Points table (as at Round 5)

A Grade Red (Cam) – 1^st (28 points)

A Grade Blue (Campbell) – =6^th (14 points)

B1 Red (Birdcage) – 3^rd (19 points)

B1 Blue (Shomik) – = 4^th (14 points)

B2 (Todd) – 1^st (27 points)

C1 (Kapil) – =1^st (22 points)

C2 Red (Indranil) – =2^nd (19 points)

C2 Blue (Rob) – = 2^nd (19 points)

C3 Red (Cameron) – 8^th (8 points)

C3 Blue (Tarun) – 6^th (14 points)

C4 (Hiresh) – = 3^rd (14 points)

D1 Red (Diggers) – 3^rd (23 points)

D1 Blue (Arun) – = 6^th (16 points)

D2 (Ross S) – 2^nd (24 points)

Match Reports – Round 6 (Day 2)

A1 Grade

WPHC Red (Cam) 3/207 & 3/26 defeated outright WPHC Blue (Campbell) 69 & 163

Match Report to follow

B1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Shomik) 151 defeated ARL 140

Well the team was riding high on confidence after a 1 wicket win in a competitive and intense derby game.

We finally won our first toss of the season and chose to bat last week on a bright and sunny day. At the end of the first session we were comfortable placed at 108/3 with Sagnik not out at 56 & seeing the cricket ball like a beach ball and Kamran scoring his usual quick-fire 35, laced with multiple pulls and hooks. Then came the dreaded IT support call from Sagnik’s work, and he had to choose between life and cricket & unfortunately had to pick life & retired not out to choose slavery. That was followed by our famous collapse to end with 151 all out.

ARL ended day 1 at 54/2 with their skip playing a counter attacking innings of 43 as he was anyway gonna miss week 2!

With still close to 100 in the bank we had to be accurate, build pressure and nick a few early wickets to stay in the game.

All the above boxes were ticked by all the seam bowlers. With ARL at 85/7, we were in the driving seat, but that is where we had let our earlier matches slip slowly from our grasp. And this is where the whole team showed their amazing intent and discipline to squeeze an 11 run win with ARL’s lower order showing some sting in their tail.

Harsh picked up his 1st 5fer(5/37) for west penno’s with 2 incisive spells of hard length bowling and Stevie “Wonder” Ozvatic picking up 3/13 (including the most wanted last wicket) in his 1st game for us and capping off a brilliant team effort!

WPHC Red (Birdcage) 9/227 defeated Berowra 226

Our week was almost derailed before it even started. After Brent ‘Bulbasaur_nimnim’ was nice enough to have Billy ‘shittest bloke at the Club’ Gaunt over on Tuesday night to watch Australia smash England in an ODI our good vibes only circle was almost infiltrated. Billy was not confident we could chase the 226 posted by Berowra. Thanks for your support Billy, your vibe has been checked, they’re off, so kindly keep to yourself in future please.

Arriving at Warrina Street on yet another glorious Saturday, we had a point to prove, not just to ourselves but also to Billy.

Our day started strong as Jason ‘your dad is not welcome at our games again’ Garret and Zac ‘Grace’s Boyfriend’ Turner dug in to set a nice little platform. Zac unfortunately missed a straight one which brought Brent to the crease. Jason missed a straight one too and was adjudged LBW for a gritty 30 odd, Adam ‘rent_4_free’ Van Saarloos played the worst shot in the history of club cricket (Source Ross Anderson). And Dinesh ‘Rod Stewart’s biggest fan’ came and went for a quick fire 14 off 5 after trying to big dog the opposition bowler in their team one too many times, who unfortunately got the last laugh.

Whilst others faltered, Brent hung around. Brent showed grit, gumption and concentration to anchor our innings and set the platform for what would be the greatest run chase in the history of the Club (Source Ross Anderson). Again we reiterate these are our favourite human qualities and it’s great to see young Brent step up and be a man when we needed him to most.

Anyways when you’re 3 wickets into a mini collapse, history would show that the last person you want coming in to ‘steady the ship’ is Big Ray ‘SwiiRlz V’ Khamis. But lo and behold, as Big Ray strutted to the crease with an aura reminiscent of the master blaster Viv Richards, he stared the bowler in the face and said ‘not today’. Ray joined Brent at the crease and the pair put on a chanceless 68 run partnership to get us well and truly on the way to the total. Unfortunately Ray and Brent couldn’t get us home due to a couple of really good seeds but no stress, today we batted extremely deep.

