Headline achievements

• In the Seniors we won 7 of our 10 games including each of our top 5 Grades
• Best performances were from:
  • Top score of the Round was Josh Mathias (A1) with 69
  • Josh Banner (B1) followed up his ton last week with a classy 66*
  • 3 of our bowlers figured in the top 5 performances across the Association on the weekend. Well done to:
    • Tim Worthington 4/27 (C2 Blue)
    • Dean Carlin 3/6 (C3 Grade)
    • Calvin Breytenbach 3/8 (B1)
    • Nikki O’Meara 3/15 (C2 Blue) had the 8^th best bowling performance in the Association.

A1 Grade

WPHC 165 defeated Glenorie 8/160 – Skipper Jamaican continued his good form of achieving the favourable outcome at the toss as we were sent in to bat. Philthy Phil Wurth inspired the lads by stating “why would I respect the bowler if I don’t respect myself” (P.K. Wurth 2017). From then on the game never looked in doubt. The batting was slow and steady but that was the plan from the outset as Kenthurst hadn’t been mowed for a while. There we’re small contributions across the board but the standout was Yoyo Mathias who scored a marvellous 69 despite battling a severe lack of fitness. Bonga Miedler again showed how hard he has been working in the nets with a classy 25. We managed to make 165 which was well above par.

The bowling started well with all the bowlers bowling straight as they were instructed too. Fielding was very tough in the conditions but the boys showed the class that they possess as we managed to have only 1 (maxim) dropped catch. Our bowlers toiled hard to help keep Galston Glenorie to 6 runs shy of their required total. Wickets were shared between Bonga, Jobbo, JP and Darsh Vader. Another great win by the team as we look to consolidate our spot in the top 2.

A2 Grade

WPHC 2/112 defeated Mt Colah 111 – a hot day greeted us at Hayes Park, as we faced top of the table, Mt Colah. Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth was primed to win his 4th toss in a row, but as sure as night follows day, the hot day meant he lost it, and we were asked to bowl.

A solid start saw Snumpty take the first wicket, with a James ‘Jimmy Mc’ McBrien catch. The game then turned our way, with the introduction of spin. Andrew ‘Fernie’ Meikle (3/25) and Daniel ‘Fish’ Costigan (1/12) bowled 16 straight overs, to not only rip through Mt Colah’s top order, but also make it extremely tough for them to score runs. This was followed up by Allan ‘Raffa’ Raffel’s offies, taking 2/8, Luke ‘Gandis’ Herzog (2/18), and a debut A2 wicket to Andrew ‘Watties’ Watt.

A brilliant effort, to restrict last season’s premiers to being all out for 111. Catches were taken by Alex ‘Robbo’ Robertson (2), Jimmy, Alex ‘Hooch’ Turner, Matheesha ‘Tux’ Gunaratne and Fish. Hooch brilliantly was involved in the last wicket with an opportunist stumping off Gandis. Mt Colah were bowled out for 111. Robbo, Jimmy Mc, Fernie and Anuj ‘Nuja’ Dhorajiwala starred in the field, with catches taken by Fish and Robbo being spectacular.

Chasing a low total, a good start would ensure us a win, and Jimmy Mc and Raffa got us away with a 49 run opening stand. Tux then joined Jimmy Mc to continue our momentum, before Robbo (17*) helped Jimmy Mc (56* with 6 x 4’s and 2 x 6’s) getting us home in the 26th over. Jimmy Mc was superb with the bat, pulling, sweeping and driving the Mt Colah attack beautifully.

An outstanding win against the top placed team, and one which stretches our gap above 4th.

B1 Grade

WPHC 4/137 defeated Kissing Point 134 – we finally had a toss win and chose to bowl first on a terrible Bannockburn Oval. We consistently got wickets throughout the innings, with Kissing Point being at 5/80 at the 20 over drinks break. With only, 9 wickets to get total, we rolled through them for 134.

Stars with the ball included “50 Cal” Breytenbach (3/8), “Twister” Mistry (2/14) and Ashane “Heyyyyy Maaaaatttteeeee” De Silva (2/25). Special mention to “Hot Balls” McBrien who was ‘too hot’ and decided to bowl spin for 3 overs – his final figures were 0/41. He won’t be bowling spin in a game for a while.

None the less, we steadily chased the runs with Calvin again being the star of the day opening the batting and scoring 27. This was a great start to our innings to which “Jabber” Josh Andrew Banner scoring an unbeaten 66 to see us to the end. We are in a solid 2nd position on the ladder, and up against Glenorie District next week.

