Anecdotes – Round 11
Inspirational
Phil Wurth (A1 Grade and pictured with an overwhelmed Steve Smith), famous for his MC work at Presentation Nights, offering players arm-hair sandwiches and putting fish bait in a player’s kit bag shows what an inspiration he is. Playing last weekend, Phil gave the boys a gee-up before opening the batting – “Why would I respect the bowler if I don’t respect myself”. Philthy then went out and put his words into practice with a dominant and well compiled 7 runs.
Two big milestone achievements
Congratulations to Eric Junkkari (C1) and Matt Jobson (A1) who achieved major personal milestones on the weekend.
Eric Junkkari
Eric took his 450th career wicket and is now only the 5th person to reach this milestone. Eric is now just 11 wickets behind the great Mark Taylor who has 461 wickets.
Matt Jobson
Jobbo took his 300th wicket against ARL on the weekend in another massive milestone achievement. At just 27 years of age, Jobbo is now the youngest person in our history to reach this milestone and brings him equal to Andrew Driscoll to be our equal 11th highest wicket taker.
Sitting in front of these boys are:
- 623 – Dave Carey (1983/84 to 2001/02)
- 543 – Ray McDonald (1953/54 to 79/80)
- 497 – Ken Donaldson (1962/63 to 82/83)
- 461 – Mark Taylor (1985/86 to 06/07)
For Jobbo his next target is the 342 by Wally Howard (1960/61 to 74/75).
“Why do I play this game?”
After Michael ‘Volc’ Banner (pictured with James Makin, left) was hit in the head earlier in the day, he was nursing his face with ice for about 4 hours. We all felt sorry for poor Michael “Old Man” Banner as he claimed it was his day and knew he “would have scored 100 easy”. Still groggy, Volc was asked how he felt about cricket now and if he would wear a helmet for the first time in 19 years.
He mentioned that he hated wearing a helmet, but that the game of cricket has caused him nothing but “pain” over the years. “I’m old and fat and got hit in the face. Why do I play this game?” Luckily for Volc, he has a week away next week to recuperate and be back feeling better the next week.
Space cadets (aka Sharp as a bowling ball awards)
We have 2 nominations to welcome in the New Year – the picture is of Eric Junkkari trying to assemble a shelter:
Brent Larkham (C2 Red)
With Kenthurst struggling at 9 wickets down at 5.00 pm and with 15 overs left Brent wanted to know if we get them out do we have to bat the rest of the day or can we go home.
Zac Morris (C2 Red)
In his second appearance in this prestigious award listing Zac was watching the BBL during the week and when a player was caught Zac wanted to know whether the runs still counted. This up is up there with Zac’s question earlier in the season as to whether there were any trees in Bangladesh.
Go slow weekend
About this time of the year our local Councils decide to either not cut the grass or cut it so high in preparation for the football season that it makes for some very boring play. For starters, get a load of some of these results:
- A1 Grade – 118 in 65 overs by ARL
- B2 – 97 in 62 overs by our boys
- C2 Red – 153 in 81 overs by Kenthurst
- D2 – 7/108 in 75 overs including 30 maidens (!) by Kissing Point.
Maybe, just maybe our fees might be used to allow a fair contest between bat and ball.
Blowfly cricket
Our A1 Grade boys sponsor 3 children who play Blowfly cricket – a modified game for children with special needs. Mark Rushton, Association Life Member and 2015 NSW Adult Volunteer of the Year runs Blowfly and in recognition of our support gave the A1 boys a set of CBA branded stumps, identical to those used in the Test Matches to recognise our support. Well done boys.