Points table (as at Round 3)

A Grade Red (Cam) – =2^nd (12 points)

A Grade Blue (Campbell) – =8^th (7 points)

B1 Red (Birdcage) – =1^st (12 points)

B1 Blue (Shomik) – = 5^th (7 points)

B2 (Todd) – =1^st (15 points)

C1 (Kapil) – 1^st (15 points)

C2 Red (Indranil) – =2^nd (6 points)

C2 Blue (Rob) – = 2^nd (12 points)

C3 Red (Cameron) – = 6^th (7 points)

C3 Blue (Tarun) – = 2^nd (6 points)

C4 (Hiresh) – =6^th (7 points)

D1 Red (Diggers) – =2^nd (12 points)

D1 Blue (Arun) – = 5^th (10 points)

D2 (Ross S) – 4^th (12 points)

T20 Grand Final

4^th Grade (played on Sunday 30^th October

WPHC Blue (Rob) 6/84 defeated Kissing Point 81

Match Report to follow.

Match Reports – Round 4

A1 Grade

WPHC Red (Cam) 197 defeated Kissing Point 127

Welcome avid readers to YOUR WPHCCCCCC A-grade match report for this week. I’m Michael Richards, and it is a privilege to be your wordsmith once again.

Today we had 3 sub fielders and let me introduce them. Steggs was the first to arrive after an early night where he stayed away from the gear specifically for this match. Next was Joel, who has small hands and a desperate fear of failure. He also deserves a special shout-out as today, he played his first match in the top grade of any sport. Joel has played Footy for 20 years. Jed was our third fill in and did not hesitate to confidently celebrate a rather grassy “catch” off Sav later in the day’s play. Phil Wurth did not receive a phone call.

Onto the cricket, this oh so glorious madness. With derby day firmly on everyone’s minds, we took to the field. 7 wickets required to win on a section of Pennant Hills road that had been relocated a few kilometres north to Mt Colah.

It was not a game for the neutrals, with Kissing Point dead batting from ball one. Krang and umpire Fletch started the day with a mass debate on the use of the massage tables. “Only a man knows what a man wants” is one of umpire Fletch’s best.

We were short on bowlers and on Friday night, Preeds was told he would bowl. He instantly invited his ex-girlfriend over to prepare where things got a little wristy. Krang also converted himself to an off spinner to meet the McBrian quota.

Baby Krang arrived early on and was severely displeased with KP. For those sleeping under a rock, Krang is now a father to a beautiful baby girl. Often hungry, a great sleeper, ginger-haired and possessing a piercing cry, Krang is a stalwart of the club and we couldn’t be happier for him.

Despite the boring game, a true sense of positivity, a lack of internal bickering and a true sense of comradery graced Parklands Oval. We were missing our vegan cyclist today which is why.

I think we took one wicket in the first hour and then 3 in the second. At 2:59, umpire fletch called last over before tea and Krang hooked Tiz for Gunny, who bowls right-arm off the right foot leg spin. It is a sight to behold. The frog in a blender was dispatched over mid wicket for 6 and umpire fletch then realised that there was in fact 10mins to go until tea. This is why fletch ranks in everyone’s list of top 5 umpires. I love Fletch and I love the HKHDCA. President Miedler and his team really do deserve all praise.

Tea was signalled early when Preeds bowled someone top of off after a particularly loud “HORSEFACE” from Krang. The wicket and subsequent finger in the sky celebration reminding everyone that he can actually bowl. God he’s been good at cricket since he became single.

Earlier, K revealed that he debates on a mass scale with his left, despite bowling with his right. After tea, the same question was posed to J. HANDo. ‘He doesn’t need to’ correctly yelled M. D. S. from mid-off.

3 wickets to win after tea – the field was aggressive and Jamaican was constantly talking to the batsmen at short leg. He wasn’t chirping them, just trying to organise a net at Auluba with his Kissing Point friends. Sav then took 2 wickets to finish an over to leave KP 9 down. Krang came back on to take the final wicket – ‘caught’ at leg slip by M. D. S.

WINNERS by 70ish.

