A1 Grade

WPHC 96 lost to Berowra 179 – unfortunately Round one was over fairly quickly for A1. Berowra bowled tightly and we struggled to build any partnerships, losing wickets regularly. Unfortunately Michael Robertson was unable to bat due to a suspected broken foot. Alex Robertson top scored with 17, and Matt Jobson and Justin Paterson batted well at the end to take us past the follow on.

Not a great start to the season, but this side has a good mix of old and new players that will come good when we settle into playing together. We’re doing all the right things in terms of attitude and training, so the results are bound to follow.

A2 Grade

WPHC 186 lost to Berowra 296 – a day which promised a lot, but we weren’t able to deliver with the bat. Chasing 297, we were extremely confident of getting the job done, and at 1/102, we were looking the goods, but the loss of wickets in clumps put us behind the 8 ball.

Two of our top 3 scored half centuries, with Michael ‘Richie’ Richards and Matheesha ‘Mat’ Gunaratne top scoring with 53 a piece. Both batsmen looked at ease at the crease, and reinforced that they will be quality contributors this season. Tisveer ‘Tis’ Mistry chimed in with 38 in the middle order, to give us some hope, but unfortunately, we were bowled out for 186, falling well short of our target. Berowra outplayed us this game, and we are already looking forward to making amends in Round 2.

B1 Grade

WPHC 6/256 dec lost to Castle Hill 7/264 – we declared at 45 overs last week at 256 and today Castle Hill’s run chase started at 33. We did our best to keep the runs down and try and take wickets but ultimately it was a slow and painful day. We bowled a total of 92 overs over the 2 weeks with Dan ‘Darrel’ Costigan (3/95) leading the attack with 28 overs – an amazing effort. T Manolelis, Volcano, and the returning Cam ‘Hotballs’ McBrien got a wicket each as well, but Castle Hill’s batting was too good for us today. Thanks to Stuart Fiedler for filling in as a fielder and suffering with the terrible outfield all day, that had Tim ‘Wood’ Leyshon show why he is known for his brilliant fielding.

Today was a learning experience for the team, and we’ll bounce back next week with a full squad back in action.

B2 Grade

WPHC 4/248 defeated Berowra 246 – WOW what an awesome win to start the season. We started the day at 0/15 chasing an imposing Berowra target of 246. Aaron Carlini and Chris Williamson started where they left off last week and were very solid getting us to 0/70 at the drinks break. They continued on after drinks and Aaron finally lost his wicket a few overs before tea for a well compiled 46 and with Willy giving us a very solid opening partnership of 97. Michael Gunn joined Willy and we continued to graft away losing our second wicket (Gunny) at 136. Ray Khamis went to the crease with instructions to up the run rate.

Ray did exactly as asked and peeled off a quick 31 in 8 overs. We went to the final drinks break at 4/181 needing 66 in the final 20 overs of the day. Anushka De Silva and new WPH player Dinuka Jayasuriya unleashed chasing down the winning runs in 8 overs. We finished at 4/248. All of our batsmen contributed today – Chris Williamson 58, Aaron Carlini 46, Anushka De Silva 40 (not out), Dinuka Jayasuriya 35 (not out), Ray Khamis 31 and Michael Gunn 14. We did ride our luck a bit today with Berowra dropping a few catches but to our credit we made each of those dropped catches prove costly.

C1 Grade

WPHC 308 defeated Berowra 269 – we needed to defend our 306 runs from week 1 and we knew it would require us to bowl tight, on that ridiculously narrow Fox Glove pitch which, quite frankly should’ve be widened years ago. Aaron Hawkins picked up an early wicket and from there we picked up wickets consistently to the tea break where Berowra found themselves down 6 – 128.

After tea, Aaron picked up another 2 wickets including the very important wicket of Col Davenport (69) who really threatened us. We felt like that would be the final hurdle but it wasn’t. When their no.10 and 11 came together, they hit us to all parts with a quick 52 run partnership. While losing the game was unlikely, a draw was, which would not have pleased any of us.

