Headline achievements

• Day 1 of the 2 day games have started that will take up through to the season conclusion, for the normal season on Saturday 4^th March 2017.
• Best performances were from:
  • Eric Junkkari (C1) took 3 wickets to bring him up to a massive 450 – only the 5^thplayer in our history to reach this landmark.
  • Matt Jobson (A1) took two wickets to bring him to 300 career wickets to be number 11 on the list of all-time wicket-takers and the youngest player in our history to reach 300 wickets.
  • Top score of the Round was Dylan Bish (D1) with 76 runs.
  • In partnership with Raunak Sethi the boys also broke the previous D1 9^th wicket partnership record of 103 and just missed out by 2 runs on a new Association record.
  • Best bowlers were:
    • Ishaan Singh 4/23 (C3)
    • Nathaniel Chidgey 4/23 (C2 Red) from 18 overs
    • Ryan Loveridge 4/34 (C3)
    • Nikki O’Meara 4/53 (C2 Blue) figured in the Association top achievers.

A1 Grade

WPHC 1/38 Vs ARL 118 – the lads turned up to the Glade for a 2 Vs 8 match-up, pumped for the day after hearing that superstar all rounder Scott Hendo Henderson was making a return after a few weeks at work. The day started well with skipper Jimmy winning the toss and electing to bowl. It was a long slog early on with the ARL batsmen dead batting everything that came their way.

We struggled to take wickets at regular intervals but we managed to restrict the run rate, which was our main goal on the slow outfield. The fielding was solid with the exception of 1 dropped catch from Yoyo Mathias. There were also some questionable dives from Philthy Phil and Fat Fatman but they tried hard all day. Bonga Miedler didn’t have his best day in the field but managed to make it up with bowling figures of 2-25. Jobbo Jobson bowled tight with figures of 2/15 of 13 (5 no balls). Hendo bowled quick and accurate on his way to figures of 2-28. Mobbo managed to find the pitch as he snared 2 wickets also. Yoyo also chipped in with a wicket and made up for his dropped catch with a successful attempt at a catch. It was a good day in the field as we rolled ARL for 118.

Jamaican and Philthy Wurth got us off to a good start before Jimmy was unluckily dismissed not long before stumps. Yoyo and Philthy are at the crease overnight as we still require a further 85 runs to lock up the 6 points. Strong fighting performance from the boys today to help keep us in the hunt for the minor premiership.

A2 Grade

WPHC Vs Kenthurst 235 – back to 2-Day games, and after toppling the top of the table Mt Colah last week, we were faced with Kenthurst, who now sit in first position. Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth won the toss, and we decided to bowl.

The day started well, with a slow Snumpty full toss getting hit back to him first ball of the game, for a caught and bowled. Kenthurst were 2/9 when Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards got an edge to Daniel ‘Fish’ Costigan at slip, but from there, Kenthurst were able to build some partnerships through the top and middle order. At tea, we had bowled tightly, having Kenthurst 4/88 off 49, which turned to 5/170, at the 5pm drinks break. We then showed great character, to take 5 wickets in the last hour, to bowl Kenthurst out for 235.

Our bowlers did a wonderful job, especially given the hamstring injury to Snumpty in the 7th over of the day, which left us a bowler short. Andrew ‘Fernie’ Meikle and Fish took 3 poles each, with Luke ‘Gandis’ Herzog taking 2, and Lichaaa and Snumpty 1 each. Alex ‘Hooch’ Turner was super behind the stumps, and our ground fielding remained solid all day, lead by Anuj ‘Nuja’ Dhorajiwala, Matheesha ‘Tux’ Gunaratne, Allan ‘Raffa’ Raffel and Alex ‘Robbo’ Robertson. Catches were taken by Snumpty (4), James ‘Jimmy Mc’ McBrien (2), Hooch, Lichaaa and Fish.

235 is a score that we are more than capable of chasing down, and will be a nice test against a good team.

B1 Grade

WPHC 7/221 Vs Kenthurst – we won the toss for the second week in a row, choosing to bat as you should on a recently mowed Les Shore Reserve 2 (the bottom oval). Both Banner’s opened the batting with a solid opening partnership which was unfortunately cut short due to Volc hitting the ball into his face. Volc went down straight away and knew he was in a bad condition – he was hit between the mouth and nose, causing bleeding and swelling straight away. He retired hurt on 50* and we went on from there.

Josh Banner continued his excellent run of form with 32, as well as Kyle Faber getting out on his usual solid 20 runs. Calvin, our leading wicket taker (tying with Justin) also showed how good he is with the bat with 46. Ashane also scored what can only be considered his worst performance of the year with 30 runs. Hollywood was a great help at the end with 17 and with a final performance of 7/221, we are looking good for next week.