Tiz 3, Sav 3, J Hando 2, Preeds 1 and Krang 1.

A2 Grade

WPHC Blue (Campbell) 197 defeated Glenorie 194

Back at the home of cricket for day two against Glenorie. With us having the opposition at 4/40 to start the day we were keen to rip in. So much so that Matty P changed his availability midweek to be there, and KT finished the job early at work to make the game.

We opened with JEdwards (yes, the Justin Edwards you may hear on fox sports occasionally) and Harry Hando, who makes me miss Tom and Jack less and less every game.

Side note – good luck to Harry as well as Avi as they finish their HSC exams this week. Not sure what subjects Avi does but I can assure you that no one at Greenway today would be any use helping Harry out with physics on Thursday.

Anyway, I digress. A tight opening partnership led to some pressure and the Glenorie skipper attempted to sneak through for a quick (loose term) single. But not before Matty (add specialist fieldsman to his resume) had some brilliant fielding to run the batsman out. I did think it was nice of the batsman to double check that the umpire by politely asking if “he actually was looking at the crease”.

Now it’s not often a plan comes off in cricket but when it does, wow what a feeling.

Last over of the session and it was our 15-year-old Soham’s time to shine again. Once again, he pitched one halfway down the wicket that the batsman attempted to pull and déjà vu from last week, was caught at short fine leg. We went into drinks with Glenorie 6/74.

4 more wickets and we could head home.

Easier said than done. We rotated through the bowlers with Tinay, Shaan, KT and Dean ‘I don’t care what end, just give me the f***ing ball’ Carlin toiling hard through the middle overs. Credit to Glenorie’s batsman, particularly Tyrone with 80 and putting on over 100 runs with the last couple wickets.

Now I know how Berowra felt last year in the A2’s grand final, when Tanay and Matty put on over 100 for the 10^th wicket.

The equation was simple, we needed 3 wickets, they needed 20 runs. Keats tells me he has a plan and at this stage I’ll take anything on offer. Now I’m not sure if he’s been down at the nets between teaching classes but he’s gained a yard of pace this year. Anyway, he takes the torn-up ball and lets lose.

Now when I think of great bowling spells, a recent spell of Scott Boland at ‘the G’ comes to mind and wow, build Rowan Keating a statue at Greenway now. First over, top of off and he’s bowled him (wicket number 1).

Next ball, a close LBW shout, to which Deano was called out on for excessive appealing. But all was well when he proceeded to tell the umpire it was just park cricket. The rest of the over was kind of boring to be honest. But Keats then comes back next over and knocks over the number 10 (wicket number 2), with a beautiful yorker.

Keats then returns for his last of the day. Mid delivery stride, Matty is called for not walking in towards the bowler. It was also nice of Deano to double check with the ump that “he surely wasn’t actually going to give 5 penalty runs”. 5 penalty runs were in fact given, and they now only needed 5. I later did confirm with the batsman that he was glad the ball was pulled up as Matty taking those two steps backwards a deep fine leg really did put him off.

Anyway, next ball and an edge behind taken by Steve (3^rd and final wicket) and Keats was the hero. 4/21 and we’d managed to win a game that didn’t look likely towards the end.

Well, we thought we’d won.

To add further drama, the score books added up to 194 batsman runs and 199 bowler runs. We scored 196. So, we are not sure if we actually won or not.

Apparently scissors, paper, rock wasn’t an appropriate way of deciding it, so the powers above have the books and will make that call for us.

Looking forward to our next game before an A grade sheep station cup in late November.

Sunday games for B1 Grade 23^rd & 30^th October 2022

B1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Shomik) 137 lost to Berowra 5/280

Sunday the 23rd was the first two-day game in a long time. We had broken the shackles of Covid in exchange for the long format. Changing dates from a Saturday to a Sunday posed challenges for both teams regarding numbers. On a day when winning the toss let the team take advantage of low numbers, we lost the toss again.

But no matter, with high spirits, we would attempt to stop as many runs as possible on the swift Greenway Oval. Looking back, I honestly had no clue how light hits would fly to the boundary with wet grass and wet ball. We had to make do in difficult bowling conditions and with rain affecting play.

