Anecdotes – Round 2
Look mum – no hands
Matt Joliffe (B2) grassed a catch early with a firmly hit cover drive bouncing out of his hands. Clearly not feeling too good about the dropped catch decided to adjust his technique. The next 3 catches Matt decided to attack the ball AFL chest mark style managing to take each catch but with a resounding thud echoing around the ground as the cricket ball thudded into his chest before he wrapped his arms around the catch.
With 3 large welts on his chest Captain Rick Turner questioned Matt on his revised catching technique and the damage he was inflicting on his chest. Matt took the advice on board and managed to take a dolly caught and bowled to end the Lions innings. The end result – 5 chances, 1 dropped, 4 taken and only 1 using his hands and a chest full of large red welts. That’s putting your body on the line for the team.
A sight not to behold
For those who have played at Gilroy College, they will know that facilities are scant – there is no cover, no taps, no bins and most importantly no toilet. 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. 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.
Dumbfounded 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 Mike Baird’s ban on greyhound racing has run long enough to wipe the dog’s memory of its training practices.
It’s in the numbers
Joel Behlevanas
How about this one for an alignment of the planets. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue), 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 on the weekend at Thornleigh Oval. It is also the Oval where he scored his first Seniors 50. It doesn’t stop there. Joel’s brother, Riley, scored his first 50 and also his first ton (Juniors) also at the same Oval. We will write this one up in the Grounds History.
I’m an Architect !
Eric Junkkari (C1) had one of those senior moments on the weekend. 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 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.
Space Cadet
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.
Hashtag# Number 2 !
Andrew (C1) reached one of our great milestones last the weekend. After scoring 20 runs in the T20 Semi, he has now scored 6,367 runs and is the 2nd highest run scorer in our history. He passed his brother Greg who scored 6,363.
A bit of further cricketing trivia is that Andrew has now played 323 innings with 50 not out innings – our equal 3rd ranked player with not-outs in our history – behind Steve Quanborough (our esteemed Seniors Director with a massive 66 not outs).
Young achievers
Brothers in arms
Max Harkin 106* & Sean Harkin 67 put on 123 for the 6th wicket in D2 last weekend. The boys got a late call-up to play and put on a match winning partnership Max is only 15 and Sean XX. Max is now the 4th youngest player in our History to score a Seniors century at 15 years 3months and 21 days. Those younger players are:
1. 134* by Daniel Anderson (14 years, 6 months and 27 days) C1 Grade Vs Kenthurst @ Campbell Park 5/12/2009
2. 111* by Ryan Gunn (14 years, 9 months and 21 days) D2 Grade Vs Kissing Point @ John Purchase 1/11/2014
3. 141 by Lachlan Vile (15 years, 1 month and 1 day old) D1 Grade Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee @ Northholm 12/9/2009.
I got an email from Alf James, esteemed former HK&HDCA President who played in this game and commented: “It reminded me of the batting of Peter Burnett and Vic Gray (both of whom went on to played for NDCC 1st Grade) for Turramurra C Grade as young teenagers in the late 1960s).”
Ben Waldron
Ben Waldron at 13 years 1 month and 22 days became our youngest hat-trick taker with his 3/15 in the 5th Grade T20 Semi-Final @ Greenway Park on 9 October 2016. Well done Ben.
Watch this space
We are privileged to have James Makin as our A1 and Club Captain who is the most successful Captain in our history – 4 times consecutive A1 Premiership Captain, A2 Premiership winner, B1 Grade runners up, 2 times First Grade T20 winners and also Runner up – all-up, 7 Premierships and 2 runners-up!
Enter Matt Jobson – the quiet achiever. Matt is only 25/26 and with James away, Captained A1 on Saturday in his first full game as Skipper. The boys won this game outright in a close fought thriller. Matt’s leadership pedigree is one of our best kept secrets – how about this for the future of our Club – Jobbo has captained A2 to successive Premierships (he is also our youngest Premiership Captain with the 2008/08 A2 Crown), A2 Runner-up plus he has played in 9 A1 / A2/ First Grade T20 Premiership winning sides. Add to this his 2,000 runs and 280 wickets – wow!
“Watch the…..”
Adrian Chau (C2 Blue) is one of our keen fielders who will run down anything but he put in a Forrest Gump performance on Saturday. Playing at Thornleigh Oval on Saturday, 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.
The warm-up
The A2 boys turned up to Les Shore 2 and had a 45 minute Team warm-up. Skipper, Simon Smyth was the most active putting in a big effort before his bowling effort that didn’t happen. Come the game and it was all over in 40 minutes with the boys getting the last 6 wickets in 8 overs to get 10 points for the match.
First A2 wicket
Tis Mistry (A2 and B1) is a future A1 strike bowler and is one of the quickest bowlers in our Club so it was only fitting that Tis made his A2 debut on the weekend and that he got his first A2 wicket. Problem is that it was an 11 year old who made up the numbers for a Team struggling with numbers with Tis bowling spin to save injury. They all count Tis.
Batting collapses
Our C2 Blue boys are genuine contenders for the Premiership this season but had a shocker last weekend. Batting first, we got off to a flier with an opening partnership of 99. All was going well at 3/189 until we lost 7/5 to be all out for 194. This is not the biggest collapse recorded but it is up there. The biggest collapses have been:
• In Juniors (U14 White 15/12/2012) were all out for 2
• For Seniors (B1 Grade Final 1967/68) were dismissed for 4
• For an Individual, James Kealy (B1 22/11/2008) took 5/0