You are never too old

The D1 Blue (Agniva) Team played Glenorie on the weekend and Greg Page (The Yellow Wiggle) is the opening bowler. One thing about Greg is that he is so generous with his time and never says no to a fan. After finishing the rain affected day at 3/150 the boys asked Greg if he could share a photo with them and ofcourse he obliged. It just proves that you are never to old enjoy the original Wiggles.

To share the spirit what better choice of music – Fruit Salad

Photo: the D1 Blue boys – from left to right: Agniva Chakraborty, Siby Joseph, Chintan Shah, Mridul Chadha, Lakshya Rao, Ravi Gunna, Praneel Singh, Greg Page (Yellow Wiggle), Amith Ninan, Sahil Kirpalani, Anubhav Ghatak & Rohan Choudhury.

Finals here we come

The Semi Finals are now about to start and we have another big representation across our Club. Final results from the Round are yet to posted on PlayHQ but it is looking pretty good:

Girls

• 4 of our 6 Teams are in the top 4 of a strong North Shore JCA Competition

Juniors (Mixed)

• 9 x Teams in the Semi’s with 3 Minor Premiers and 1 in 2^nd place and this is in addition to a ‘Participation Over Results’ policy that gives everyone a fair-go
• A positive is that we will be represented in every Age Division – from U12 to U16/17

Seniors

• 7 x Teams in the Semi’s with 2 Minor Premiers

So overall we have 20 Teams playing in the Semi’s which is a great achievement.

Is this the greatest bowling performance by a Junior playing Seniors?

What better opening theme music for this story than – Top Gun Maverik

This is one of those records that can’t be confirmed but it would have to be up there. Harry Whitehouse (D1 Red) is a young gun on the way up. At 13 years of age he opens the bowling for D1 and always creates chances. This weekend it was different.

Playing against the 2^nd placed Team he opened last week and bowled 5 overs and this weekend bowled his maximum of 10 overs. After his 15 overs, spread over 2 weeks he finished with 15 overs 2 wickets for 5 runs that included a no ball.

It may be possible that something like this has happened in years past but in the long –term memory of your friendly author nothing like these figures have been achieved.

Irrespective of whether it is / or isn’t a record, all those present witnessed something special.

Photo: Harry with a Kookaburra – Samuel King Oval – 13 January 2024

Space Cadet

First up our theme music for this prestigious Awards – the first for Team this season – what better than – Space Oddity

Let’s set the scene. Going into the last game, our B1 Reds (Shomik) were in 4^th spot (50 points) and our Blues (Todd) were in 5^th on 45 points. The Reds were playing the leading Team – Glenorie and the Blues, last placed Mt Colah.

At the end of Day 1 last week the Reds were in good shape dismissing the strong Glenorie batting line-up for 158 and with us 1/26 overnight against their ‘moderate’ attack. The Blues scored 162 with Mt Colah to bat. So far so good.

Anyway, you would think that with the Reds just needing to draw and get 3 points this would get them into the Finals.

The Reds arrived at Greenway Park and one end was wet so it seemed a reasonable gamble to assume that the 3 points would get a spot in the Finals. So no play and 3 points banked.

That is where the problems started.

The Blues had other ideas.

After rolling Mt Colah for 70 they had a crack at 10 points and rolled them again for 48 – 10 points for an outright win and they jumped ahead of the 4^th placed Reds.

So.. why a Space Cadet Team Award?

As a Club we couldn’t lose as one of our sides would make it through. For the Reds they knew the Blues were gunning for an outright against the last placed Team we reckon they would have brought along a broom and a ½ bag of sawdust.

Legends reunion

On Friday 23^rd February at the Sports Club 17 players from the great A1 sides of 1979/80 to 83/84 gathered for a reunion. These players formed the basis of our first ever A1 Premiership in 1988/89 and finished their dynasty with 3 straight Titles. At a high level, their collective performances are:

• Total games played – 2,329
• Total runs – 48,870
• Total wickets – 1,505
• Catches – 932

Acknowledging our Greats of the past is important as we all owe an enormous gratitude to those who have gone before us – without them the Club would be a lot different to what it is today. How about this for starters:

