A1 Grade

WPHC 216 Vs ARL 3/50 – a match report is to follow in this equal 1st Vs 8th clash against our long-term rival. The boys did well to get to 215 with a number of 50/50 calls going against us. With a bit of luck we could have had ARL 6 down at stumps with the bowlers creating lots of chances. We go into next week with good momentum, runs on the board and a bowling attack that will continue to ask questions. More to follow.

A2 Grade

WPHC 238 Vs Kenthurst Upper Hills – playing against the top of the table Kenthurst, on a good looking Kenthurst wicket, Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth won the toss, and elected to bat. Some disciplined Kenthurst bowling made scoring tough prior to the first drinks break, but some equally disciplined batting ensured that we remained in the game, with wickets in hand.

The day undoubtedly belonged to Michael ‘Mobbo’ Robertson, who’s 150* paved the way for a really competitive score. Mobbo timed his innings perfectly, setting himself up to accelerate as the day went on. He hit 15 4’s and 5 huge 6’s, to dominate the Kenthurst attack, bringing up his first WPHC ton with a 6 over the bowler’s head. He then went from 100 to 150 in 16-17 mins, in a blistering display of shot making. It truly was a memorable innings. Some interesting facts on this ton:

• This is the 454th ton in our history
• It is the highest score since the 153* scored by Aaron Carlini who scored this in C2 on 29/11/2014
• highest A2 Grade score since the 160* scored by Chris Thomas in 1991/92
• biggest ton scored in A1 since the 155* scored by the great Tony Ford Vs Beecroft @ The Glade in 1992/93
• the 150* is also 63.0% of the Team total – the 6th highest share of runs to total team score in our history. The highest % is held by Andrew Bray (A2 1989/90) who scored 163 out of 188 – 86.7% of the total.

Credit must be given to Alex ‘Hooch’ Turner and Matheesha ‘Tux’ Gunaratne, who blunted some good Kenthurst bowling early. Scoring 26 and 15 respectively, they took the sting out of the early attack, to allow Mobbo to do his thing. Mention must also be given to Luke ‘Zog’ Herzog and Andy ‘Fernie’ Meikle, who together with Mobbo, put on 75 for the last 2 wickets, supporting Mobbo from 81 to 150*. A really good day, which sets up a wonderful Day 2 next week.

B1 Grade

WPHC 0/21 Vs Kenthurst Upper Hills 189 – started the day bowling after losing the toss on a road at Glenhaven Reserve. Kenthurst were very slow to start as they were 1/28 off nearly 20 overs. From here we struggled to find the stumps but eventually cracked a key partnership in the 34th over. By the 66th over we finally got them all out for 189, with Hollywood (3/44) being the best of the bowlers (as unbelievable as that sounds), with help from the ‘GSR’ Taki Manolelis (2/26), Cam ‘The Predator’ McBrien (2/24) and Justin ‘yet to have an interesting nickname’ Edwards (2/29).

We had a bat for 7 overs with Volc and Justin playing solid cricket as we are 0/21. Next week we must be disciplined and maintain our winning streak now as we aim to hold our spot at the top of the table.

B2 Grade

WPHC 7/199 Vs SKLPS – at Greenway Park we looked at the conditions and decided we would bat if we won the toss. Well – we lost the toss again (when will we ever win one) and SKLPS chose to bowl. The innings didn’t start as we would like – Aaron Carlini and Michael Gunn nicked off 2/13.

They were quickly followed by Dinesh De Silva caught at mid-on 3/23 and things were looking shaky. We got to drinks at 3/39. A bit of a partnership before Ben Meikle also nicks off and were 4/56 after 26 overs. We got to tea at 4/80 off 36 overs.

After tea Anushka De Silva and Chris Williamson continued to graft away. Then we lost Anushka 5/130, Dinuka 6/137 and Rick 7/143. The SKLPS plan of bowling wide of off with a packed off side field was clearly testing our batters patience. Then Peter Flook joined Willy at the crease and they had a great 56 run partnership to see out the day. We ended at 7/199. Best of the batting Willy 81* (carried his bat the entire day), Flooky 34* and Anushka 39. We are in a good position leading into the second day and with good bowling and fielding we can secure the points.

C1 Grade

WPHC 6/276 Vs Lankan Islanders – we came in to the match in 2nd place facing 1st place Lankan Islanders – and we actually won a toss and had a bat. After the early loss of Ray Khamis, the veterans Fieds (33) and Mat Marsden (31) set about laying a platform for the day. At 3/87 at tea, we were a little behind the 8-ball but we didn’t expect the carnage to come.

Eric Junkkari and Mikey Fiedler set about the bowling after tea. In a 163 run partnership, they pillaged the attack to all parts of the ground. Mikey eventually fell for 98 in what was an innings of placement and timing against a quality spin attack. He would have comfortably scored a hundred in a session, if not for his eventual dismissal. Eric was out on the last ball of the day for a dominant 79.

We finished the day at 6/276 and look forward to continue our dominance with a fine bowling performance next week.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 9/313 Vs St Ives – our openers, Gopy Parathan and Tim Worthington gave us a fantastic start to our innings with Gopy compiling a well compiled 30 and Wortho playing himself into form with some scorching drives to make 49. The opening partnership yielded 77 and was then well backed up with contributions from Riley Behlevanas (24), Peter Lees (28) and Ollie Maybury (24).

