Points Table

Standings after Roun 9 follows. The Table will be updated once all scores from across the Association are received:

• A1 Grade – =3rd (3^rd on quotient)
• A2 – 1^st
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – 8^th
  • Red (Gunny) – 1^st
• B2 – 5^th
• C1 – 6^th
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – 1^st
  • Red (Indranil) – 5^th
• C3 – =1^st (2^nd on quotient)
• D1 – 2^nd
• D2 – 5^th

Match Reports

A Grade 126 lost to Kenthurst 142 – welcome to 2019 and welcome back to the A1 match report, which has been missing for some time. Your friendly reporter had to cop a strong slap on the wrist from Ross over the break but fortunately he thinks my name is Robbo, so I dodged a bullet there. Anyway, we digress.

A warm day and very long grass greeted the players for what many had dubbed as the titantic clash of summer, WPHCCCCC v Kenthurst. A brief delay for the wet pitch allowed the players to discuss their holidays and no story was better than that of our new opening batsman, Jackson “30% off” Preedy, who shared his positive fortune with a mysterious lady of the night.

At this point, I would like to stop and say hello to some of my most loyal readers – Lisa and Michael Preedy. Please be advised that Jackson isn’t telling you everything and has something to share about his trips to Melbourne.

Back to the cricket and WPHCCCCCC won the toss and elected to bowl. Kenthurst came out swinging and were hitting 6s for fun, however a wickets to Buckets Scholar and Bailey “Andrew” Miedler stemmed the flow of runs. The clamps were applied further with a wonderful bowling partnership between Jackson “Escort” Preedy and Michael “Lichaaaa” Richards – and the over before drinks, their hard work was rewarded when Dan “Cardigan” Costigan knocked over Tim “Bing” Lee. Phil “Car Keys” Wurth summed up the session best when he asked out loud “how does someone has classy as me end up at fine leg?”

The second session presented the spell of the Summer, as Fish bamboozled the batsmen and was well rewarded with the wicket of Duncan. Strong bowling all round from the pace attack of Escort, Lichaaa, Andrew and Buckets restrained the target to 145, a wonderful effort considering the strong start from the home side. Alex “Figjam” Robertson also kept very well throughout and was very nice to the opposition, making friends with his old sparring partner Charles Ivey. Phil “Car Keys” summer up the session best when he noted “Well Robbo, at least you’ll have somewhere to go when we sack you”

The batting chase began with a very motivated James “Gordon Ramsey” Makin joined at the crease by new opening partner, Preeds.

The fairytale story was short lived however, when Jim and Preeds both departed in rapid succession.

We look forward to seeing what Preeds will do back down the order for the remainder of the season. Lichaaa showed some aggression for a quick made 20 odd, but fell victim to some smart captaincy when his down the ground run scoring area was filled with fielders.

Run outs to Wurth and Ashane didn’t help the cause, and the wickets kept falling. Resilience from Yo-yo and Robbo gave us hope, but when they went, WPHCCCC were up against it. Late hitting by Buckets and Bailey was not enough – WPHCCC suffered another loss. Phil “Car Keys” Wurth summer up the session best when he reminded Stewart “Sonic the Hedge” Hodges that his simple dropped catch in the middle part of the innings “looked like match fixing”

It’s been great to be back and reliving the action with you all, scroll down for some more enthralling reports from yesterday. But I’ll leave you with some words from wisdom, ohhhh we’re from Tigerlanddddd…………..

A2 Grade 130 defeated Hornsby 84 – today was hot. Hot like Rhonda and the sunrise. Our first demonstration of cricket alphaness occurred pre-game, when we had to lend Hornsby a bail, to ensure the game actually started. New captain, Fernie ‘Not As Good As My Dad’ Meikle continued old trends, by losing the toss. $2. We bowled.

