Note for this weekend (10 November)

Your friendly Editor is away at a wedding in the bush this weekend and far away from online access so the News and Match Reports will be updated early next week.

Points Table

Standings after 5 Rounds are:

• A1 Grade – =3^rd (3^rd on quotient)
• A2 – =1^st (1^st on quotient)
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – 7^th
  • Red (Gunny) – 2^nd
• B2 – =2^nd (2^nd on quotient)
• C1 – -6^th (6^th on quotient)
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – 1^st
  • Red (Indranil) – 4^th
• C3 – 3^rd
• D1 – 6^th
• D2 – 5^th

Match Reports

A Grade 163 lost to Berowra 188 – one of the most overused words in sports, guys, is “incredible.” I hate to say it. But today was incredible.

A very warm and lush Berowra Oval welcomed back the old rivals for Day 2 of the much anticipated clash between Berowra and WPHCCCC. Players were immediately shocked to find that Barry “Ronald” McDonald was substitute umpire for the days play, a spanner in the works that was welcomed by both sides.

WPHCCC had a great warm-up, nearly all of the throws in the fielding drill went to Lach ‘Ripped Pants’ McBrien ankles and Phil ‘Sketchers’ Wurth almost took out an innocent Berowra player with a wayward return over the stumps. Comparatively, the home side took to the turf to run laps and do fielding drills – your reporter spoke for both everyone at the ground and watching live through the WPHCCC app when he commented, “Did anyone tell them that they are BATTING today.”

So the stage was set, Berowra just one down after Day 1’s play and needing a mere simple 65 odd runs for victory. If you thought that any reasonable side could get that knocked over quite comfortably, you thought wrong.

The Miedler brothers kicked us off and immediately were hitting the right line and length, pressure was mounting and the healthy run rate Berowra had enjoyed last week had dried off. Yet they were still picking off 1 and 2’s and before long 1/90 turned to 1/120. The bumper crowd were about to pack up and go home.

But alas, when all hope seemed lost, WPHCCC sprung into gear. Wickets to Riley and Bailey catapulted us back into contention in a matter of overs. Ripped Pants taking one of the catches of the season down the leg side, full stretch with commando roll – it was like we had Adam Gilchrist in the side.

Bailey picking up Nick ‘Elephant’ McNay plum in front, James ‘Jamakin’ Makin taking a brilliant catch in the slips off Riley – the party had begun! Berowra collapsing quickly as they lost 5/9 in just twenty minutes of play, WPHCCC were up and about and the Miedler brothers were putting on a show – despite the absence of their father and more importantly, OUR President Andrew ‘Harrison’ Miedler.

6 down with 25 to get and Berowra had to fight. But as Sketchers astutely commented from the Gully, “you have to be in it, to win it”. Two more wickets fell in rapid succession, highlighted by the slicing and dicing of TJ Onions who was brilliantly caught again down the leg side by Ripped Pants. WPHCCC had the home side 8 down, in the midst of one of the biggest batting collapses in the history of cricket.

But good teams find a way to win, and that’s exactly what Berowra were able to do – securing the runs with 2 wickets to spare.

A valiant effort from the WPHCCC side, who were gonners at the start of the day. We were able to fight on a flat deck and show Berowra – and the rest of the competition – that we mean business.

Despite the loss, the changerooms were full of positivity and the speeches post match inspired us to do better next round – even Jackson ‘Take it MF’ Preedy now thinks so, even though he was caught not listening to Sketchers. Very disrespectful and disciplinary sanctions will no doubt follow – i.e. covers duty forever.

Special mention to Ashane ‘Michael Jackson/Bono’ DeSilva, who channelled his Oakhill College First XI days and resurrected the old leg spinners.

Lichaaa, Riley and Yoyo were expecting big things knowing how good his leggies once were in the First XI side – but out of the 11 balls he bowled in his one over, only one ball was reflective of his past glories – a beautiful leggie which had Tobin all ends up. Although it should be said that John Crane would be mortified if he had witnessed Bono’s over today….

MVP – Bailey, congrats on the 5fer

Joker – Phil

A2 Grade 144 lost to Hornsby 164 – now I understand why WPH Sports Club ask you to put a coaster under your beer. It’s so the deck doesn’t get wet. We thought a hot, dry week would be great to bat. The storm Friday night meant many coasters should have been covering The Glade deck, to avoid the damp pitch that presented itself to us Saturday.

Starting with the large foundation of 0/3 overnight, there really wasn’t much work to do. Tough conditions saw Pear ‘Babysitter’ Partridge show great courage and patience, something not often seen in a fruit, to work his way to 24, before Effie ‘Ball Puncher’ Banner (30) and Mobbo ‘Just A Fill In’ Mobertson (63*) took control of the game, to see us 3/105.