Special mention to Cam “Hot Balls” McBrien who achieved his highest score of the year with an unbeaten 12.

B2 Grade

WPHC 97 Vs SKLPS 1/13 – today we were playing at Gilroy College and the grass was very long (at least ankle high all over the ground and higher in some parts) making the ground very slow. As has been the case all season Captain (Rick ‘Flair’ Turner) lost the toss again (that is 10 toss losses this season) and the SKLPS captain had no hesitation in deciding to bowl.

We lost a couple of early wickets and a combination of disciplined bowling, the extra slow ground and good field placement meant we crept along and were 2/20 at the 20 over drinks break. Dinesh De Silva lit up the game albeit briefly with a sparkling 37 (including 3×6’s and 3×4’s) deciding that the aerial route was the only way we were going to score any runs.

After Dinesh was out the game returned to the previous slow pattern. At the tea break we were 4/66 (off 39 overs). We chipped away and were finally dismissed off 62.2 overs for 97. Best of our batting Dinesh De Silva 37 and Chris Williamson 26.

We had 10 overs at the SKPLS and managed to take a wicket which fell to Koby O’Meara. At the end of the days play SKLPS are 1/13. If the ground remains in the same condition and we bowl and field well we are right in this game.

C1 Grade

WPHC 3/108 defeated Lankan Islanders 89 – we were looking forward to our first (& only) game this season at our spiritual home, Greenway, but yet again the coin came up tails and we were forced to bowl first (doesn’t tails always fail?).  Kyle Townsend and Ben O’Meara bowled tight and troublesome opening spells at the Islanders’ batsmen before Kyle (3/28) broke the game open taking 2 wickets in his 6th over to leave them at 3/23.  Unfortunately he missed his chance at a hat trick, even though most players wore their hats inside out (except M. Marsden, who can probably be held responsible).

The introduction of Semonn ‘Monster’ Oleksyn into the attack had the middle order hopping all around the place as he extracted pace & bounce at times off a pretty docile track.  He crashed through the middle order taking 3/20 in a hostile 9 over spell.  Eric Junkkari was introduced and mopped up the tail to claim the best figures of the day of 3/3.

We had 32 overs to wrap up 1st innings points and despite the loss of 2 early wickets, Mat Marsden (49*) and Eric (42) made short work of the run chase, as they put on a chanceless 98 run partnership.  We will look for quick runs next week and see if we can push for an outright result which may seal the minor premiership for us.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue Vs St Ives 7/255 – sending the Opposition in on another very slow Glenhaven outfield, things started well with Nikki picking up a wicket in the first over. He and Rashy bowled a great opening spell with Rashy collecting the 2nd wicket to have them 2/16 in the 12th. Dean Carlin filling in from C3 started in amazing fashion with a ripper off cutter to collect the next wicket with the first ball of his spell – 3/30.

Then a solid partnership of 162 off the next 42 overs kept us working hard! There was continued good spells of bowling from Dean, Olly, Raghu, Tim and Shankar, but we grassed half a dozen chances during this time which meant we didn’t capitalise on the good bowling.

Another fantastic spell from Rash where he continuously beat the bat and made the set batsmen look all at sea was rewarded at the other end when Nikki got the breakthrough and continued to bowl well to clean up another few wickets. Olly Mayberry applied pressure in his second spell and was rewarded with a wicket, and at the end of play We had them 7/255. Nikki 4/53, Rash 1/50, Dean 1/34 & Olly 1/23 being the wicket takers.

Apart from the dropped catches, an excellent effort against the top placed team – it remains to be seen if they bat on, but either way we are right in this game!

WPHC Red Vs Kenthurst 153 – bowling first on a slow looking Kenthurst, we knew runs would be hard to come by. We needed to bowl well and use the outfield to restrict runs and build pressure. Brent Larkham (2/21) got the first breakthrough in the 7th over.

The opposition batsmen dug in and didn’t give away any chances! Nathaniel Chidgey came in for is second spell, and took out the off stump first ball. Nathaniel bowled beautifully all day against a team that were just looking to stick around! Nathaniel finished with 4/23 across his 4 spells.

On a day of slow cricket we still managed to keep our concentration in the field. Ross Anderson took a sharp catch in Gully. While Ryan Gunn put on a great display, with 2 fine catches and a cracking direct hit runout! A long day in the field, but we got the first part of the job done before the end of the day’s play. Now to finish it off next week with the bat.

C3 Grade

WPHC Vs Kenthurst 194 – with only a handful of matches left in the regular season the boys were determined to put in a strong performance to secure a finals birth. After losing the toss and bowling we still had aspirations of batting in the first week.