Individuals

• Highest run scorers – 1^st (RA) 8,184 runs, 2^nd (Andrew Fiedler) 7,203 runs, & 5^th (Greg Fiedler) 6,363 runs
• 4^th & 7^th highest wicket takers – Ken Donaldson 497 wickets (4^th ) & Greg Stoneham 401 wickets (7^th)
• 1^st A1 Premiership winning Captain – Tony Ford
• 1^st A2 Grade Premiership winning Captain – RA
• =1^st best ever bowling performance in an innings for A1 – Ken Donaldson (9/34)
• 1^st best ever Match figures for any Grade – Ken Donaldson with 16/96 A1 (1978/79)
• Association Team of the Decade (1990’s) – Tony Ford
• 61 years alumni – Ken Donaldson debuted in 1962/63 and is our longest serving alumni
• Lowest A1 Player number – John Donaldson (Cap number 31) – we currently have 333 Cap numbers
• Hat-tricks – we now have 51 players with hat-tricks in our history:
  • 1^st player to take a hat-trick in any grade – Ken Donaldson 6/29 in 1963/64 (C2 Grade)
  • 9^th Player to take a hat-trick – Eric Joiner (A2)
  • 10^th Player to take a hat-trick – Ross A (A2)
• A1 Captains in attendance:
  • John Donaldson (7^th Captain)
  • Ken Donaldson (9^th Captain)
  • Stuart Dickson (10^th Captain)
  • Barry McDonald (11^th captain)
  • Greg Fiedler (12^th Captain & equal most capped A1 Captain along with James Makin with 8 x Captaincy caps)
  • Greg Stoneham (13^th Captain)
  • Tony Ford (14^th Captain)

Check out the Photo Gallery ‘Legends’ link to see photos of the night and a bit more about what this group of players achieved.

Photo: A1 Captains – John Donaldson (Captain #7), Ken Donaldson (#9), Stuart Dickson (#10), Barry McDonald (#11), Greg Fiedler (#12), Greg Stoneham (#13), Tony Ford (#14) -WPH Sports Club – 23022024

Makes you want to cry

This is enough to make you want to cry. Cherrybrook was once a farming area that shared the land with citrus growing and lots of chicken farms that supplied Sydney with fresh eggs. In fact the site of Cherrybrook Public School was once a large chook farm.

Back in 1968, large parcels of land were opened up to families to buy and build a house. The accompanying photo is an advertisement for land in Cherrybrook in the Sydney Daily Telegraph from Saturday, 14 September 1968 referring to “…one of the most remarkable land releases ever seen in the metropolitan area”. Get a load of the cost of a ¼ acre block for $4,500 with, wait for it, a $20 full deposit.

Photo: Sydney Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 14 September 1968 (page 32).

From the Vault

Over the next few weeks we will look at some of our long-term players as they once were. This week we focus on Connor Hindmarch & Dylan Bish (both B1 Blue), our future stars who are already doing big things in Seniors.

Connor also won the prestigious ‘Charles Booth Memorial Award’ in 2014/15. The recipient of this Award is the outstanding U13 player of the year who is also a great Team player and lives our Club Values.

Photo: Connor Hindmarsh Captain Dylan Bish (U15 Blue) and some other person who plays a bit of cricket – James Park, 30 November 2016.

Golden moment

Peter Lees (C3 Red) debuted for us back in 1994/95 and has played 198 matches and 342 innings. He has also scored an imposing 5,828 runs to be up there with our best ever. Peter has also never scored a golden duck – until this match.

Congratulations to Peter who has now joined the many ‘mere mortals’ who play the game and has a Primary next to his many achievements.

Last story is that Mat scored this with his 1985 GN Scoop bat. Unfortunately, some of the opposition players started to give it to Mat due to the antique bat he was using and that it was older than most of his Team members. Guess who had the last laugh.

Photo: Peter in the fast lane, co-driving a V8 against the clock and finishing with hot laps with Lowndesy at Eastern Creek – 6^th October 2012.

Long time between drinks

Congratulations to Mat Marsden (C2 Blue) who scored 100* in their game against Berowra @ Howson Oval. This was also our 537^th ton and our 18^th this season – the highest season century total since 20 tons were scored in 2014/15.

What makes this special is that Mat scored his last ton (125*) way back in 1994/95 playing B1 Grade. This was our 205^th ton so a long time between drinks.

Last story is that Mat scored this with his 1985 GN Scoop bat. Unfortunately, some of the opposition players started to give it to Mat due to the antique bat he was using and that it was older than most of his Team members. Guess who had the last laugh.

Photo: Sheep station Trophy game – C2 – Mat Marsden & Arun Chaudhuri – Headen Park – 18 November 2023