Smarting from last year’s defeat the Willows set their faces in grim masks and went about some batting. On a good hard track the runs came sweetly. Scott Pawson knocked the ball about with easy elegance for 55 and young Tim Foley impressed everyone with his strokeplay and also with his running between wickets which had even the youthful Pawson gasping. When, with his score on 77, Foley tried a pull too many the scene was set for some mighty smiting. Matthew Parr delivered it. Making use of the fierce nor'wester that had blown up he even landed a shot on the windscreen of a car belonging to his former friend Robert Miller. Thanks to Parr’s ferocity the total climbed to 266.

Since most of his runs came in boundaries Parr had an abundance of energy left to bowl with the ever increasing wind. He took two good wickets and was unlucky not to get more. Bowling into the gale proved harder, but Paul McCarthy worked out how to do it in a miserly manner and put the Suburban XI well behind the required run rate. A.Lover batted well in the middle order for 69 not out but the target was always going to prove beyond them despite the author’s gallant contribution of a prodigious number of byes. Tim Foley once again distinguished himself by galloping around the outfield with a pace and zest that had some of his more experienced team mates sighing with nostalgia.

The wind may have taken the edge off the game, but for the Willows revenge tasted as sweet as the post-match beer.