B2 Grade

WPHC 2/93 defeated Glenorie 91 – things returned to normal today at a hot and steamy Greenway Oval. Captain (Rick ‘Flair’ Turner) lost the toss again (after last week’s aberration where he actually won a toss). The Glenorie captain had no hesitation in deciding to bat. Bailey Meidler and Peter Flook opened the bowling and kept things tight as per usual and Bailey snagged himself a wicket in the 6^th over.

Once again the change of bowlers did the trick and debutant Doug Bennie and Taki Manolelis wreaked some havoc on the Glenorie line-up taking regular wickets. Flair grabbed himself a pole to force and early drinks break and Glenorie were in a bit of trouble at 7/54. Glenorie showed some more grit after the break and edged along before Taki and Ravin cleaned up the remaining batsmen. Glenorie were all out for 91 (off 29.5 overs). Best of our bowlers Taki 4/17 (8), Ravin 2/0 (0.5), Doug Bennie 2/29 (4), Bailey 1/5 (4) and Flair 1/24 (6).

Our innings went along at a canter (other than Aaron Carlini being dropped first ball of the innings – which would prove to be costly for Glenorie). Aaron was eventually dismissed in the 16^th over (1/57) and we went to drinks at 1/74 and cruising. Michael Gunn, Willy and Ben Meikle got the runs in 24 overs with Willy the other batsman to lose his wicket just before the game was over.

We finished 2/93 off 24 overs for a very comfortable win. Best of our batting Aaron Carlini 44, Michael Gunn 20*, Willy 14 and Ben Meikle 11*. This was an easy win and cements our spot on top of the table with a crucial 1v2 match next game. This was another good all round performance from the boys.

C1 Grade

WPHC 2/138 defeated Mt Colah 7/130 – like most teams playing in today’s scorcher, we were keen to win a toss and have a bat, but alas, the coin fell the wrong way and we headed out to bowl in the heat. Most of our bowlers bowled in short 3-4 over spells early, but it took us until the 18^th over to make our first breakthrough, thanks to an LBW to Stanton Tam (2/21).

Unfortunately our hands let us down again, and we put down way too many chances – perhaps not reaching the dozen like last week, but we got close. At least 6 chances were missed off Kishore alone (0/22) who could only lament at the end of his spell that “it’s not my day”.

Nonetheless, our bowlers toiled away relentlessly, and we managed to restrict Mt Colah to just 130 off their 40 overs. Semonn Oleksyn finished with the best figures of 3/21 and Aaron Hawkins also took a wicket finishing with a well-deserved 1/12.

We took the opportunity to shuffle our batting line-up today, and gave Nathan Fathers a chance to get some form. He did exactly that, scoring a hard-hitting 35. Stanton Tam was cramping up badly in both legs, but managed to bat through the innings to finish on 46* (running between the wickets like Robocop).

Matt Watts, playing his first game of the year after finishing his HSC, batted superbly for 38* and we were able to finish the game with almost 5 overs to spare. This win leaves us in top spot coming into the home straight. Hopefully our catching can improve and we won’t have to score so many runs next time.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 99 lost to Berowra 124 – winning the toss we sent the Opposition in determined to keep to our game plan of bowling tightly to create pressure. A good opening spell from Nikki and Rashers did just that. Buzz picked up a couple of quick wickets (2/11) and further tight stuff from Dave B and some good fielding kept us on track. The ‘Finisher’ Tim Worthington (4/27) and Nikki (3/15) bowled excellent spells and cleaned up the rest. At the halfway point we had executed the plan well to restrict Berowra to only 124.

Unfortunately our batting didn’t follow the game plan, and after losing a wicket in the first over we struggled to be 4/28 and then only 4/40 odd at the break. Some sensible batting from Adrian Chau (19) and Joel B (21) kept us in the running, but a couple of run outs – including one to dismiss Dave when he sickeningly went down with a torn calf muscle halfway down the pitch – meant the chase got beyond us, finishing all out 99. On to next round where we will look to rectify our batting discipline and get back in the win column.

WPHC Red 84 lost to Kissing Point 2/85 – match report to follow for this big game to keep us in the Finals race. We rocked up to Annangrove that had been cut high and scoring runs along the deck was hard. Unfortunately we have a Team of ground hitters, Joel and exception and struggled to get value for runs. Best for us was a hard fought 19 from Gunny. Losing Joel was a big turning point after his amazing 147 last week with everyone struggling with the slow conditions. .

Our turn to bowl and after having them 2/2 off the first 2 overs (on each to Nathaniel Chidgey and Brent Larkham) it went downhill from there. They had a couple of hitters come in who played an aerial game and then got the runs in 17 overs. At least this saved us from staying out in the 39 degree heat.

C3 Grade

WPHC 6/204 defeated Kissing Point 9/75 – it was an absolute scorcher at Auluba Oval as most of our team members met each other after a new year and Christmas break.

