A1 Grade

WPHC 157 & 4/154 defeated outright Sydney Lions 154 & 6/146 dec – we started the day needing 21 to win with 3 wickets in hand. Hendo and Jobbo continued we’re they left off last week as they chipped away at the total. There wickets fell and we required 2 runs to win with 1 wicket in hand and with JP and Bonga at the crease. JP managed to pump it through the covers to get us over the line despite a score book stuff up by custard Mathias.

We went into bowl leading by 3.

The Lions never managed to get away from the tight bowling of Jobbo, Bonga, Hendo, JP. Twang also rolled the arm over to display a spin masterclass. They took an early declaration and set us 140 odd to win. It was never in doubt with Philthy and Twang playing cracking innings of 42 and 47* to get us over the line and the outright 10 points.

A2 Grade

WPHC 174 defeated outright Castle Hill 48 & 121 – after a brilliant Day 1where we had already won on the first innings and had Castle hill 4/54 overnight plus our opponents were 2 players short 4 wickets was all we needed, and we wrapped up the 10 points in 40 minutes.

Andy ‘Fernwood’ Meikle starred on Day 2, taking 3/39. He completely beat 2 batsmen in flight, to clean bowl them, before a high catch to Darshan ‘Darsh’ Pandya at mid on, gave him his 3rd scalp. The final wicket was a beautifully crafted piece of pace bowling from Tisveer ‘Tis’ Mistry, who shook the batsman up with some lethal short pitch bowling, before honing in on off stump, and knocking him over. A quick day at the office, but a crucial 10 points, which sees us surge up the ladder.

B1 Grade

WPHC 8/297 defeated Sydney Lions 105 & 7/164 – we started the day declaring on 297 on a fast Annagrove track. We backed our bowlers from the start, and had the Lions at 2/79, after a few dropped chances in the field. The whole team lifted after these occurrences and we rolled through them, or more accurately Costo rolled through them with a 5 wicket haul inside that innings.

We had them all out for 105, and thought we were in a prime position to go for the outright win. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up getting the Lions all out 2nd innings but they finished up on 7/164, with ‘A-Train’ De Silva this time being the stand out getting a 5 wicket haul of his own. Bowling figures for the match were Dan Costigan (5/22 & 1/33), Ashane De Silva (0/28 & 5/49) and Justin Edwards (3/15 & 1/16).

B2 Grade

WPHC 9/255 defeated Sydney Lions 156 & 0/83 – we resumed the day at 0/52 in a good position. Aaron Carlini and Chris Williamson continued on where they left off and brought up a 119 run opening partnership before Willy was out stumped.

We lost a couple of quick wickets with Dinesh De Silva falling for 2 and Aaron Carlini losing his wicket soon after. Captain Rick Turner and Ben Meikle saw us pass the Lions total 3 wickets down.

We decided to press on and see how quickly we could post a total. We declared at 9/255 (a lead of 99). Best of our batsmen Aaron Carlini 77, Ben Meikle 41, Chris Williamson 38, Dinuka Jayasuriya 35* and Anushka De Silva 28. After winning the first innings convincingly we decided to press for outright. The Lions batted with patience and discipline in their second innings finishing on 0/83 when the Captains agreed play would finish for the day. A second win gives us confidence going into Round 3.

C1 Grade

WPHC 3/276 drew with Sydney Lions 321 – we started the day in pursuit of quick wickets as we knew Lions would bat on from their overnight score of 7/255. They wasted no time in going after the bowling, taking 20 off the day’s first over. However the scoring rate after that didn’t indicate that a declaration was coming any time soon. So after 13 overs of tedium we wrapped up the innings at 321 with Stanton taking 2 late wickets.

Being left with 59 overs to chase the runs didn’t leave us with much chance, but we thought we’d evaluate our situation at tea. Ray Khamis (27) and Stanton Tam put on 49 for the first wicket and at the break we found ourselves well placed at 1/89 off 21 overs.

Stanton and Rohit ‘Throw-it’ Ninan proceeded to grind away through the afternoon, while the Lions bowled a very ‘dry’ line bowling plenty of deliveries well wide of off stump while stacking the offside field. It didn’t make for entertaining cricket, so we turned our attention to see if the 2 could reach their 100’s. Stanton unfortunately fell for 97, just short of his first ever ton. Rohit, however, had no trouble closing in on his milestone and managed to finish the day on 115* and our 450th Club century. We fell 45 runs short of our target, but a more realistic declaration would have seen us mow down this total fairly comfortably.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 194 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 254 – starting the day at 1/63, the opposition gave a couple of early chances which we failed to grab, but then settled in well before Nikki O’Meara (4/61) bowled a great spell picking up some quick wickets to put us in with a glimmer of hope.

The dark horse then emerged when Tim Worthington got his chance to roll the arm over and proceeded to snap up 4/34 including a terrific caught and bowled diving full length (and those who know Wortho know that’s a long way down!) to clutch it millimetres above the turf!

