The New Zealand Over-60s side acquitted themselves with honour at the inaugural Over-60 Cricket World Cup held in September on the Sunshine Coast. They made it to the finals but had to settle for runners-up, beaten by a tidy Pakistan unit. NZ managed 173/9 off 45 overs; a total which Pakistan comfortably chased down to win the match by seven wickets. Playing for NZ were Willowers Graeme Inglis (Captain) and Andrew Nuttall, who happened to take all three Pakistani wickets to fall. Other club members in the squad included Jeremy Wilson, Mike Johnston, Tony Gray, Bob Masefield (selector/ back-up player) and Manager Lance Ryan. Congratulations on a memorable result from our team.
And then in December 2022 we learned that another three club members gained selection in the New Zealand Over-40s side to play Australia in February. They were: Adam Hastilow and Honorary Members Hamish and James Marshall. We await final team selection for a tournament in South Africa in early 2024. For Adam he capped off a terrific season by scoring 101 retired on a well-attended Club Day and in so doing became the twelfth batsman to aggregate 1,000 runs for The Willows CC. Great news.
The international flavour continued into 2023 when we hosted the NSW Vets (Over-60s) at Loburn in February. On a scorching hot Canterbury day it was a pleasure to welcome back many of our more senior players, led by men like Nutts, Scrump, Joe Bennett, John Durning and co. Good to see them wind the clock back, replicate former glory and chalk up a win. Batsmen retired at 40 runs with three of ours – Craig Gibb, Jeremy Wilson and Chris Mugford – doing so. And while putting out the plaudits we must mention Jeremy again; he has been at the vanguard of Willows cricket for over ten years and recently played his 50th match for us.
Finally to finish a successful season for vets cricket Andrew Nuttall, Robbie Frew and Kelvin Scott were in the New Zealand Over-50 team which came a creditable third in their World Cup in South Africa in March 2023.