Country Schools could not get going and lost wickets regularly. Catching, or rather mis-catching, was a talking point from the day with Brad Gordon and Micah Walther both dropping simple ones. Country keeper Xavior Nortman had showed how it was done when he snaffled five earlier in the day. In all, it was a great day.