A long and arduous day in the field, with many sore legs and hands on hips.

If you read my report last week, if you haven’t, do it because this next part won’t make sense. When all seems lost, the Spin KING, Amit, comes to the rescue. A beacon of light in the darkness, the leg-spin that brings joy and hope to all. On a day when Berowra only lost five wickets, Amit participated in 4 of them. He created two catches and an LBW off his bowling. Then went ahead and made an over-the-shoulder one-handed screamer off my bowling; Amit has cemented himself as the WPH Blue strike bowler. He collected 3/46.

At the end of day 1, Berowra had posted a very daunting total of 5/280.

The goal was simple for day 2, stop the momentum, bat out the overs, and save the game.

Step 1 (Stop the Momentum): K.J takes a wicket off his second delivery and forces an early declaration. Check.

Step 2 (Bat out the overs): 70 overs, ten wickets; how hard should it be? To start, Sagnik produced one of the gutsiest opening stands I have seen. With about 30 overs in the middle, he looked solid but was undone by a looping spinner for a well-made 24. K.J, Shomik and Jaimish all made starts, with scores of 16,17 and 16 in the middle overs, but did not stay long enough. It was up to Shomik, Pranay, Mohsin, Amit and myself to last the final 34 overs. We set up a stonewall to frustrate the opposition into submission via attrition. Whittled down one by one, the game eventually fell away, and we could not last the final overs. All out 137.

So close, but yet so far. It was a valiant attempt but to no avail. We wore our hearts on our sleeve, and you could not hide the disappointment. I hope the boys can take all the great things from the past two games and bring that into the WPH Derby next week.

WPHC Red (Birdcage) 2/118 defeated Castle Hill 115

After arriving at the new home of Sunday cricket, Les Shore Oval there was an overwhelming feeling amongst the team that there were other places we would rather be on a Sunday but alas…

Castle Hill were resuming their innings on 4 for not many and what ensued was one of the tightest spells of bowling you are likely to see in B grade cricket.

Anush ‘tighter than the car spot he tried to squeeze into last week’ and Mathew ‘Matty’ Digby were on. Nushy proceeded to get the only bloke in their team who could hold the bat caught behind and that sparked a run of 31 consecutive dot balls with 3 wickets falling. This is the longest run of dot balls for a Sunday game in the Club’s history (Source Ross Anderson).

Highlights including Matty taking his 100^th and 101^st Club wickets with big Ray ‘would rather be in Covid isolation than playing cricket today’ Khamis taking ‘the best catch I’ve seen in my 113 years watching club cricket’ (Ross Anderson). Well done on Ray making his first and probably only meaningful contribution to the team this season.

We ended up rolling them for 115 with Cam ‘Big Cammos’ Northrop demolishing their number 11’s stumps to cap off what was an excellent display of tight bowling.

Now for our batting innings, with Ryan ‘on the elliptical’ Loveridge and Zach ‘wouldn’t even know he was at the ground’ Turner opening the batting. Zac leaving a few out there whilst the cage got to work on a well compiled 40 not out. Excellent quick fire knocks from Alex ‘playing in the V’ Chidgey and Adam ‘try’s to steal Ray’s thunder with a pathetic fake dive’ Van Saarloos led to us chasing the runs down without much stress at all.

So many positives to take out of our performance over the last fortnight. There is a great energy within the team and we are looking forward to tearing in next week. Also a big shout-out to Cannons Ozvatic for filling in.

B2 Grade

WPHC (Todd) 97 & 5/142 lost on 1^st innings but won outright Castle Hill 103 & 7 dec 133

We’d resume requiring 24 runs with 3 wickets in hand. The Hutchinson pairing of Todd and Craig would last a few overs before both falling, bringing our secret weapon, Chris Williamson to the crease, back from his trip to the SCG.

Chris and Paul Vink looked good and gave us hope but unfortunately, we’d fall 6 runs short… excruciatingly close, but bring on the second innings.

Eagar to get some revenge we’d return to the field with the goal of getting 10 wickets as quick as we could.

