Run machine

Last week we did a story on Lakshya Rao (D1 Blue) and his amazing run scoring this season. As a reminder, going into this season 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.

Going into the Grand Final he had scored 3 x tons (137*, 116 & 111). How did he go on the weekend? How about 96 not out of the Team total of 4/137. The only thing that stopped another ton was that we ran down their total. He finished the season with 763 runs @ 58.7!

Apart from being the highest aggregate in the whole Club this season he also achieved:

• Lakshya’s 763 runs is the 10^th highest season run aggregate in our history (the best is 1,361 runs by Laurie Tuckerman in A1 back in 1951/52)
• It is also the 2^nd highest for D1 (the best is 935 runs by Dave Meiziz in 2005/06)
• Had he finished with a century in the GF it would have made it 4 in the season – 2^nd only to Laurie Tuckerman who scored 7,

Photo: Lakshya being carried off the field by Team mates after the D1 Grand Final – 17 March 2024.

Season wrap-up

The dust is now settled on another season, our 94^th. The highlights are worth calling out – a big thanks to James Makin for compiling this info:

Batting

• Lakshya Rao was the season’s highest run scorer with 763 runs @58.7, followed by Rizul Gulati C3 Blue (586 @58.6) and Sparsh Polepalle C4 Blue (572 @44)
• Lakshya’s 763 was the 10th highest season tally of all time, and the 2^nd highest in D1. Sparsh now holds the record for the largest C4 season on record
• Sean Clarence (A1) will retire with the 3^rd best batting average of all time (for those scoring over 1,000 runs) – 47.9
• Rishab Iyer’s (C2 Red) 163 was the highest score for the year, followed by Rizul’s 150no
• Raynaldo Howard’s (C4 Red) 102no was only the 2^nd T20 century ever scored, and is the highest T20 score of all time. He also scored the highest C4 score ever (131no)
• Raynaldo is also the 1^st player in our history to have scored a century in every form of the game – T20 / 1-day and 2-day games
• Michael Banner (B1 Blue) notched up his 7^th century to equal Laurie Tuckerman’s record (from the 1950s)

Bowling

• Pat Watkins (C3 Red) topped the wicket tallies with 33 @12.1, followed by Jack Marsden also C3 Red (31 @12.3) and Aayush Kumar C1 (30 @8.9)
• Pat Watkins’s 8/23 were the best bowling figures for the year, followed by Henry Kelly’s 7/41
• John Rose (C2 Red) now has the 6^th best bowling average (12.5) of all time (for bowlers with over 100 wickets), and the 5^th best economy of 2.6 runs / over (we only have records back to 1990 for this one)

Fielding

• Cameron Bish (B2) took the most dismissals this year with 24 (19 catches, 1 run out and 4 stumpings)

Photo: Raynaldo Howard (C4) after scoring 131 not out of his Team’s total of 7/170 – the 2^nd highest contribution in our history.

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B2 Back to Back

Last week we did an Anecdote on the Grand Final record of our Teams. Now that the dust has settled on the season we can complete this summary for our Premiership winning sides:

B2 (Warren)

• Played in 21 Grand Finals with the first in 1952/53
• We have now won 8 for a win percentage of 38%
• This is first time we have gone back to back in B2 Grade although with different Captains and Teams
• We have now won 3 x B2 Premierships since 2020/21 – 4 seasons

D1 (Agniva)

• Played in 12 x Grand Finals with the first in 1995/96
• We have won 7 for a win percentage of 58%
• Since the 2021/22 season we have appeared in 3 x Grand Finals for 2 x wins and 1 x loss – so 3 GF’s in 4 seasons

Photo: B2 Premiers 2023/24: Players are: Warren Schwartzel, Jason Garrett, Zac Turner, Nick Duck (obsecured), Cameron Bish (obsecured), Rob Knapman, Adam van Saarllos (obsecured), Daniel DSchwartzel, Ray Khamis (obsecured), Matthew Schwartzel, Matt Digby and Nathaniel Chidgey – Thornleigh Park – 17 March 2024.

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