On yet another beautiful Canterbury Country summer’s day, a not necessarily well balanced (and definitely not youthful) Willows team of not necessarily in-form players took on a not necessarily well balanced (but definitely very youthful) Crusaders team of very in-form players. They had spent the previous six days playing the top Christchurch secondary schools 1st XIs without losing a game while producing many notable performances.

After much discussion and inspection of yet another perfect wicket (and not a blade of grass on the outfield) with their more mature captain who was invited to bat. Doug McMillan and Richard McGuire opened the bowling and set the standard for the other bowlers to copy. All the bowlers followed that lead, none more so than Andrew Nuttall who was nothing short of miserly with 1 for 17 from his 10 overs. Doug was about as bad (good) taking 2 for 25 from 10 overs. Richard, a great team man, when asked to come back for his second spell decided to throw a fetlock (he actually pulled a hamstring) in another futile attempt to emulate Ben Johnson while chasing the ball to the boundary. lt must be said here that the fielding of this somewhat geriatric lot was of a very high standard – diving to save many runs, accurate throwing leading to two very timely run-outs, and a very sound (and almost continually vociferous) performance from wicket­ keeper Joe Bennett. With Richard now on the sideline relieving the St Bernard of his wares (medicinal purposes only of course) the ball was thrown to another secret weapon, Barry Townrow (who I might say was not going to get a bowl because he was playing for the Willows again the following day), to complete Richard’s last 4 overs. We then forgot to stop Barry and he bowled 9 overs on the trot for 31 runs – a sterling performance. Jacob Wolt, 7 overs for 36, and David Grocott, 8 overs 1 for 34, also did their job very well.

The Crusaders were restricted to 176 for 7 from their 50 overs. Their best performance came from their captain Brent Hutchinson who scored a very well compiled 76 not out. Other batsmen looked good but pressure put on them by our bowlers and fieldsmen enabled us to get wickets at important times.

lt was now our turn to bat. Because of a distinct lack of openers and even after bowling at the death, David Grocott offered his services to do the job with Peter Devlin. David was soon back in the dressing room – “it’s a bit different to Presidents”. Peter then showed that he was obviously the groundsman at the Willows as he knew all about the wicket and also how to bat, which was a blessing, in making a match winning 62. David Bond and then Mike Wright supported Peter well and took us through to 144 for 4 – a very sound position. This was quickly eroded by a customary (e.g. Black Caps) middle order collapse, which got us to 174 for 8 (Joe Bennett actually changed back into his whites, showing an obvious lack of confidence in Doug and Barry). He need not have worried or bothered as they took us through to a very meritorious and well-deserved win.