It was evident early that batting conditions would be tough. The pitch was as reliable as a bloke remembering his wedding anniversary, and the outfield was as slow as a Carlton rebuild. JMac ‘Wrong Lid’ McBrien got us away with a couple of early boundaries, before Fat ‘Tanned Rig’ Connell (21) and LMac ‘DRS’ McBrien (19) put on a good foundation partnership, to get us through to within a ball of drinks.

2/58 off 18 was a solid platform in the conditions, and allowed Mobbo ‘1 Hot Chocolate Please’ Robertson (20) and Keats ‘2 x 11 + 1’ Keating (22) to capitalise, to see us reach 130 off our 35 overs – a score that we knew was a winning one in the conditions.

Special mention must go to Gandis ‘Marry Me Kaity’ Herzog, who had his first hit of the season, and hit a momentum giving 11* off 4 balls, including a delectable Zac. A2 fans were flabbergasted that someone without protein could hit a ball so far. Well done Gandis.

Hornsby’s innings started slowly, with some of the attempted shots looking about as attractive as a female mullet. Cambo ‘Protein’ McBrien struck twice in his first over, and celebrated by eating a steak, cause he can. Kitty ‘Oh Lords’ Grover had the ball swinging like a 70’s fish bowl party, on his way to 3 poles.

Hornsby were 6/44 at drinks, and would never recover. Fernie also took 2 poles, whilst Tis ‘Nelson’ Mistry and Gandis took 1 each. JMac, Gandis and Mobbo starred in the field, each taking 2 catches.

I’d now like to highlight a comedic moment whilst in the field. A Hornsby batsman hit the ball straight down the ground, into infield grass as long as Phil Wirth’s forehead, as Gandis sprinted in chase, only to not know where the ball was. He kept looking, and eventually retrieved the ball, and play continued. If ever an example of requiring protein was evident, this was it.

Hornsby were rolled for 84, in a comfortable win that sees us stay clear on top.

B1 Blue (Rick) 6/175 defeated Castle Hill White 115 – we won the toss on a hot and humid day at an unusually lush Dural Park and decided to bat.

Andrew Morris and Oliver ‘Olly’ Maybury got us off to a good start.

Losing Andrew at 57. The runs kept flowing when Olly was joined by Kyle ‘Fabs’ Faber. We lost our second wicket (Olly) at 102 and were 1/103 after 22 overs.

We closed out our innings with good contributions from Fabs, Zac Turner and Rick ‘Flair’ Turner. We finished our 35 overs at 6/175. Best of our batting Andrew Morris 38, Olly 37, Fabs 32, Flair 22 and Zac Tuner 16.

When it was our turn to bowl Castle Hill started in a rush as was expected before we removed their Captain Mick Hungerford in the 5th over. From there we turned the screws on the Castle Hill batting and dried up the runs.

At the half way mark, Castle Hill were 2/60 with a lot of work to do. But we held our catches, bowled good lines and were enthusiastic in the field.

In the end we bowled Castle Hill out for 115 in a pretty comprehensive win. Best of our bowling Chris ‘Willy’ Williamson 4/22, Peter ‘Slenda’ Flook 2/8, Fabs 2/9, Tim ‘Hollwood’ Leyshon 1/18 and Andrew ‘Voice’ Driscoll 1/34. A very solid win to start 2019.

B1 Red (Gunny) 8/131 defeated St Ives 70 – it was fair to say conditions were not ideal for cricket at Bannockburn Oval. With areas of the ground freshly mowed and other parts resembling the South American jungle, they were tough batting conditions.

We found ourselves in a bit of strife at 3/21 but Cam Price (31) and Gunns (17) resurrected the innings through the middle overs nicely.

Our highest partnership of the day came for the 9th wicket with Nathaniel (18*) and Justin (19*) both pressing claims for a promotion. Justin has been asked to stop reminding the Captain of his average this season but he is not expected to listen.

With 131 on the board, we felt like this was a strong total given the conditions. Ben Meikle returned to the side after a hamstring injury and continued to bamboozle batsmen as he always has.

