Special achievements

What a weekend – the special achievements just keep on coming and this week we have some beauties.

Centuries

We had 2 tons on the weekend – both by not out batsmen from week one. Well done to Gautam Ayyar (D1 Skipper) on his 100 and our 477^th ton, also his first ton.

Then of course a ton from Dinesh De Silva (B2 and pictured) 102* and our 476^th ton.

All time wicket takers

Last week we mentioned that the great Eric Junkkari drew equal with Mark Taylor as our highest B2 wicket taker in history – going all the way back to 1973/74 (45 years!). On the weekend Eric took a wicket to clock up 140 wickets and pass Mark. He is now the highest wicket taker in both B2 (140) and C1 Grades (232 – since 1946/47) and is the only player in our History to be the top-wicket-taker in 2 Grades – the stuff of legends.

Home grown

I hesitate to write this one as it is about family but let’s see how it goes. On the weekend my two boys Daniel (DA) and John (you guessed it – JA) played Premier 1^st Grade together for Northern District DCC (DA is pictured left, John, right with John Coulthard) and in a couple of matches play against David Warner and then Steve Smith.  JA opened and DA batted at 4 against last season’s Premiers who have a lethal attack loaded with BBL and NSW stars – the first time brothers have played together for Northern District 1^st Grade since Adam and Dean Gilchrist and only the 3^rd time in the Club’s 93 year history.

The real story though is that they both played with West Penno all the way through. They started with Kanga, played U9s through to U16s, played D2 under the Captaincy of Peter Westerberg, and went on to play A1 and in DA’s case win an A1 Grade premiership under James Makin – still one of his cherished memories.

What a great example to the Boys and Girls currently playing Juniors and those U16 Graduates playing C or D Grades, or higher, that whatever your personal goal you can achieve it through playing for West Penno, starting in lower Grades and then following the pathway to A1 Grade, or higher – if that is your dream.

Add to this the great Lisa Sthalekar (Australia 2001 to 2013) who played Junior cricket with us from U9s to U16s the story is a powerful message for every Boy and Girl who plays for us and dream of what might be……

Brothers in Arms

While on Brothers, Riley and Bailey Miedler (A1) starred in A1 close loss to Berowra. Resuming at 1/113 at one stage chasing just 163 we had them 5/114 and then 7/129 before they just got home. The Miedler boys starred with Riley taking 3/34 and Bailey 5/28.

Having brothers playing A1 does happen from time to time but it is not common. To have 2 brothers opening the bowling together in A1 is a first for us. Well done boys on this great achievement.

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Young Leaders

As mentioned in an earlier Anecdote, Michael Gunn (B1) is our youngest Seniors Captain (Colts excluded) at just 20 years and 9 months when he took the field for his first game.

This week Matt Digby (C1 and pictured left) another young Leader stepped up to add to his already growing pedigree of being an outstanding talent. Taking on the Captaincy from Tim Wortho who was unavailable this match, Diggers took on the Captaincy responsibility at just 18 years of age and while doing his HSC.

How did he go? The boys won their first match of the season.

Stu Fiedler – on fire

Stu Fiedler (pictured left with Tarun Lath) has now earned the nickname Dizzy after Jason ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie stunned the cricketing world with his double-century scored from the Nightwatchman role. Though Stu (64 not out) fell a bit short of Dizzy’s record, his feat was a career milestone in more ways than one:

• Stu’s previous highest score in any cricket was 30 no, way back in 2012 in D Grade
• Stu’s career avg before this innings was a solid 6.3 – it now rockets up to 7.9
• He smacked 8 boundaries in his innings, which is more than he’s scored in any entire season
• He finally managed an ambition of hitting the winning runs in a match
• He still hasn’t been dismissed this season after 3 innings

Let’s not also forget that Stu took 3/38 in the first innings to win man of the match by a long margin.

By all reports he’s come back to earth and is happy to resume his position back at #10 for the rest of the season.

Bad luck…well done

Gautam Ayyar (D1 and pictured far right, front row) scored his first ton (100) in a true Captain’s knock on the weekend. The problem was that when he got out the scorebook showed Gautam just missed his ton with 99. Anyway, a check of the scorebook showed that he did in fact get 100. We are well aware that any volunteer is worth their weight in gold but….in this case our well intentioned scorers are also the Space Cadets for the Round.