A1 Grade

WPHC Vs Glenorie 6/277

Gav told us to get there early so he could lead the warm up. We tried, we tried. Gav showed up late to the ground. He lied, he lied.

Our warmup consisted of sitting in the change-rooms for an hour discussing Effie’s Footlocker shoes and the fact that Phil forgot to put Gandis on the team sheet. Phil also thought we were playing Berowra. We are actually playing Glenorie.

Pear summarised the pre-match accurately – “Glenorie have won the warm up”. For context, Glenorie were sharp, they were focused, they had Middo looking over their shoulder watching every movement. On the other hand, WPHCCCC looks like a bunch of cows in a paddock throwing a ball around.

Just before the start, Geoff Hasler instructed the players to reapply the covers with the dark clouds looming not too far off in the distance. Pear asked how long it would rain for, as he had plans he had to get to. Geoff firmly responded “that is the least of my concerns”.

As I write this trying to pass the time with the rain delay, let me spin you a yarn from during the week. After repeatedly ignoring his presence on the bus for weeks, Gandis was finally held to account by club legend Steve Quanbororhrorh. The two sat and spoke fondly for 45 mins deep into Friday night as the vicarious Volvo swiftly graced the M2 out into the hills catchment. I’m told the conversation was informative, edgy and relevant so I look forward to announcing the introduction of the “Quandis and Friends” bus podcast soon.

The rain clouds cleared shortly after 12:35 local time and Umpire Hasler asked for some help to retrieve the covers. WPHCCCCC scurried like a wombat in a burrow into the change-rooms in a desperate attempt to avoid getting them off “My Dad is the president” said Bailey, proudly.

When we did hit the field, the outcome was not as we had hoped. 6/277 on what turned out to be a road of a pitch, we bowled fairly well but was just outclassed by some quality batting. Pick of the bowlers was Tiz, who was desperately unlucky not to get more than his one scalp. Bailey and Gandis also picked up a couple each. Special mention to Pear, who lived up to his surname by sprouting wings and taking a good catch to dismiss one of the Tullys.

We have to be at our all-time best next week to chase this mammoth total. We are strengthened by the return of Yoyo, who we will be chips in with next week. This is where we need an Alex Robertson to steer us home… alas may have to rely once again on our brilliant cartel to shine with the willow. Tune in next week to find out.

A2

WPHC Red (Andy) 5/171 defeated Kenthurst 87 – match report to follow.

 

WPHC Blue (Gunny) Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee 9/299

What much can you say about a day where you concede 300. Lucky for us, we didn’t concede 300. Normanhurst Oval was fast. Very fast. And the ball looked like Cam Bancroft had got a hold of it and sandpapered vigorously, only on both sides. This in combination with some very ordinary fielding, with many sightings of a key Australian landmark, led to a fairly long day in the field.

We started strongly with Flooky (1-42 off 11) picking up an early wicket to have Normo 1/3. The runs basically flowed all day after that. Matty ‘Pinocchio’ Philip (2-47 off 13) bowled a good little spell to pick up two set batsman. Speaking of cricket, he had a cricket ball on his forehead in the form of a pimple. The words Mount Everest were thrown around, but I think that’s overstating the size of Everest.

Another highlight was Benny ‘check his pulse’ Meikle (1-74 off 19). This time not taking a big bag of wickets, Benny spent the tea break taking a nap in the change room. Due to Ben’s elderly age, concerns arose around his livelihood. Luckily he had a pulse.

Pon ‘Wet N Wild’ Tam (3-61 off 10) picked up 3 wickets. You heard that right, 3 wickets. Speaking of part timers, Brent spent all week in Gunny’s DM’s begging for a bowl. After a week and 4 and a half hours of harassment, Brent ‘economy under 10’ Larkham (1-5 off 3) picked up a wicket off the first ball of his spell. He then proceeded to spend the next 3 overs bowling anywhere but at the stumps.

