A1 Grade

WPHC 1/13 Vs Berowra 179 – we bowled first on a fairly flat Berowra deck with good value for your shots. They rode their luck early and got away to a 67 run opening partnership. But once we got our first break-through we were able to keep taking regular wickets and restrict them to 179. Scott Henderson finished with the best figures of 3/25.

Sol Tomlinson flew home from his season in England and touched down just in time for the game. He took 3/37 – a fantastic effort fighting the jet lag. Justin Patterson also showed how well suited he is to A-grade conditions, taking 2/26, and Darshan Pandya took his first A-grade wicket (1/13). Phil Wurth took 2 great catches in his A-grade debut, and Nick Bennett was very tidy behind the stumps in his return. We finished the day on 1/13 with Phil Wurth unfortunately getting out to a great catch.

Congratulations to Josh Mathias, Justin Patterson and Phil Wurth who became A-grade player numbers 310, 311 and 312 today. They all have strong A-grade careers ahead of them!

A2 Grade

WPHC Vs Berowra 296 – a new look A2 team, but the same old story for Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth, losing the toss on a great day for batting. Conditions were set for runs, with a lightening quick outfield, and the new ball having shine for only 5-6 overs. However, the captain was extremely proud of the efforts both with the ball and in the field, and to take 10 wickets was a truly magnificent reward for a solid day.

With the ball, we worked hard for our wickets, with Snumpty (2/17), Luke ‘Zog’ Herzog (2/47), Michael ‘Richie’ Richards (2/49), Andy ‘Fernwood’ Meikle (2/67), Allan ‘Raffa’ Raffel (1/14) and Rowan ‘Keats’ Keating (1/51) sharing the wickets. A special mention to Tisveer ‘Tis’ Mistry, who although not taking a wicket, bowled with fire and control.

Our fielding was good, lead by Alex ‘Junior’ Turner with the gloves, with Derek ‘Bridgy’ Bridgman, Matheesha ‘Mat’ Gunaratne and Lachie ‘Spacey’ Vile doing a great job in the field, stopping more balls than a Hens Party on a Manpower Harbour Cruise. Catches were taken by Bridgy (2), Zog, Richie and Snumpty.

Although we are chasing a sizeable total, disciplined batting and building partnerships will get us there.

B1 Grade

WPHC 6/256 dec Vs Castle Hill 2/33 – match report to follow. Briefly though, the boys were outstanding with scoring the runs in just 45 overs allowing us an aggressive declaration. There was non ebetter than Ashane De Silva with a blistering 106* (our 446th century) with his first 60 in about 30 balls. More to follow.

B2 Grade

WPHC 0/15 Vs Berowra 246 – Berowra won the toss at Warrina St and elected to bat. The astro turf covering on the pitch was badly worn and the ball cut up very quickly making life very difficult for the medium pace bowlers. The Berowra openers played without risk clearly intent on damaging the new ball.

At drink Berowra were 1/68. We had a better second session with the ball but just couldn’t get chances to go to hand. We toiled with the ball eventually dismissing Berowra for 246 off 62 overs. Best of the bowlers Anushka De Silva 4/31, Michael Gunn 2/11, Ben Meikle 1/47, Prathamesh Datar 1/32 and Ravin Wijesuriya 1/34. We faced 8 overs in the fading light and finished at 0/15. A big day beckons for the batsmen next week to chase down a good Berowra score.

C1 Grade

WPHC 308 Vs Berowra – we turned up to Fox Glove South only to find the pitch its usual narrow self. We won the toss and chose to bat and got off to a brilliant start once again by Shivraj Rana (77) who has scored a fifty in each senior and junior match he has played in so far this season. While we lost Kyle Townsend and Ryan Gunn early, enter our opening bowler Aaron Hawkins, batting at 4, who smashed 51 and had a partnership of 117 with Shivraj.

They laid a nice platform to build from. We lost a few more wickets and then Stanton Tam was brilliant to stabilise the innings with a great 59. Stanton was given out LBW and soon after Rahul Merchela and Gautam Ayyar put on another 47 for the last wicket. We were ably assisted by 53 sundries. Ending up on 308 we should be able to close this one up next week.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 259 Vs WPHC Red – a great way to start the main season with the intra Club derby between the two C2 sides, the only confusion before the game was who was in what side as there were many former team mates lining up against each other!

