Points Table

Points Table

Standings after 6 Rounds are:

• A1 Grade – =4^th (4^th on quotient)
• A2 – =1^st (1^st on quotient)
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – 8^th
  • Red (Gunny) – 3^rd
• B2 – =3^rd (3^rd on quotient)
• C1 – =7^th (7^th on quotient)
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – 1^st
  • Red (Indranil) – 5^th
• C3 – 3^rd
• D1 – 3^rd
• D2 – 5^th

Match Reports

A Grade 9/125 lost to Hornsby 4/129 – what a day for cricket, sun shining, birds chirping, Parklands Oval is magnificent condition – you could say it was just another Manic Monday, oh woah woah that’s my funday, woahhh it’s just another Manic Monday. Hornsby looked sharp in their canary yellow warmup ensamble which channeled Australia’s team uniform from World Series Cricket in the 70s. WPHCCC on the other hand looked like a pack of hobos that had wandered to the ground off the street – it’s our own style and one that garners respect from our fans.

Our warmup was fair, I was on Jackson’s team in the cricket soccer and we all know his poor win record in the warm up games – his luck didn’t turn today. Note: for all those worried about the missing scorebook, Alex ‘Fig’ Robertson was able to find it at club legend Barry ‘Andrew’ McDonalds house – the two conversed for over an hour on cricket yarns, Fig helping Baz with his crossword – the two are catching up this week for coffee, we will keep you posted as the friendship blossoms.

Spirits were high when JP made it 8/8 in toss wins, electing to bat on a perfect surface. Major change to the side this week was the inclusion of Tiz ‘Mr T’ Mistry who replaced Tim Scholar who was off at church. In the rooms prior the commencement of the innings, Phil ‘Manic Monday’ Wurth gave us all a little lecture where he covered many different life topics including Ian Thorpe’s sexuality, circulation in socks and his love for renting in multiple Sydney suburbs – his speech cut short when he remembered that he needed to bat, telling Fig to email him any further questions so he can respond to them during the week.

Before leaving the rooms, Phil also commended Jackson on his listening skills this week who was very attentive after learning a valuable lesson the week prior.

He also called ¾ of the team ‘mentally weak’, then proceeded to join James ‘Jamakin’ Makin in the centre.

Phil was on a mission – “I am going to score 50 in 5 overs today, you watch”. Well we watched. We watched Phil pop one up to mid-off, dismissed for a measly 2ish runs very early in the innings. Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards joined Jamkin at the crease in the midst of a form slump, the nerves settling with a magnificent square drive which cannoned in the rope early in the innings.

Unfortunately Jamakin didn’t last long – and things went from bad to worse when Josh ‘Yoyo’ Mathais was caught behind for a second ball duck. WPHCCC quickly in deep trouble at 3/10.

Fig joined Lichaaa at the crease and the two began consolidating, rebuilding, laying the foundation. Some great shotmaking off some pretty pedestrian bowling ensued, and the run rate began to climb. Things were all sunshine and rainbows until a mix up in the middle resulted in a terrible run out, Fig going back to the pavilion after another good start. Lichaaa joined him next over, holing out for 19 to mid-on and WPHCCC were staring down the barrel of an embarrassing total.

Dan ‘Fish’ Costigan and Riley ‘Bailey’ Miedler tried to stem the flow of wickets by Riley was knocked over by his cousin in what was a bittersweet moment for the extended Miedler/Walker family in the stands. Mr T joined Fish and the two played freely and began to pick off some handy runs. Mr T especially was looking good and the game was moving so quickly, Phil was really struggling to keep up with the scoring duties.

Tiz continued to hit multiple boundaries and then. drama. A huge pull shot to the western square wicket boundary was dropped by the boundary rider, but it looked like he simultaneously touched the fence as he made contact with the ball – hence resulting in a six. The batsman ran two, and the umpires were satisfied.

But let me just say that I think they will be facing a barrage of questions from HKHDCA el Presidente Andrew ‘Riley’ Miedler. Mr President was very surprised to see the six not called and immediately sprung to his feet and requested the decision to be questioned. He then asked for an internal audit and investigation to be issued on the incident. Results on this will be posted to the HKHDCA website this week.

