A1 Grade

WPHC 7/134 Vs Sydney Lions 154 – after our Captain for the day Jobbo lost the toss we were asked to bowl on a hard kenthurst wicket. Riley ‘bonga’ Miedler after just making the first ball started well with an early wicket. The Lions then managed to gain some momentum until JP snagged a pole thanks to some slick keeping from Nick ‘maxim’ Bennett. From then on we manage to hold back the total thanks to some extremely quick bowling from superstar Hendo as well as Jobbo who managed to mop up the tail. Bonga was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets.

We started well with Fat Connell and the pianist Philthy Phil opening the batting. After that we struggled to manage to keep solid partnerships flowing. Fat and the marquee fill in Ranga managed to score 30 odd each in some solid batting supplies. We are now requiring 20 to win with Jobbo and Hendo at the crease with JP and Bonga to come.

A2 Grade

WPHC 174 defeated Castle Hill 48 & 4/54 – a brilliant day’s cricket, which started with Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth winning the toss, and sending Castle Hill RSL in to bat. From there, we asserted our authority on the game, rolling our opponents for 48 in 12.5 overs. Some brilliant catches were taken, with the best being a diving James ‘Jimmy’ McBrien, with an outstretched right hand at mid on. Matheesha ‘Mat’ Gunaratne continued his ball magnet form with 2 catches, with Alex ‘We Need To Give Him A Nickname’ Turner taking his first 2 A2 dismissals behind the stumps, taking the first 2 snares of the game. Catches were also taken by Andy ‘Fernwood’ Meikle, Luke ‘Zog’ Herzog and Tisveer ‘Tis’ Mistry. With the ball, Snumpty took 8/20, and received excellent support from Rowan ‘Keats’ Keating (1/27), who bowled with venom from the other end, picking up Castle Hill RSL’s danger man.

Simon’s 8/20 is just the 37th time a bowler has taken 8 wickets or better in an innings with this last time being achieved by Nick Starr (8/42, B1 in 2012/13) and by Riley Miedler (8/13, A2 in 2012/13). He Simon can snare two more in this match he will become just the 52nd player in our History to achieve this great outcome.

Our turn to bat, and we faced some spirited bowling. Our innings belonged to Michael ‘Mobbo’ Robertson, who blasted a majestic 84, including 8 4’s and a 6, on a large ground. He shared an 89 run partnership with Allan ‘Raffa’ Raffel, to see us pass Castle Hill RSL’s total before tea, only 2 down. A score of 174 gave us a large 1st innings lead, and with time left in the day, we were keen to make early inroads in Castle Hill RSL’s 2nd innings.

Snumpty struck early, through a nice Jimmy catch, with Keats then taking a quick 2 wickets, thanks to a caught and bowled, and another Jimmy catch in close. Zog took our 4th wicket, thanks to a wonderful running catch from Tis. At the end of the day, they are 4/54.

A special thanks to Kyle ‘Also Needs a Nickname’ Townsend, on making his A2 debut. We will look to push quickly for wickets next week, with 10 points within reach

B1 Grade

WPHC 8/298 Vs Sydney Lions – match report to follow.

B2 Grade

WPHC 0/52 Vs Sydney Lions 156 – Sydney Lions won the toss at a lightning fast Greenway Park and had no hesitation in electing to bat. The Lions started off batting conservatively and it wasn’t until the 8th over that we got a break through. We continued to bowl with discipline and good line and length. At the 20 over drinks break the Lions were 3/55. The period between drinks and tea favoured the Lions with a couple of wickets falling but the run rate increasing.

At tea the Lions were 5/110 off 36 overs. After tea we upped the ante and applied more pressure eventually dismissing the lions in 54.3 overs for 156. Best of the bowlers Ben Meikle 4/21, Dinuka Jayasuriya 2/21, Rick Turner 2/36, Anushka De Silva 1/18 an Matt Joliffe 1/4. We came out to bat facing 17 overs to the end of the days play and finished at 0/52 with Aaron Carlini on 39 no and Chris Williamson on 11 no. We are in a good position and with a good batting display next week should bring home a win.

C1 Grade

WPHC Vs Sydney Lions 7/255 – it was one of those strange days with a strong wind and longish grass on the outfield, that we weren’t quite sure what to do if we won the toss – so of course we lost it, and after some deliberation by the opposition captain, we found ourselves bowling.

The Lions’ captain was justified in his decision, as his openers got off to flyer, taking our opening bowlers for 60 runs in the first 8 overs. This set us on the back foot for most of the day. After a few dropped half-chances, we took our first wicket with the score on 92 in the 19th over just before drinks. The break allowed us to regroup, and we were able to bowl much tighter lines from then onward.

