Anecdotes – Grand Finals

Welcome to the World

The best News coming out of the weekend was the birth of Bonnie Kathleen Maria Williamson to Alexa and Chris Williamson (B1 Blue). Welcome to Bonnie who is now our latest West Penno family member and a big congratulations to Alexa and Chris.

What makes this even more special is that Chris played Juniors for us and started playing Seniors way back in 2004/05. During this time he has scored 3,747 runs and taken 242 wickets to be up there with our best. How good is this photo of Bonnie with Chris’s prized West Penno cap and B2 Premiership top from last season.

As an aside, Chris was only 1 ball away from winning their Semi Final last weekend and playing in the GF this weekend. Typical of the selfless commitment from Alexa, she even worked her magic to give birth the day before the GF should our boys have qualified.

One of the great pleasures of playing cricket, especially for our Club, is to have the opportunity of parents playing with their children. More often than not it is a father & son combination. Maybe, this might be the beginning of a Williamson dynasty with Chris playing with Bonnie in a father / daughter combination.

Well done again Alexa and Chris we are all thrilled for you both.

Photo: Bonnie Kathleen Maria Williamson with Chris’ much loved West Penno cap and B2 Premiership shirt from last season – 15 March 2024

Ages of Cricket

Everyone will be familiar with the timeline depiction of the evolution of ‘Man’ – refer to attached photo. We have our own experience at West Penno. We start off with the enthusiasm of youth with Harry Whitehouse (D1 Red and 13 years of age) arriving at grounds early to sweep the pitch and dry it out if wet with his dad (Ben) to make sure we get on and then he bats and bowls all day.

We then move to the older generation (Ray Khamis B2) who can arrive at games after a big night and just take up residence at slip for the day to recover from the night before and try and remember what actually did happen.

The ‘last’ generation is the long-term player who typically doses up on Voltaran pain relief just to get on the field, often fields at first slip and if they are Captain, places younger players in strategic fielding positions to avoid having to chase the ball. There have been none better than our legendary Sunday Premier League (SPL) Teams of 2012/13 to 2015/16 led by the great Simon Smyth. The boys would have a smorgasbord of pain killers at the Tea break to make it through the game.

To make it current, we had a great quote from Andrew Fiedler in the C3 Red Match Report from last week’s Semi Final. To quote Andrew’s commentary on himself:

“We felt we were just getting on top through the next 18 overs as the score crept past 100, when the old fella decided to take on one of the young Berowra whippets for a quick single, and lost. He allegedly pulled one of the remaining muscles in his crumbling body in the process.

Dr Munish gave it a poke, applied ice, and regaled him with stories of tendons & groins for the next hour. We didn’t take notes.”

The final generation are the retired players who turn and provide great support in the big games at the end of the season and reminisce on what things were like ‘in the old days’.

Photo: The Ages of Man applied to cricket

Run machine

One of our quiet achievers this season is Lakshya Rao (D1 Blue). Lakshya didn’t play in 2022/23 but in the previous season (2021/22) he played C3 and scored 33 runs @ 11 in 7 innings. In 2020/21 he played D2 and scored 197 runs @ 22.

2023/24 has been a break-thorough season. As at the end of last weekend’s semi-final, Lakshya has scored 667 runs @ 51.3 to be our top run scorer and has a Grand Final innings to add to this total. A few things about his performance this season:

  • With a further innings to play, Lakshya sits at number 24 in the all-time season run scorers. The highest run scorer is Laurie Tuckerman (A1) who scored 1,361 runs in 1951/52.
  • In D1 Grade, his season tally ranks as the 3rd highest season tally in our history. The record is 935 by Dave Meiziz (2005/06) & then 738 by Jon Bishop (1982/83)
  • Lakshya has also scored 3 x tons (137*, 116 & 111). The record number of career tons is 7 shared jointly by Laurie Tuckerman & Michael Banner (B1 Blue). The last time 3 x tons, or more, were scored by a Senior player in a season was way back in 1951/52 when Laurie Tuckerman scored 6

For info. The following current players who have scored more runs than Lakshya in a season are:

  • Rick Turner (B1 Blue) who scored 798 runs (C2 & C3 Grades) in 2012/13
  • Michael Banner (B1 Blue) with 715 runs (C1 & C2) in1998/99
  • Brent Larkham (A2) with 702 runs (A1, B2 & C2) in 2017/18

What a season for Lakshya and with one more opportunity to come in the GF.

Photo: Lakshya Rao (right) and Anubhav Ghatak (57) in the D1 Semi Final Semi Final @ Campbell Park – 9th March 2024.

Grand Finals – the ‘good’ old days

With the GF’s underway players these days can set aside Saturday and Sunday and look forward to celebrating into Monday and perhaps beyond for some teams. Spare a thought for players from the ‘old days’.

Back in the 1950’s Grand Finals were played over 4 x innings and were effectively ‘timeless’ games. The 1951/52 Grand Final set all sorts of records. The A1 game between WPHC & St Ives started at Bannockburn and 10 weeks later finished at Hassel Park (St Ives). Bannockburn Oval was the allocated ground for the A1 GF but the game went so long that it crossed over the start of the soccer season and the ground was changed to allow the game to be finished.

Imagine going into a Final and not knowing when it would finish – those were the days.

Premiers

This weekend our B2 (Warren), C3 Red (Fieds) and D1 Blue (Agniva) play in the Seniors Grand Final. It is interesting to see how these Teams have performed over our history in the Big Dance.

B2 (Warren)

  • Played in 20 Grand Finals with the first in 1952/53
  • We have won 13 for a win percentage of 65%
  • Our last win was in 2022/23 under Todd Hutchinson so we are looking at going back to back.

C3 (Fieds)

  • The C3 Competition started in the 2001/02 Season
  • Played in 7 x Grand Finals with the first in 2009/10
  • We have won 3 for a win percentage of 43%
  • Our last win was in 2019/20 with Buzz Burrows our Captain
  • Our Captain, Andrew Fiedler though is playing in his 17th GF and 7th as Captain with a win percentage of 73%

D1 (Agniva)

  • Played in 11 x Grand Finals with the first in 1995/96
  • We have won 6 for a win percentage of 60%
  • Our last win was in 2020/21 under Ross Smith as Captain

What would you Decision be?

Question

The bowler has a small white towel tucked into the back of her trousers.

On the second ball of the over the bowler delivers the ball but, at the point of release, the towel falls onto the pitch distracting the striker. The striker subsequently plays at the delivery and is bowled. As the bowler’s end umpire what shall you do?

Photo: U17 Premiers Co-Captains Nic Price (Captain), Lukas Kohlhagen (Captain) with Umpires Scott Reid and Peter Lee – 10th March 2024

What would you Decision be? The Answer

Answer

The Bowling End umpire would immediately call and signal Dead ball after the delivery.

The umpire would then signal Dead ball to the scorers and the ball would be re-bowled.

Law 20.4.2.6 is applicable as the distraction occurred while the batter was receiving the ball and was not will-ful. Applicable field-craft is to signal to your partner, the players, and scorers that there are five balls remaining to be bowled.

Law 41.4.1 is not applicable in this case as the towel accidentally fell from her person and was not a deliberate act to distract the striker

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