Fish went not long after this drama and the stage was set for Jackson ‘Custard’ Preedy to save us – and he did just that. Some lovely shots all around the ground were so good that the team mistook his 22^nd run for his 50! The crowd erupted but Custard wasn’t fazed, finishing 35 not at the end of the innings and helping us get to 125. You would think Custard would be happy – he wasn’t when he discovered that Yoyo had consumed all 24 of his nuggets that he was so very much looking forward to.

With just 125 to defend, we had to be at our very best with the ball. We got off to the perfect start, Bailey taking a wicket first ball caught behind and then Tiz followed with a wicket of his own. WPHCCC were up and about – Phil was bragging about his weight loss, money saved from not punting and the amount of time he is rubbing his magic genie. But alas, the good times ended quickly as Hornsby dispatched our attack all around the ground.

The late introduction of Custard was not enough, his two wickets pointless as Hornsby cruised to an easy win. Custard did try to get the ball the swing though, plenty of spit was put onto the ball to help it drift – in hindsight, probably too much spit hey Phil?

A tough loss but the team remain confident of a finals place – we have the bowling attack of a winning side, our batting just needs to improve ever so slightly. I will leave you this week with a leadership quote from Phil, who bled for his team today:

3 of 8. Being open, honest, and trustworthy.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a leader is being caught being untrustworthy. Be very careful to cover your tracks if somebody suspects you of being anything but sincere in your actions.

Especially if you’re at the helm of an organization, you’re going to run into scenarios where people will come to you to share how they’re feeling, or issues they’re experiencing within the team. It’s not your job to treat those conversations carefully as you have more important tasks to attend to.

Make the person feel heard but respect the fact they came to you and you alone, and palm them off to the HR department. It’s ok to share that individual’s issues with one of their peers in the company which is a fast track to earning respect within the circle of other team members.

A2 Grade 9/114 defeated Kissing Point 70 – congratulations to Cooper ‘Casual Catch’ Goddard, who made his A2 debut. Well done on reaching the summit of international cricket.

Snumpty ‘Leave Pass’ Smyth won the toss, and didn’t know what happened next. He asked the Opposition captain what he wanted to do, and he wanted to bowl. So we batted. Snumpty has promised to be better prepared if he ever has the fortune of winning a toss again.

Just like Angry’s night at the Bowlo, the stay at the crease for many of our top order bats was shorter than expected. Pear ‘I Wanna Talk To The Manager’ Partridge hit 21, but at 6/48, just like Luke Foley’s political career, things weren’t going exactly to plan.

Then stepped up Effie ‘It’s An Umbrella’ Banner, who hit 34*, in a mature innings that belied the size of his calves. Effie and Snumpty (19) put on 36 for the 7th wicket, before Cambo ‘Not A Vegan’ McBrien launched a massive Zac Effron into the neighbour’s house, to see us finish at 9/114. Cambo is facing trespassing charges.

Kissing Point moved to 0/37, before Blowy ‘The Better Gandis’ Blow skittled 2 blokes with his first 2 balls. From there, we never looked back, taking 10/33, to roll Kissing Point for 70. Blowy was the star with 4/12, with great support from Gandis ‘I’ll Propose Soon Guys’ Herzog, who took 3/12. Snumpty (2/7) and Kitty ‘I’ll Get Married First’ Grover (1/22) were the other wicket takers.

A great win that had more guts than a pie eating carnival. How good are pies. Standard meat is my favourite.

B1 Blue (Rick) 86 lost to SKLPS 7/155 – there is one word to summarise how we played today – and that word is POO. As per usual the skipper Rick “Medium Flair” Turner lost the toss and we were sent into the field.

Our bowlers started off a little wayward – allowing SKLPS to reach 0-40 at the end of the 10^th over. The tables turned however in the next 10 heading into drinks as we took 4-21 with “Voice” heading the charge with 2-26 and “Medium Flare” 2-15. “Hollywood” was not impressed as “Willy” was thrown the ball and maintained his purple patch with 1-9. “The Joblett” also chipped in with a firey 1-24 off his 7 overs.

Needless to say SKLPS set us a total of 155 for victory. From the get go we were slow out of the blocks, and losing steady wickets over the period. “Raffdaddy” was our top scorer with 20 – with only another 2 batsmen getting into double figures. Overall quite a disappointing result for the boys. However we plan to return next week with a stronger performance.

