On a sunny but windy Sunday the Willows hosted the Sydenham Youth XI for the first time at the ground. The Willows, led by Skip Kelvin Scott, batted first with Kelvin opening the batting and scoring a typically dominant 83 to provide the backbone of the innings. When he was out with the score at 149/7 it looked like Sydenham could wrap things up for 200 or less but with 18 overs left Patrick Ross and Archie Huston combined in an unbeaten 105 run partnership to get the Willows through to a very respectable 258/8.

Patrick finished with a hard hit 85 not out and Archie with a more circumspect but very solid 31 not out. Bowling for Sydenham, Q Helmes was very tidy with 2/31 off his 10 overs and H Hood with 3/40 was their top wicket taker. The boys were very generally very tidy in the field but may have rued a couple of dropped catches.

After the lunch break Sydenham started their run chase. While their two openers were steady at 45/3 after 17 overs, it appeared the Willows had the upper hand. However, two excellent partnerships, firstly 59 from Archie Neilson (32) and Conway Andrews (91), followed by 111 from Conway and Al Derry (64) saw their team get to 246 after 49 overs. For the first time in the game, it looked probable that Sydenham would win with 13 required off the last over. Liam Singer was given the task of bowling the final over and held his nerve to bowl full and straight, conceding just the five singles off his first five balls – but not without drama as the fifth ball was the run out of set batsman Al Derry. While that effectively sealed the win for the Willows, H Hood added a final flourish hitting a six off the last ball of the innings to get his side to within one run.

An excellent game then that came down to the wire, and the young Sydenham Youth XI will no doubt have great memories of their debut game at the Willows in what proved to be real cracker.