On another glorious sunny day at the Willows we won the toss and batted first against the Montana XI on a fine track which looked to promise plenty of runs. After the loss of two early wickets we were treated to a fine display of batsmanship by Paul McEwan who in a classy innings of great timing and shots to all parts of the ground scored 109. Partnerships of 112 with Phil Harris (46) for the third wicket and 58 with Joe Bennett for the fourth wicket helped see the Willows through to a solid 225 all out.
For the Montana XI Sam Martin returned the excellent bowling figures of 5 for 25.
Wade Cornelius opened the attack for the Willows with an interesting spell of 6 overs which included a few extras and the valuable wickets of both the opening batsmen. The Willows bowlers were able to pick up regular wickets with most Montana batsmen making double figures but only David Bond exceeded 20. Fine spells of spin bowling returned the excellent figures of 4 for 37 for Keith Yardley and 2 for 19 from two spells for Mark Priest. Paul McEwan came on as a partnership breaker to collect a wicket and Matt Parr bowled 8 overs for an excellent return of 1 for 19.
On behalf on the Willows I would like to express a big thank you to Darin Cusack for his organisation and the rest of the Montana XI for filling the gap left by the Cornwall team from Auckland.