Swashbuckling

Whenever we think of Club ‘Master Blaster’ the name Ray Khamis (B1 Red) is always in the ‘grand final’ of contenders. Ray has a long history of bullying bowlers since Junior cricket days with his best effort being 5 consecutive 6’s in an over playing C4 on 9 January 2026.

Unfortunately, we don’t have records on the number of 6’s hit in a career but right up there would be Brahadesh (Ram) Ramamurthy (C4 Red) @ Northholm Grammar. Last weekend Ram belted 98* in an innings that included 9 x 6’s and 8 x 4’s (86 runs in boundaries).

Ram was also part of the record breaking D1 Blue side of 2021/22 who smashed a Club record of 17 x 6s in an innings. The photo shows, left to right: Ram 4 x 6’s in his innings of 45; Happy Rana 4 x 6s (36); Vikas Goel 1 x 6 (23); Chetan Chandrasekhar 1 x 6 (12) & Jags Balakrishnan 7 x 6s (46) including 4 in one over against Kenthurst @ Fred Caterson 4.

Other dominant players who come to mind are:

• Chris Bedwell (D1) scored 5 x 6 in an over at Les Shore 2 in 2001/02
• Russel Ingram (C2) in his innings of 211 scored 10 x 6s & 25 x 4’s on 24/10/2009
• Brent Larkham (A2) – scored 200* in B2 Grade (4/11/2017) with 29 x 4’s & 5 x 6’s
• Raynaldo Howard (C4 Red) hit 10 x 6’s in his innings of 131* on 20/1/2024

Photo: our D1 Blue boys with Ram 1^st left – 19^th February 2022.

Sports Club insights

First up – every player over 18 should be a Sports Club member to reciprocate the support the Sports Club has given us and continues to provide. It also makes it easy to come back to the Club after games with easy entry by just showing your membership card – all for just $10 membership.

Some insights into the Club you might find interesting:

• 27,813 litres of beer sold (no doubt with a spike after Saturday’s games)
• 522 kilos of coffee
• 31,936 of Happy Hour drinks provided
• 8,723 financial members
• 1,000+ hours of in-kind room hire
• $136,799 in Club Grants
• $502,694 Member Benefits.

So if you are not a member then sign-up asap to support the Club that supports us– Membership here

Photo: B1 Blue after making it into the Semi’s. From left to right: Rick Turner, Dylan Bish, Jude Boyle, Zander Vink, Connor Hindmarch, Emma, Todd Hutchinson, Jack Hutchinson, Lachlan Edwards, Ben Burrows, Paul Vink, Alexa Williamson, Chris Williamson & Michael Banner – West Pennant Hills Sports Club – 24 February 2024

Blast from the past

I came across this photo of the U15 Grand Final played back on 11^th March 2012 at Parklands Oval when two of our Teams played against each other.

It is interesting to have a look at the players and identify those who are still playing or still involved in our Club. How about this for starters:

Standing: Alex Chidgey (standing, first left and now playing B1 Red); Alex Turner (4^th left); Nick Duck (9^th left playing B1 Red); Adam van Saarloos (10^th left playing B1 Red); John Anderson (12^th left returning from Premier Cricket to play A1); Michael Gunn (2^nd right, playing A1).

Kneeling: Cam McBrien (2^nd left playing A1 and is Captain #25); Nathaniel Chidgey (3^rd left, playing B1 Red); Justin Edwards (4^th left, long-term A2).

Add to this, the Coach of the Red’s was Rick Turner, currently B1 Red.

Our theme song – Steely Dan’s Reelin in the Years

D1 Grade by the numbers

This week we focus on D1 Grade.

Some interesting facts for this Grade, by the numbers:

• 12 x times Grand Finalists with 7 x Premiers & 5 x Runners-up:
  • Our 1^st Premiership win was in 1995/96 with Trevor Ward our Captain
  • Our most successful Captain is Roger Friend with 2 x Premierships
• Best bowling performance by an individual is Ben McNamara who took 10/42 (12/2/2006 @ Foxglove Nth) and is the only player in our history to take 10 wickets in an innings, in any Grade.
• Highest:
  • individual score is 175* by Glenn Scott in 1985/86
  • run scorer is Pratah Sinnetamby (2009/10 to 2021/22) with 1,817 runs @ 24.6
  • wicket taker is Roger Friend with 139 wickets with Dave Larkham on 133 wickets and closing fast
  • season run aggregate is 935 runs by Dave Meizis (2005/06)
  • partnership – 280 for the 3^rd wicket by Andrew Fiedler (126*) & Perry Waldron (141) @ Brooklyn Oval 24/9/2011
  • we also hold 2 of the highest Association record D1 partnerships:
    • 2^nd wicket – 241 runs (Pratah Sinnetamby & Ray Khamis) @ Northholm Grammar on 21/9/2012
    • 3^rd wicket – 280 runs (Andrew Fiedler & Perry Waldron) 24/9/201
• The most capped D1 players in our history is Roger Friend 106 innings
• Lowest score by our side is 46 runs Vs St Ives @ Campbell Park in 2001/02
• Lowest score against us is 18 Vs Wahroonga @ Karuah (28/10/2000)
• 101,286 runs have been scored @ an average of 17.9 runs / wicket
• 103,246 runs have been scored against us @ 17.2 runs / wicket taken

Photo: D1 Premiers – 2003-04. (Left to right) Roger Friend (C), Greg Fiedler, Justin Paterson, Scott Jobson, Sam McIntosh, Ben Akmens

Seated – Michael O’Grady, James Fiedler, Aaron Rezek, Simon Friend, Chris Dyer, Nathan Smith & Ian Paterson (front).