Family members playing record

Last weekend we had a record with 5 Hando family members playing in the same Round:

• A2 – Tom and Jack
• B2 – Phil, Sam and Harry (13 yrs old).

This is the first time in our History that 5 family members have played in the same season, let alone the same Round. Pictured in the photo are: (left to right) Jack 16, Tom 18, Phill ( proud Dad), Sam 19 and Harry 13.

Our previous family members playing record are the 5 Donaldson’s (Don Snr, Don Jnr, Jim and the twins John & Ken) who played in the 1960s, 70s & early 80s, and the 4 Creais family members (David, Marcus, Chris, James) who played in the same Round on 17 January 2009. This latest achievement is exactly 9 years after the previous record of the Creais family was set.

This still has a long way to go from the early teams of the Association though. The South Colah Cricket Club had the 18 sons of Patrick Duffy (Duffy Ave) of Thornleigh, Dural CC had the 7 sons of Thomas Best, Pennant Hills CC had the 10 sons of Arthur Thompson (Thompson’s Corner) and Castle Hill CC the 11 sons of John James.

A1 Grade Captain

Congratulations to Justin Paterson who took over the A1 Captaincy from James Makin for one match. Justin made his debut in 2003/04 playing D1 and has worked his way through the Grades to now achieve one of our great honours. Well done JP.

Against the Odds

What an amazing achievement with the odds stacked heavily against us by wrong Team entrances at the beginning of the season. With just 2 more games to go before the Semi Finals, well done to the following Teams who will make the Semi’s – against all odds:

• A2 Red (Simon) – 2^nd
• B2 Red (Rob) – 1^st
• C3 (Indranil) – 2^nd
• D2 (Capt. Mike)– 4^th

Other chances:

Amazing performances have been by:

• B1 (Aaron) sitting equal 4^th in a tight competition
• C2 (Buzz) are just 4 points out of the top 4 and need to win all matches
• D1 (Gautam) – 4^th with a very tough draw to come.

The story though is the background behind these achievements. While the Association generally does an amazing job they got the Team entrances this season horribly wrong with all Teams above D1 moved up a Grade including having 6 Teams in the top 4 Grades.

So for any Teams making the Semi’s let alone winning a Comp this season will rank up there with our best ever years given the cards we have been dealt.

Hopefully next season, sense will prevail and everyone can play in the right Grades and enjoy their cricket.

Experience plus

TeamApp had a great series of updates last weekend on our D2 side that had a big game to consolidate their spot in the top 4. A few of the updates on the opening partnership of Capt. Mike (bowling in photo) and Ben Kinchington is a good read:

After 10 overs:

“WPHC batting score is 0/15 after 10 overs.  Mike on 3 and Ben on 11 with 1 wide. Time to pick-up the run rate boys”.

After 20 overs:

“A good increase in the run rate with 0/64 after 20 overs….”

After 30 overs:

“0/121 after 30 overs. Ben 62 and Mike 46. Great session boys”

We finished at 3/207, a record D2 opening partnership of 124 and a big win against the higher placed Team. The lesson….have faith in the ‘old dogs’ who have been there and done it all before.