The greatest gift

Last week, Zac Gerber (D1 Red) was celebrating the end of the HSC at the Blue Gum Hotel (Waitara) with his mates. One of Zac’s subjects he studied was PDHPE.

Anyway, while he was at the pub, one of the patrons had a heart attack and was in a bad way. With everyone standing around and not knowing what to do enter Zac. Having studied PDHPE he knew how to give someone CPR and lept into action until the Paramedics arrived.

The story finished well. The Paramedics arrived and the patient was kept alive until the experts took over.

For his wonderful efforts, Zac was given a free meal and drinks, but not too many – he had to start work at McDonald’s at 6.00 am the next day.

We all wish Zac the best of luck with his HSC results but somehow we reckon he has already won the greatest prize of all.

Photo: Grant (left) and Zac Gerber at Northholm Grammar – 6 November 2021

The top of the world

We have just on 4,400 photos on our Photo Gallery but this one is one of my favourites! As background, Nirav Desai (D1 Blue) and 2 x Premiership winning D2 Captain, is on his way to Base Camp Mt Everest – 5,364 metres or 17,598 feet above sea level. To put this in context, Mt Kosciuskzo, our highest mountain is 2,228 metres (7,310 feet) above sea level.

Checkout the Photo Gallery ‘Miscellaneous’ to see the photo’s he sent through.

How good is this one though. We have had our players send through photos of West Penno caps from Lords, Australian Open, Wimbledon, Wembley, Eiffel Tower, Bermuda and Jungfraujoch (Switzerland) but none from the highest point in the world.

It is one thing to take a photo but how about the effort to carry it around the world and then on the Trek where every gram of extra weight counts.

Well done Nirav

To everyone else, enjoy this great photo!

What better way to finish this story than with this great song by Shawn Mendis – Top of the World

Photo: D2 Premiers Cap at Mt Everest Base Camp – 10^th November 2023.

Top Guns

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

Last week Bronson Marsden (56) & Rizul Gulati (150*) put on a Club record C3 Grade opening partnership of 146 but it didn’t stop there. The partnership beat the previous record of 110 set back in October 2005.

In the process a number of Club records were broken:

• Both Bronson and Rizul are just 15 years of age and are the youngest players in our history to hold a Seniors partnership record. So both players were born 3 years after the old record was set
• Rizul scored 150* which is just the 43^rd score over 150 in our Seniors history
• Also on Rizul:
  • His 150* is the 9^th highest score by an U16 player for our Club
  • The highest ever score by a Junior is 182 scored by Steven Cass in the U12s (1996/97)
• Finally, it just fell short of the Association C3 Opening partnership record of 170 set in 2013/14.

Well done guys.

Photo: not available this week – will get one next week.

Those were the days

First up, a great musical intro to this story – Friends

In the current Round C3 Red saw a reunion of long-term players who last played together 9 years ago. They also played together in 3 straight Grand Finals (winning 2). How about this for experience:

• Andrew Fiedler – 372 innings
• Eric Junkkari – 361 innings
• Nathan Fathers – 205 innings
• Dinesh De Silva – 169 innings

A great backstory is that Dinesh has been sitting on 48 wickets since the 2018/19 season. In fact, since 2014/15 he has only bowled 11 overs. Fast forward to this season and he is now opening the bowling and in his first run as an opener bowled 7 overs and took 4/24 and in the process brought up his 50^th career wicket.

Photo: Nathan Fathers, Andrew Fiedler, Dinesh De Silva, Andrew Fiedler & Eric Junkkari playing for C3 Red at Caddies Creek 5th November 2023

It’s not what you have but how you used it – the sequel

A couple of weeks ago we did a great story on Cliff Greenhalgh (D1 Red) who scored 108 while his son, Angus who had just bought a new bat that had everyone in awe – a Gray Nichols ‘Giant’ bat – all 3.2 kilos of bat.

Problem is the old man dominated the day and Gus had to wait another day to use the bat.

Round 5, Day 2 and Gus had his opportunity to bat against a tiring attack on a hot day. In comes Gus with ‘the weapon’. First ball, was pitched short and Gus wanted to give it full throttle. After missing the shot he commented that the ‘bat is much heavier than he thought’. He finished with 15 runs so at least he knows it works.

Photo: Gus Greenhalgh with ‘The Beast’ – all 3.2 kilos of bat – Arcadia Park 11 November 2023.

What would your Decision be?

Our monthly question for our Umpires, or those who think they know the rules to test their knowledge:

Question

The bowler delivers a ball that does not pitch, passing the batter above the waist and outside the return crease on the leg side. The wicket-keeper misses the ball, and the batters complete two runs.

As bowler’s end umpire what action do you take?

Photo: C3 Premiership Winning Captain Steve Buzz Burrows with Umpires Peter Lee and Barry McDonald after winning the Grand Final Vs Berowra @ Greenway Park – 24 March 2019.