Headline achievements

Day 2 of Round 13that was reduced to a 1-dayer. Not a lot to call out this week as all games were hailed out due to an afternoon storm but there were some good performances:

• Kyle Faber (B1) score 92 not out)
• Dean Carlin (C3) took his 99^th wicket
• Dylan Bish (D1) – 3/9.

A1 Grade

WPHC 0/40 drew with St Ives 60 – the day started well with jimmy the skip Makin Jamaican winning the toss and electing to bowl. The bowlers started very well until the unthinkable happened, Tim “buckets” Scoular dropped an absolute sitter of his own bowling. Thankfully he redeemed himself with a successful attempt that same over. From then on our blowers never looked like getting hit for more than 65 runs. They toiled hard to restrict St Ives to 60 all out. All bowlers managed to snag a few poles each but the standout was fill in Richard “rich” Makin. He took 3 wickets as he passed 200 wickets for the club.

The batting started very well with Philthy and Jamaican smoking them around park. The win never looked in doubt until the heavens opened up. When it rains it is hard to play cricket so the match ended in a draw. It was a mental win for the lads, 2nd place is wrapped up so all eyes are to next week as we look to finish the home and away season with a solid performance.

A2 Grade

WPHC drew with SKLPS 175 – playing the 4th place SKLPS, and with the winner likely to lock in 3rd spot, we lost the toss, and were asked to bowl. It was noticeable that we hadn’t been in the field for 4 weeks, as our start wasn’t as sharp as our normal high standards. At drinks, SKLPS were 1/95.

We then set into gear. Our bowling improved, and our fielding created pressure. We took 9/80 in 17.3 overs, bowling SKLPS out for 175. Andy ‘Fernie’ Meikle was the star, taking 3/24 off 8 overs, including 3 maidens. He also took 3 catches and was involved in a run out. Rowan ’23’ Keating returned to action to snare 3/32, with 1 apiece to Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards, Dan ‘Fish’ Costigan and Dale ‘Alphadutch’ Van den Boogaard (who took his first A2 wicket). Catches were taken by Riley ‘Cramps’ Behlevanas (2), Lichaaa and Fish.

Unfortunately, the hail set in, and our innings never got underway. However, it was nice to blow the cobwebs out in the field, and we will take tremendous momentum out of the as we fought back with the ball and in the field.

B1 Grade

WPHC 220 drew with Glenorie – it was a big 2^nd play 4th (Glenorie) game this week and we conveniently were sent in to bat, knowing that it was going to rain sooner or later. Before the skies raised hell, we were off to an excellent start, with a quick 4/121 off the first 20 overs. In that first session, Michael ‘Volcano’ Banner (31), Ashane ‘A-Train’ De Silva (32) and a returning Ross ‘Forest’ Holdman (28 off 13 balls), destroyed the opposition bowlers. Even though we were 4 down, we still had plenty of batting to come, but didn’t utilise anyone else from here until the 37th over where the game was abandoned.

We set 220 as par earlier in the day, and were well on our way there, with Kyle ‘Krusty’ Faber already well-in, and Daniel ‘Clover’ Fiedler slowly getting into his innings, we were going to put on a big total for Glenorie to chase. Fabs was just too good for their bowlers, hitting boundary after boundary to both the pace bowlers and the spinners. We ended up on 5/214 after 38 overs. Fids got out for 27 on the last ball before before Josh ‘Chicken’ Banner (umpiring at square leg), decided he’d seen “lightning a mile away” once, then claiming he saw it again but “wasn’t quite sure”.

In the end, it was Josh who ended Kyle’s amazing innings on 92 not out. The best performance of the year from Kyle who was devastated when he found out how close he was. Better luck next game against table leaders Hornsby District, where the outcome will determine who wins the minor premiership.

B2 Grade

WPHC 127 drew with ARL – match report to come.

C1 Grade

WPHC 1/26 drew with St Ives 118 – we knew we would need a bit of a blessing from the weather gods to get a full game in, but it wasn’t to be. St Ives won the toss & batted, and made a solid start, reaching 30 in the 10^th over before we were able to take our first wicket via a super catch by Semonn Oleksyn off Eric Junkkari.

Wickets became a bit harder to come by for while and St Ives were able to reach a solid platform of 2/107 by the 28^th over, and it looked like we would have some chasing to do. However, our quick bowlers took the upper hand with Semonn (1/7) then Aaron Hawkins (2/15) and finally Mat Marsden (2/4) turning things our way with some full & straight bowling to finish off St Ives’ innings for 118 in the 35^th over.

We did our Duckworth-Lewis calcs and realised if we could manage 70-odd in 20 overs we would have a win if the heavens opened, but we weren’t expecting to get that many overs in. A more realistic target was to just knock the runs over as quickly as we could. We only got 2.3 overs in when the deluge started having raced to 1/26. Alas, one that got away, but we wouldn’t be the only ones in such a position this week. This result leaves us in 1^st position needing a win next week to seal the minor premiership.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue Vs Hornsby –

Position in Comp – 38 points (7^th position and 10 points off 4^th place).

