This game was the inaugural match between these two sides with last year’s game being rained out. lt was played on a beautiful day and it was great to see a large number of Burnside supporters, many of whom commented on the wonderful setting of the Willows. The Willows side featured several former students of Burnside High in Darin Cusack, Andrew Ellis [the inaugural winner of the Willows scholarship]. Dave Farrant, and Mike Hastings. On a personal note, as an old 1 st XI coach and teacher at Burnside High School I was honoured to captain the Willows side for this game.

The Willows batted first on a good pitch and got off to a great start with Darin Cusack and Cameron Stone putting on a century opening partnership. Cameron was first out for a well­ compiled 53. David Bond was next to the crease and he and Darin consolidated the good start by putting on 40 for the second wicket. The Burnside bowlers bowled well during this period, with Thomas Batty and Sam Le Heron in particular proving very difficult to score off. Sam at one stage had only conceded 10 runs off 7 overs, an outstanding effort.

Darin, despite tiring in the hot conditions, went on to score a superb century and retired with the team score at 201 . Andrew Ellis [42 not out] gave the innings impetus at the end with some good boundary hitting and the Willows team score finished at 236/4. Hugh Stevenson bowled well at the death for Burnside.

After the loss of an early wicket, Michael Thorpe and Craig Paterson batted positively for Burnside and put the Willows bowling attack and fielders under pressure with some sharp running between the wickets. Andrew Ell is eventually made the break through for the Willows dismissing Craig for 42. A mini collapse then occurred with Burnside losing 3 quick wickets to the bowling of Ellis. From this point on the Willows were on top and had the game under control. Michael Thorpe was sixth out, for an impressive 63, unfortunately run out in a mix up between the batsman, where either batsman could have been run out. For some strange reason this writer chose to throw the ball to the ‘keeper’s end rather than make a certain run out at the bowler’s end !

This proved to be the last of any real resistance from the Burnside batsmen and they were eventually bowled out for 1 8 1 in the final over. Cameron Stone and Andrew Ellis were the best of the Willows bowlers, although Richard Abbott after a slow start bowled well in his last 5 avers.