Having recently qualified for yet another Gillette Cup Finals shot, the Boys’ High side were in preparation mode for the December national tournament. A beautiful day at Loburn greeted the players. The School side had first use of a new deck which had a little bit to offer the new ball attack. Openers Robbie Foulkes and Mitchell McMillan started positively and CBHS were off to a flyer. The first wicket fell in the ninth over with the score at 51. Foulkes worked hard during a tight period of bowling from Nuttall, Scott and Parr, to later begin to accelerate and play with skill and freedom. The star of the innings was Stan Ashwin who pummeled the attack and left bowlers searching for answers. After easing into his innings, Stan smashed it to all parts and closed the innings perfectly with Callum Simpson and Ranaq Kapur who managed to go at 10 runs per over for the last ten. A chanceless knock, Ashwin finished on 109* off 65 deliveries with 13 fours and 2 sixes closing the innings at 305/4 — a mammoth total.

The Willows in reply, had a batting line up which could threaten. The deck had flattened out and was a very good batting surface. A solid start between Aarush Bhagwat and Kelvin Scott promised much but a flurry of wickets from seamers Rocco O’Loughlin and Callum Simpson, saw The Willows reeling at 55/4. This soon became 78/8 as wickets continued to fall to good catching and good bowling. Simpson having a great spell with a return of 4/29. The only form of resistance came from Aaron Mauger who picked up a bat for the first time in four years and scored an excellent run a ball 51 showing great application. Mauger, with good support from Andrew Nuttall late in the piece helped get the Willows to 160 all out.

305 was always going to be a tall order, (particularly with five ducks) but it was wonderful to see the Christchurch Boys’ team put together such a complete performance. Their dominance hammered home the realisation that it may be a very tough ask to ever win back the Walter Hadlee Trophy from the Straven lads.

It was an honour and pleasure to have four Hadlee members — Dayle, Barry, Martin and Sir Richard — along with John Wright and Craig McMillan in attendance for the afternoon’s formalities.