The Umpire strikes back
After using the following photo on legendary Bruce Wood, Association Life Member, Celebrity Umpire & Coaches’ Association supremo in last week’s Anecdote on Umpiring tips, I got this great note from Bruce about the ‘game’ he umpired at Government House last week:
“Albo was bowling and knocked the bails off in his delivery stride, so I called No Ball. There was a loud “oow, you can’t No Ball the PM”.
Albo laughed and said “Bruce, have a look around mate (pointing to the Security guards) – I only have to give them the signal and you’ll be thrown out of here.”
My controversial No Ball call is referenced in this article.
As Meatloaf once said “two out of three aren’t bad”.
Photo: Bruce Wood umpiring the Big game at Government House.
Photo – the background story
A couple of weeks ago the D1 Red Match Report had a story and photo on Dave Larkham who took 6/30 in the final game of the season. We lost the game by 3 runs in a thriller. In the process, Disco took is 139th D1 wicket to draw equal to the great Roger Friend as the highest D1 Grade wicket taker in our history.
The background story is a beauty.
The following photo was taken after the final wicket fell of Dave celebrating his 6/30 and drawing equal with Roger’s record. Anyway, one of our players was taking the photo and along comes the No 11 batter who Dave dismissed, still wearing his pads who offers to take the Team photo of the player who dismissed him so that our whole Team could be in the photo.
This is a fabulous example of what the game is all about and congratulations to the Castle Hill player who took the photo.
Photo: Dave Larkham (with ball) and 4th from left after taking 6/30.
The ultimate Sheep Station contest
Sheep Station Trophy games have become a tradition in our schedule in both Seniors and especially Juniors (Mixed) due to the number of Teams we have. Anyway last weekend our U13 Gold & U13 Purple sides were playing in the elimination Semi Final with the winner going through to the Grand Final.
Here is an extract from comments passed on to us by the Umpire, Gavin Wingfield – an Association Life Member”:
“I umpired the Under 13 Semi-Final yesterday between WPHCCC Gold and WPHCCC Purple and I wanted to let you know what an absolute pleasure it was.
The conduct of both teams, the attitude between the teams, the smiles, the nerves, the effort and skill level was absolutely incredible. The coaches were great working together for the welfare and enjoyment of the players while remaining competitive and encouraging them. The mums, dads and family members spectating were respectful of the players with lots of encouragement of their players and no discouragement of the opposition.
One of the boys dropped a catch and was upset with himself and it was great to hear the batsman tell him he was unlucky and that he had made great effort.
The skill level was also outstanding all around, there were very few loose balls bowled and when they all have to bowl I was really impressed. The array of shots and the quality of defences was also incredible. I don’t think we had an lbw not because there was nothing on the stumps but because the players played the line so if it beat the bat it was either a fraction high or squeezing down leg. The majority of the players would not be out of place playing seniors already, which speaks volumes for their skill set.
I congratulate the Club on their motivation and development of these players.
I will put my hand up for the grand final next weekend if needed (and one of our more experienced umpires isn’t available) but please pass on my thanks and congratulations to both teams for a great days play, worthy of a grand final everyone in attendance was an absolute credit to your Club.”
This is what it is all about – especially in Junior sport.
Well done Anika
We are privileged to have Anika Learoyd as one of our specialist Coaches with our successful Academy for the Girls and also Juniors Mixed.
Anika plays for the NSW Breakers and Sydney Thunder and has had another fantastic playing season scoring 577 runs @ 48.08.
In the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) Final last weekend, batting at number 3, Anika top scored with scored 80* to steer NSW to a competitive total of 215 allowing NSW to win their first title since 2018/19.
Well done Anika and thanks for your contribution to our Coaching Team.
Photo: 1) Anika (left) at the launch of our new Girls playing uniform – October 2022 2) Anika for the Thunder.
That’s not out…I’ll show you
While at the D1 Blue Semi Final at Campbell Park, our C4 White Skipper (Agniva) shared great story that happened in a D1 game last season.
An Opposition batter was given out, LBW by one of his Team mates and he didn’t like the decision.
So he stood his ground, pulled down his pants and pointed to a red mark on his leg saying this confirmed he wasn’t out. One guess about the result and the Decision didn’t change – thanks for coming. It would have been great to see but this action would have even been unusual in an U8 game.