Arriving at the ground to another beautiful North Canterbury day, there seemed to be some added expectation to what is, in effect, an interprovincial match.

The toss was won by the visitors from Dunedin and they elected to bat. The job of captaining for the day looked to be an easy task, after the first few overs from Matthew Fielding, with Dunedin slumping to 11/2. There was, however, somewhat of a change when former Otago representative Simon Richards strode to the wicket and in his first over lofted The Willows opening bowler over his head for a huge six, his first scoring shot. Richards proved to he the backbone of the Cavaliers innings in what was a splendid, chanceless innings, which saw him retire for 104. The Willows bowlers worked hard, however the Cavaliers kept the run rate moving along in support of Richards’ fine innings and ended up with a score of 245/9. Other supporting roles for the Cavaliers batting side were from A Rich (25), H Rutherford (34) and D Soper (44 not out). The Willows used seven bowlers with the best being opener Matthew Fielding who finished with 3/35 and Jacob Wolt who, while remaining wicketless, bowled his overs for only 33 runs. There was also a fine contribution in the middle of the innings by young spinner Turner, who took 1/41 off 10 overs.

The Cavaliers innings was all the more impressive as they withstood a constant and impressive flow of sledging or perhaps we should call it commentary from Mr Bennett behind the stumps. At times that “commentary” included helpful strategic suggestions for the fielding side’s captain. Unfortunately neither focus provided the breakthrough required. The Willows started their run chase with a solid opening partnership between Derek Burrell and Paul Rutledge, the first wicket falling at 44, Derek went on to score a well compiled 48 and the innings seemed to be well set up. However tight bowling from the experienced Cavaliers bowling attack in the form of Soper, the opening bowler and later on Peter Dobbs who finished with the impressive figures of 3/33. kept the run rate in check and The Willows remained behind the required rate as wickets fell. There was a rally towards the lower middle order by the Willows with Tom Turner making a well compiled 23 and Joe Bennett 28 during which, despite a number of hard run ones and twos, his commentary continued much to the entertainment of all on the ground. McGuire contributed at the end with 34 not out, but unfortunately The Willows fell short finishing all out for 228.

Once again the game was a closely fought fixture and we are very much indebted and grateful to Bruce Irvine for organising the Cavaliers team and travelling north from Dunedin.