A1 Grade

WPHC 163 Vs St Ives 0/52 – we won the toss and elected to bat on a hot day and typical Turramurra Oval deck. We were in early trouble at 3/6 but steadied the ship with a great partnership from Daniel Heidegger (46) and Josh Mathias (34). Some lower order runs were valuable from Justin Patto (26*) and Cam McBrien with 17. Runs on the board are valuable and a couple of early wickets will make this an interesting game.

A2 Grade

Blue (Rick) 104 Vs WPHC Red (Simon) 1/53:

Asterisk (*) denotes assumed knowledge.

Captain Simon “North didn’t sign Kelly” Smyth shattered records this week by adorning the most blazers ever for a WPHCCC toss and not surprising anyone, proceeded to lose the toss. A2s interim captain Fids “Fiddles” Fiedler proceeded to send us in to bowl, running into the wind.

Wickets came consistently throughout the day as a strong fielding performance kept the runs down while wickets came consistently but slowly. Pre-season trades went well with Ankit “Kitten” Grover taking 4 poles, including all 3 players he was traded for.

Two bucks Rick “Tina” Turner – poor list management. Tim “Woody” “Hollywood” Leyshon also chipped in with 2, including a high quality full toss to dismiss the Captain’s son Alex “Hooch” Turner. The writer also contributed 0/8 off 7, which should have been 0/7 but Volc “Volc” Banner struggles against balls hit straight to him.

With bat in hand North didn’t sign Kelly picked his fielders early and got dropped twice in 2 balls, but then made those blue pricks pay by spanking around Bailey “Brother of Riley” Miedler pay with some glorious shots through the reverse V.

Volc also contributed some runs, but really couldn’t recover from his earlier fumbles in the field. The day ended with us 1-53 chasing 104 to win. Hoping to finish next week before the AFL GF, especially, with threats of strikes if either Captain asks for a second innings.

Player of the Day:

• 3 Votes Stanton “Pon” Tam
• 2 Votes Stanton “Pon” Tam
• 1 Votes Stanton “Pon” Tam

B1 Grade

WPHC 169 Vs St Ives – with very hot conditions, and a massive field, we won the toss and elected to bat! We found out very quickly that runs were going to be hard to come by, as boundaries were going to be a rarity with such a large ground.

Our innings was off to a shaky start, going into the first drinks break 3/42. The ship was then steadied with a fantastic partnership between Michel Fiedler and Ronic Bedi, putting together a 40 run partnership over 15 overs. This continued with another great partnership by Michael McGregor and Prats Datar for another 26 runs, in very hot conditions by this time.

Then Ben Meikle came in, and gave our run rate a massive boost, scoring a very quick 30, supported by Nathian Chidgey with 14, leaving us with a healthy 169 total to defend next week, and a great team effort to get there. Top scorers were Ben Meikle 30, Ronic Bedi 26 and Michael McGregor 24.

B2 Grade

WPHC Blue (Tim) 4/91 Vs WPHC Red (Rob) 8/352 – first game of the season kicked off with a lost toss (thanks Naps) B2 Blue sent in to bowl with some steady & un-rewarded bowling from Alex Chidgey and Sam Hando building a good opening bowling partnership.

Enter Stuey “the special one” Fiedler with two quick scalps. Then a fine 100 partnership between Ray Chamis (76) and Andrew Morris (101) thwarted our bowlers. Andrew took an unusual backseat as Ray went about picking off boundaries. Ray finished with 10x 4’s and 4x 6’s in a great display of power hitting. The pair put on a quick fire 105 run partnership before Ray was dismissed. Andrew then took up where Ray had left off and carried on to make a classy 101. This was our 461^st ton and Andrew’s 3^rd ton in just his 2^nd year back after a long career break.

Brent Larkham scored a quick 44* with support from Zac Morris (24), Jayson Smart (23) and Aseem Goswami (24).

Short spells of bowling were the order of the day for the Reds with the temperature rising and boundaries becoming somewhat smaller (although that may have been attributed to heat stroke) all the bowlers took some stick.

Napier Gryst, Jack Hando, Raghu Chary, Nick Duck & Taki Manolelis all making good contributions with the ball. Naps team sportingly declared after 48.2 overs on a modest but respectable score of 8-352. Our reply with the bat was impressive with Raghu and Napier combining beautifully for an opening stand of 77, however, enter the Knapman factor 3 wickets in 4 balls (Raghu, Wortho & Sam) all back in the pavilion. Knappers (3/28) got the breakthrough with a fumbling catch by Aaron Hawkins that eventually settled in his arm pit!