Ben finished with 5/21 from his 7 overs and is now considering offers from several Bangladesh Premier League clubs. St Ives finished with just 70, another great performance from our bowlers.

B2 lost to ARL– report to follow.

C1 82 lost to Lankan Islanders 4/86 – scorching day ahead of us and we won the toss and batted at Annangrove Park, 4 guys made it into double figures, otherwise a disappointing innings all out for 82.

Wortho was the top scorer with 18, Napier Gryst & Arjun Kumar both (16), and Waris Trehan (10).

In reply we opened with spin, first 8 overs we had Lankans 2-24, after 12 overs 3-50, and they hit the winning runs in the 18th over. Best of the bowlers were Arjun Kumar (7 overs 3-18), Asees Rajput (4 overs 0-16) with plenty of chances created, Rommel Pandey came on also (1 over 1-7), going into the New Year we will have to win every game left to make the Semis.

C2 Blue (Fieds) 5/161 defeated St Ives 94 – this was a top of the table clash, that pitted us against 2^nd place St Ives.

After winning the toss & batting on a very slow Campbell Park, Mick Barry (19) and Dan Schwartzel (15) got us off to a solid start as they negotiated the 1^st 10 overs without loss.

Unfortunately the 1^st wicket triggered a collapse that saw us lose 4/7 as we struggled to 4/40 just before drinks.

Capt Fieds joined the returning Joel Herzog and they added 46 – this mostly involved the skipper watching Joel smash the bowling to all corners as they saw us heading to a defendable total. Jack Barry (16no) then joined Joel (89 no) and we found ourselves only on 112 with 2 overs remaining…certainly not a great score at Campbell.

Carnage then ensued as they smacked 49 off the final 2 overs, including 36 off the final 12 ball over.

This was certainly a lesson for St Ives as their Captain messed up his sums and chose the wrong part-timer to bowl the last over.

We felt we had enough runs on the board and while we dropped a few simple catches, we managed to take wickets at regular intervals to always be ahead of the game.

Dan S starred with the ball taking 4/9 while Jack (2/13) and Stuey Fiedler (2/20 … and now on 99 career wickets) made great contributions.

This now gives us a big buffer at the top of the ladder, though we still get the wobbles from time to time with our batting.

Still a long way to the finish line, guys!

C2 Red (Indranil) 5/146 defeated Castle Hill 9/145 – the Captain won the toss and put us in the field. Ben K (1/22) and Jack Hando (2/23) opened proceedings with young Jack removing the opener with his 3 ball of the day.

The second wicket didn’t fall until the tenth over with Louis Madison (3/28) removing the other opener bowling spin. Louis picked a further two wickets before Amit (1/18) and Jude (1/16) chipped as we held Castle Hill to 9/145.

Our turn to bat and a steady start from Ramil and Graham had us 2/36 after ten overs. Jude (15) and Peter (47) put 69 for the third wicket to get us close to the target. Nick Duck (26*) and Ben K (9*) got us home with 15 balls to spare.

A good win today keeps us in the hunt for slipping into the top 4.

C3 6/142 defeated Berowra 118 – this was the match up of the two equal 1st placed teams in C3. Given we only had 8 players available on Tuesday night, it was fantastic to put a strong 11 out on the park, however, Buzz’s pre-Christmas run of six wins of the toss soon felt like a very long time ago when we lost the toss but were surprisingly asked to bat on a stinking hot day and on what turned out to be a fairly slow Cheltenham Oval.

Our new opening pair of Connor and Xander got us off to a solid start and look the goods to fill this role in matches to come.

Dale Kirkegard, who hadn’t played a competition match of cricket since 1987, looked right at home hammering a hard hitting 21. Kirkegard Jnr (Sam) then joined Connor and they continued to provide healthy contributions before Connor fell after cementing the innings with a classy 22.

