3,000^th Junior Blasters player

During the week we registered our 3,000^th Junior Blaster player. Started as Kanga cricket way back in 1992/93 we were one of the first Clubs to run a program for the 6 to 7 year olds. Before this, Junior cricket started in the U10s, they played with a hard ball and there were no restrictions on dominant players doing everything.

Think about this for a second – that’s an average of 103 players aged between 5 and 7 every year for the past 29 years!

Through the Vision of Arthur Souter we started Kanga. Over the years this became In-2-Cricket and now Junior Blasters – the same program.

After 29 years we have now registered our 3,000^th Junior Blaster player. The player just happens to be a Girl and is one of 11 Girls playing in the Junior Blasters. Add to this our Junior Girls clocked over their 1,000^th registration this season this is an amazing result.

It also explains why our Club has been so strong for so many years – our players and volunteers come mainly from the Junior Blasters.

Picture – Arthur Souter (left), Dominic Thornely and John Coulthard at Kanga cricket – 6^th November 2004

Is there anything worse than being run out? Yes……

In the A2 game on Saturday, Steve Rochow was batting with his Captain, Andrew Morris. Anyway, the boys were batting well until Steve was BBQ’d by his skipper – runout. If this isn’t bad enough, The skipper then strained a groin muscle and needed a runner – enter Steve again. So within a couple of overs of being runout, Steve was back on the field being the runner for his Skipper – it doesn’t get much worse that.

Picture: Andrew Morris (right) with Steve Quanborough.

Job opportunities

We covered this off in the Club News but as not everyone reads both the News and Anecdotes we will give it a run here – why? Because when one of our Club Greats (Eric Junkkari) asks a favour, we say, ‘how far’.

Eric’s son (Daniel) works for the Merivale Group (Justin Hemmes) that, won the contract to provide hospitality for the SCG during the BBL and Test Series and are seeking hospitality staff.

If you are interested in working at the SCG during the cricket season, in the hospitality industry and getting full training there are opportunities available now.

Just contact: Daniel Junkkari on 0425-509-670 or call the Merivale Group directly – here

Picture: Matt Digby, Billy Gaunt, Alex Chidgey (cap on hat), Ryan Loveridge and Nathaniel Chidgey – at the SCG Test Vs New Zealand – 3 January 2020.

Space Cadet

First – our theme music: Rocket Man

Sorry to do this to you mate but Zach Turner is a standout selection this week. Zach (B1 Red) was playing in the Sheep Station Trophy game against his father, Rick, who skippers the B1 Blues. Anyway, Zach was batting with Ragu Chary and, pointing at his dad, commented, “…there is an easy run there every time”. That is where the problems started. Zach hit one straight to Rick and took off for a run that only he thought was a run – but never was. With Zach stranded at the other end of the pitch, Rick did his best lawn bowls impersonation, applied a bit of left bias to the ball and Zach was runout.

The ‘old man’ Rick, had a slightly different take on the quality of his own fielding by referring to what was described by numerous eye witnesses as a return to the keeper that was like watching a game of lawn bowls – see below quote from the Skipper:

“Zac Turner was the next to go BBQ’ing himself by trying to take a cheeky single to the old man at mid-off.

 Flair has played too many years to be caught out by that sort of amateurism and swooped on the ball, picking it up one-handed and firing a bullet return over the bails that ‘Swinger’ Keyes didn’t have to move his gloves for. Flair 1 Zazu 0 and he was on his way back to the pavilion.”

So…thinking about it, your friendly editor will crown both Zac (taking on the old-man) and Rick (the Old Man) for getting his side of the story completely wrong (based on eye witness reports).

Father & son debut

We have had some great stories about Father & son combinations and this one just adds to the rich history of this great experience. To quote James Makin (A1):

“You have a few photos of this guy with Rofie and a WPHC team shirt when he was much smaller :). Gunny has a hand injury, so he just batted today and needed a sub fielder. Jack put his hand up. So this was kind of my first match with one of my kids.

 He fielded well – one catch and plenty of action in the field.

 He still plays for KP, for now, but I’m hoping we’ll have a season or two at WPHC in a couple of years time.”

What West Penno players do outside cricket

Over the years we have run stories about what our players do when they are not playing cricket. We have had Prime Ministers (John Howard), Vulcanologists – people who go into live volcanoes (John Seach) & Peter Lees (rev head extraordinaire).

This week we have the 3 boys – Xander Vink, Dylan Bish & Sam Kirkegard spending the weekend camped out at Mt Panorama and becoming our youngest rev-heads. In recognition of their passion for noise and speed check out the C2 Blue Match Report that is written in dedication to the boys.

What’s better than 500 tons? 501 tons

Two weeks ago Happy Rana (D1 Red) scored our 500^th ton – an achievement 91 years in the making. This week Aden Hanich (C4) scored 102* and his first ton. While our 500^th ton is an amazing Club achievement, number 501 is actually equally significant, being the first in the long journey to number 1,000. Well done Aden!

Where our players come from

Now that the dust has settled on the season, it is interesting to see where our players come from. All up we have an amazing 774 players (Junior Blasters, Juniors mixed, Girls& Seniors) registered to play this season and we could crack 800 by the end of the season. One thing that stands out is that players travel from many areas to play for us – for all sorts of reasons.

As one of those trivial, nice to know, insights on where our players come from check out the following:

• 414 (53.4%) of players live at Cherrybrook
• 205 (26.5%) live at WPH

This leaves 155 players (20%) of our players living outside the area. Areas include – Box Hill (22 klms), Maroota (51 klms), Penrith (52 klms), Plumpton (27 klms), Stanhope Gardens (20 klms), South Windsor (39 klms).

Our record was by Tony Hadley (pictured) back in 2007/08 who worked at Kalgoorlie (West Australia) and would travel each week to play cricket and then return after the game – a cool 3,410 klms or a 10 hour and 15 minute trip to Sydney and then getting to the ground. Tony would often arrive at games late due to traffic from the airport.

In another case one of our greatest ever players, Mark Taylor back in 2003, was on a work trip to Singapore. We made the B2 Grand Final so he flew back for the game and then flew back to Singapore.

What better theme song than Ricky Nelson’s ‘Travellin Man’ – Travellin Man

Picture: Tony Hadley (left) with Bryce Morley at Montview Oval 3rd February 2007