With 34 runs to win and one wicket in the bank Matthew ‘mama digs son’ and Ryan ‘Birdcage’ Loveridge never looked like losing. Ryan’s attacking prowess and Matty’s resolute defence saw us home.

All jokes aside, cricket can be stressful and disappointing. Luckily today we let the good vibes roll hard and in the end that is what got us home.

We are happy to announce that we have made cricket great again.

The energy around our team right now is infectious as Birdcage’s bedroom. There is something is in the air and we are harnessing it. Watch this space guys but please and I cannot stress this enough, GOOD VIBES ONLY.

Other highlights:

• Zac arrived to a game on time. Well done Zac.
• Brent’s club record of youngest double centurion was eclipsed by Lachy Edwards. Great to see the next generation coming through and even better to see Brent knocked off his pedestal. Anyone who was there for Brent’s innings knows it should have an * against it anyways.
• Ray had a change room blow up and will need to buy a new helmet. Luckily master negotiator Ross Anderson got our club a WHOPPING 5% discount at Kingsgrove so that takes the sting out of it.
• Nick Duck brought 7 kilos of oranges to the game. There will be no common cold or flus around our team for years to come. Good on ya Nick.
• Jason Garrets old fella manages to say more stupid things at a day of cricket than Brent. A truly monumental effort from Jason Senior. Well done mate, never change. Just don’t come to our games anymore.
• Berowra fielded a side that were a pleasure to play against which was kind of strange but good to see. Thanks Berowra.

B2 Grade

WPHC (Todd) 181 lost to Kenthurst 7/182

We returned to Kenthurst Park with the aim to defend 181 by taking the remaining 9 wickets. But before play could resume we’d listen to a frantic Willy scavenge through his kit looking for his club cap, cursing that his wife hadn’t packed it for him… however can confirm his lovely wife had packed it neatly in his side pocket…

Kenthurst would resume on 1/23 in their pursuit of our rather modest total, but we’d get back into our work early with openers Paul Vink and Todd Hutchinson (3-21) picking up early scalps to swing the match into our favour with Kenthurst at 4-42. A slight partnership would build before a fired-up Josh Elliot (1-38) would send a ball cannoning into the stumps and boy was he pumped! Jack Hutchinson (1-12) would be rewarded with a wicket on the last ball before drinks to regain the momentum for us and leave Kenthurst 6-90.

After the break Jack had really slowed down Kenthurst’s hitters but fell victim to the age restriction as was reluctantly taken out of the attack. We’d battle hard but Kenthurst would chance their arm with some cross bat slogging on a small postage stamp ground which paid off for them. A solid 7th wicket partnership would be enough to get Kenthurst over the line in this one, however Chris Williamson (1-36) would claim the wicket of their tonker but unfortunately it was too late, the damage had been done.

We’d head back to the pub early the sink some beers, and will be back stronger next week to get back to winning ways.

P.S. Shout-out to Volc who last week brought up 6000 runs for the club in his innings of 62 – Congrats Mate!

C1 Grade

WPHC (Kapil) 240 defeated Normanhurst 72 & 6/86

WPHCC continued the good run and pushed Normanhurst on the back foot on week 2 as well.

All they needed was a bit more luck to have some half chances go their way. With exceptional bowling they pushed Normanhurst back right from over 1 with Daniel getting the opener bowled off a perfect yorker.

We created a million chances but the Gods were busy watching FIFA WC. Really proud of the way the team has started the first season with WPHCC with winning session after session to collect points match after match.

Glad we joined the best club on the planet 👏👏

Sunday game for C2 Grade 20^th & 27^th November 2022

C2 Grade

WPHC Red (Indranil) 110 lost to Mt Colah 150

The boys resumed the game at 3/45 against Mount Colah with both Tejas D and Todd H patiently playing the deliveries and slowly making their way to 3/65 by the first break.

That’s where things started to go a bit downhill for us. In the next 10 or so overs, we slumped to 8/84; Tejas making a lone hand of 22.

With the game slipping out of our hands, Captain Indranil and Amrit S put a little fight until a direct hit that dismissed Indranil pretty much sealed the game for Mount Colah – WPH bowled out for 110.