 

I can’t really remember what happened after that, but we lost by 20 runs. I think it looked something like an iceberg smashing the Titanic. A bit like Michael Jackson just trying to steady the ship with a bit of plastic surgery. A bit like Lichaaa trying to outdo Angry Wonder.

After our first loss of the season, the A2 coach at the press conference was asked what the loss meant.

A2 Coach: I think it was the loss we needed to have.

A2’s are now looking for a new coach.

B1 Blue (Rick) 186 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 9/190 – WOW, what a great game of cricket. We lost in a close one including a dubious LBW decision for the last wicket. Normo started their innings well and we dropped both openers early which we were to rue a little later in the day.

Our openers DJ and Flooky and first change bowlers Flair and Coops ground away for no reward.

Chances were being created but we couldn’t grab a pole. Normo were 0/59 at drinks and looking solid. Bringing on the spinners did the trick. Willy and Raffa removed the openers which started a mini collapse.

Normo went from 2/93 to 5/113 quick smart with Willy, Raffa and Flooky picking up scalps. Normo dug in started to fight back getting to 165 when Willy struck again. Then another mini collapse with Normo losing 4/12 to be 9/177 and needing 10 to win.

The last wicket was drama filled. Chances created, a good shot, a lucky shot and a dubious LBW decision all rolled into 6 or 7 overs. Normo eventually snuck over the line.

Best of our bowling Willy 5/21, Flooky 3/44 and Raffa 1/16. It was great game and we twice fought back hard when we needed to. A lot to like about this game but we couldn’t quite get the job done.

B1 Red (Gunny) 7/275 drew with SKLPS 6/144 – we showed up at Greenway looking to score quick runs before a declaration continuing on from 6/236. Quick runs were achieved, getting to 275 within 4.4 overs, however unfortunately Brent fell just short of his 100, out for 97 with Kyle Townsend scoring 26 not out.

Our turn with the ball and we managed to get them 6 down but it wasn’t enough on what was a tough day. Our bowlers bowled extremely well, however we couldn’t make the most of our half chances and SKLPS looked less than interested in making a game of it.

Special mention goes to the record B Grade attendance today with 4 girlfriends, 3 dads, 3 mothers and 2 injured players attending providing tea time frozen cokes and callipo’s.

Also to Brent Larkham, who got 4-11 (off 10) with the ball after his 97, achieving two fines – no 100 no five fa. All other bowlers bowled extremely tight without luck – best being J Edwards (1-22 off 11), KT (0-20 off 10), Chidge (0-8 off 10) and Az Hawkins (0-10 off 8).

B2 6 dec 269 defeated Hornsby 60 & 5/158 – we secured first inning points last week and we were out to get maximum points this week. We resumed at 4/171 and planned to bat for 10 overs and put on 50-60 runs. Dinesh De Silva began the day on 47 and soon brought up his 50 in the second over. Ryan Gunn and Dinesh added 90 runs to our total in the 10 overs.

Dinesh and Gunny put on a 117 run partnership before Gunny was dismissed for 41. Dinesh brought up his ton the next over, finishing on 102* – our 476^th century and just the 2^nd this season. Dinesh played with great patience last week to work himself in, this week’s performance was pure power hitting. Fantastic to watch.

The Opposition batsmen played with a dead bat all day. Determined to avoid the outright. Our bowlers toiled hard until the end of play with the wickets shared around. Prats 1, Naps 3 and Eric 1.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the outright, but a great win with many players running into form.

C1 153 defeated Berowra 124 – on a gorgeous day at Brooklyn dairy, having been 9-142 overnight we increased our score to all out 152. With Matt Digby Captaining his 1st game, the guys garnered around him to produce his first result with a win!

Napier Gryst (0-22 off 9), Matt Digby (0-8 off 6) & Connor Hindmarsh (0-20 off 6) bowled well to keep building the pressure on Berowra’s batsmen throughout, leading to mistakes with a run out, unfortunately a few dropped catches.

Raunik Sethi (2-24 off 7), Asees Rajput (3-28 off 14.5), & Arjun Kumar (4-19 off 11) were the stars with the ball.

Well done to all involved in this match, this our first win of the season, may it continue! Looking forward to the 1 dayer next week.

C2 Blue (Fieds) 2/157 defeated Beecroft 153 – after resuming at 1/19, chasing 153, we were confident that conditions were in our favour, as we had nice hot day to bat with a fairly fast outfield. Warren Schwartzel resumed with nightwatchman Stuey Fiedler and we were about to witness our most dominant performance of the season.

Woz started with a flurry hitting the first 2 balls of the day to the boundary, however a calamity was just around the corner. A couple of overs later he succumbed to the old-man’s injury – a pulled calf muscle, and his day was over having compiled 23 no.

Stu was joined by U16 debutant Alistair Fullerton who looked very comfortable at the crease from the outset. The two of them consolidated and put us in a winning position before Al was dismissed for 30, leaving us 2/98.