I’d just like to apologise to Alan Townsend, our number one fan, for our disappointing performance today. It wasn’t up to the high standards we set ourselves when you’re there. Also, we assume that will be the last appearance of Carly wannabe Townsend, despite a great diving catch by her hubby KT (1-42 off 11) on the boundary.

Finally a big thanks to Nick ‘not Pon’ Woon for filling in for us today!

B1 Grade

WPHC 9/141 Vs Glenorie

Standard operations began gain when Flair lost the toss and Glenorie had no hesitation in choosing to bowl on what turned out to be a fairly slow Les Shore oval. Hooch and Willy opened against disciplined bowling and we were 1/27 at drinks after the loss of Hooch.

Raghu fell shortly after drinks and we were 2/29. Then followed a good partnership between Raffa and Willy. At the tea break we were 2/62. Scoring was slow but we looked solid. When Willy fell at 3/74 then we had a collapse losing 6/41 (Zac, Ivan, Manas, Tarun and Prats all out cheaply).

This brought Dean Carlin to the crease at 9/115 to join Captain Flair. What followed was a 26 run partnership (all runs being scored by Flair) but Dean holding his end up well. We ground out 9/141 for the days play. Glenorie are certainly in front in this game.

We’ll bat on next week and see what we can put on the board and let our bowlers have a crack at them. Best of our batting today Raffa 37, Flair 35*, Willy 26 and Hooch 10.

B2 Grade

WPHC 0/20 Vs Kissing Point 180

Naps won the toss and chose to bowl on a fast looking Auluba. Anush Sharma (0/9) and Avi Lath (0/6) bowled great opening spells without luck. Matt Digby (0/8) continued to keep the runs tight as we went to drinks at 0/29.

The next session belonged to us as we took 6 wickets before tea. Naps (4/49) got the first breakthrough thanks to a sharp catch by Eric Junkkari at leg slip. Nikhil Ninan (2/8) bowled well as he knocked over the stumps and took an LBW. Ryan Loveridge (1/35) came on late with instant success, grabbing a wicket in his first over. The score was 6/81 at the tea break.

Kisso started to build a couple of partnerships, but wickets to Naps, Michael McGregor (1/21) and Karl Mehta (1/2) saw us finish them off for 180.

There were six overs left to face and Anush and Tanay Hira ‘volunteered’ to open the batting and see out the overs. The pair played their natural game to punish the bad balls and get our score to 20 at the end of the days play.

We have all wickets in hand and on a ground that runs fast, we will aim to make short work of the total next week.

C1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Fieds) 87 Vs Sydney Lions 2/77

We rocked up to Dural Park all hoping for a bowl on the first day, unfortunately that wasn’t the case as we lost the toss and got sent in to bat. With the cloudy and windy conditions, it was clearly a good day to bowl and was going to be tough for us to bat.

And yes it was tough to bat, with us being 7/39 at drinks, nothing was going our way. A nice cameo from Alex (28) got us all out for 87 just before tea.

We went in to bowl all happy as this was what we wanted originally (was this our plan all along?). A few early wickets to Nikki saw Sydney lions at 2/31 at drinks.

They finish the day at 2/77, leaving a tough job for Disco to Captain in his C1 debut. Have fun with that mate.

WPHC Red (Phill) Vs Beecroft 8/234

Good evening WPHCC Red team fans! Today was the most important game of the season as we went head to head with the C1 Becroft side. Both Opposing teams placed 1^st on the ladder each holding 24 points.

Phil called the toss and lost, forcing our team to field for the entire day. And boy, was it a long and tiresome day on the newly developed Cheltenham over.

Beecroft just refused to get out, batting the entire day, the full seventy something overs posting a total of 234 runs, 8 down. Their opener batted more than 43 overs making 50 runs before being stumped by Matt, the keeper.

The standout bowler today was Sam Hando removing 2 batsmen from the Beecroft side through 2 catches and one bowled. One catch was from a head targeted bouncer catching the glove and being caught by Alec at slip (he had to cover some ground and dived).  Matt also took an amazing catch off Sam’s bowling, a full stretch, one handed catch.