Lots of thinking to do with our batting to stop further collapses in the season but for now, we are hoping for a great game against Thornleigh next week.

Once again, BIG shoutout to Todd H for filling in for us, back to back weeks as well as playing his own games! A true WPH Champ!

WPHC Blue (Rob) 209 defeated Thornleigh 123

Sunday game to be played at Greenway Park.

C3 Grade

WPHC Blue (Tarun) 7/360 dec defeated Kissing Point 134

The sun was out, the sky was blue and the media team in the form of Lachlan’s dad and myself (Jack) was in full flight, all eyes on the man of the moment, Lachlan Edwards 186* at the start of the days play.

A few tired heads rocked up to the home of cricket Campbell Park, especially the recent graduates on the back of binge watching the FIFA World Cup and playing their respective consoles at ridiculous times throughout the week.

Lachlan Edwards and Shaqueel (shaq) put the pads on as hype was building around the ground as Lach continued his journey towards a history making double ton. However, it was his batting partner at the other end, Shaq, that stole the show early on punishing a bowling attack still recovering from the slaughtering they endured from Lachlan only a week earlier with quick runs featuring a few boundaries.

However, only an over late,r Lachlan was on strike, silence struck the ground as spectators looked on nervously waiting on Lach to get his first runs away. Lachlan steadied, cutting the ball wide of gully for 4, he was away, moving onto 190. A cover drive and another late cut saw Lach edge even closer to the 200 mark, eventually surpassing the milestone with a beautifully timed flick off the pads for 4, cheers arose around the ground as Lachlan raised his bat for the 4^th time this innings as he attained 200.

Words cannot describe how much of a pleasure it was to even be able to have a first-hand view of Lachlan’s innings as he became the youngest player in the Club history to surpass 200 runs. However, Lach does owe me one as I gave him not out in the 40s much to the displeasure of the old heads in Kissing Point team.

Lach and Shaq got the chainsaws out in the last few overs of the innings as we finished with 360, a very, very, very defendable target.

After leaving the ground early last week finishing with a respectable dnb, Patrick had the ball in hand feeling fit and refreshed with extra motivation in the form of his missus on the sideline. Pat terrorised the Kissing Point opening batters beating the bat on multiple occasions and having very contentious lbw appeals turned down.

However, it was has tear away partner at the other end will (Jamo) who left the Kissing Point’s middle stump doing cartwheels, as the batsman took his middle stump for a walk back to the sheds he copped a few encouraging words from Jack in slips giving him a hard time and Jamo himself who was pumped up which really set the tone for the rest of the innings.

To show hard work pays off, Pat eventually had an appeal for lbw accepted by the umpire leaving Kissing Point 2-30 after 7 overs, the only runs coming in the form off edges and byes. Pat struck again shortly after with a ripping catch in slips from myself, a one handed late dive miracle catch you only had to see to believe it happened (the ball went straight to me).

Pat struck again leaving the other Kissing Point opening batsman middle stump putting on another brilliant dance routine which involved a few more cartwheels and backflips.

Jack then came onto bowl and Lachlan must’ve forgot about the favour he owed me dropping a catch on only the second ball of my spell. Shaq continued from the other end as the runs were looking drier than the Campbell park outfield as kissing point looked to play for the draw with very entertaining leaves and blocks being put on display. As tea neared Jack eventually struck as Lachlan payed me back with a caught behind which was turned down by the umpire only for the batsman to show a great display of sportsmanship bringing out his best Adam Gilchrist impression as he walked back to the sheds.

Jack and Bronson continued after team toiling away looking to break the boring defences of the Kissing Point batsmen. However, an inspired change saw the giant killer, Munish, take a very valuable scalp as he broke the best Kissing Point partnership of the day with a mistimed shot top edged to Pat who made up for his missed sharp chance only a few overs prior.

Sighs of relief echoed around the ground as the wicket was taken with the Kissing Point batting putting a few fielders to sleep. Special mention to Mat Marsden, the inspired fill in who was at the forefront of bowling to the block and leave-athon even asking the batsman if he’d practiced his leave throughout the week.

Lachlan Edwards the man of the moment entered the attack taking the wicket of Kissing Point’s best batsman of the day who ended on about 40 off 200 balls with Michael west taking a very overdramatic diving catch straight to his chest that he won’t shut up about for the next 5 years as it’s his first catch taken since 2018. The final wicket eventually fell with a ripper of a run out from Pat as I had the simple task of catching the ball and smashing down the stumps.