We went on the lose the toss (again) but had the opportunity to bat first which is what we were intending to do if we had the toss go in our favor. We started our innings with a couple of early wickets and were reduced to 3/49. Another collapse just seemed incoming after the last two in consecutive games. This however paved way for a game changing partnership of 100 runs between captain Tarun (64) and veteran Perry (50*), which placed us in the driver’s seat. Rommel whacked the final runs scoring a quick 35 to finish on a high note with 204 on board.

The chase wasn’t going to be easy for the Opposition. After toiling in the heat and asking rate of above 5 an over with a bowling attack as potent as ours was a huge challenge. Our bowlers could also do no wrong with Dean Carlin bagging 3 wickets in his first and only spell and Zac contributing with the first wicket of the innings. Ishaan and Rommel both cashed in with 2 wickets each, followed by a wicket each for Asees and Perry to wrap things up. The opposition has only managed a modest 75, not even half the target.

There were obviously a lot of positives including some excellent bowling, middle order batting and finishing. However, having 200+ on the board gave us a sense of security in our bowling innings which translated in some sloppy catching and a couple of misfields. Top order batting is still a concern despite a rock-solid middle order. Overall a great game of cricket and we look forward to our upcoming challenges.

D1 Grade

WPHC 125 lost to ARL 8/185 – we won the toss and elected to bowl first. Extremely high temperatures and humid bowling first was a tough call. Boys did a great job till the first drinks break after drinks break we gave away too many runs which cost us the match.

D2 Grade

WPHC 108 defeated Hornsby 105 – Hornsby won the toss and elected to bat first. The day was very humid and the temperature was extremely high at Campbell Park. We have been at the bottom of the table and were playing the second team who had just defeated the first team the week before. We actually bowled 11 players in this match which must be a record. Hornsby lost their first wicket at 5 runs through a very good spell from Gian Gill a U16 year old. Gian hasn’t played for 6 months due to surgery. This was his first outing and he bowled superbly.

John Rose took the next two wickets. He bowled Hornsby’s second best scorer on 20 runs and Siby Joseph caught the second in slips. This catch was handled three times before being secured by Siby. Hornsby was 3 for 31 runs. Hornsby then tried to consolidate but Thiru Pukazanthi bowled the fourth wicket at 44 runs. Hornsby managed to hit a further 41 runs before losing their fifth and sixth wickets at 85 and 86 runs respectively via Brent Van Wcz with a run out and catch by Ben Kinchington who was wicket keeping.

Gian Gill then took the seventh wicket at 97. Ben Kinchington bowled out the eight wicket at 98 runs. Hornsby’s captain was bowled out by John Rose with a caught behind through the wicket keeper with their score on 98 still. Simon Friend came in to bowl his ‘Warnie’ specials with his third ball was hit to long off to Captain Mike who hit the leg stump from 15 metres away causing Hornsby to be all out for 105 runs in their 40th over.

Our best bowling figures were 3 wickets for 9 runs off 7 overs from John Rose and 2 wickets for 6 runs off 5 overs from Gian Gill. Note that Brent Van Wcz took 1 wicket for 11 runs off 4 overs even though he has not played cricket for 25 years.

Our turn to bat with Ben Kinchington hitting 48 runs and Gian Gill hitting 46 runs and wimmimg the game in 32 overs without loss. An excellent result and very pleasing to see the Openers not only hit substantial runs but also taking a very sensible approach to their batting. This was probably our best bowling and batting effort this season and took place when we most needed it. The fielding was excellent and the 2 run outs testify to that. Well done team.

Points table

After 10 Rounds we have 7 Teams in the top 4 with 2 Teams leading the Comp:

• A1                   2^nd
• A2                   3^rd
• B1                    2^nd
• B2                    1^st
• C1                    1^st
• C2 Blue           6^th
• C2 Red            7^th
• C3                    2^nd
• D1                   3^rd
• D2                   5^th

Elite performers

Our website has the latest stats on our Top Performers this season. We only use Seniors stats as with Juniors we promote Participation over Results.

The following information is on our top fielding performances as at the end of Round 10:

Top 5 fielders

1. Riley Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 14 (plus 2 w/k)
2. Tarun Lath (C3) – 13 catches
3. Stanton Tam (C1) – 11
4. Luke Herzog (A2) – 8
5. Brent Larkham (C2) – 8
6. Justin Edwards (B1) – 8
7. Ryan Loveridge (C3) – 8

Top 3 wicket-keepers

1. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 12 catches + 2 stumpings
2. Nick Bennett (A1) – 12 catches
3. Gautam Ayyar (C3) – 11 catches (plus 4 as a non-keeper).