A fine day for cricket at Hawkley. A beautiful day of warm sunshine, gentle breeze and perfect pitch set the prospect of a great afternoons cricket.

Hawkley lost the toss and were put into the field. Hawkley's opening bowling was pants- infact where was Statue when we needed him- we desperately needed a four pair of undies attack? Todd (8 overs,1 for 70) and Mullard (2 overs, 0 for 28) were sprayed all over the Hawkley ground by the 2 very competent openers (Viljoen 56 and Jenna 75) of Willow Tree. What had been said by Twiggy Batten in the changing room for us to deserve such punishment? After 10 overs the visitors were scoring freely and Hawkley were looking down the barrel of chasing 400+.Finally some better bowling by new recruit Burkie (8 over ,0 for 47) and the fine bowling of Nipper Brown (8 overs,4 for 33) brought the game back into Hawkleys grasp, and with the improving bowling of Little Chris Huntley (8 overs, 3 for 47) we finally bowled out the opposition for 277 runs.

After Tea Hawkley went into bat in a positive fashion. Limpet Madeley (34) started well and we were up on the run rate. Unfortunately wickets fell too cheaply. Twiggy Batten (15) also positive until falling to a full toss. There was some fine spin bowling by Willow Tree that made scoring dificult. A partnership between Burkie (19) and Brawny Brown (48) gave Hawkley hope but when both were dismissed it was looking gloomy for the hosts, and after a final flourish from Todd (19) it was all over for 198.

Yet again Willow Tree PH have had the better of us- a run of defeats that surely can be broken- so maybe next year??!