Despite atrocious weather in Christchurch in the morning, a full complement of players arrived at Loburn, obviously confident in the North Canterbury weather.

Willows won the toss and elected to field. We had early success when Matt Fielding took the first wicket with just 3 runs scored, and this gave us confidence in our ability to control the Combined side to a manageable score. This complacency was appropriately rewarded with an excellent 2nd wicket stand of 88 runs off 22 overs between G Smith (72) and T Shields ( 1 3). Success then came for us in the form of 2 events of divine intervention. The first was a torrential hail-storm. Having watched and listened to the storm clouds approach, the umpires showed fine judgment to stop play just minutes before the storm in order to cover the wicket. The second event was when the covers were being taken onto the field just prior to any rain. The players assisting the “groundstaff” managed to unhook the trailer from the buggy, causing panic and a delay of a couple of minutes. This was enough time for the wicket to be whitened by a thick layer of hailstones before the covers were laid. The fierce storm lasted for half an hour, the covers were removed, and while one end of the wicket was quite damp, only an hour was lost.

The game had changed. While the wicket showed no change in performance, the Combined schools’ batsmen never got going again, and played in a much more reckless manner. They lost wickets regularly to be all out for 1 79 in the 50th over. The regular achilles heel of Willows XI fielding – was bandaged by an efficient wicketkeeping performance from Luke Doig , and while the bowlers conceded 20 wides, there were only 3 byes.

The experience of the Willowers showed in the batting performance. Most batsmen got a good start. This created good partnerships and allowed the Willows XI to pass the target in the 46th over for the loss of 6 wickets. The batting honours went to Richard Hayward and Garth Gallaway.