From this point, we managed to keep the run rate under 3 runs/over for the rest of the day, but never managed to bowl the Lions out. We bowled with patience and control for most of the day, only to find the Lions batsmen resolute in defence. It was an arm wrestle both teams refused to give an inch for. Best of our bowlers were the impressive Rob Hitchcock 3/30 (off 16 overs) and Semonn ‘Wild Thing’ Oleksyn 3/31 (off 15 overs). It appears the Lions will bat on for more runs next week, so if the outfield is as fast as it was today, the total is well within our reach.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 194 Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee 1/52 – the Blues lost the toss and were asked to bat on what is a hard and fast Thornleigh oval. Joel and Gopy put on an excellent and disciplined partnership of 99 with Gopy contributing 41. We lost Tim and Riley in quick succession before Joel and Ragu saw us comfortable to tea at 3/181 with Joel on the dreaded 99. Shortly after Joel hooked the ball for his maiden seniors century. Joel was dismissed for 104 which included 17 boundaries – our 447th century. What happened thereafter was extraordinary, we lost our remaining 7 wickets for 5 runs to be bundled out for 194.

With 22 overs left in the day Nikki and Dave opened the bowling and created chances but we were only able to covert one with Ragu taking a one handed classic catch at second slip to give Dave 1/22 at end of play. Looking forward to the challenge next week ..

WPHC Red 4/98 Vs Beecroft 127 – winning the toss we sent the opposition in to bat. Our opening bowlers used the conditions beautifully creating plenty of chances. Alex Chidgey (2/24) got the breakthrough thanks to a sharp catch in slips to Ian Paterson. Sandeep Darapuneni (2/14) had an instant impact, picking up a wicket on his 3rd ball. Sandeep’s next wicket was an absolute peach. After beating the outside edge and the off stump the previous ball, Sandeep then pitched the next ball in almost the same area. The batsmen played a premeditated leave, but this ball swung in and took out middle stump.

Leaving the batsman staring at his dismantled stumps in disbelief. Matt Digby (2/12) once again bowled great lines and picked up 2 important wickets. Great pressure in the field, and tight bowling saw the opposition dismissed for 127 in 42 overs.

Ian Paterson (31) got the run chase off to a great start, playing shots to all parts of the ground. Ian was joined by Richard Hughes (35*) at the crease and the pair continued to take it to the bowlers. After Ian holed out on the fence, Sandeep (15) came in and continued to chip away at the total. Sitting in a good position over night, we will look to get the job done early.

C3 Grade

WPHC 4/168 defeated Castle Hill RSL 43 – great day for the West Penno after a slow start last week. An all round performance with the ball, fielding and batting has put us in a commanding position. The only things we lost the whole day was the toss and put in to the field we had Dean Carlin making the ball talk very early in the innings!

Three quick wickets to him including, as Amith Ninan put it, a ‘sexy’ diving catch by the wicki Gautum put them on the back foot. He was well supported by Ryan Loveridge who bowled with great discipline. Worries for Castle hill didn’t end with our opening bowlers, our next two were equal to the task! Brent Larkham and Zac Turner took over the bowling and very quickly we had wickets coming in regular intervals. Zac was on a hat-trick but missed out very narrowly and Brent had the Castle hill batsman hoping around with his fiery pace.

Superb catches and fielding by the team and very soon both Zac and Brent had three wickets each. The only other wicket to fall was a superb run out was by Mr Ryan “calm head” Loveridge with a through coming from Amith Ninan.

Into 20th over and the opposition all out for 43 had us quickly decide the batting order and quick change over. But nothing was happening quickly for the Castle Hill bowlers, enter Perry “Dependable” Waldron and Zac Turner who puts in an opening partnership of 83 runs into 30th over. Perry’s lusty blows and Zac’s eye candy drives drove a nail into Castle hill’s already disappointing day. At the end of the day we are 168/4 with the Waldron’s at the crease, with Perry on 75 no. Huge day looming ahead for our boys next week!

D1 Grade

WPHC 208 Vs Glenorie 1/30 – after the win against Kissing Point the previous week, we were fairly confident in our abilities. After losing the toss we were put in to field. Raunak and Pavel opened our bowling with the opposition openers getting off to a good start. Pratah then managed to get the breakthrough after two overs of disciplined bowling. This was followed by a well-judged catch by Captain Steve, off Rhys’ bowling before the tea break.

The tea break was followed by a wicket each for Steve and Rhys and a total of four wickets by Ishaan, with two wickets in the second and then third session. Daniel proceeded to get another wicket. The opposition were bowled out for 208, which seemed like a fairly manageable score.

After being put into bat we were 30/1 after 16 overs with Asees and Cody batting on 8.

D2 Grade

WPHC 286 Vs Kenthurst – an excellent days’ cricket with the team scoring 286 against Kenthurst Upper Hills. We were very fortunate with the loan of two juniors from Roger Friend of Max & Sean Harkin for the match. Both boys batted beautifully with Max scoring 106* and Sean ably hitting 67 runs with Sean guiding a multitude of balls between gully and second slip.

A joy to watch both boys bat who showed great patience and superb technique. Dinal Silva hit a very useful 36 runs. There were 38 sundries. Well done team.