Sam continued on to add a fluent 20 before we ended up with 142 on the board after our allotted 35 overs (probably worth 20 more on a quicker field) Buzz contributing 37*

Our turn to bowl and Paul V continued his fantastic habit of collecting a wicket in his first over (a great grab by Dale at first slip!) and then backing up with a second scalp in the 5th over to have Berowra 2/12.

The bowlers stuck to their plans, and despite a few good shots from the opposition top order, we secured the 3rd wicket at 44. Strong spells from Callum Dickinson, Dylan Bish and an amazing spell from Xander Vink who took 3/9 off 6 overs! meant we were always in control.

This backed up with excellent catching and ground fielding saw us close out their innings at 118 with the Vinks (Snr and Jnr) collecting 3 wickets each, Dylan, Callum and Riley supporting them well with one each.

A huge shout out of thanks to Dale and Callum for filling in, and both strongly contributing to the win! Cheers fellas!

Seven wins in a row means we are outright first, but more importantly this was a fantastic effort to play to our strengths even though we were missing a number of key players and importantly showed the talent of our younger players who stepped up to help us to the win!

D1 5/138 lost to Vs St Ives – our first game back after the nice long Christmas break with everyone eager to continue their good form. Gautam won the toss and elected to bat. After losing Aden’s wicket early, Papa Digs (15) and Gautam (29) consolidated well. But it was clear that a combination of three weeks off, too much food and drink over the break and a warm humid day was going to make longevity at the crease very challenging.

The heat got the better of Papa Digs and he went out swinging. After a good partnership with Steve (29) the heat also got to Gautam and he had to retire. During that partnership, Stevie Q also went past 2000 career runs for the club! Well done Steve.

The final partnership between Josh (40*) and Disco Dave (18*) was a cracker. They piled on 57 runs in the last 7 overs, which helped us reach a total of 138. This definitely gave us something to defend.

Now it was our turn to field and bowl in the heat and short sharp spells were called for. After three early wickets, an 80 run partnership sealed our fate. Only 15 runs were required by St Ives with 11 overs left. But 5 quick wickets made things a bit interesting. We ended up losing with 5 overs to spare. Special mention to Josh for taking 4 catches, Connor for 3/25.

D2 V7/70 lost to Kissing Point 5/175 – we lost the toss at Auluba Oval and KP decided to bat. We had 9 players in total losing players on Friday night to glandular fever, one to a strained back from practicing Friday evening and one family emergency to hospital on the day of the match.

We managed to get a spare from Indranil with Vaatsel Garg a U16 player taking one spot. Thanks guys. Our team was somewhat depleted with 2 of our better bowlers/batters at the ODI match between Aust and India at the SCG.

The temperature was 38 and very steamy. We bowled very well for the first 17 overs taking 4 for 53.

However, after the water break the high temperature took its toll and the batters started to hit our bowlers to the boundary as our line wandered more to leg side and the batters became more aggressive.

There were 21 sundries unfortunately from us in this match. The youngster Vaatsel took 2 wickets for 30 off 5 overs which were our best bowling figures.

Nirav Desai, Captain Mike and Mike Woodcock also took a wicket each. Simon Friend was bought in for one over to see if his loopy balls could break a partnership of over 100. Unfortunately, he was hit for 32 runs off his over.

WPHC started their innings at 2.30 pm. Captain Mike decided to give the lower order a bit of a chance at batting in the top order as the team was a very mixed bag.

The openers were both out for 26 by the end of the 11th over. Parin Pillamarri who normally bats about 9 or 10 managed to hit 15 runs as did Nirav Desai who is usually batting about 7th. We were 4/53 after 20 overs. KP were 4/63 at the equivalent stage.

Captain Mike came in to bat  at number 6 and hit 24 runs not out whilst suffering from heat stroke.

We lost another 2 wickets for 9 runs in the later stages. Simon Friend hit 3 runs not out which was an outstanding contribution. An enjoyable match even though we lost.