A glorious day at Loburn saw a positive and close encounter between the Willows and Waitaki Boys’ High School.

The Willows won the toss and batted first on an excellent deck. The top order batted well with all making starts, and CBHS 2nd XI batsmen James Irwin top scored with 81. He was well supported with scores of 29 (Rhys Petrie), 33 (Toby Munt) and 25 (Ollie Moore). The top order, however, was not supported by those who followed, with the Willows collapsing from 4 – 191 to 198 all out! Leg Spinner Archie Haywood took 6 – 33 to be the chief contributor in restricting the Willows.

In the field, the Willows started strongly restricting Waitaki to 3 – 33 at the 17-over drinks break. Off spinner Jimmy Hill, also from the CBHS 2nd XI taking 3 – 24 off his 10. Despite some real pace from Ollie Moore and accuracy from Tim Grocott, the Willows were unable to finish the job, and Waitaki recovered and started scoring boundaries to achieve the winning total 7 down with 2 overs to spare. Alex Wilson scored a superbly paced 89 and hit the winning runs with a 6, and he was supported by useful knocks from skipper Harry Mavor (14), Archie Rooney (19) and Cash Paterson (30).

A day of what might have been for the Willows. Waitaki were great visitors and took away the Rolie Eveleigh Trophy.

Floreat Waitaki

Nic Hill Match Manager