B1 Red (Gunny) 143 tied with Castle Hill 143 – after last week’s record B1 crowd turned out to watch the cricketing equivalent of paint drying, almost all of last week’s spectators understandably chose not to make the trip to Dural Park for our one dayer against Castle Hill. They missed one of the matches of the season with both sides finishing on 143 for a tie. \

Filling in for Gunns this week, Justin “Chief Delegator” Edwards took the reins and appropriately lost the toss to make sure no-one missed the skipper. We were asked to bowl and Kyle “Katy Perry” Townsend sent down a couple of hit singles along with tight bowling from Justin to have them 3/10 inside three overs. Castle Hill rebuilt their innings well and a broken finger to our wicketkeeper Aaron “I feel no pain” Carlini left us with 10 fielders for the remainder of the innings. We kept them to 6/143 with some tight bowling, Ben “better than Adam Zampa” Miekle and Kyle finishing with two wickets each.

At 4/29 in our run chase we were in trouble but a steadying partnership from Kyle and Brent “I don’t want to bat 3” Larkham put us back in the game. Brent batted superbly to compile 65, despite insisting he can’t make runs in the top 3. Some lower order runs from Ben and Justin, took us to the last over at 8/139, 5 runs to win. After Semonn “Freshly Untwisted” Oleksyn was unluckily run out with 3 runs to win, we thought that was the game but out strolled Aaron, with a broken finger and his arm in a cast to try and salvage the game from the non-striker’s end.

A two leveled the scores and left Justin with 1 run to win off the last ball. Unfortunately, he middled a cover drive for the first time in his life and it went straight to the fielder who was able to complete the run out. A great game of cricket with a courageous ending from Aaron who is booked in for surgery first thing Monday.

B2 9/139 lost to Berowra 6/140 – we got off to a solid start, losing the toss and being put in to bat. Michael McGregor (41) and Zac Morris (25) put on a 61 opening stand.

A steady start for us to build on. Raghu Chary (30) joined Zac at the crease and looked to accelerate the run rate. Wickets fell steadily until the end of the innings to see us finish on 9/139.

The Opposition got off to a fast start with 4 edges flying to the boundary in the first 4 overs. Rob Knapman (3/23) came into the attack and made an immediate impact taking a wicket second ball. 4 quick wickets and we had the opposition 4/64 at the drinks break.

After the break the batsmen came out swinging. A few close calls didn’t go our way as the opposition went on to pass our total in the 29th over. Nathaniel Chidgey (1/21), Raghu Chary (1/23) and Matt Digby (1/21) were amongst the wickets.

C1 8/159 lost to Kissing Point 8/160 – beautiful day greeted us at Auluba oval in South Turramurra, Wortho won the toss and we were bowling against Kissing Point. “I love Travis Head (South Australian)” i mean Napier Gryst (3-17 off 6) opened with Sam Hando (0-27 off 7) in 11 overs of unadulterated fast swing bowling, both were getting the ball singing to their tunes of choice, conjuring memories of the 05 Ashes series in England.

They were supported by Aseem Goswami (1-29 off 7), has been very unlucky not to pick up more wickets throughout the season, Roshan Withanage (D1 fillin 1-9 off 4), his first stint in c grade didnt look out of place with his Glenn Mcgrath econony and rhythm throughout his spell. Bringing on Asees Rajput (3-37 off 7) was a momentum shift with Kissing Point starting to increase the run rate, unfortunately for Prats Datar (0-38 off 4), Asees bowled with unbelievable guile and a rapidly forming bowlers mindset to restrict the KP batsmen throughout his spell.

The highlight during his spell was a superb catch from Mitchell Keetels (D1 fillin), at deep long off, the batsman has hit a high fade moving away at a rate of knots both hands fully extended grabbed this specky, it was a momentum shifter from chasing 200, we got KP 8-160.

In reply Nandu Ramesh (6) was looking great but got out, Napier Gryst (46 off 50), was seeing them well ss was Manu Verma (32) playing intelligent no nonsense cricket, with cameos from Rommel Pandey (10), Asees Rajput (17), Prats Datar (8), Mitchell Keetels (5), Wortho (12), bringing our score closer it came down to the final over. 8 off 6 with Sam Hando (2no) & Aseem Goswami (20no), needing 2 off the last ball we just missed out after the scorebooks didn’t balance.

Special mention to Prats Datar (B2) the cricket scorer extraordinaire, Roshan Withanage & Mitchell Keetels (D1) for filling in and playing your part in this game. We will be working on catching practice this week … onward and upward C1’s over and out!

