Storm damage

Last weekend we gave an update on the Storm damage to the West Penno / Cherrybrook area from Saturday. We now have a further update with a lot more stories to close off the account. Here goes:

• Incoming traffic was at a standstill from all entry points. Some of our players who were stuck at Thompson’s corner simply parked in a side-street and walked to the Club! An update from Wendy Paton:

“Like Brett and Riley taking around 3 hours to get home to Dural from Turramurra after two other parents waited with Riley for Brett to get there because all the usual roads were closed…??? They got home at 8.30!!!!!”

• Campbell Park was badly damaged with all the fences down after tress collapsed right along the length (photo) – our D2 boys were playing at this ground. The damage was so severe that Hornsby Council closed the ground for this weekend
• Les Shore – a tree knocked down power lines at the exit to the ground so without careful negotiation you could have been fried
• Edward Bennett Oval – a turtle was blown out of the creek and onto the ground
• Rick Turner (Captain, B1 Blue) had a tree fall on his house and another one on his neighbours place after a lightning strike – check out the Miscellaneous Photo Gallery
• Steve Quanborough (D1) gave an update:’

“After the storm while I was quickly heading home I saw some Berowra players had stopped and were helping out our local neighbourhood on Newline Road with the trees on fences and on the roads. A big thumbs up to those individuals.”

Meanwhile at the Sports Club

The big winner from this was the Sports Club. With people not being able to get out they were powered by generators and were doing a great trade. I got this great story from Steve Quanborough:

“I should have mentioned this to you last Saturday. I was playing for the mighty A2 team and when we were called off a few of us managed to make it back to the bowling club during the storm. While we were there a large tree collapsed across the bridge, blocking the only pathway in and out of the Bowling Club.

 Fueled by the strength of about six beers, James “Pear” Partridge jumped into action and with the help of a tiny handheld chainsaw and a few onlookers, Pear ‘hulksmashed’ the tree into little pieces so the good people at the Bowlo were able to leave after they finished watching Australia demolish India in the Second Test.”

Stranded

Spare a thought for Simon Smyth (A2 Captain). Simon was bowling last weekend and after his 400^th wicket being stuck on 399. After just 2.3 overs it happened – Simon pulled his 399^th hammy and limped off the field. Let’s hope Simon is back on the field before the Finals. For any player, apart from being painful, this is one of the most frustrating injuries, even more so when just one more wicket means that Simon would be the just the 7^th player in our history to reach this massive milestone.

We do have other instances of players being so close to a major milestone. The best known is Greg Fiedler (1981/82 to 2007/08). Greg needed just 1 run to bring up the 5,000 run milestone while playing A2 in the 2001/02 season.

When taking off to score the run he tore a hamstring that put him out for the season. He brought it up the following season with a “booming cover drive that squirted through mid wicket” to quote Greg.

Local Junior ‘done good’

After playing for King’s School 2^nd XI for the last couple of seasons, Gian Gill (under 9s-16s and Seniors B and C Grades) was last week given the call-up to represent King’s 1^st XI.

In a two day match v St Joseph’s 1^st X1, Gian took 5/4, including a hat-trick in the 1^st innings, and followed it up with 6-38 in the 2^nd innings, giving him match figures of 22 overs, 6 maidens, 11/42, helping King’s to an outright victory.

With the school holidays upon us Gian turned out for C2 Blue on the weekend to help the boys out.

Blowfly cricket Christmas break

Blowfly Cricket introduced this season is one the uplifting initiatives our great Club undertaken. Blowfly Cricket targets young people who are affected by autism, cerebral palsy and down syndrome and gives them the chance to play organised sport.

Last weekend, we had our Blowfly Christmas party with Santa, a BBQ and lots of fun. Our Photo Gallery )Blowfly Cricket tab) has photos of the day and is worth a look – here

Only a handful of Clubs run Blowfly across NSW and we are the only Club in our area which makes what we do special.

We have so many active volunteers from our Club who contribute so much so a huge thank you to the following folk who make it happen: Bill and Bec Peterkin, Alex Robertson, Andrew and Bailey Miedler, Jane Bish, Mike Kinchington, Graham and Danielle Chivers……

Thanks folks for creating something special that everyone involved with WPHCCC should be very proud.

Handbreak

Michael Banner (A2) is one of our all time best players but his parking is up there with players such as Phil Wurth – the other end of the scale. A photo taken at yesterday’s game shows that the traditional way of parking and using a handbrake is not up there as Volc’s preferred method, rather using the fence as an alternative.