Points Table

Standings after 10 Rounds (to be updated as other Association Teams update scores) are:

• A1 Grade – =4^th (4^th on quotient)
• A2 – 1^st
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – 8^th (13 points off 4^th spot)
  • Red (Gunny) – 1^st
• B2 – 5^th (1 point off 4^th spot)
• C1 – 7^th (5 points off 4^th spot)
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – 1^st
  • Red (Indranil) – 5^th (2 points off 4^th spot)
• C3 – 1^st
• D1 – 2^nd
• D2 – 6^th

Match Reports

A Grade 130 lost to Berowra 8/206 – an appreciative cooler day greeted the WPHCCCCCC side as they arrived at Storey Park on Saturday to face the old enemy. Berowra won the toss and elected to bat on what looked to be a fairly decent strip. They endorsed this decision to bat first, by doing another 20 minutes of fielding drills.

 

Rant aside, it was a very special day for one Luke “Gandis” Herzog, whose in and out A Grade selection continued today. Gandis was up and about right from when he parked his car 150km away from the ground, and gave thanks to Phil Wurth in the pre game hat presentation ceremony for his tireless belief in his bowling and his potential. Gandis noted, and I quote, “whilst I don’t respect this club, I certainly play for my teammates”

With that ringing endorsement in our eleven players, it was time to hit the field and bowl. Gandis opened the bowling from the Gosford end of the ground and was immediately welcomed back to A Grade with 14 dispatched off his first over.

His head was down, the shoulders were slumped and close associate Lichaaa was beginning to loosen the arms after just three balls of his opening over, in a deliberate ploy to grab JPs attention and plant the seed that he was ready to take over. But Gandis did what all great vegans do, fight. He came back strongly with a couple of great overs and was rewarded with the pole of Griffin – a big congratulations to Gandis on his first A Grade wicket!!

Bailey “Andrew” Miedler and Michael “Lichaaa” Richards bowled very well with the wind behind them and were rewarded with a few wickets each. Lichaaa especially put the clamps on and impressed even Figjam with his opening spell of 2/4 off 4 overs.

But Berowra were on a mission, and loose balls were carted all over the park with a lightning quick outfield. It only got worse when Dan Cardigan came into bowl. After a couple of good opening overs, Rayner took a particular liking to Cardigans offspin, gutting him for 6 sixes off two overs including one the biggest sixes I have ever seen in club cricket.

The ball sailed into the backyard of a house which was about 250m away and was lost. It’s at this point, umpire Geoff “Des” Hasler called drinks.

JP regrouped at the drinks break and played his trump card – asking Jackson “mmmmmerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” Preedy to warm up. Perplexed, Preeds questioned why Cardigan wasn’t getting another over – it was great gear. Preeds and newly converted medium pacer JP bowled in a wonderful partnership.

What was looking like a chase of 8 an over, was reduced to just 6 – Preeds the star with 4 wickets and JP doing a great job in keeping it tight. The fast outfield and small square boundaries gave us hope, as did the confidence in himself of Phil Wurth.

Well the hope in Wurth lasted all of 10 minutes, skying a ball off Brad “Andrew” Fiedler. Gutter he had failed to make a score, gutted he owed Cam “Hannah” McBrien $200, he trudged off and that introduced newly appointed no 3 Alex “Fisjam” Robertson. Fisjam and Preeds put on a good stand, getting us to 70 odd and for half a moment, we looked to be a chance. The shot playing was electric.

At the point, first class scorer Phil decided he needed to get out of the sun, and get into the shade. He asked Lichaaa and Gandis to join him by sitting next to Andrew Fiedler and his uncle. Lichaaa had to remind Phil that it was actually Andrew MIEDLER, not Fiedler and his dad, not his uncle.

Phil made up for the indiscretion by giving Grampa Miedler a nice cool bottle of water and a hug. A big thanks to the Miedler’s and the Bennett’s for coming out to support.

However it was not to be, wickets fell in rapid succession and WPHCCCC kept falling further and further behind the required ran rate. A resilient stand from Yo-yo of 34 was no avail, Timmy McNay getting the prized wicket of Gandis to end the proceedings.

A2 Grade 120 tied with St Colah 120 – before today, I thought a tie was something your mum made you wear around your neck to a wedding. Who knew a tie could happen in cricket? Apparently, a tie can also incur in cricket, if both teams get bowled out for the same total. Who woulda thunk it? It’s 2019. Do we blame T20 cricket? Or is this the ramifications of 6 Prime Ministers in 5 years? We are doing research.

Having a tie is like perving on a hot chick at the beach, only to find out later that it’s your sister. After a glimmer of hope, you go home feeling like a loser. It’s not fair.

