Conditions were perfect for a day at the cricket. Pitch had some fresh grass for the bowlers while the batters were smiling as it was hard and fast. Willows captain Andy Ellis won the toss and decided to bat (half his team had been at the Saturday horse races) so he bought some extra recovery time for his bowlers. His men had to fight hard early. Connor Bettsworth and Quinn Smith dug in to see off the new ball. Micah Walther found some great rhythm and was the pick of the bowlers with 4/46. He and the other bowlers really strangled our progress. Andy Ellis and Paul Miller had to fight hard through the middle with a couple of nice strokes but there wasn’t a lot else. A score of 189 was going to be hard to defend.

Northwest XI’s turn to bat. Again they struggled against some really nice length bowling. Seaver Cowley (over from the UK to play a summer of cricket) bowled beautifully picking up 5/21 and winning the POD. With the ball swinging and seaming disconcertingly, wickets began to fall. Harry Witt chimed in with a 3-fer at the end. Finally the combined XI were rolled for 61 – Micky Steele Bodger would have been proud of this one.