A sight not to behold

Those who have played at Gilroy College will know that facilities are scant – there is no cover, no taps, no bins and most importantly no toilets. The brave players may wonder into the bushes when no one is looking and the shy ones just cross their legs. Then there’s Ray Khamis (C1). At the fall of a wicket late in the day, we noticed Ray absent himself from the team huddle. The nearest obstacle he found was a soccer goalpost on the boundary. What amused the team most during this exercise was watching a Local walking his greyhound around the boundary in Ray’s direction.

Now Ray is not a little fella, weight-wise. Dumb-founded by the sight in front of him, the dog’s owner heeled his pooch 20 metres prior to the goals, and had a bit of a time controlling his dog from making a dash for ….. well, you can guess.

The team watched in utter amusement as the stand-off continued – neither party budged for minutes until Ray eventually finished and returned to the team huddle, with a look of relief on his face. We’re not quite sure if the relief from Ray was due to his satisfied bodily function or due to the greyhound not using his assets as live bait. Perhaps NSW Premier Mike Baird’s ban on greyhound racing has run long enough to wipe the dog’s memory of its training practices.

Crossing swords

The great Eric Junkkari (C1) was at the Matador Cup Final. After a few beers, Eric knew his way to the Gents at North Sydney Oval well. After a series of visits Eric got to know the Channel commentary Team pretty well, very well in fact. First up Eric has a chat to Chappelli in the gents and explains, with hand motions, how Chappelli washes his hands (or that’s what he says).

Next visit he has a chat at the urinal with Tubby Taylor. If this wasn’t enough to scare off the Commentary Team next meeting was with Michael Clarke for a similar chat. We understand that the Commentary Team is hanging out (so as to speak), to get to Perth for the First Test and to use their private bathroom facilities.

Space Cadets

Eric Junkkari

Eric Junkkari (C1) had one of those senior moments. We have all had the experience of putting up one of those shade tents you see at the beach or BBQ’s. The boys were playing at an Oval with limited coverage, from anything, actually so Eric brought along a shade tent. After struggling with the wind, the photo is on the website photo Gallery, tells a great story – it all become too much for the great man with the tent in pieces and unable to be used again. What isn’t widely known is that Eric also runs a very successful business for Office design and fit-out – the mind boggles.

Taki Manolelis (B1)

After taking a wicket the boys gave the ball to the Umpire for safe keeping. Taki was bullet-proof at this stage and nothing was going to stop him from going after the new batsman. He started his run-up for the new batsman but the only problem was that half-way through his approach Taki realised that the ball was still with the umpire.

Rick Turner (B2 Captain)

Rick is one of our outstanding Captains and players but he had a moment that has rocketed him into Space Cadet status. Making the toss at the start of the match Rick lost the toss and decided that we would bowl first. Anyway, the boys did their warm-up and started to take the field until the Opposition Captain reminded Rick that we were actually batting and not bowling.

Zac Morris (C2 Red)

During a C2 game Gunny was scoring and discussion went to International cricket and Bangladesh in particular. From out of no-where Zac asked “Are there are any trees in Bangladesh”.

Is he still batting?

Andrew Morris (C2 Red) was powering towards his ton and it was here that Stu Fiedler wanted to know how many runs Andrew was on. His score was 86* and Stu asked whether he was still batting.

Prat Datar

Another outstanding nomination – this time Prat Datar (B2). Getting ready to come to the ground Prat realised that his cricket clothing from the previous weekend was still in the wash. Rather than rocking up in dirty gear, Prat did the next best thing – he went up to the shops and bought himself new cricket pants and a shirt – arriving at the game at 1.45 pm. So Prat gets 2 Awards – the Space Cadet Award for having to buy new clothing while he should have been playing and the Catwalk Award for sartorial elegance.

Richard Hughes

Richard Hughes (C2 Red) is enthusiastic about playing. After making multiple calls to his Skipper and Steve Quanborough about gaps in any Teams, Richie turned up to the C2 game to support and see if there were any gaps at short notice – there were none. Anyway, at the coin toss, Richie then asked the opposing Captain if they needed a player because he was available. The St Ives Skipper commented that it “…would cost you a bit”. Richie, thinking there was a possibility asked “How much?”.