Paul Vink (1-9) would get his man, Mick Hungerford again to get us off to the start we wanted. We’d bring on first Innings hero Craig Hutchinson on early hoping for replication, and he’d hold up an end for the afternoon taking 4 for 44… making it 10 wickets for the match – Congratulations! Birdcage would bowl a very tidy spell of 0-8 despite being under the weather (not that, that is an excuse for the dolly he put down)… and would receive some sideline encouragement from his teammates who’d come down to watch.

Castle Hill came out looking to accelerate, but we’d slow them down with wickets to Craig and Todd (2-41) forcing a later declaration from Castle Hill on 5pm drinks at 7/133, setting us a target of 140 in 18 overs.

I’ll be honest, we weren’t exuberating hope… Enter Sam “the finisher, turned opener” Kirkgard who took their opening bowling who claimed 5 wickets in the first dig for 22 off the first over offering us a glimpse of hope.

Unfortunately, Sam would fall the next over bringing Chris Williamson to the crease for a quick 10 runs. Dylan and Connor confidently told the skipper out in the middle they backed themselves and Dylan was seeing them well so we wouldn’t close up shop just yet… and boy was Dylan seeing them well, showing off his stroke play very well supported by Connor (15) and made his way to a quickfire 56 and leaving us with 30 required off 5 overs.

Birdcage (24*) and Michael “Volc” Banner (13) would finish off the job, winning it in the final over and securing us 6 points.

What a close game of cricket! Huge shout out to Josh Elliot for coming down to sub field for us, was vital in ensuring we got the win.

C1 Grade

WPHC (Kapil) Vs St Ives Wahroonga

No scores or match reports received from either week and will be updated once received.

C2 Grade

WPHC Red (Indranil) 10/196 defeated WPHC Blue (Rob) 10/71.

Another sunny day and clear blue skies welcomed the teams on a fast outfield at Campbell Park.

The Reds marched to the ground with 8 x U15 juniors (3 just fill in fielders) who just came from their juniors’ game.

Both sides took the opportunity to take team photos for a special occasion which you can see in the gallery section.

WPH Blue team started their batting with the not out batsman D Vink and W McLennan. Vishnu Raman (2/8) bowled beautifully and had a breakthrough in the 1^st over, a fine catch taken by Haseeb (2/12) and then very next ball getting a nick behind the stumps. Redemption for the keeper who missed some opportunities last week, but not missing out on this one. At the other end Haseeb got his inswing right from Ball 1 and rattled the stumps of few of the Blue batsmen. After 5 overs in the day Blue were 6/39.

A good partnership started to build between Ben Burrows and D Vink (27), but with change of bowling, Inam (3/20) got another breakthrough. Rizul Gulati (1/4), the crafty leg spinner got the opportunity just before drinks and got a wicket in his first over. At drinks Blue were 8/70. It did not take long for the innings to wrap up after drinks break Blues finishing at 71.

There was a discussion in the middle about going for an outright leading by 125 runs, but Red skipper checked with the juniors and took a pragmatic call to close the game early.

In all good spirts the Blue and Red players finished the arvo over some drinks at the Sporto and early time back home.

C3 Grade

WPHC Blue (Tarun) 189 lost to Sydney Lions 5/193

Love the warm spring day we had bit, with of breeze to make to pleasant for fielding in the full sun. Even loving writing match report while T20 WC match plays in the background. Love playing cricket, everybody hates losing after a hard day’s work. And that’s how our day ended.

It was a day in two halves as is the playing time before tea and after it. First half we were in kind of control when we had opposition at 3/83 needing, still needing 107 to win. Pat Watkins and Jamieson shared new ball.

We could have had first wicket run out when both opposition batsmen collided with each other and were lying on ground in the middle of pitch. In name of Gentlemen’s game stumps were not broken. And later in the day we were not surprised to find that only one team may want to play in that manner.

Few decisions were not given and ended up being talking points in the middle.

Anyways first wicket came in 10th over of the day to Jamo, to a diving catch to forever young Mat Marsden.

Another example where he is doing it in front of the Marsden clan and other team members to set the high standards. He did not stop here. Coming on as 3rd change bowler, he rattled set batsmen’s stumps with his second delivery. Score 3/44.