C2 Blue (Fieds) 5/171 defeated C2 Red (Indranil) 7/121 – a Club local Derby and there was lot of excitement and anticipation from both teams leading to the match. Reds won the toss and did not hesitate to invite the Blues to bat first. Perhaps the only bright thing happening for the Reds on the day.

The Blues were able to consistently build partnerships, with most of our top 6 getting starts – most notably Mick Barry (33), Matt Schwartzel (33), Feathers (36) and debutant Darpan Ranjan (25 ret). After being 2/73 at the halfway mark, we had a solid base to accelerate & post a quite formidable 171.

After some steady opening bowling Blues were 1/29 in the first 10 overs. Post that the Blues consolidated in the middle phase and the dropped chances did not help. The scoring rate climbed up and they finished their innings at 7/171. The wicket takers were Amitava 1/31, Ben K 2/21 and Shanks 2/33.

The Reds turn to bat, and the opening partnership of Graham and Indranil took the score to 29 in the first 10 overs. We lost few wickets before first drinks break and after that it was a tough one to get the score rate going.

Stuey Fiedler continued his great form taking 2 vital wickets before the drinks break, leaving the Reds at 4/70. The Blues were confident that so long as they kept things tight and dried up the easy runs, they would force the run rate out of the Reds’ reach. That’s exactly how things went – and the remaining bowlers took a wicket each to finish the game with a solid 50-run win.

The Reds finished the innings at 7/121 with some notable scores from Graham Craig 21, Peter Lees 26 and Ben K 32*.

The game was played in a great spirit and we have to wait until the last round to lock horns once again.

C3 4/94 defeated St Ives 93 – with 3 of our players needing to leave at 4:30pm it was an important toss to win, and after intense training from A2 skipper and Super Tosser Snumpty during the week, against historical form, Buzz managed to do just that! (Snumpty also won his toss today – so any skippers wanting tossing advice just email: supertosser@A2leadingthecomp.com.au)

Sending St Ives into bat we were off to a great start with Rowan being rewarded for some fiery bowling with the first breakthrough, followed quickly by his second scalp of the innings. Great bowling from Paul, John and Xander had them 5/50 at drinks and we continued to collect wickets with some good catching from Darcy, Quan and Brent after the break to have them all out for 93.

Best of the bowlers was Rosey with 3/15 in a fabulous spell. Rowan collected 2/14 and Paul, Dylan, Xander and Buzz each picked up a wicket.

Our turn to bat, and although we faced a small total to chase, we were conscious that sometimes these totals can trip you up, sure enough a couple of early wickets made us work a little harder, but an excellent innings from Paul Vink our resident number 11 (not by ability!) showed exactly why this team bats all the way down the order by compiling a punishing 33* when promoted to number 4 as he had to leave early.

Paul partnered with Brent Van Wyk to knock off most of the remaining total, Brent showing us just how devastating he can be with an exciting 25* including 4 sixes! (3 in a row off one hapless bowler).

Needing just 4 to win, our super sub Quan fell to one of the flukiest catches you’ll ever see, a one handed ‘stick-em up and hope’ effort that surprised the fielder as much as anyone! (Thanks for filling in Mate! much appreciated). Buzz closed it out next ball and we deservedly collected the six points to keep the winning feeling rolling on.

A tougher assignment next match, but back into the two day stuff that will give us the opportunity to build on these last three impressive wins.

D1 6/172 defeated Hornsby 8/126 – we started off well, winning the toss and electing to bat, but our innings commenced poorly, losing a wicket early in the 2nd over. Aden (22) and Gautam (63) then batted well to see us to drinks with no further losses at 1/76. With the intention of pushing our total on, Aden and Gautam batted aggressively, before an unnecessary run out.

With several good contributions from Josh (17*), Siby (15) and Dave (8*), left us defending a good total of 172 at a fast Foxglove Oval.

Josh bowled a great over to start our bowling, with several dropped chances with the inevitability of a wicket just around the corner. From then on, we were well on top of Hornsby, taking consistent wickets, and restricting their run rate with tight bowling from Dave (1/24), Roger (1/16), Amith (1/24) and Josh (2/32). The star of our bowling was by far Marcus, who came into the attack with only a few overs left, and quickly took (3/14).

D2 92 lost to Hornsby 9/103 – update to come but a closed loss.