Alex Chidgey and Ryan Gunn

Alex Chidgey and Ryan Gunn (C2 Red) are genuine Team players. When a massive rain and hail storm that washed out all Seniors games, hit Mimosa Oval they were prepared to race out to the wicket to get the stumps. Rather than wait for the hail to stop they took off while the storm was at its most intense. Alex though thought it through and put a boundary marker on his head as a hail protector. A little while later the storm passed and the sun shone.

On Saturday 31 March 2017, the Sydney Morning Herald ran the following story in the ‘Fitz Files’ about the A1 Grand Final – a weekly column by Peter Fitzsimons:

Photo – Mat Jobson, Alex Connell and Justin Paterson at Berowra Oval on the dinner shift.

“Perfect pitch

As if you didn’t know, last weekend in Sydney was the scheduled cricket final for many suburban comps across our fair metropolis, meaning there was more angst than usual, contemplating the wet weather, and nowhere was it stronger than among the lads of the West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club, due to play and Berowra at the latter’s home ground. WPHCCC needed to play to win. BCC didn’t. But say, the West Pennant lads asked, would you Berowra blokes mind if, in the course of the week, we came over your way, and kinda looked after your oval? Not at all! And so it went, all week, as the Pennant posse covered the pitch, aired the pitch, hired leaf blowers to dry the pitch, removed covers so that the grass could be mowed, and covered the pitch once more. And it worked!

Come Saturday the two-day match started only at 4pm, but it started, due to their vigilance. Star of the show, as it turned out was WPHCCC’s Justin Paterson, usually a fast bowler, who was called on to bowl spin to shut Berowra down after their big start, and did so, taking a magnificent 7/35. WPHCCC was left with a target of just 136 runs to win. And who, do you suppose comes in at last drop, late Sunday arvo, with one ball remaining, needing four to win? Justin Paterson.

He takes centre, he furrows his brow, he steps down the wicket, he connects! He runs … as Berowra scrambles scramble like scalded cats to stop the boundary and … does so. A mighty heave back to the wicket-keeper, and WPHCCC has only run two. It is a draw as WPHCCC remain with two not out batsmen, meaning Berowra take the trophy.

 I know it, you know it, and they know it. Gotta love this city!”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Fitzsimons ‘Fitz Files’ 1 April 2017 pp 47 – www.smh.com.au/sport/the-fitz-files/all-blacks-ivf-plan-for-world-rugby-domination-20170331-gvaqbr.html

De Costi’s

Phil Wurth (A1 and of Seniors Presentation MC Night fame), just happened to buy a couple of bags of frozen fish gut that just happened to find its way into the bottom of Lachie Vile’s kit bag. Lachie isn’t the type of player to take his kit out of the car and let the gear dry so there the kit bag stayed…and stayed in 30 plus degree heat. Early in the week Lachie knew something was wrong and thought a rat had died in the air conditioning system but stoically continued to drive around each day.

By Wednesday the cause was found. While some of the boys were having dinner at the Club Lachie was explaining the rotting mess, the maggots and the dry wrenching in cleaning it up. Retribution will come – it is called the A1 End of Season (EOS).

Do you want Fries with that?

The A1 game, that we ended up winning was getting tight with our boys 6/42 chasing 115 so the boys were a bit nervous and were quite. Enter Phil Wurth – the same Philthy who ‘accidentally’ left 2 packs of frozen fish bait in Lachie Vile’s kit bag that he found a few days later. This time he was having a bread roll while watching the game. Disappearing for a short time, Phil managed to rip out some underarm hair and put it in the bread roll. Rather than eat it himself he kindly offered it around the Team.

Enter Justin Paterson, who was feeling a bit peckish and was next man in. After finishing the roll Justin had a coughing bout caused by hair stuck in his throat and needed copious amounts of water to wash it down. Fortunately Justin didn’t need to bat but if he comes down with some obscure disease we know the reason.

“My bat is older than half the Team”

Michael Banner (B1 and right in photo) made his debut in 1997/98 and has scored over 4,500 career runs with 5 tons – a pretty handy player! Volc uses one of those original Puma Millichamp bats that haven’t been seen this century. After scoring 73 in a 2^nd wicket partnership of about 150 last weekend the big fella commented that his prized bat “…is older than half the Team”.