After all was said and done the Kissing Point captained hinted at my classic sledges throughout the match stating “geez thank god we don’t have to listen to those sledges every week”, which has inspired me to open up my own sledging classes every Monday 5pm at the sports club, rsvp if interested.

WPHC Red (Cameron) 188 drew with Sydney Lions 7/164

Playing at a very slow Arcadia Oval, WPH won the toss last week and elected to bat first. At the end of week 1 we were 6/142 having batted for 75 overs, which demonstrated our batsmen had patience and determination to bat the entire day.

Fill in captain John Rose knew it was not enough runs so the decision was made to bat for the first hour and pile on as many as we could get. Unfortunately, we were dismissed in the 93 over for 188 with 55 overs left to play as a minimum in the day.

Our bowlers did a good job keeping the pressure on throughout the innings.

Vinod Kumar took 3 weeks and one each to Vikas Goel, John Rose, Saurabh Kapoor along with a smart run out saw WPH have the Opposition at 7/138 with 12 overs to bowl.

Unfortunately, we were unable to take another wicket and the Opposition knuckled down and played very defensively to secure a draw. Sydney Lions were sitting first or second on the latter and today’s performance showed that we can compete in this Division and overall it was a very good performance even though we did not come away with a win.

C4 Grade

WPHC (Hiresh) 8/263 defeated Mt Colah 259

What a day!

Now 2 from 2 and with a bit of momentum, WPHCCC is on a mission to climb the C4 ladder. This hard earned win will not be forgotten amongst the team for a long while, with every player proud of their brother beside them and an overall feeling of a well-deserved satisfaction. This game truly showcased our team’s potential, sparking belief within the squad that we can play deep into the competition.

An early wicket fell in the 2^nd over, with Meet (9) bowled to a nice change of pace from Mount Colah’s Week 2 bowler. Not too long after, Sparsh (9) looked to be comfortably knocking the ball around before he unfortunately played a leading edge to mid-on. In came the big man himself, Ratul, hitting the ball all over the park, looking in supreme form for his 28 off 13 before chasing a good line and length, ending up caught behind. 15 runs later, Shashank also fell for 6, caught behind during a good period of bowling.

At this point (5/95) we were seemingly in a bit of trouble, and although we had batting to come, it would take a glorious effort to bring the game back into our favour, and so indeed it did. The boys were going to have to really dig deep, but from this point onwards Bala, Jags and Pankaj held the fort down and clutched the innings. A true mark of the innings was the mere 5 maidens bowled throughout the day, even with Mt Colah’s tight bowling, only bowling 18 no balls and wides in the entire innings.

Anyways, I was proved a fool for worrying as the one and only Jagadeesan Kumar Yadav (Jags) stepped up to the crease. Never failing to swing hard from ball 1, it took a couple balls for him to settle in. Nicely moving along, boundaries were the go to for Jags who couldn’t run a great deal due to a recovering knee injury. Eventually, a bowler fell victim to one of Jags’ spell-ending overs (646.66), with 28 off it. Whilst managing to effectively give Jags the strike, whilst managing to hit a couple of 4’s for himself, Bala eventually was knocked over for a beautiful 40 (off about 112), concluding the match defining partnership of 56.

Unfortunately for the Opposition, another bowler was assaulted for 22 runs in another spell-ending over (6..646), meaning Jags moved into the 90s. Eventually Jags was caught out in the deep at cow corner, although it’s hard to believe he could’ve gotten out any other way. This ended a freakish 91 off a dodgily calculated 61 balls! This was a match winning partnership of 83 between Jags, and Pankaj who flew under the radar. Pankaj hit a very solid 38 to guide the team to the win, 14 singles the feature of his innings, the rest of his runs coming from well-timed 4s.

After the wickets of Jags, Mt Colah’s eyes lit up with hope.

All of us from the sidelines had racing heartbeats as we counted down the runs 1 at a time, with 16 to get once we had been reduced to 2 wickets in hand. Mount Colah looked to go back to their opening bowler, but unfortunately he had injured himself in the field and could not begin the over. Ultimately, Mahesh hit two 4s at the end to bring up the winning runs and delight amongst the entire team.

