What a performance

Last Sunday our A1 boys played in the first Round of the CNSW Community Cup. This is a T20 knockout competition involving 32 Teams from metropolitan Sydney and Regional NSW (e.g.; Dubbo & Orange). The match was live streamed and was played under BBL rules.

We played Lindfield Shires 1^st Grade side at their Home ground. We batted first and scored an impressive 4/163 in our 20 overs – how good was Billy Gaunt with a classy 88 runs. Lindfield scored 8/163 in reply so we went down to a Super Over. Lindfield finished with 1/7 after great over from acting skipper Michael Richards. Our turn to bat and we finished at 2/5 – just 2 runs from forcing another Super Over or 3 runs short of a win.

So we played one of the top sides in Shires, on their home ground and in a game format that we only play 2 games / season and came to within 1 scoring shot of an amazing win. To quote our Skipper, Michael:

“The loss was a bitter pill to swallow, we played well enough to win the game – just the little 1%’ers cost us throughout. Regardless, I couldn’t have been prouder on how we played collectively and the fight we showed throughout the entire afternoon. Personally, whilst the result wasn’t kind to us, it was the best game of cricket I have been a part of in an A Grade WPH side.

 It still stings waking up this morning. But we loved the format of the competition, we will be back next year.”

We should all be super proud of our A1 boys who played the game – hard, with passion and showing what the Spirit of Cricket is all about. As a Club, we are super proud of both your performance and the way you played the game.

Photo: The players from left to right are: Michael Richards (C), Billy Gaunt, Jackson Preedy, Ashane De Silva, Jude Boyle, Tanay hira, Campbell Wallace, Phil Wurth (with bat), Jack Hando, Harry Hando & Andy Meikle – Soldiers Memorial Oval – Sunday 10 November 2024.

10 years on

Thursday 14 November marked the 10^th anniversary of Phil Hughes being struck by a short ball by Sean Abbott in a NSW Vs South Australia Shield game and ultimately resulted in his death on 27 November.

Cast your memory back and this was a marked by the Cricket Community coming together in a way that we have never and hopefully, will never see again. In our own Club we had a moment of silence at most games Teams gathered around the centre wicket before each game. I remember chatting to Scott Henderson (A1 and one of the most feared fast bowlers in our history), not being able to bowl a bouncer for some weeks.

Photo: the accompanying photo is one of the best. It was taken during the A1 game at the Glade on 29 November 2014.

Space Cadet

This week we have a Team Space Cadet Award with Nick Duck the focus. But first, our theme music – David Bowie’s  Space Odity

Last week, we did an Anecdote on how the B1 Red boys asked what was our Club’s longest winning streak was after a close win that saw them undefeated since Round 2 last season. When we say the Team raised this we mean Nick Duck.

We finished the Anecdote with the observation:

“The only problem with calling this out is that we all know what happens next so….if / when the boys go down all fingers will be pointing at Nick Duck who called out his achievement. “

You guessed it. After making this observation it all happened this weekend – just 7-days after the famous call-out. In fact the boys, who were chasing just 158 were hammered and rolled for just 116 by the Team coming last!

But there was one bright star with Ray Khamis bringing up his 3,000^th run.

Season top performers

The home page of the website has been updated with our top performers with the bat and ball up until the end of Round 5. These stats plus personal milestone achievements are regularly updated. Our top 5 players on the latest performances are:

Top 5 batters

1. Vinoth Sambasivam (D2) – 305 runs @ 43.6
2. Mridul Das (C4 Red) – 267 runs & 66.7
3. Nic Price (C1) – 251 runs @ 50.2
4. Oliver Linschoten (C1) 249 @ 62.2
5. Chintan Shah (D1 Blue) – 246 runs @ 49.2

Top 5 bowlers

1. Kaushal Gandhi (C4 Blue) – 19 wickets @ 3.8
2. Anand Sadasivam (C4 Red) – 17 wickets @ 11.4
3. Brahadesh Ramamurthy (C4 Red) – 15 wickets @ 10.4
4. Pritam Dhamija (C4 White) – 14 wickets @ 9.1
5. Manraj Singh (D1 Red) – 13 wickets @ 14.3

The best of the best on this list Kaushal Gandhi (C4 Blue). Kaushal is currently averaging 3.8 runs / wicket. If he can retain anything like this average he would beat the current C4 Club record of 10.3 held by Reyhan Ahmed.

Something to aspire to?

Our best-ever achievers for a full season are:

• Best batting aggregate –1,361 runs by Laurie Tuckerman (A1 1951/52)
• Best batting average – 130.0 by Cliff Sutton (C1 1982/83)
• Best bowling aggregate – 80 wickets by Peter Sanders (D1 1983/84
• Best bowling average – 4.93 by Mitchell Blow (C3 2013/14)

Photo: Kaushal Gandhi (C4 Blue) after taking 6 for 7 and this included our 53^rd Club hat-trick in the Sheep Station Trophy game at Greenway Park – 9 November 2024.

C3 Grade by the numbers

This week we focus on C3 Grade – our first game in the C3 Competition was in 2001/02.

Some interesting facts for C3 Grade, by the numbers:

• 8 x times Grand Finalists in the 23 years this Comp has been running so we have been in 35% of every Grand Final played in this Grade (no pressure Mick)
  • Our 1^st Premiership  win was in 2009/10
  • We have won 4 x Premierships and also been Runners-up 4 times
  • Our most successful Captain is Buzz Burrows who has won back to back Premierships 2018/19 & 2019/20
• Best bowling performance by an individual is by Justin Edwards 6/11 (match figures of 10/37) in the 2014/15 Grand Final at The Glade
• Highest:
  • individual score is 197 by Joel Herzog @ Les Shore 2 on 8/12/2012
  • partnership – 226 runs for the 3^rd wicket by Iain Ryan (108*) & James O’Donnell Vs St Ives @ NTRA 2001/02
• The most capped C3 player in our history is Peter Lees (1994/95 to the present) with 68 innings. Peter is also our most capped C2 player with 166 innings
• 58,865 runs have been scored @ an average of 17.6 runs / wicket
• 59,424 runs have been scored against us @ 18.5 runs / wicket taken

Photo: C3 Blue Premiers 135 & 1/28 who beat Kenthurst Upper Hills 60 & 7/162 dec. at Greenway Park. Back Row (left to right): Dave Behlevanas, Jason Goddard, Nigel Blow, Chris Creais, Matthew Rashleigh, David Creais, Joel Behlevanas, Charindu Weeraratne. Front Row (left to right):Luke Bartlett, Semonn Oleksyn, Brett Hawkins (capt), Cooper Goddard, Mitchell Blow.