Closely followed by Napier who batted superbly for 53 undone by a peach from Aseem. End of day 5-91, a big day ahead for the blue team next Saturday. Onward and upward from here, Blue team over and out!

C1 Grade

WPHC 86 Vs St Ives 1/35 – battered by withdrawals due to the Flu and school holidays, the biggest challenge was being able to get a Team on the field. We did and the boys showed were fantastic on a hot day and against a side with B Grade standard bowling. We battled our way to 86 in 40 overs with a fighting 20 from Chetan. Andrew Fiedler also chipped in with 16.

A few early wickets and who knows – runs on the board always counts for something.

A huge thanks to our players who filled in at short notice to get us on the paddock. Especially to Peter Harrison, back after his Australian Over 60s duties and last played for us in 2008/09 and Kishore Rampersad. The boys will battle through this game and we look forward to Round 2 when the Cavalry arrives with almost a Team of returning players.

C2 Grade

WPHC 2/64 Vs St Ives 139 – losing the toss and being asked to field on what we knew would be an energy sapping day, our luck changed quickly with an outstanding opening bowling partnership from Gian Gill and Tanay Hira.

Gian struck in his first over, and between the pair they had the Opposition 3/10 in quick time. The 4th fell at 41 before Dave B and Buzz soaked up some tidy overs in the middle before we unleashed the openers for their 2nd spell. Quickly they reasserted themselves and ripped out the next 4 batsmen in quick succession. There was a small partnership for the 9th wicket, but a change of pace from Will Harvey’s leg spin did the trick, and Tanay cleaned up the last wicket in his next over.
Fantastic figures and a class display of bowling from Gian (5/49) and Tanay (4/40) backed up by Will (1/3). All out 139.

We lost a wicket early, but a great partnership between Ross Anderson and Nick Colley steadied the ship. Rosco showing great early season form with a fluent 28. Nick adjusting to Seniors cricket well weathering all that was thrown at him to remain 27 not out.

At 2/64 we are well positioned, and a repeat of today’s disciplined batting will get us to the required total. Many thanks to Cliff Greenhalgh who filled in today as even with him we still only had ten players. Cliff was sharp in the field saving probably a dozen runs which we won’t have to chase next week, much appreciated!

C3 Grade

WPHC Vs St Ives 5/294 – what a start of the season. Llosing the toss and being asked to field on a day where it’s going to be too hot and exhaustive.We got our first break through in our 30th over, thanks to Perry whom made this happen. We have PerryWalden and Shankar Ravi taking 2 wickets each, Anthony Kwok with 1 wicket. Boys had a tough day at work. It would be good for our batsmen to give the pressure back on Day 2.

D1 Grade

WPHC 6/320 Vs Kissing Point – to begin the day Ian Williams and Connor Hindmarsh opened the batting and started off a solid partnership for the others to build on. They both ensured no early wickets would fall till Ian was caught out on 33.

Connor and Ramil continued this steady partnership scoring 31 runs and 66 runs respectively. Nic Sparks then came in with a solid knock to score 81 runs. With significant contributions from every batsmen we reached a total of 320 runs at days play.

D2 Grade

WPHC 8/351 Vs St Ives – we lost the toss and unbelievably were sent in to bat on this very hot day at Greenup Park. There was a new pitch devoid of any markings or creases. There was a 15 minute delay to allow us to manufacture the required creases. Ben Kinchington hit 53 runs in an opening stance with John Rose who hit 102 runs himself – our 462^nd century. Congratulations to John for his fine century stand.

So we lost our first wicket at 117 runs. The next wicket fell at the 202 mark and that was Johns. Ian Williams hit 59 runs as the third batter and Brent Van Wck also hit 72 runs. This was Ian’s best score to date since joining the Club last year. We lost our third wicket at the 311 run mark.

Our two volunteer substitutes Matt D’Cruz and Daren Solanki came in to bat at 5th and 6th drop. We greatly appreciated their help in playing today otherwise we would have had a team of only 8. Steve Quanborough managed to hit 21 runs from his death bed flu worries in order to be our 10th player.

Many thanks Steve for such outstanding fortitude. Parin Pillamarri was 3 not out at the end of the days play. At the end of 60 overs, we were 8 for 351 runs against St Ives who also bowled 36 sundries.

This was a great start and bodes well for next week when we bowl.