A little overnight rain had seeped under the covers which was encouragement for the nippy Willows opening at of Sir Richard Hadlee and John Blakely. The Peninsula Craz batsmen struggled initially before an 85 run partnership between John Masefield (58) and Mike Hutchinson (46). They were finally separated just after the lunch break by “Nelson” (111) and a quickish delivery from Michael Sharpe. The Craz then steadily lost wickets and completed the 50 avers scoring a neat 150.

The Willows batsmen scored quickly from the beginning of the innings. An entertaining innings of 27 from Joe Bennett, who had been promoted to the top of the order following an accom­plished wicket keeping spell, gave all the batsmen some confi­dence. Chris Sowden batted most attractively, and an 81 run partnership between the experienced campaigners, Geoff Smith and Sir Richard, enabled the Willows to pass the Craz score after 36.3 overs.