Well supported by Adrian Chau (1/44) and Dave Behlevanas (1/53) and another blinding slips catch by Raghu Chary, we eventually bowled them out for 254, but the game was much closer than the scorebook suggests and as happens in cricket, if one or two chances had fallen our way it could have been a different story!

Special mention goes to Adrian Chau who the team has voted must wear a helmet and protector whilst fielding in future – not the infield, but when he’s boundary riding! Today whilst showing awesome determination in chasing down the ball, Adrian managed to smash into the boundary fence on two occasions – with first his head, then his child producing parts being used to stop his forward momentum! On to Round 3 and with some slight improvements in performance, a winning result next match.

WPHC Red 8/174 dec. defeated Beecroft 127 & 5/146 – needing 30 runs to clinch 1st innings, we past the total in 9 overs. Richard Hughes (44) continued on from where he left off the previous week. Playing with patience, waiting for the bad balls that were deservedly punished. Alex Chidgey (41*) took the bowlers on and continued to increase our lead. We declared at the drinks break to leave our bowlers plenty of overs to make in-roads into the oppositions second innings.

The opening batsmen came out trying to push the run rate. It looked as though they were going to try and set us a total to chase! Rob Knapman (2/32) got the initial breakthrough. With the fall of the first wicket the opposition shut up shop. We utilised 8 bowlers in short spells, trying not to let the batsmen settle. Unfortunately we were unable to take the quick wickets required to give the Outright a good shake. All the bowlers bowled beautifully with the wickets being shared. Alex Chidgey (1/19), Sandeep Darapuneni (1/3) and Stu ‘in the bad books’ Fiedler (1/25) all got amongst the wickets.
Always great to get the first victory under the belt.

C3 Grade

WPHC 8/185 defeated outright Castle Hill RSL 43 & 96 – having won first innings last week, plan was to bat another 10/15 overs before going for an outright win. Things did not go to the plan though early on. We lost 4 wickets with addition of just 17 runs in 8.1 overs before declaring our innings. Perry Waldron was highest scorer with 76 with Zac Turner second best with score of 27.

Dean Carlin and Ryan Loveridge opened bowling in second innings. Ryan got first breakthrough in 4th over with score on 23. Dean joined party next over and then taking next two wickets to fall. After 11th over Castle Hill was 4/49. Next over Ryan changed bowling tactics for their relatively longer staying batsman at the crease.

Two shorter balls, and a catch was popped up back to Ryan. Next delivery the batsman’s stumps were gone and Ryan was on Hat-trick and a possible fifer. Not to be this time, but a fantastic effort to finish with career best figures of 4/16 of 8 overs. Cameron Bish (2/16) and Amit Ninan (1/5) finished the tail. Dean had another good outing with figures of 3/35. Overall good team effort to bounce back from last game and get an outright win this round!

D1 Grade

WPHC 148 lost to Glenorie 208 – after being 30/1, we required another 179 runs to seal our second victory in a row. Asees (29) and Cody (38) managed to get us off to a good start, before Asees got out, leading a collapse. Captain Steve (20) attempted to steady the ship, however the lack of support from other batsman didn’t help his cause.

Eventually we were all out for 148, 60 runs behind their score. It was evident had we batted in a more responsible way things could have turned out differently. The game helped us realise our weaknesses and that how we need to go about chasing totals throughout the season.

D2 Grade

WPHC 286 defeated Kenthurst 210 – the boys won the match on the third last ball of the second day. We had had an excellent first days’ cricket with the team scoring 286 against Kenthurst Upper Hills. We were very fortunate with the loan of two juniors Max & Sean Harkin for the match. Both boys batted beautifully with Max scoring 106* and Sean ably hitting 67 runs with Sean guiding a multitude of balls between gully and second slip. A joy to watch both boys bat who showed great patience and superb technique. Dinal Silva hit a very useful 36 runs. There were 38 sundries.

The second days play required us to bowl with discipline but it took us 22 overs to get the first wicket with 76 runs on the borad. The next wicket didn’t fall until Kenthurst was 151 runs. The last wicket fell at 210 runs. Dinal Silva achieved 3 for 31 off 13.4 overs, Siby Joseph had bowling figures of 2 for 26 off 8 overs, Michael Clipsham was 2 for 34 off 11 overs and the only slow bowler (who had to work overtime due to a deficit of spin bowlers) was Mike Kinchington who had 2 for 65 off 28 overs with 9 maidens. There was only 14 sundries including 6 byes.

A big thank you to Dylan Bish, Connor Hindmarsh and Nick Clegg for working so hard in the field because of a shortage of players. It was greatly appreciated by all the team and especially by me as the Captain.

Also a big thank you to Jack Kinchington who came in to field for us at the last moment after he finished work. His thunder bolt returns to the stumps were a bit scary but he kept hitting bails from the outfield which kept the Kenthurst batters from taking runs. Well done team with our first win this season.