Following a year off because of inclement weather last season, Marlborough Boys’ College returned to the Willows brimming with youthful enthusiasm and confidence. The enthusiasm (certainly the youth of it) did not appear to be such a feature of the Willows team, and general pre-match discussion centred on the lack of a 12th (and probably 13th and 14th) man on such a Blenheim-like day.

Despite the unanimity of my teammates to bat if we won the toss, we fielded. I can now confess that we did not lose the toss as they were advised, I simply like to bat last nowadays.

We were fortunate to be favoured by the whims of the Willows selectors. A pair of very slow left­ armers, a very useful leggie in Aaron Redmond, and a pair of off-spinners-a full house (of a kind). Phil Harris and Andrew Goudie opened the bowling and took us through nine overs before we launched our battery of spinners.

While getting away to a swift start, College also lost wickets. So when the Willows exerted pressure through the wily Phil d'Auvergne and Redmond, the Marlborough drought began. Although we witnessed some excellent batting from Campbell and Ville, the flow of runs was quietly withering. There was no respite through to the end of the innings which realised only 183 from 49.3 overs. A fine bowling effort from a ‘complete’ attack. At this stage of the game we were very comfortable with our position.

This comfort remained through the first 35 overs. Then our sixth wicket fell for 149. This seemed to expose a tail as secure as that of a lizard under threat of capture. During this reverse swing we lost three wickets for one run in the 160s and required 19 runs from the last pair with eight overs left. Mark Landon-Lane showed true responsibility, scoring 14 of these himself, ending on 43 not out. Andrew Goudie batted at number 11 and maintained his position at the other end brilliantly for 3 not out. This was possible because he was more frightened of returning to see his captain than he was of opposition bowlers. We won the game comfortably with one wicket and three balls to spare, following a last wicket stand of 22.

It needs to be said that umpires G.Fenwick and A.Piper were cruelly fair under the pressure of some vociferous and experienced appealing. Ball tampering played no part in this game .