Anecdotes – Grand Final week
Family Affair
The Fiedler’s have already set a number of Club records this season with one more perhaps on the way:
- Andrew Captains C1, his eldest son Daniel Captains B1 and Stu Fiedler was Vice Captain of C2 Red – a first for a father / son combination
- Andrew and Daniel have now taken this to another level with both their B1 and C1 Teams making it to the Grand Final. This is another a Club Record to have a father/son combination go this deep in a Competition
- If they can both get a win, this will take the record to another level again. There are no Association records available of this achievement but it would be extremely rare – if at all.
A chance at History – what it takes
A1 are competing in their 5th Grand Final in 6 years and a chance to win their 5th Premiership. What isn’t known is the amazing ‘behind the scenes’ efforts the boys take to even get a game.
In 2013/14 (Rofie 3) we finished 2nd and had to beat Minor Premier ARL but Parklands Oval was copped a week of rain. So the boys (Sam Baidya, Nick Bennett, Gavin Taylor, Stuart Newman and Ranga Ediriwickrama) camped out over Friday / Saturday and night to work on the wicket after Saturday’s play was washed out. The rest is history and we won a famous Final.
Fast-forward to this week. After 2 weeks of rain and all A1 turf grounds closed our boys were at Berowra Oval every day this week pulling covers off and on. On Friday night they spent a good couple of hours’ super-sopping’ and using a Blower to dry the pitch and surrounds. The boys got on late but have given themselves a chance of even playing. You don’t have to look any further to see why this A1 generation of players (5 years) are so hungry and have set records never before achieved by our Club.
Run crawl
After 2 weeks of rain the grounds were very slow and with the exception of Berowra (A1) and Auluba (C1) were uncut with long grass and soggy outfields making run scoring very hard. The impact of these conditions resulted in the following results:
- A1 – 2/47 (30 overs)
- B1 – 82 (74 overs ) & 6/38 (18 overs)
- B2 – 44 (45 overs) & 3/37 (48 overs)
- C1 – 131 (53 overs) & 1/12 (12 overs)
- C3 – 105 (71 overs) & 3/30 (25 overs)
That’s a total of 526 runs in 376 overs – amazing.
Rain, rain, go away –how good were those hot days
With 2 weeks of rain, those long, hot Saturdays of a few weeks ago seem pretty good. With all of our Semi’s washed out it is interesting to recall a few instances of the past:
- Most recently, Simon Smyth’ SPL boys were washed out without a ball being bowled in 2013/14. As we came 2nd a win here would have given Simon 4 straight Premiership wins but not to be
- In 1991/92 (C2) Trevor Ward’s Team had the Storey Park pitch vandalised with water being poured on a good length at both ends and newspapers then laid to make sure the game didn’t get underway
- In 1991/92, (B1) Jim Fuggle and the Team paid for a Security Guard to guard the Storey Park pitch over Friday and Saturday nights to protect it from vandalism.
Our most famous wet wicket win was in A1 Grade (2013/14). Day 1 was washed out after 5 Team members camped out over Saturday night to be able to put the covers off and on over night with passing storms forecast to give us a shot at playing. We got on and won one of the great matches against ARL – 85 runs to 67.