The tension was high and the sun was settling over the horizon, and their captain was appealing for light from the side line. We were only an over away from completion. Semonn was given the ball to break the partnership and to all our relief, he bowled the batsman out on the 2nd last delivery. It was a great game played in good spirit and everyone bowled well. Aaron Hawkins with 3- 25, Staton Tam 2-25, Simonne Oleksyn 2-29. 1 wicket each for Mat Marsden and Rahul Machella. t was a good, tough start to the season.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 259 defeated WPHC Red 197 – Nikki O’Meara and Matt Rashleigh started well, but opposing them was about a hundred years of cricketing experience in the Red’s opening pair who batted extremely well to take the score along nicely. Buzz Burrows figured it was time to change the pace a bit and he managed to snare the first breakthrough. Excellent spells of spin from Shankar Ravi and Riley Behlevanas had the batsmen working hard for their runs but there was quality in this opposition and they maintained steady progress.

Shankar broke through with a great ball (and even better catch behind from Joel Behlevanas) to dismiss Patto, and Riley snuck his fast ball past Andrew to claim his wicket. At tea it was still anyone’s game, but a then came a great spell from Dave Behlevanas where he picked up 3 vital wickets (including his 100th for the club!). Rashers cleaned up another 2 wickets to leave the last pair, who took on Nikki’s arm only to be caught short with a run out finishing off a strong effort in the field.

From the Reds perspective, this was a fantastic way to start the main season, just a shame there could only be one team take the points.

Chasing 260 for victory, our openers got us off to a great start. Ian Paterson (56) and Ross Anderson (24) saw off the Blues opening bowlers and worked their way to a 78 run opening stand. Richard Hughes (33) and Joel Herzog (37) played some fantastic shots to put us in to a great position at 4/171.
Unfortunately a lower order collapse saw us all out for 197. With a great variety in our bowling attack and a strong top order we will look to give the competition a shake.

The match was a great way to start the season. Both WPHC teams played the game in great spirits and were able to share a few beers back at the club after a great day’s play.

C3 Grade

WPHC 79 and 144 lost outright to Berowra 8/167 – playing at Campbell Park we were sent out to bat first after losing the toss we were all out for 79, we had a batting collapse with Zach Turner the standout with 37. Berowra replied with 167/ 8 we have some good bowling from Tarun Lath 3 wickets, Sreeni Pillamarri 2 wickets , Ben Waldron , Ryan Loveridge & Dean Carlin 1wicket each.

As Berowra resumed their innings on 8-167 , Amith Ninan made the breakthroughs, dismissing the last of the their batsman after bowling for 5 overs. sent out to bat for second innings we again had a batting collapse with fall of wickets at equal intervals, we needed a steady partnership which didnot happen till the last wicket came in the form of Amit Ninan and stood there with Perry Waldon and Perry was our star batsman who made 47 not out, which made Berowra to bat again.

its early days for the team, after the game we had lot of learnings to take and did brain storming between us to see what went wrong and where we were lacking as a team, after the discussion we understood from here we would move up the ladder.

D1 Grade

WPHC 247 defeated Kissing Point 121 & 3/117 – after an excellent performance in the previous week with 247 on the board and the opposition being 16/3, spirits were high as we were almost certain of winning the game.

The day started off with a good steady pace attack by Daniel and Pavel. The first wicket came in the form a run out with Captain Steve fielding and an excellent gather by keeper, Will. Pavel then proceeded to get us our 5th wicket, with a clean bowled. This was followed by 4 wickets from Ishaan, wrapping up the opposition’s innings and leaving them 120 runs behind their target.

The follow-on was enforced and Chris and Daniel were our opening bowlers. Daniel picked up the first wicket by uprooting the off-stump, followed by an excellent catch by Will at point, off Steve’s bowling and a wicket for Will himself trapping the batsman in front to end the day shortly after that, with 117/3.

All in all, a good day for us with insights into areas of improvement and areas of strength. Some good fielding as a unit helped us maintain pressure and hold onto catches and getting the run outs.

D2 Grade

WPHC 129 lost to Kissing Point 2/27 – Day 2 and we had to keep Kissing Point to less than 103 runs over the entire day. Unfortunately, we didn’t achieve that objective but it took Kissing Point some 77 overs in total to reach 137 runs. Our bowlers managed to bowl 26 maiden overs. The best bowler was Asees Rajput with 3 for 21 off 12 over, Thiru Pukazhenthi with 1 for 11 runs off 9 overs and Dinal Silva with 1 for 12 runs off 13 overs.

There was half a dozen dropped catches and at least that many balls just missing the stumps from other bowlers. Our luck was not there but we did take 6 wickets. A very disciplined effort in relation to the bowling and if we had had a further 30 runs things might have been different. So some very good positives to come out of the match, especially in relation to the bowling.