Warren bowled very well and accurately, maybe too accurately! There were a lot of blocks, misses and edges off his tight bowling. Warren did receive a very difficult caught and bowled for his efforts. Peter ran out a Beecroft batsman with a direct hit at the bowlers end. Harry fielded very well assisting in another runout by Matt. Tom ran out another key batsmen from mid-on to the keepers end with a killer throw.

Despite some disappointments in the field, there are high hopes for next week’s chapter of the WPHCC Red season.

All the best to all other WPHCC teams, especially Captain’s Stu’s side.

C2 Grade

WPHC Vs Berowra 4/133

Grey skies, 45 mins commute to Brooklyn, sensible thoughts said to win toss and field. Having an average age of 40s in the side side meant field whenever weather suits you. Or perhaps not.

Whatever, luck prevailed we win toss and field.

Probably a decision that hurts if you see the scorecard end of play. But proud to have such bowling attack which was consistent as we see Warner scoring back to back 100s and today a triple one. Probably not the best anecdote.

Anyway, nothing much to talk about other than 81 overs bowled to a team which was happy to block and leave the unplayable balls. 21 maiden overs, run rate 1.64 and only one boundary score by opposition, says all the luck they had.

But of a proud bowling attack after using 8 bowlers and none giving any loose balls to the batsmen. No complaints. It happens. Expect another long bowling spell to continue Week 2 but hope luck goes the other way this time. Very much a win possible Week 2.

Congratulations to Amitava achieving 100 wickets milestone and Happy birthday to John – hope the hammies stay fine.

C3 Grade

WPHC 9/300 Vs Normanhurst- Warrawee

Turning up at Glenhaven we were unsure whether to bat or bowl first in the cool conditions, so it was probably best that Buzz lost the toss and the Opposition Skipper had to choose. He chose to have a bowl and pretty swiftly Anthony Kwok was making him regret that call!

Kwoka raced out of the blocks smashing a six off his second ball and then continue to plunder all of the bowlers, racing to his 3rd half century of the season only to fall with the score on 100 – he had made 71! A century is definitely on the cards soon!

A welcome return to form for Xander saw him work into his innings and then unleash some sparkling shots to notch up 50. This was followed by a continued assault on the scoring with some changes to the usual batting order highlighting the depth we have.

Sam continued on from his great knock last week to add 24 and Quan remained in a rich vein of form with the bat, even dancing down the wicket on occasions to punish the bowlers. It was surely only a willingness to see his other teammates bat that saw him fall short of a second 50 on the trot when he fell for an entertaining 42. Obviously the Quan is pushing for selection in A Grade, but sorry Wurthy, he’s too valuable to me at the moment :o)

Rowan took the long handle to the bowling and posted a quickfire 34 including picking up a fine for hitting his own car when he launched a six into the car park!

Some good late order contributions including 22* from Riley saw us end the day at 9/300.

Another excellent team effort with the bat to post our 3rd imposing score in a row (336, 291 & 300) sees us in a strong position to declare to ensure we can protect Paul Vink’s superb batting average of 65 – not bad for our dedicated number 11 – and challenge for the win to maintain our spot at the top of the table next week.

D1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Rob) Vs St Ives Gold 5/193

After our first win for the season last round, the team turned up at Hassell Park with confidence this would be the start of a good run. Rob (as usual) lost the toss and we were asked to bowl. There were murmurings from the team that maybe it’s time for an inquest in Rob’s inability to win a toss.

He hasn’t won a toss all season.

After a good start the wheels slowly fell off. We got an early breakthrough through some tight bowling and then another. Things were looking good.

But then we stopped taking our chances. Unfortunately we dropped one of the openers 5 times and he went on to get a century. That hurts! We kept creating chances but couldn’t take them.

Some late wickets made the score look respectable, but it was a case of what could have been.

Great effort from our bowlers who toiled hard all day, but they were unfortunately let down by our fielders.

We will need to take some early wickets next week to give us a chance!