Naps won the toss and sent the Blues Blue team into bat and from the outset Joel Behlevanas continued his early season sparkling form. There were solid partnerships being built by Joel and Riley, then Gopy Parathan contributed with a well made 24. But for all who saw it, the absolute highlight of the day was a superb innings from Joel, exquisite drives and cuts along with clever choice in picking the right ball to attack had him at 98*.

A tickle down the leg side, and he pushed hard for the first, turned, and called for the second, only to fall short by centimetres to be run out for 99! A fine innings that was appreciated by both sides, and a sign of many more runs to come this season, he departed with the score at 154.

New man in the team, Raghu Chary stood up and showed his ability with a well made 32 and was well supported by Adrian Chau with 25. Solid lower order contributions from Dave Behlevanas, Matt Rashleigh and Nikki O’Meara added vital runs to end the day 259 all out. With the light rapidly fading we called it a day.

For the Reds, Nathaniel Chidgey (3/22 from 11) bowled a great opening spell with consistent line and length that brought about the first breakthrough. Ian Paterson took a nice catch in slip that eventually stuck after a short juggling act.

The Blues started to pull away until Nathaniel broke the partnership in his 2nd spell. Matt Digby kept the ball in great areas and worked hard to earn his 2/45. There were plenty of great efforts in the field during the day to save a number of boundaries on the small Holland Reserve. The pressure created brought about 3 run outs.

The challenge is set, an even bet for both sides, and anyone still a chance! We look forward to another top day next Saturday!

C3 Grade

WPHC 79 Vs Berowra 8/167 – playing at Campbell park we were sent out to bat first after losing the toss we were all out for 79, we had a batting collapse with Zach Turner the standout with 37. Berowra replied with 167/ 8 we have some good bowling from Tarun Lath 3 wickets, Sreeni Pillamarri 2 wickets , Ben Waldron , Ryan Loveridge & Dean Carlin 1wicket each.

D1 Grade

WPHC 247 Vs Kissing Point 3/16 – it was our first game of the season against Kissing point, and we couldn’t have really asked for a better start.

Despite losing the toss we had a chance to bat first, which we intended to do upon winning. Against a good, consistent bowling attack openers Pratah Sinnetamby (37) and Cody Waters (33) gave us the start we needed and laid a solid foundation for a big score. The loss of the first wicket led to two more wickets falling after it in quick succession, leaving us three down for 69. Another wicket soon fell after tea break, leaving us four down for 108.

What followed however, made up for the loss of wickets with Steve Quanborough (44) and Ishaan Singh (53) batting out the remainder of the second session and a few overs of the third session. The loss of Steve, followed by Ishaan led to a steady fall of wickets and despite some good hitting by the tail enders, Chris Bloom and Tremayne Sinnetamby, we only managed to score 247. A total we were happy with, however, not satisfied considering we lost our last 6 wickets for just 42 runs.

With plenty of runs on the board and time remaining Rhys managed to pick up two big wickets, in quick succession.

Some excellent fielding and catching. Captain Steve took then bowled his left-arm Chinaman, and succeeded to draw the batsman forward and get an edge which carried straight to first slip for a clean catch. Play was called off after the third wicket, leaving our opposition three wickets down for just 16 runs, and a mammoth 231 to score the following week with their remaining seven wickets.

We are well placed to perform well next week and kick-off the season with a comprehensive win.

D2 Grade

WPHC 129 Vs Kissing Point 2/27 – we won the toss against Kissing Point and elected to bat. We started well with the openers of Luke Christensen (18) and Asees Rajput (33) hitting 51. Dinal Silva contributed a vey good 28 runs. Thiru Pukazhenthi hit a valuable 12 runs towards the end along with Simon Friend hitting 4 very good runs. There was a middle order collapse for us to be all out at 129 after 40 overs.

Kissing Point were quietly confident about their chances. They managed to play 20 overs before bad light intervened. Our bowling was very disciplined with us taking 2 wickets for 27 runs. There were two very good chances in addition to those wickets. Thiru and Asees took a wicket each. So the match is evenly poised and if we can take a few early wickets we will be in with a real chance.