Before this Jack Marsden and William Hurst, filling in fromU15 teams had some very tight bowling lines. Jack was rewarded with a wicket for his very disciplined line and length bowling.

Ron Marsden was determined not to be left behind. When after tea, discussion was to start with Bron (Bronson Marsden), Ron was ready to bowl his 4th. And in his next over opposition’s hard-hitting batsman managed to edge a very high catch. Jack happened to call for the catch and we all were feeling for Jack. With a sigh of relief for everybody particularly his Dad, he managed to catch ball in his nicely padded keeping gloves. Score 4/95.

Bron finally got his turn to bowl.

Leg spin is a difficult art. And Bron impressed us all with his bowling. Unlucky that all balls played in air managed to find gaps between fielders. But a very promising talent.

We rotated bowlers to get breakthrough. Pat, Tarun, Louis, Lachy, Jamo, all rolling their arms. Breakthrough came in Mat’s second spell with batsman’s wickets again rattled. But it was a bit late.

One of opposition U15 batsmen set an example of how to be patient in a two-day game. He finished with 77 no.

Onto the next two-day match where hopefully we will be able to implement some of the learnings from today.

WPHC Red (Cameron) 130 lost to St Ives Wahroonga 140

Another beautiful day for cricket and we had the pleasure of batting in very fine conditions chasing a moderate score of 140. At the end of last week WPH were 1/27 so only needing 114 for the victory.

Our two batsmen added 18 today before the first wicket fell with Anikeet Mahindre scoring an aggressive 28 having us at 2/45 with 96 to get. Then we lost 3 quick wickets in succession with Rohit and Saurahb given out LBW and then Amativa Sen being run out with a direct hit from backward square leg. This left us at 5/48 and the pressure was mounting.

A couple of nice partnerships followed with Hari Shanker, Makund and Brijesh all contributing well along with fill in player Kaushall Gandhi too the score at the tea break to 8/128 and 13 runs to get.

Unfortunately we didn’t bring up the victory before being dismissed for 130 in a game we should have comfortably won.

Some really solid batting from Makund today was probably the highlight with a score of 29 but a very patient and controlled display.

C4 Grade

WPHC (Hiresh) 2/110 Vs Berowra 348

“This is one of those cricket matches that make you question why you still play while you’re in a fetal position while playing the lyrics “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend” over and over in your head before laughing cause it’s just sport and it happens.

At the Brooklyn Oval ground which is best suited for Under 14’s and spiders, we started the day at 4/110 after missing a player and our Week 1 player being unable to bat anymore. We thought with 220 odd runs to get in 70 overs and our batting, we can do this!!!

We did not do it.

Ratul (34) started the day off with a boundary or so and then he got out unluckily with a bottom edge that just carried to the keeper. Then the collapse began.

The wind played havoc with a slower bowler who just managed to put it on a length that just made it really annoying to face against. The rest of the batting just followed, getting bowled or LBWs with a few that actually stayed down low a bit. We collapsed, losing 5 batters for around 18 runs, ending any chance of a victory or a draw. All out for 128. They just bowled well enough to cause mistakes from us, but you live and learn.

There are positives despite the scoreline.

Ratul batted well last week as well as the start of the day. We played in the right spirit and effort despite being short (thanks ICC WC…). We also practiced how to score when a clump of wickets happened (gotta be on top of that). That being said, we are pumped for the game at always awesome, always legendary Greenway next week where we can bounce back strong.

We got this!”

D1 Grade

WPHC Red (Diggers) 8/150 dec defeated outright WPHC Blue (Arun) 73 & 48

Starting with a quick recap of day 1 of the first edition of the D1 Sheep Station Cup for the 2022/23 season.

Diggers won the toss for the Red team and promptly sent the Blues in for a bat given that they were missing a couple of their good bats who had headed to Melbourne for the India v Pakistan T20 fixture.