Cricket did happen today. Batting first, Blowy ‘Uk EOS’ Blow top scored with 32, to justify his promotion back to A2’s, and Keats ‘I Taught Your Sister’ Keating made a good 28*. However, being all out for 120 wasn’t good enough. We had batsmen get in, then not go on with it. Much like a Year 12 formal, where you buy her flowers, pick her up in a limo, then go home alone.

Our bowling was pretty good. We gave ourselves a chance, but some spirited St Colah batting saw them level the scores, with 1 wicket in hand. Cambo ‘Haircut’ McBrien then delivered a high pressure ball, which was skied to Fernie ‘Mine Boys’ Meikle, who took the catch, and got us a tie.

After top scoring, Blowy then took 4 fa and 2 catches, to earn the 3 Brownlow votes. Kitty ‘Hasslekit’ Grover, Tis ‘Nelson Mandella’ Mistry and Cambo took 2 poles each.

We now look forward to a big game on Straya Day. Please see this week’s Bumpty Report for info and rules.

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the unveiling of our new team shirts. Thanks to Fat ‘They’re In The Boot Boys’ Connell, for making it happen. It was an emotional ceremony.

B1 Blue (Rick) 143 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 5/145 – we were drawn to play Normo at the home of cricket Greenway Park. It was very lush and surprisingly slow. We won the toss and elected to bat. We lost an early wicket (Julian Raffel) but from there Andrew Morris and Cooper Goddard put together a nice partnership.

We lost Coops not to long before the drinks break. At drinks (18 overs) we were 2/62.

Zac Turner and Andrew pressed on before we lost Zac at 95. Alex Turner then joined Andrew for another useful partnership. When Andrew was dismissed we were 4/136 in good shape with 6 overs to bat. Unfortunately we did not play well from there and lost 6/7 to be all out for 143 off 33.2 overs. Poor shot selection the cause of our collapse. Best of our batting Andrew Morris 63, Alex Turner 24, Cooper Goddard 19, Zac Turner 15.

When it was our turn to bowl we started brightly with Flooky and Calvin DJ Breytenbach picking up early poles. Andrew Voice Driscoll then snared 2 for himself and we were in good shape with Normo 4/41 at drinks.

From there it was all downhill and that was in respect of the sportsmanship of the Normo team. It is better left unsaid what I’d really like to say. Nevertheless Normo put together a 5th wicket partnership that took the game away from us. They got the winning runs with 1 over to spare.

Best of our bowlers Andrew Driscoll 2/32, Calvin Breytenbach 1/10, Flooky 1/19 and Rick Turner 1/28. A close loss but one that leaves a bitter taste in ones mouth.

B1 Red (Gunny) 5/137 defeated SKLPS 9/136 – showing up to Dural Park today, it was a nice surprise to see a good outfield with freshly mown grass. With windy, overcast conditions we won the toss and decided to bowl.

Aaron Hawkins (2-27 off 7) had the batsman in trouble early, with two glove ripping bouncers dismissing both their openers to have them 2 for not many. From here, tight bowling and good fielding resulted in two run outs for wickets 3 and 4, one from fill-in Haydn ‘duck’ Murray. SKLPS were 5-53 at drinks and we were hoping to roll them.

Unfortunately from here a couple of dropped chances let the score slip away a bit to more than we would’ve liked, with a tight death bowling spell from Justin ‘do you know my average?’ Edwards (3/24 off 7) including a wicket maiden in the 31st over saving what could’ve been a bigger target than 9/136. Ben ‘better than Andy’ Meikle also took 2/29 off his 7, dismissing the set batsman at an important stage.

Our turn with the bat, and after losing an early wicket Michael ‘can’t middle anything’ Gunn (45) and Matt ‘run machine’ Watts (31) put on an important 68 run partnership. Another 30 run partnership with Gunny and Pon ‘run out my captain’ Pon (17*) saw us in a strong position at 3-106, with the finishing touches made by Ruben ‘down the ground’ Alexander (18) and none other than Benny (5*.

This was an important win for us against a SKLPS side only two points behind us, further cementing our spot on the top of the table with 3 rounds to go!

B2 6/138 defeated Hornsby 9/134 – Naps won the toss and made the gutsy decision to bowl first with only 9 players present.

Prats Datar and Matt Digby got us off to a great start with the ball, and set the tone for the innings. When our 10th player arrived the opposition were 1-17. Our 11th player arrived in the 7th over and the Opposition were already 3/21. A dropped catch brought about a runout and two quick wickets to Diggers (2/21) put the pressure on the incoming batsmen.