From here, Stu & Tarun Lath (22 no) finished off proceedings without too much bother, passing the total right on the tea break. Stu managed his highest ever score of 64 no, after conjuring memories of Dizzy Gillespie’s double-century as night-watchman in his last test for Aust – a new nickname has been born.

We now look forward to our derby clash with the Reds next week – bring it on!

C2 Red (Indranil) 9/120 defeated Kenthurst 85 & 3/117 – we knew getting the 24 runs would not be easy against Kenthurst but the boys managed to get us home with a first innings win in 8 overs losing 2 wickets. After securing the win, Graham Craig 21 and Shanks 8* showed patience and we declared 9/120.

We went for an outright, and what a start from A Sen getting 2 wickets in his first 3 balls. A Driscoll bowled tight line and length and got the 3rd wicket in his 3rd over.

At the Tea break KH was 3/25 runs in 16 overs. We pushed ahead after tea, but the KH batsmen just bolted down and some missed chances did not help our cause. Just before 5 pm with no additional wickets taken, the Captains decided to call off the game.

A big thank you to Peza, Aditeya and A Driscoll to fill in for this round.

Look forward to the club derby next week.

C3 223 defeated outright ARL 118 & 169 – continuing on from our overnight score of 8/195 we lost a quick wicket, but Rowan Dickinson played a wonderful cameo of 35* well supported by Paul V to add valuable runs and take our lead to 105 whilst only using up 5 overs.

With ARL batting again on a lightning fast Campbell Park, their Openers dug in and good spells from Paul and Rowan went unrewarded.

After last week’s 5 wicket haul, we called on Will Harvey to break the partnership. Their second wicket partnership added 78, but we knew if we stuck to our game plan and dismissed one of these two we would be on top of the game.

Xander grabbed the breakthrough and from 1/110 we rolled them for 169 all out, 65 for us to win. A great spell from John Rose netted him 4/30 and excellent support in the field with great catching from Patto, Riley (a super one handed grab at cover), Darcy and Brent backed up our bowling effort. Wicket takers were Rosey with 4, Xander and Buzz 2 each and Will.

Needing 65 to win outright against a side that had previously bowled us out for 64 in round 2 was never a given! But Ian Paterson continued his great form and played the two quick bowlers with aplomb!

Well supported by Xander and Dylan, Patto saw us safely home with a measured 42*. Measured, because he hit 40 of those runs in boundaries and (very slowly) walked the other two!

This was a great team effort against a challenging Opposition and shows a team who are really starting to believe in themselves.

D1 9/226 drew with Castle Hill RSL 8/78 –– Gautam (100 and our 477^th Century) started the day off with a well earned century, a great Captains knock that kept us right in contention for the win. We declared with our final wicket still in hand.

Roshan and Amith opened the bowling and grabbed the first few wickets whilst only leaking 9 runs. Amith took a great catch off some solid bowling from Marcus and Connor grabbed a superb over the head catch to continue Castle Hills woes. Connor followed with an edge to Aden for a well deserved wicket after a tight bowling spell.

Castle Hill blocked their way to finish the match with a draw. We would have like to have finished with the win, however, it was a much improved performance from last week.

D2 7/174 drew with St Ives 6/296 dec – Day 1 last week was not a good day for us in D2. St Ives had hit 296 last week and declared after 59 overs. We had to bat 9 overs but lost 2 wickets for 10 runs. So we knew that Day 2 required us to bat for 5 hours to get a draw. Luke Christensen who had opened last week continued his careful approach eventually scoring 71 runs in his 53 over stay at the crease.

Waman Tamhankar and Luke Christensen batted for the first hour and a half on Day 2 before Waman was hit on the toe with a full toss getting a plumb lbw decision. Nirav Desai also had a lbw decision against him by the same bowler. Those 2 quick wickets via ‘lbw’ decisions meant we were 4 for 48 at the 32 over mark. Lakshya Rao then came in to bat but was bowled with the first ball hitting his wicket. We were 5 for 56 runs after 33 overs. Things were starting to go downhill.

Praneel Singh came into bat in over 33 and remained not out until the end of the match in over 78. Auyush Tamhankar playing his first game with us was unfortunately bowled out on his first ball which took out the off stump.

Parin Pillamarri came to the crease in over 52 when Luke Christensen was caught at cover. We were then 7 for 124 runs. Praneel Singh proceeded to hit 41 runs in a calm, cool and collected manner. His demeanour obviously assisted his batting partner Parin Pillamarri who hit 15 runs not out. St Ives threw everything at these two batters who managed to hang on through the next 25 overs before the match became a draw.

An absolutely fantastic result for D2 showing mental toughness and fortitude. Sometimes a tough match like this does more for a team’s morale and belief than any easy win.

I can’t say how proud Captain Mike was of every member in the team. We have kept our 5th placing and denied St Ives their first win against us in 3 seasons. A great achievement fellas and well done.