Then we took absolute control of the match with an “Outstanding” partnership of 91 for the 8th wicket between Nikki O’Meara with a sweetly scored 32 and an “Outstanding” innings from Dave Behlevanas of 62 (7×4 1×6) With some crisply timed shots and powerful hitting, Dave showed us just how capable he is with the bat! Inspired by reports on the Team App from C2 Red’s game, we managed to post 9/313 at the end of the days play and will send the opposition in next week to press hard for a win against one of the stronger teams in the comp.

“Outstanding” was our buzz word of the day, and we saw today just how “Outstanding” this side can play when playing to their potential. Many thanks to Ollie and Rommel for filling in, and looking forward to pressing home a win next week.

WPHC Red 4/343 dec Vs Kenthurst Upper Hills 5/77 – arriving at Holland Reserve, we knew the toss would be important. The coin landed our way once again and we elected to bat. Ross Anderson (14) and Ian Paterson (47) got us off to a great start, putting on a 47 run opening partnership that set the standard for the day.

Joel Herzog (36) joined Patto at the crease and continued to take it to the bowlers. Andrew Morris (59) went about increasing the run rate, getting off the mark with a 6 off his second ball. Ryan Gunn made sure that the run rate continued to climb. Ryan picked apart the bowlers to cruise past his 50.

What followed was great to watch. Alex Chidgey met Ryan in the middle and the pair proceeded to pile on the pressure. They put on a 146 run partnership that saw Ryan bring up his ton and Alex make his first seniors 50. We declared at 4/343 after just 50 overs with Ryan 115* (our 452nd ton) and Alex 58*. Alex has now scored 174 runs this season, but does not yet have an average! Ryan’s ton comes on the back of 3 ducks. Not a bad way to make a comeback!!

We took to the field with 22 overs left in the day. Nathaniel Chidgey opened the bowling and had the opposition in all sorts from ball 1! Nathaniel knocked over the stumps 3 times to finish the day with 3/25 from his 8 overs. Alex Chidgey 1/5 and Rob Knapman 1/11 also took wickets to have the opposition 5/76 at the end of the day’s play.

With runs on the board and a great bowling attack, we will look to heap on the pressure on day 2!

C3 Grade

WPHC 9/179 Vs Kenthurst Upper Hills – we lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Openers in Zac Turner and Perry Waldron saw through opening overs but we were soon under pressure having lost couple of early wickets.

Things did not improve much as we had lost 4 wickets before the drinks break for a score of about 50 runs. This is when Gautam Ayyar and Ian Digby came together to start some of a partnership. Gautam was run out after scoring 23. After this Amith Ninan stayed for 20 odd overs with Ian to build another partnership and make bowlers/fielders toil in the field. Amith was run out and Ian was caught soon after for a team highest score of 35 on the day. At team we were 5/99.

Even though we did not put up big partnerships today, a big positive was the effort and application that all batsmen tried for longer periods. Cameron Bish and Ryan Loveridge were example of this lower down the order. Cameron remained not out with well compiled 23 while Ryan was the third run out of the innings for a very valuable 19 runs batting at no.10. With runs on the board and possibility of last wicket taking us bit further, our bowlers will have a total that they can contain opposition down in.

D1 Grade

WPHC 322 Vs St Ives 0/20 – winning the toss at the small Mimosa ground we chose to bat. At drinks we were 3 for 50 with it all to do. Pav Kozyrev (89) who opened the batting due to Asees Rajput being a little late had a terrific 4th wicket WPHCCC D1 Grade record partnership of 159 with Asees that beat the previous record of 134 scored by Raj Kulkarni and Max Harkin in last season’s D1 Grade Semi Final. A shame to not get a century as he deserved it but this was a personal best. Well done Pav.

Asees (132 and our 455th ton) scored his first century with shots to all parts of the ground. Reverse sweeps a plenty as he bludgeoned the bowling and brought us up to 250…well done Asees. From there on we had a whack to get runs and have quick crack at St Ives. We finished on 322 with Dylan Bish scoring exactly the same runs as in Juniors (29). St Ives batted for 8 overs and are 0 for 20.

While St Ives do have a strong batting lineup runs on the board is key and it is now up to the team to finish the job.

D2 Grade

WPHC 1/65 Vs St Ives 7/281 dec. – we won the toss and put in St Ives to bat. St Ives have been the leader in the D2 competition having won all their matches. We expected this match to be very difficult because of St Ives long batting order and a very good bowling attack. We bowled well with good discipline getting 5 wickets for the loss of 114 runs after 24 overs. However, our bowling attack deteriorated with too many full tosses, leg side balls and poor length.

St Ives took advantage of this poor discipline and didn’t lose another wicket until they were on 205. The next wicket came at 247 and they finally declared after 50 overs at 7 for 281 which included 25 sundries. They had two middle order batters who hit 82 and 84 runs respectively. Our best bowler was Ian Williams who had 2 for 27. Siby Joseph, Ischaan Singh, Ben Kinchington and Michael Clipsham all took 1 wicket each and one batter retired. We probably dropped 4 catches which was fatal in the scheme of things.

We then had to play 23 overs from 5 pm. Ischaan Singh hit 41 runs out of a total of 65 runs with the loss of only one wicket. So we have another 75 overs next week and need a further 217 runs which is about 3 runs required an over. So we are in with a chance but we need to be very patient and persistent in our batting. It’s a tall order but achievable as long as we don’t lose wickets too easily.