Wickets continued to fall with Prats Datar (1/16), Dean Carlin (2/25) and Phil Hayes (2/19) all chipping in.

Zac Morris (48) and Eric Junkkari (21) got us off to a solid start with a 64 run opening partnership.

With wickets in hand the boys set about trying to increase the run rate. Raghu Chary (20) and Ryan Gunn (24) put on a quick fire 35 runs to see us sitting at 3/113.

The equation got down to 12 runs from 12 balls with Naps and Macca at the crease. It was obvious there were going to be no quick singles……

We then needed 6 runs from the last over. Naps was dismissed and Prats headed out to the middle. Prats took a single on his first ball and put Macca on strike. It was now 5 runs from 3 balls.

Macca then sent the next delivery over square leg and across the boundary for 4. Scores level. The next ball was an exact replay and Macca put the ball in the same spot for another boundary and we passed the required total with a whole ball remaining.

A great game of cricket.

C1 9/181 defeated Berowra 8/167 – an overcast day greeted us at Headen Park Thornleigh for the Berowra (1st) v WPHC (6th).

Wortho promptly won the toss and batted.

Waris Trehan (32) & Richard Hughes (40), opened and got the score ticking along nicely, at 17 overs we were 2-73, Wortho (14), and Raunak Sethi (10 no), and Asees Rajput (49) compiled some cameos, with Asees hitting all around the park, leading to a score of 9-181 at the end of our 35 overs.

Berowra started slowly at 17 overs they were 4-49 due to some outstanding bowling from Sam Hando (7 overs 1-20 with 2 maidens) and Napier Gryst (7 overs 4-22 with 2 maidens) these 2 have been economical, crafty and downright unplayable at times, with Sam building up lots of pressure on all Opposition batsman, whilst not getting rewarded with wickets.

They were ably supported by Waris Trehan (6 overs 2-33), Asees Rajput (6 overs 1-33) & Aseem Goswami (7 overs 0-28) all together some great bowling partnerships with some inspiring fielding especially by Phil Hando (thanks for filling in).

A great result for the team, who are still in with a chance to make the semis.

C2 Blue (Fieds) 7/160 lost to Beecroft 6/162 –well it’s a funny game, cricket. After dominating the match for 60+ overs, it only takes a team to win the final 8 overs of a match to come out with the points.

We batted first and found ourselves 0/82 at the drinks break with Dan Schwartzel (60) and Mick Barry (32) in total control. A total of 180+ beckoned. Pratah played a solid innings of 28 but our last 6 overs saw us only score 6/23 as our young middle order failed to fire for a change.

Defending 160 still should have been a comfortable ask, and it sure looked this way when we had reduced Beecroft to 6/68 by the 21^st over.

Warren S (2/29) and Stuey Fiedler (2/47) were the main wicket takers, but maybe we were cruising a bit too easily. We failed to take another wicket as dropped catches and classy batting got Beecroft home with an over to spare.

We’ll learn from this and not be so wasteful of our opportunities. But well done to Stu for bringing up his 100^th wicket (caught by his dad).

C2 Red (Indranil) 121 lost to Kenthurst 124 – a good toss to win and to put opposition to bat on with a bit of overcast. Our opening bowlers Amitava (2/8) and Jack Hando (2/7) did not disappoint with very good tight line and length. At first drinks break Kenthurst were 4/51 and some great catches by Peter Lees in the mid off region (2 in total).

Some new junior players were provided the opportunity and one of them was Aditeya Nair (2/20) who had his maiden wicket in seniors taken in the first over. Some good fielding and tight bowling always kept the pressure and Kenthurst was all out scoring 124 with one more over left. Other wicket takers were Ben Kinchington (1/7), Shanks (1/36) and Louis Madison (1/13).

Our turn to bat and Captain Indranil looked to have found some touch scoring 34 with some nice clean hits (4*4, 1*6) and giving a good start with partnerships with Ben Dunkerley and Ben Kinchington. At one stage after 26 overs we were cruising 4/97, but in cricket funny things happen and there was a batting collapse to get the runs quicker. We ended up 3 runs short with more than 2 over left.

An unfortunate loss for the team when we had the situation under control for most of the day. We will find it hard from here on to get to the last 4 but we fight on. We will be losing our U16 boys Ben Dunkerley, Jude Boyle and Louis Madison for rest of the season for school cricket. So best of luck to them.

C3 5/196 defeated Thornleigh 79 – losing the toss we were surprisingly sent in for the second week in a row!