WPHC Red 6/147 drew with St Ives – the day got off to the right start with Naps winning the toss and sending the opposition into the field. We lost our first wicket in the 2nd over, but Ryan Gunn (17) and Joel Herzog (17) knuckled down to see off the opening bowlers. At 3/47 Andrew Morris (44) was joined by his son Zac(28) in the middle.

The pair put on a 70 run partnership that included some power hitting, but most impressive was the running between the wickets. With 147 on the board, we were confident we had a total we could defend. Unfortunately at the change of innings the weather hit. The huge down poor and plenty of hail left the ground unplayable.

C3 Grade

WPHC 107 drew with St Ives 1/10 – lost another toss and did what we wanted to do anyway, bat first. We started ok and were 3/56 after first drinks break. Zac Turner’s wicket was turning point in the innings just after drinks, Zac being highest scorer for the team today with well compiled 26 against some disciplined bowling from St. Ives bowlers. Perry Waldron tried to push scoring a bit but we lost our way in the innings after Perry was run out. From 4/79 we were all out for 107 into 34th over, last 6 wickets yielding just 28 runs.

Dean got first breakthrough (his 99th wicket for the club) before thunderstorms stopped play after just 2 overs. Even though one side of pitch was completely under water, the Opposition refused to call it off. We passed time with some hot yummy gourmet Pizza’s, thanks to Rommel Pandey. We waited till 5.15 pm before more rain came and match was finally called off.

D1 Grade

WPHC 0/22 drew with Berowra 7/84 – winning the toss we put Berowra in to bat. We were on top early but took 12 overs to get the first wicket after Amith Ninan (2/13) joined the bowling crease and Berowra made it to the break 1/35.

In the 27th over Dylan Bish (3/9) clean bowled 3 batsmen to have the opposition 4/50. Next a caught and bowled to Roger Friend (1/10) & a wicket to Raunak Sethi (1/8) had them 6/58. Prior to end of innings Amith Ninan took another and Berowra finished on 84.

In reply, we faced 1 ball until lightning and thunder interrupted play and we resumed 30mins later. We ended up being 0 for 22 with Pratah Sinnetamby and Cody Waters at the crease before the heavens opened and the game was called.

Disappointing not to get a result in this round against last placed Berowra but severe weather played a part both weeks. Some terrific bowling in the last two rounds has built confidence leading into the finals. We now play top of the table St Ives in the last round.

D2 Grade

WPHC drew with Castle Hill RSL 158 – we arrived at Francesco Crescent Reserve, Bella Vista  with the weather forecast to be storms and rain in the afternoon. This field is a large field with unusual shaped boundaries.

The Castle Hill team are known to be big hitters and we lost the toss with them electing to bat. The ground was somewhat soft but quite dry. The Openers hit 30 runs before Captain Mike managed to hit the stumps from long off position getting the Castle Hill Captain run out. The next wicket didn’t fall until 58 runs with John Rose bowling out their third batsmen in the seventh over.

At this stage we were keen to keep things contained after getting 2 wickets. Our bowlers then put in a fine effort to take 4 more wickets with Castle Hill now losing 6 wickets for 80 after 14 overs.

Castle Hill’s best batsman then decided to open out as he was losing partners. He eventually went on to hit 96 runs but was caught off Brent Van Wck’s bowling by Roshan Withanage at gully. We managed to bowl them out for 158 after 32 overs with a slightly long tail who just blocked every ball. We bowled 10 players. Our best bowler was Captain Mike who took 3 for 16 runs off 6 overs plus a run out, followed by Roshan Withanage with 2 for 21 off 4 overs and John Rose who took 2 for 13 off 4 overs.

Then the rains came followed by lightning and thunder with hail. You could hardly see the pitch which was in darkness. Both sides agreed that a drawn would be the sensible ending. This means that we should reach the semi-finals.

Points table

After 13 Rounds we now have 8 Teams in the top 4 with 2 Teams leading the Comp:

• A1                   2^nd
• A2                   3^rd
• B1                    2^nd
• B2                    2^nd
• C1                    1^st
• C2 Blue           7^th
• C2 Red            6^th
• C3                    1^st
• D1                   4^th
• D2                   =3^rd

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 13:

Top 5 fielders

1. Riley Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 19 (plus 2 w/k)
2. Tarun Lath (C3) – 15 catches
3. Stanton Tam (C1) – 13
4. James McBrien (A2) – 10
5. Steve Quanborough (D1) – 9
6. Tis Mistry (B1) – 9

Top 3 wicket-keepers

1. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 15 catches + 2 stumpings + 1 as a non-keeper
2. Gautam Ayyar (C3) – 15 catches + 4 as a non-keeper
3. Nick Bennett (A1) – 14 catches.