 

WPHC Red (Diggers) 1/17 Vs Hornsby 140

So we arrived at Arcadia Park in 5th place on the table to play against Hornsby who are in 4th. Ian lost the toss and Hornsby decided to bat first.

Connor got the early breakthrough before Hornsby managed a good 2nd wicket partnership before Jack (1/0) was able to apply some good pressure with tight stump to stump bowling, eventually having the other opener caught off pretty much the only attacking shot from his 5 over spell.

At that stage Hornsby were 2/78 but our continued good bowling from Marcus  (3/37 off 10), Mitch (0/5 off 4) and some great leg spinning from 14 year old Lachlan Edwards(2/24 off 10), saw them get to 7/139 before Connor (3/20 off 11) got another well-deserved 2 wickets to tidy them up for 140.

With 15 overs left in the day our aim was to get through to stumps unscathed so we pretty much blocked and left most balls but unfortunately Lachlan lost his wicket to a somewhat miraculous catch.

Ian and Samarth then managed to get through to stumps and we are 1/17.

All in all, after losing the toss, not a bad position to be in to try and achieve our 3rd win in a row.

D2 Grade

WPHC 8/225 Vs Thornleigh

We lost the toss and were sent into bat. We lost two quick wickets to be 2/13 after 8 overs. Captain Mike continued in his role as opener along with Praneel Singh.

Mike hit 27 and Praneel 45 to take the score to 127 after 49 overs. Ayush hit a quick 29 before the lower order came in. Waman hit a further 48 with Parin on 19 to get us to 8 for 225 after 74 overs.

Personal Achievements

This season we are again tracking Players approaching personal milestones. Keep a look out for this update to see who has achieved something special or who is approaching a special achievement.

Performances will be updated mid-week once all scorecards are uploaded. These stats are current as at 9th December 2019.

 

Batting	Grade	Performances
4,000 runs
Nathan Fathers	C1	3,768 runs
2,000 runs
Alex Robertson	A2	2,000 runs Vs St Ives @ Greenup 5/10/2019
Craig Hutchinson	D1	2,000 runs Vs WPHC Blue @ Greenway Park 2/11/2019
Josh Banner	A1	1,938 runs
Brent Larkham	A2	1,791 runs
Tarun Lath	C2	1,860 runs
Andrew Morris	A2	1,964 runs
1,000 runs
John Rose	C2	1,000 runs Vs Hornsby @ Foxglove Oval North 28/9
Asees Rajput	C2	1,000 runs Vs ARL @ Greenup Park 26/10
Raghu Chary	B2	1,000 runs Vs Castle Hill Green @ Caddies Creek 2/11
Brent Van Wck	C2	1,000 runs Vs Castle Hill @ Dural Park 9/11/2019
Ben Meikle	A2	967 runs
Alex Chidgey	C2	942 runs
Michael Robertson	A2	937 runs
Ashane de Silva	A1	958 runs
Ramil De Silva	C3	864 runs
Tis Mistry	A1	900 runs
Zac Morris	B1	894 runs
Richard Hughes		833 runs
Steve Burrows	C3	925 runs
Tim Worthington		868 runs
Bowling
300 wickets
Rowan Keating	A2	287 wickets
200 wickets
Chris Williamson	B1	200 wickets Vs Castle Hill @ Dural Park 16/11/2019
100 wickets
Andy Meikle	A2	100 wickets Vs Hornsby @ Greenway Park 28/9/2019
Amit Sen	C2	78 wickets Vs Berowra @ Old Dairy, Brooklyn 30/11
Dan Costigan	A1	89 wickets
50 wickets
Roshan Withanage	D1	50 wickets Vs Kissing Point (T20 Semi) @ Greenway Park 17/11/2019
David Larkham	D1	50 wickets Vs Glenorie @ Les Shore 1 (T20 GF) 8/12/2019
Brent Larkham	A2	48 wickets
Jackson Preedy	A1	47 wickets
Paul Vink	C3	42 wickets