Take your hand off it

Andrew Fiedler (C1) has taken lots of great photos that are on the website. His recent track record though is starting to make an impact – on his son, Mikey. In one match, Andrew went out to square leg umpire Mikey batting on 98 and the only shot he took saw him getting bowled – for 98. Fast forward to the following week and out comes the camera again for the same result – Mikey being bowled this time for 29.

A long time between drinks

Matt Marsden (C1 and left in photo) scored our 459^th ton and our 14^th this season. Matt’s last ton was 125* in B1 Grade way back in 1995. What makes this amazing is that it is 22 years to the day that he scored his first ton – our 202^nd ton. So after 22 years, 8,036 days and 257 Club tons, history has been repeated with a not out ton.

The thinking man’s cricketer

Ray Khamis (C1) opened the batting with storm clouds approaching in our 2^nd innings run chase. The opposition only had 9 players and as the games finish was close they set a field that had 5 slips, gully and a mid wicket. Second ball of the innings Ray’s saw the odd gap in the field and went for a big hit. With great skill he managed to lob it to 5^th slip and was out.

“I thought I saw lightning”

In the B1 game against Glenorie, Kyle Faber was on 92 and powering towards a ton. With a storm approaching, Josh Banner (photo – on right) was umpiring and stopped the game because he thought he saw lightning “a while ago”. Anyway the rain and hail came down and the match was abandoned with Kyle stuck on 92. To be fair to Josh you don’t take chances with lightning but the boys would have been a bit more forgiving if the sighting was more than ‘a while ago’.

“Watch the…..”

Adrian Chau (C2 Blue and fielding in photo) is one of our keen fielders who will run down anything but he put in a Forrest Gump performance. Playing at Thornleigh Oval, Adrian chased a ball down to fine leg and just kept going, smashing into the fence head first to try and save a boundary – fortunately the fence was undamaged. But wait, there is more. Not to be outdone, Adrian chased another ball to the boundary. Like watching a train wreck unfold, no fence was going to stop Adrian and he just ran into it and somersaulted over the fence head first.

“It’s like looking in a mirror”

An interesting conversation between B1 Club baldies, Michael “Fester” McGregor and Tim “Hollywood” Leyshon (centre in photo) showed they are forming a ‘bromance’ like relationship. Macca complimented Tim’s general good looks and “shiny head” to which Tim replied with “It’s like looking in a mirror Macca”. They shared a laugh and started talking about previous shampoos they used to use. “Ahh…. the good old days” and everyone else slowly left them alone to let the relationship blossom.

Alex Chidgey and Ryan Gunn

Alex Chidgey (left in photo) and Ryan Gunn (C2 Red and 2nd left in photo) are genuine Team players. When a massive rain and hail storm that washed out all Seniors games, hit Mimosa Oval they were prepared to race out to the wicket to get the stumps. Rather than wait for the hail to stop they took off while the storm was at its most intense. Alex though thought it through and put a boundary marker on his head as a hail protector. A little while later the storm passed and the sun shone.

Something about the 7’s

On his day, Joel Herzog (C2 Red and 4th left in photo) is as good as any batter in our Club. On Saturday he turned it on in the 1-dayer against Berowra with a high quality 147 single-handedly scoring more than the opposition. But….there is something happening in the 7’s. Joel’s highest score is 197 back in December 2012. Fast forward to this weekend and Joel gets 147. Now while this is a problem that most players can only envy an extra 3 runs in each innings would have given Joel a double ton and a 150 and a place in our history as being only the 2^nd player in our Club’s History to get 2 scores of a double and also 150+.

It’s in the numbers

Joel Behlevanas

How about this one for an alignment of the planets. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue – w/k in photo), one of our emerging stars, was on 99 at Tea and on his way to his first Seniors ton. The match before Joel was run out for 99. Joel ended up getting his richly deserved ton but when he was out the partnership with Gopy Parathan was 99 runs!

The Behlevanas family and Thornleigh Oval

Now this is scary. As mentioned, Joel scored his first Seniors ton at Thornleigh Oval. It is also the Oval where he scored his first Seniors 50. It doesn’t stop there. Joel’s brother, Riley (hand on hips in photo), also scored his first 50 and also his first ton (Juniors) at the same Oval.