Anecdotes – Round 9 (1-Dayer) – 21 December 2025

What West Penno players do outside cricket

Before getting into the story it is worth watching the video – Meet Vyas’ Crowd catch

How about the performance of our B2 star, Meet Vyas at the Sixers Vs Scorchers BBL game at the SCG on Wednesday night.

During the Sixers innings, Jack Edwards hit a monster six into the crowd.

The ball went high and was travelling like a rocket – straight to B2 star all-rounder, Meet Vyas. The rest is history with Meet taking a stunning catch, got rave reviews and a lot of coverage from both Fox and Channel 7.

You have to love Meet’s comments when interviewed on 7Cricket (@7Cricket) on X:

“I drop them on Saturday’s normally so I don’t know how I caught that one.”

Checking Meet’s catching record this season he has taken 0 catches and in a career of 52 games with West Penno he has held 5 catches.

With Meet, from our Premiership topping B2’s, were Mukund Venkat Narayanan, Sparsh Polepalle, Manas Dhargalkar, Renesh Krishnan & Hiresh De Silva.

Meet, the standard for weekend games has now been set and the bar is pretty high.

Christmas through the years

Over many Years we have celebrated Christmas and important other cultural events such as Diwali. It is worth revisiting some great photos taken over the years of how our Teams have celebrated Christmas.

A1 Grade – a day for milestones

Our high-flying A1 side came back to earth on Saturday but there were mitigating factors. Unfortunately there are no records to confirm whether any of these highlights are Club records but they are a lot of fun anyway:

• Oldest opening batting pair AGAIN – James Makin & Phil Wurth. (It happens every time they play together.
• Two sets of fathers and sons – James & Ollie Makin, Phill, Jack & Harry Hando.

• Three team members over 50 years of age!!! James Makin, Phil Wurth & Phill Hando.
• The largest difference in age between two teammates – Ollie Makin & Phill Hando (41 years, 9 months & 25 days).

• Youngest Captain – Harry Hando (20 years, 11 months and 30 days).

The warm-up

First up – what better musical introduction that Olivia Newton-John’s classic – Let’s Get Physical

There must be somerthing about D1 & D2 Grades.

Last week we did a story on the mighty D2 boys (Ramil and Ray) on their preparation for going out to play – basically by getting physical by building core strength.

Not to be outdone, this week it was the turn of D1 Red (Diggers) by a ‘rigorous’ stretching routine.

The Empire Strikes back

Raynaldo Howard (C1) is just 20 years of age and has already scored 5 tons – only 2 tons short of equalling the Club record of 7. Raynaldo is a ‘generational’ player who is on a fast track to much bigger things.

Anyway this story is about Raymond (D2), the Dad who has let Raynaldo take centre stage over the last 3-years.

This all changed on the weekend.

Raynaldo, while always a supporter of his father has been known to be critical of his lack of patience while batting.

Playing C1, Raynaldo got a duck. Enter Raymond. With a previous high score of 43, Raymond dominated the attack of one of the top sides with a powerful 108* – our 566^th century.

With the next game scheduled for 10^th January 2026 this gives Raymond bragging rights over the break.

Well done Raymond.

Major Milestones approaching

In the 95 years since our Club started we have scored 1,091,718 runs from 71,228 innings.

There have been 1,097,413 runs scored against us over the same period.

B1 Grade is our highest scoring Grade with 163,042 runs scored since we played our 1ast game in this Grade back in 1970/71.

In 1971/72 we played our first game in A2 Grade. This season, A2 will pass 100,000 runs scored. As at the end of Round 8 we had scored 98,870 runs – so just 1,130 runs short this milestone. So, with 6 competition games to go plus potentially Semi Finals we should break this milestone this season.

For info, our top 5 Grades measured by aggregate are:

1. B1 – 163,042 runs (first game 1946/47)
2. C2 – 144,082 (first game 1947/48)
3. A1 – 133,066 (first game 1951/52)
4. C1 – 121,676 (first game 1946/47)
5. B2 – 112,054 (first game 1973/74)

What would your Decision be?

Questions

Question 1

A No ball is struck into the outfield, and the batters start to run. They have completed one run and have drawn level, but not crossed on a second, when and errant throw misses the BE wicket and runs all the way to the opposite boundary for overthrows. When the ball reaches the boundary, the batters have now completed two runs and crossed on a third:

1. How many runs are scored?
2.  How are they recorded?
3. Who shall face the next delivery?

Question 2

The bowler delivers a short-pitched ball which the striker does not have enough time to avoid. The striker braces himself and is struck on the arm with the ball deflecting into the outfield. The non-striker calls for a run and the batters start running. What shall the BE umpire do now?

What would your Decision be?

Answers

Question 1

6 runs are scored. They are recorded as 1 No ball and 5 runs (1 completed + the Boundary 4) credited to the striker.

The non-striker shall face the next delivery.

The batters had drawn level but had not crossed at the instant of the overthrow, hence the in-progress run at that time is not scored. Laws 19.8 and 21.15

Question 2

At the completion of the first run or when the ball reaches the boundary, whichever happens first, the Bowling End umpire shall call and signal Dead ball, disallow the run, and return the batters to their original ends.

The run is disallowed as the striker neither attempted to play the ball with the bat, or tried to avoid being hit by the ball, but merely allowed the ball to strike the body. Law 23.3