It was a pleasure to host Father Brian Cummings and the St Bede’s College 1st XI at The Willows Cricket Club. Superb parent and family support for the visitors ensured a colourful, festive atmosphere and a memorable day. A day where the secondary schoolboys in both teams shared the limelight.

The Willows won the toss and batted first. An opening stand of 80 between Jeremy Bull (42) and Neville Perkins (94) set the platform for what should have been a 200 plus score. However this did not occur. St Bede’s captain Stephen Gibson marshalled his field well and used eight bowlers to hold the Willows to 179 for 8. CBHS opener Neville Perkins was denied a century by only six runs and showed deft placement in a skilful display.

In reply, the St Bede’s team found runs hard to get against a useful Willows attack. Wickets were shared between the seamers, Jason Pawson (3) and SBHS’s Ryan Burson (2), and the experienced spinners Keith Yardley (3) and Andrew Nuttall – one with a no-shot to his lethal arm ball.

Player of the day for the opposition was Wade Cornelius who scored 55 runs out of a team total of 139 – this after a tight opening spell in the morning going for a paltry seven runs from six overs.