Our latest Australian Representative
Congratulations to our latest Junior selected to play for an Australian X1. Will Byrom played for the Australian U19 Youth ODI Team against India in 2 x ODI’s in Brisbane in late September.
Paul (Will’s Dad) has also been a tireless volunteer for our Club and Association and his brothers: Edward, George & Henry are also outstanding players. Well done Will and let’s hope this is just the start of a wonderful career.
We have a proud history of producing Australian players. The list of these distinguished players is:
- Denise Annetts – Australia (1985 to 1991) – 10 x Tests & 43 x ODI’s
- Lisa Sthalekar – Australia (2001 to 2013) – 8 x Tests, 125 x ODI’s & 54 x T20’s
- Peter Harrison – Australia Over 60’s (2010)
- Lauren Kua – Australian U18 (2021)
- Trisha Yadav – Australian U14 Indoor All-Stars (2024) & U16 (2025)
Add to this distinguished list is Tina MacPherson (Australia – 1972/73) who was actively involved in our Junior Girls during the start-up years back in 1996/97. Tina also has the distinction of bowling the first-ever ball in an ODI – Men’s or Women’s. What isn’t widely known is that Women started the ODI World Cup concept and it was followed by the Men 3-years later.
Photo gallery of our Australian level stars
Back to the Future – 84 years in the making
Last week our Stage 3 Girls side played Kellyville Supersonics in the Parramatta DCA. This means that, for the first time, West Penno is now playing in 3 x Association:
- HK&HDCA – our home Association
- North Shore JCA – our Girls Stage 1 (10 to 12 years); Stage 2 (13 to 14) and Stage 3 (14 to 16)
- Parramatta DCA
What makes this special is that West Penno played our first-ever game as a Club in the Parramatta Comp (C1) Vs Westmead, way back in 1930.
We played continuously until 1941 when World Wat 11 caused the competition to cease due to the large number of players having to fight in the War.
Competitions started up again in 1945 and we then started in the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Cricket Association (HKCA) – our home Association ever since.
So a bit of history on 20th September with our Club playing in the Parramatta Comp for the first time in 84 years.
Standing – Mick Nethery (Coach), Belle, Alisha, Zoey, Ria , Hemali, Trisha, Kapil Dev Yadav Sitting – Shruti, Gayathri, Maahnoor, Diksha – John Purchase Oval – 20092025
Time marches on
How good is this story. James Makin, our legendary A1 player and Seniors Director is our most equal capped A1 Captain (8 times Captain) in addition to being our most successful A1 Captain, winning 4 consecutive Premierships. He also holds the Club record of Grand Final appearances with an amazing 20 Finals (11 wins & 9 losses).
Way back in 2012, James was about to lead our A1 side to the first of their record 4 consecutive Premierships.
Just before the 2011/12 Grand Final, the first of our 4 consecutive wins, James had this great photo taken with his wonderfully talented sons – Oliver and Jack.
Fast forward to 2025/26 and Oliver has made his A1 debut (Player # 338) and this week played A1 with James (Player # 187) wearing his own West Penno cap.
What better musical interlude to celebrate this achievement that Coldplay’s – Clocks
Photos: 1) James & Oliver Makin in 2012; 2) Oliver Makin (first left) onm A1 debut 27 September 2025
Our latest Club record – for the moment
Congratulations to Dave Larkham (D1 Red) last weekend who took his 140th career wicket in D1 Grade.
The previous record was held by Roger Friend. What makes this interesting is that Roger, who has been Captaining D2 since 2022/23, is back in D1 and Captaining the side.
This means that with Roger likely to be back bowling in D1 again this season (he is the Captain), the record may change hands a couple of times.
Our Girl’s first Century
We have offered Girls cricket continuously since 1996/97. Fast forward to 2025/26 and we have registered an amazing 1,366 Girls for West Penno!
On Saturday 20th September, Hemali Garg, Stage 3 Girls (15 to 17 years old) scored 121* in 93 balls with 24 x 4’s and 1 x 6 – an amazing 102 runs in boundaries. The side they were playing was the Kellyville Supersonics – last season’s Premiers.
This is the first century by a WPHC Girl in our history. Keep in mind that the Girls have traditionally played T20’s with batting restrictions. This season the Stage 3 Girls are playing T30 games.
By being our first-ever century scorer this is one record that will never be broken.
While on high scoring, how about Trisha Yadav who just last week (27/9) smashed 97 in just 77 balls with 10 x 4’s – also for our Stage 3 Girls. The Opposition was another powerhouse side with a number of women in their mid-20s with some recent India U19 representatives!