After the successful run chase, all the boys were over the moon, immediately running to congratulate all the star batting performers. “Who are we playing next week?” was the immediate question following the celebration. It’s fair to say we’re up for the challenge.

D1 Grade

WPHC Red (Diggers) 3/92 drew with Kissing Point 6/293 dec

Another pretty ordinary day’s cricket at Les Shore 2. Kissing Point resumed at 4/156 and continued to bat and bat and bat. They were intent on playing for a draw apparently not wanting us to get further ahead of them on the table.

Connor picked up a couple of wickets and we had them 6/194 at the drinks break, probably expecting the declaration to come. But alas, the KP skipper batted on, complete with the runner we so generously gave him last week and continued with today for a dodgy hammy (that shan’t be happening again).

We created plenty of chances again today even with the negative mindset of KP but again dropped too many catches.

So KP finally declared at a bit after 4.15 with 6/293 off 114 overs and actually expected us to bat.

Changing things up a bit with the batting order, we lost a few quick wickets and thoughts of leaving at 5 were soon gone.

The KP captain thought he was going to run through us but Ben Burrows and Zac Gerber had other ideas. Zac came out with the intent to tee off and nearly put his back out with the first couple of swing and misses.

Zac and Ben started connecting and soon had KP’s heads dropping again. The 19 off one over will do that.

With 5 overs to go in the day, the KP skipper finally decided he had enough and the draw was confirmed.

Ben finished unbeaten on 34 and Zac on 46 (sorry Zac).

On to Kenthurst next match, needing a win to get our season back on track.

WPHC Blue (Arun) 165 lost to Kenthurst 170

There are one-sided games and then there are nail-biters, losing at the latter hurts, it really does.

With 5 wickets down and about 126 odd runs to chase down, the team arrived at a lush Holland reserve on a cracker of a day. We knew we had a solid line up of batters so were rightly confident to chase down the total.

Sahil and Amith resumed their composed knocks from the previous weekend and were looking solid in the middle. While Sahil reminded us of his knock from last season’s D2 Grand Final, Amith on the other hand was will-fully making the fielders run by sneaking in some constant singles. The pair looked solid and took their partnership to 40 odd runs before Sahil succumbed to a top edge, unfortunate but a brilliant knock of 17 nonetheless.

In came Anubhav, one of our frontline batters this season and immediately started to look threatening almost to the point that Kenthurst Campo complemented his short-lived innings at the end of the game.

Anubhav fell for an extremely loose ball while trying to smack it out of the park and their B-Grade fielder took a brilliant catch running behind from second slip. Again, that slight bit of luck was missing for us today.

Next was Nirav, our wall and our team guardian as well call him and he did play to the conditions as needed, keeping the strike rotating at regular intervals while at the same time sending some balls across the fence. The team Whatsapp had a poll running since the morning on whether Amith would score a 50 today and buy us some craft beers, and with almost 100% positive response, things were looking promising for both him and the rest of us. Nirav fell while trying to swing at a moving ball but he scored a crucial 18 (at this stage extras was the highest scorer for us and this did not change at the end of the game). The team was under pressure after Nirav got out, after playing a valuable inning, on a loose ball. Amith was playing his innings with such calmness on the other end.

Agni, who had a fantastic knock in the previous match, was the next batsman in and was determined and confident that he and Amith would take the game home. And boy, did he deliver once more. He made some stunning shots and threw the ball outside the ground with confidence, which was admirable.

He hit a crucial 22 and nearly took the match away before being bowled with a late swing. Chintan was our last man in and this was his first proper game after an unforeseen thumb injury forced him out of the initial rounds. He started well but was caught in front of the crease by a ball which probably would have bounced more with an underarm throw.

5 runs short after starting the day with 5 wickets left, the team should be proud of the way they chased but as mentioned before, sometimes in cricket you do need that little bit of luck going your way.

Big game next week against St Ives and we look forward to going on holidays with a win in the next two rounds. Onwards and upwards.

D2 Grade

WPHC (Ross S) defeated on forfeit Kissing Point Red

Stumps out, cones out, team sheet done, 11 lads ready to play….No KP team…….with 10 minutes to play KP Blue skipper (the other KP team in the comp) rocks up to the ground to say – Reds have forfeited….sorry we should have told you earlier..

Points are great, but 2 weeks off a disappointment for all.