It was not only the case of beating Terrace, but threatening weather which dumped rain on Thornton Oval just minutes after Raymond Terrace were out for 9/247 in the 76^th over about 4.30pm.

Willis and medium pacer Brent Dawes bowled themselves into the ground averaging less than two minutes an over as Thornton set about bowling their 80 overs as quickly as possible to gain first inning points after posting 4/428 on day one.

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With Aaron Noffke unavailable to bat, what had seemed unlikely win at tea was completed with the third ball of the 76^th over when Tom Callan was caught behind by Peter Gabriel off Willis.

The hard-luck story of the day belonged to Luke Thomas who was caught on 99 ending a hard-hitting innings featuring eight four and six sixes.

Thornton skipper Matt Gabriel said it was one of the most remarkable games he had played in and admitted they had felt bowling the 80 overs was their best chance to beat Raymond Terrace.

"We were pretty much playing against the rain more than anything. It was coming very quickly," Gabriel said.

"Just after the tea break we looked at the radar and saw what was coming and thought we are really going to struggle to get this game in.

"We were confident they weren't going to get our total even if we couldn't get them all out.

"We basically had a chat and we didn't see ourselves getting another six wickets as it was still a very true wicket for batting. It was pretty tough to get wickets it was more the batters getting themselves out.

"I brought Dawesy back on and bowled Dan at the other end and it was literally run through the overs as quickly as possible.

"We weren't even worried about the wickets, it was just Dawesy and Dan pumping the overs out.

"Dawsey nearly ended up passing out, so my brother bowled an over of spin just before Dan got the last wicket.

"From after the tea break we were bowling every over in under two minutes.

"We bowled them out in the 76^th over, finished around by 4.30pm.

"It was insane. Everyone was just running between wickets to get it done. We were all exhausted after the game.

"It wasn't the way I want to play cricket, but in that situation luckily we had enough runs on the board, because we didn't see ourselves getting the wickets.

"The only reason I think we ended up getting the wickets was because we just rushed them."

Raymond Terrace made a good start, but Thornton's bowlers made making runs tough even on the batting friendly pitch with their tight line.

Dean Bradford (2-26) and Dylan Maxtead (1-33) got the initial breakthroughs before Willis took over one end to finish with 6-91 off 23.3 overs. In a herculean effort Dawes finished with 0-41 off his 22 overs.

Thomas top scored for Terrace with 99, Aaron Sherritt 45 and skipper Daniel Upward made 33 before becoming Willis first wicket courtesy of a freak, one-handed catch by Nic Bourke.