Connor and Xander got us off to a steady start against some tight bowling and although Xander fell for a well made 24, we were looking solid at 2/68 at drinks. Brent then joined Rosey and managed to lose a couple of the Opposition’s balls with some massive six hitting taking us up to 4/100 Brent (26). Rosey and Buzz (22) continued the onslaught adding quick runs.

A great piece of sportsmanship occurred here when Rosey was mistakenly given out caught behind off his pad and the Thornleigh ‘keeper and several of the close in fielders let their captain know that he had not hit the ball, with the Opposition skipper immediately calling him back! Great fair spirit and super sportsmanship!

Rosey continued to plunder the bowling with 4 big sixes himself and was ably supported by a hard hitting innings from Dylan to see us close out our overs at 5/197 with Dylan (26*) and Rosey starring with 69*

Heading out to field, Paul Vink showed us again why he’s the C3 grade leading wicket taker by removing 2 of their top order in a miserly spell of 2/10 off 5 overs. We kept things tight in the field, with special mention to another excellent performance behind the stumps from Sam Kirkegard with zero byes and a run out.

Buzz picked up a wicket but then it was then the Rosey and Bishy show to close out the match with Dylan picking up 3/7 off 4! and John grabbing 3/15 to bowl Thornleigh out for 79.

8 wins on the trot, but importantly another match where every player contributed to the win – the true sign of a strong team! It’s just a shame we get a weekend off next week!

D1 98 defeated Glenorie 30 – Glenorie won the toss and elected to bowl first, we were hungry for a win after the disappointment of the previous week. Game got off to another great start with Connor forgetting his kit AGAIN, might have been my fault as I told him it was in my car. Roshan, Amith and Josh turned up late promoting a fine.

Ian and Aden opened the batting, Aden was bowled for a duck and shortly after Captain reliable was done LBW for another globe. After a quick 40 last week, Josh came in and knocked a quick 8 and was knocked over middle stump ending his reign.

The middle order pulled the game back with some tight batting and a bit of luck. However, after a conservative innings Papa digs fell for 5. Rocket Roshan went for a swing and was run out after a stupid decision by myself, gotta b a fine. Marcous cous made his way to the crease looking for his first run since September. He started off with the usual leave every ball and decided he knew he had to use his bat and smacked 2 sixes out of the MCG, he scored a quick 17 that would’ve impressed the BBL sides.

The tail needed to pick the run rate up as we only past 50 runs. Rob and Amith pulled a nice partnership, with Rob smacking sixes across all angles, Aden not impressed after falling to a duck, claiming “he hasn’t got any runs all season!”

It was up to the final partnership between Connor and Amith to pull back an achievable bowling target. Connor whipped a six, but got out last ball for 12.

Glenorie required 98 runs to win, but a brilliant bowling performance along with perfect fielding saw Blenorie all out for 30.

Josh and Amith begun well by picking up 4 quick wickets between them with some perfect line and length bowling. Marcus took a beautiful catch at midwicket, to keep us right in the match. Connor picked another quick wicket after the batsmen knocked one to Roshan at point. Marcus got smacked around for his first few balls and then eventually got a wicket after Connor took another great catch, showcasing his perfect hands, then bowled a perfect ball to set up a hatrick but just fell short.

Aden grabbed the final wicket bringing about another great win after another superb bowling performance.

D2 8/74 lost to Thornleigh 2/75 – we lost the toss again and were sent into bat at Thornleigh Park. The weather was thankfully cooler this week. Thornleigh is the D2 competition leader and is some 26 points ahead of second placed Hornsby.

We, of course, are coming last in the competition with only one win in 10 matches.

At the start of the week we had seven players but thanks to D1 and C1 Captains we were given two spare players namely Roger Friend and Graham Craig. We also managed to obtain two other unrated players who were friends of our permanent team members namely Vikas and Atharv. Many thanks to everyone concerned for their efforts.

Luke Christensen and Roger Friend opened but we lost Luke for a duck in the first over. Roger and Graham continued before Roger was given out in the 12th over with the score being 2 for 11. Graham Craig hit 14 runs before being given a lbw decision in the 15th over taking us to 3 for 23. Graham hit the most runs for our side.

I must say the Thornleigh bowling was exceptional as one would expect from the Competition leaders. At the end of 20 overs we were 5 for 39 so things were not going well. Vikas and Aayush hit 10 and 9 runs each but we’re bowled with WPHC now 7 for 57 after 27 overs. Nirav hit 7 runs before hitting a catch straight to the long on fielder. We were now 8 for 58 after 28 overs. Captain Mike and Vishaal  managed to stay in until the end hitting 10 and 5 respectively.

Thornleigh hit the winning runs in the 24 over for the loss of 2 wickets. Well, at least we are consistent in one aspect of this game.