A slow first session with only one breakthrough, a run out from our young talent Ben was not our ideal start however we knew as the day went on more chances would be given. After deciding a change of pace was required after drinks, Ishan Singh our spin protégée, came in to the attack by taking 2 wickets in quick succession and another 2 later in his spell to end up with figures of 4-21 off 11 overs.

At tea with the game seeming reasonably balanced at the boys were determined to make something happen and make something happen so we did. Ryan Loveridge, our opening bowler came back for a second spell and took 3 wickets in his first 2 overs and one more after that with some unplayable deliveries and wrestled momentum back in our favour.

He ended with impressive figures of 4/34. We finished the game with another run out in the 55th over giving us 17 overs to bat and 194 runs to chase in the innings. Our solid openers Perry Waldron and Zac Turner batted together for the first 15 overs until Perry was dismissed on 22. Asses and Zac faced the final deliveries Zac finishing on an unbeaten 21. Finishing on 1/54 we considered the day a success and we are ready to finish the job next week.

D1 Grade

WPHC 231 Vs Kissing Point – losing the toss we had a bat hoping to turn around our season fortunes after losing 4 of the last 5 games. After 14 overs we had slumped to 4/22 with our top 3 run scorers for the season in the sheds. Steve Quanborough (16), Sreeni Pllamarri (10) and Amit Sen (23) then occupied the crease up until tea where we were 6/90 off a whopping 44 overs and Mr Xtras sitting in the 30s.

A couple of wickets fell after the break to be 8 for 107 with Raunak Sethi joining Dylan Bish in the middle. What followed was enjoyable to watch with the pair putting on a 117 for a 9th wicket stand in 26 overs Dylan taking charge with his career highest score of 76 and Raunak not to be out done with his highest ever score of 25*. Over the partnership duration the field set by the opposition changed from super attacking to half on the boundary.

To put the scores in context both scored more runs in these knocks than they had so far all season for D1s. This is a new Club record, D1 9^th wicket partnership beating the previous record of 108 set by Greg Bourke and Dave Behlevanas on 28/9/2013. Ir also just missed the Association record of 118 runs set way back in 2013/04……well done fellas.

We need to bowl very well next week against a strong batting team to get the result but runs on the board…

Thanks also to Parin Pillamarri who scored or umpired the entire 79 overs while his dad Sreeni lounged in his deck chair and Parin wasn’t even playing!!!

D2 Grade

WPHC Vs Kissing Point 7/108 – Cliff Avenue sports ground is a small ground with three short boundaries to the north, south and west. But there was some grass on it and it had rained the previous day. We won the toss and put Kissing Point into bat. They were 4 for 36 after 24 overs. Kissing Point added another 60 runs without loss by the end of 60 overs. We then took another wicket to have them 5 for 100.

Over the next 15 overs were took two more wickets for 8 runs. There was only one dropped catch which was a very difficult one for the wicket keeper who did manage to launch himself sideways to just have it hit his fingertips. The wicket keeping by Thiru Pakazenthi was superb today.

We bowled 10 bowlers today in the 75 completed overs which included 30 maidens. The best bowler was Michael Clipsham who took 2 for 23 off 7 overs. John Rose took 1 wicket for 6 runs off 11 overs with 7 maidens. Giam Gill, Paul Vick, Dinal Silva and John Rose each took a wicket. Giam Gill and

Captain Mike took a catch apiece. Giam’s catch was taken at long fine leg near the boundary with a superb display of athleticism catching the ball one handed with his body in the air. Ben Kinchington got a run out via a long distance throw from the boundary hitting the stumps cleanly. This removed one of two stubborn batters who had been building a partnership during 30 overs in the middle of the game.

Simon Friend bowled some unorthodox ‘bombs away’ balls in his three overs which included two maidens and figures of 0 for 2 runs. His balls went up in the air and landed generally at the feet of the batters who could not do anything with this type of ball. He came close to getting 2 wickets. Simon has decided he is no longer a Dennis Lillee type bowler but rather a Warnie.

A big thank you to Paul and Alexander Vink for helping out today. Paul Vink got 1 wicket for 10 runs off 9 overs of which 5 were maidens. He annoyed most of the batters and was unlucky not to snare more wickets. Hopefully we can clean up the tail next week and get down to batting for a win.

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 Day 1 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. James McBrien (A2) – 10
5. Luke Herzog (A2) – 8
6. Alex Robertson )A2) – 8
7. Brent Larkham (C2) – 8
8. Justin Edwards (B1) – 8
9. Ryan Loveridge (C3) – 8

Top 3 wicket-keepers

1. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 13 catches + 2 stumpings
2. Nick Bennett (A1) – 12 catches
3. Gautam Ayyar (C3) – 12 catches + 4 as a non-keeper.