The Blues fought hard to try and bat out the day with a couple of their 14 year old fill-ins occupying the crease for long periods. Of the regular players, Tej  was the mainstay of the innings scoring a really good 31 in the face of some very tight bowling from the Reds. Ultimately however, the Blues were bowled out for 73 with an hour or so to play.

For the Reds, Parin was outstanding, taking 4/8 off 17, Connor took 2/8 off 12, Disco 1/3 off 5 and Zac took a crucial wicket with his left-arm wrist spin.

The Reds then batted for an hour and were 1/44 at the end of play.

So with 30 to get for first innings points, Cliff and Marcus went about their business, getting the required runs in the first over. Being such a great day for cricket and with so little being played of late, the captains agreed to continue and make it a two innings match.

Marcus ended up getting out for 43 with the score on 115, a great partnership for the 2nd wicket. A couple more quick wickets followed and the Reds were suddenly 4/117.

Cliff was then out for a really well compiled 63 followed by a couple of cameos from the Pillamarri twins (Parin and Sreeni) and got the Reds to 8 for 150 at tea.

For the Blues, Praneel bowled really well and finished with 3/29 off 14, Sibby took 2/27 off 10, Tej was great with 2/17 off 5 and Nirav and Mridul also took wickets.

Diggers then decided to declare with a lead of 77 on the first innings with 35+ overs to go in the day.

From there, the Blues tried hard to bat out the day however the Reds were able to get regular wickets through tight bowling and using plenty of variety in their bowling stocks. Connor, Zac, Luke, Rommel and Sreeni all took wickets but it was Disco who stole the show. He bowled with really good pace, line and length to finish with 3/5 off 7 and, in the process, brought up his 100th wicket for the Club.

Opening the batting for the Blues, Agniva showed great determination and despite seeing wickets falling all around him, managed to stay until he was out as 7th wicket. He made 24.

So, in the end, the Blues were bowled out for 48, an outright win to the Reds.

D2 Grade

WPHC (Ross S) 9/245 dec defeated Berowra 155

Day 2 and an immediate declaration, with Berowra to bat. Hoping for a day not as dramatic as last week. Thankfully no Rugby players today which was great news….

Ram and Sach opening the bowling…..Ram 1st over, wicket 4th ball, great catch by Sach in the slips. Ram’s 2^nd  over plumb LBW, Sach 2nd over inside edge behind to Ross…Berowra in real trouble 3-10 after 4 overs…really good spells by both with the new ball.

Missing a couple of quick bowlers today, we had to go straight to spin from over 11…Whilst It was never going to be easy today, short a couple of quicker bowlers and having only 10 fielders, our ground fielding was poor at times with a couple of dropped catches, letting through a number of boundaries and giving away easy singles…..we just could not apply any pressure even though the bowling was good. At the 18 over drinks break Berowra 3-77….

After drinks we toiled away with multiple bowling changes to try get that elusive wicket…however runs continued to flow. A really good spell of bowling by Muthindra and Jake where only 11 runs were scored in a 10 over spell, put some pressure on the batters. Both were really unlucky and not rewarded, however a bowling change saw things change dramatically.

33^rd over, Henry got the breakthrough first ball. A full toss hit hard to his left juggle then dive … great caught and bowled – finally broke a 29 over, 120 run partnership, Berowra 4/130….

From that point a procession of wickets…… 3 to Ram,and a beautiful ball by Henry to clean bowl Berowra’s top scoring batter….Berowra 8/ 144 and in real trouble….

With a few minutes to the tea break, Cory came onto bowl, and after 4 really good balls the batter scooped a catch to Muthindra .Berowra 9/151 at tea.

After the tea break it only took us 3 overs to get the final wicket, with Rahul taking a caught and bowled with the last ball of his second over….Berowra dismissed for 155 off 45 overs.

Berowra losing 7 – 25 off 12 overs…

Pleasing that 9 of our bowlers got to bowl today, with Ram taking the honours 5-24 off 14 overs. Wickets to Henry 2-33(6), Sach 1-20 (5), Cory 1-0 (2) Rahul 1-0. (2). Catches to Sach, Ross, Henry, Rahul, and Muthindra.

Not enforcing the follow on, we decided to draw stumps early taking 1st innings points.