Our latest high achiever

Congratulations to Daniel McEwen (D2) who has been selected in the NSW Intellectual Disability team that competes in the National Cricket Inclusion Championships being held in Queensland this week – between 20-25 January 2024.

Players will also be in the running for selection in the Australian Disability Teams that will tour later this year.

To follow the games, download the Play Cricket app or visit Cricket Australia’s YouTube channel where all games will be available via live-stream.

So far this season he is the D2 Team’s highest wicket-taker with 12 wickets @17.8 and a best of 3/13.

Photo: Daniel (right) at pre-season training with Ross Smith (C4 Red), Steve Quanborough (D1 Red), James Makin (A1) with Rick Turner (B1 Blue) & Steve Burrows (C3 Blue)

Domination – a postscript

Last week we gave an update on an amazing century (131*) scored by Raynaldo Howard (C4 Red). A few things about this ton:

• Raynaldo’s ton (131*) was 77.1% of the Team Total score of 7/170 after 35 overs – the 2^nd highest individual contribution in a Team total in our history
• After being 27* from the first 18 overs he hit the next 104 runs in just 17 overs with 10 x 6’s & 11 x 4’s
• After allowance for 19 Sundries the remaining 7 batters scored a combined 20 runs in the 35 overs
• This means that he scored 86.8% of our total runs scored off the bat with 5 of these batters scoring 1 run or less
• When looking at partnerships, he had a 42 run 6^th wicket partnership with Jake Smith who scored 1 run of the total and an unbeaten 35 run 8^th wicket partnership with Ross Smith (0*) who didn’t face a ball.

Finally, Raynaldo has a few ‘firsts’. He has now:

• scored 3 x tons (127*, 102* & 131*) joining one of only 43 players in our history who have scored 3 tons or better
• the only player in this list who has yet to be dismissed once he reaches 100
• the 3 x tons have come in each of the 3 formats – 2-Day, 1-day and T20 games – the first to achieve this in our history.

To think that Raynaldo is just 18 years of age and with the record number of tons scored in a career being 7 it seems like just a matter of time until this record, standing since 1952 could be broken.

Photo: Raynaldo after scoring his 131*

Emerging Champions

Over the last few weeks we have provided a summary of our batting and bowling record holders by Grade and the nearest current player to these records.

A cautionary note with this one. The stats rely on what has been recorded in the old manual ‘D Sheets’, MyCricket & now PlayHQ. If dismissals haven’t been updated in these stats this is a failpoint.

This week we cover the wicket-keepers:

Photo:  Indranil Mukherjee (centre) along with Agniva Chakraborty (D1 Blue) & Arun Chaudhuri (C2 Red) at the T20 World Cup game between India and Pakistan at the MCG – 22 October 2022. Indranil holds the record for C3 dismissals and is the nearest C1 player to the existing C1 w/k record.

Milestone & hat-trick

Another follow-up to last week’s Anecdote on Nathaniel Chidgey’s hat-trick (our 51^st) and Paul Vink’s 100^th career wicket.

Both Nathaniel & Paul open the bowling in B2 Grade and both players also have to put up with Ray Khamis.

If this isn’t enough, the administrative problem with this double milestone achievement is that we always mount the cricket ball for Presentation Night but who gets the ball in this case. To further complicate things, Nathaniel took the catch that gave Paul his 100^th wicket.

Photo: Paul Vink and Nathaniel Chidgey with ‘the ball’ at the Sports Club – 20 January 2024.

A bad day at the office

A bit of background first. Lachlan Edwards (B1 Blue) – 2021/22 Outstanding Prospect of the Year, scorer of almost 600 runs twice in a season (2021/22 & 2023/24) plus being the youngest double century scorers in our history – one of those once in a generation young players who is destined for big things.

On the weekend, he came back to reality and experienced cricketing life as a mere mortal. Here goes:

On the field

Brought into C1 to turbo-charge their Premiership run he scored 10 runs in 41 deliveries. He did though top score as the Team was out for 38 runs – the 2^nd lowest C1 score in our history and just missing out on the lowest ever score of 35 back in 2005

He then bowled the last over of the Lions ‘run chase’ and went for 14 runs in 5 balls.

Being a Club Man Lachie then went to help out B1 in the field. He dropped a catch and cost Chris Williamson his first 5 for since 2018/19.

Off the field

Coming back to the Club it went downhill from there. To quote one of the B1 boys (thanks Ben):

“The only thing really tarnishing a great day for B1s cricket was escaped giraffe Lachlan Edwards (possibly a distant cousin to Jack Edwards (sadly the cricketing talent didn’t get shared around the gene pool).

 Lachy showed up after second innings drinks bragging that he had top scored in his C1s match.

 However when a team gets bowled out for 38 that’s not much to brag about.

 Clearly in a sour mood he attempted to sabotage the team, making a meal of an absolute sitter (he had to dive two meters to his left (none of us would have gotten near it).

 Worst still back at the club as he made a case to rename the expression ‘butter fingers’ to ‘butter chicken fingers’ as he dropped his phone in his $30 club curry. Finishing the day with 10 (41) and 2 costly drops, we expect better from him next week.”

 Photo: Lachie doing what anyone would do after a day like this one – sitting under the table as things couldn’t get any worse.

Juniors to the rescue

Our Juniors keep on putting their hand up to help out in Seniors when we are short and they invariably star. On the weekend, the C2 Blues were the beneficiaries. The Blues have a history of winning Competitions but this season has seen slim pickings with the boys yet to win a game after 11 Rounds and playing the experienced Reds who are a top 4 Team.

Enter our 4 recruits from the U15 Reds. The boys all contributed to getting the Blues across the line for a close fought win with Maher top scoring for the match with 59 runs. Well done boys.

Photo: from left to right – Malinda Dissanayake, Hiren Pathak, Rehan Nasim and Maher Nosina.

All Creatures great and small

How good is this photo. One the right is Ian ‘Diggers’ Digby – hardened D1 Red Captain who was trying to steer his side to a competitive score on a very slow Howson Oval. With him is 13 year old young gun Harry Whitehouse who is rapidly developing as a star of the future – the Master and apprentice.

Photo: Diggers & Harry at Howson Oval 20 Janbuary 2024.

Cow Paddock

For those players in higher Grades this is a great reminder of what it is like playing on some of the lower Grade grounds. This one is of Howson Oval with ankle high grass that hadn’t been cut for weeks.

Photo: Howson Paddock 20 January 2024.