On arrival at the ground the players were once again greeted with fine weather, a well prepared pitch and a healthy looking outfield which restricted the scoring rate of both sides a little. Willows won the toss and elected to bat first. Tight bowling by all the Christchurch Boys’ High School players limited the flow of runs and the Willows didn’t reach 100 runs until the 37th over. The scoring rate was accelerated, however, by Chris Flanagan and Andrew Gourdie who scored 68 and 27 respectively.

Opening batsman, Gareth Brooks, held the innings together with a well-compiled 22. Leighton Burt and Byron Newton both bowled with some hostility taking two wickets apiece and were well supported by C Stevens and Fraser Hawes who only conceded 20 runs apiece in 10 overs. CBHS run chase was dominated by a superb innings by D Broom with 75 who enjoyed an excellent 4th wicket partnership with G McCarthy which was broken by a run out.

CBHS kept up with the required run rate reaching 100 in 35 overs, but struggled to maintain it beyond that point and wickets fell too frequently. At the end of the 50 overs they were 10 runs short of victory.

All the Willows bowlers maintained a good line and length and Bruce Irvine produced the best figures of 3 for 25 even though he had travelled quite some distance leading up to the game. Mention should be made of the excellent wicket keeping display by Gareth Brooks and the manner in which CBHS played the game.