Great start to the season for Willoughby 1st XI

On a cold blustery night at the Green, Willoughby entertained North Kilworth in the first round of the cup. Willoughby lost the toss and were put in the field. The visitors made a steady start with some tight bowling from Dan Farrow and Stu Bonthuys until Stu removed one of the openers. A change is bowling changed the luck for Willoughby with Scott Cluely taking 2 wickets in his first over, both caught by quick hands keeper Anshul Satsangi. Justin Hanks came on the other end and bowled an over of magic, just missing out on a hat trick but taking 3 wickets for no runs in 1 over. Captain for the evening Mark Fell then came on for Scott and took 2 further wickets, with the last being an excellent stumping by Anshul. This left the visitors on 109 – 9 off their 16 overs. Justin 3-30, Scott 2-8, Mark 2-16, Stu 1-16, Dan 1-34.

In reply, some excellent early tight bowling from the visitors kept Willoughby’s scoring rate down until a majestic straight 6 was hit by Hassan Nawaz. A few wickets then fell, Ceri Roberts for 7, Ben Hollis for an unfortunate duck and then Hassan for 11, left Scott Cluely and Martyn Norman at the crease. Some big blows by Martyn put the game very much back into Willoughby’s favour, hitting 2 fours and 3 sixes, until he was eventually out for an excellent 35. Justin Hanks then fired a quick 11 before being caught out, leaving Scott 27 not out and Stu Bonthuys 7 not out to steer Willoughby home.

Hand warmers and many layers were definitely the order of the night, but as always, cricket was the true winner.