A1 Grade

WPHC 6/118 defeated Hornsby 115 – rocking up to a spectacular Kenthurst wicket, skipper Jamaican lost the toss and we were asked to bowl. The innings started solidly with Bonga Miedler and Jobbo Jobson both snaring an early pole. From then on Hornsby never looked like posting a big total thanks to some spectacular bowling. Hendo Henderson had the ball on a string as he bowled with marvellous pace on his way to 3 well bowled wickets. Next to come was the best boring bowler in the comp JP Paterson, who cleaned up the tail with an exhilarating spell of boring bowling on his way to 4/9. It was a great effort from the whole bowling unit to restrict Hornsby to 115.

Our innings started scratchily with wickets falling at a regular interval. Opener Philthy Phil managed to play numerous “shots of the day” on his way to 16. We were in a little bit of a hole at 6/40 until Jobbo and Hendo attended the crease. From then on we never looked in doubt with Jobbo and Hendo putting on an absolute masterclass to get us over the line. The pair put on almost 80 in a stylish display of batting. Hendo finished on 41* and Jobbo on 35*. It was an important win against a genuine contender this year. The lads are showing a lot of ticker to get the 6 points on the board.

A2 Grade

WPHC 2/130 defeated Wahroonga Blade Runners 129 – another important game for us, with Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth winning the toss, and electing to bowl. We again had a strong focus on our fielding, with our high standards putting pressure on our opposition. Our bowling remained good throughout, with spin twins, Andy ‘Fernie’ Meikle (3 fa) and Dan ‘Fish’ Costigan (2fa), using the turning conditions at the Garden Of Headen, to bamboozle the batsmen.

Through the middle overs, Rowan ’23’ Keating played a pivotal role, dismissing 2 dangerous batsmen. Snumpty picked up 2 wickets, with the first wicket taken by Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards. Luke ‘Gandis’ Herzog and Fernie took 2 catches, with Alex ‘Hooch’ Turner, Matheesha ‘Tux’ Gunaratne, and Anuj ‘Nuja’ Dhorajiwala taking a snare each. Josh ‘Yoyo’ Mathias was also good in the field for us. We bowled the Blade Runners out for 129 in 33 overs.

With the bat, Lichaaa and James ‘Jimmy Mc’ McBrien saw off some good early bowling, to put on 80 for the opening stand, with Jimmy Mc scoring 45, and Lichaaa 40. This set the platform for Fish (29*) and Tux (12*) to see us home, 2 down with 10 overs spare.

Our most comprehensive win for the season, as we continue to build momentum.

B1 Grade

WPHC 8/171 lost to Hornsby 8/174 – we yet again lost the toss, and playing at Greenway the opposition (Hornsby – a 1st against 2nd match) would generally choose to bat first. However, they put us in to bat which was quite a pleasant surprise until the third ball where Volc Banner was sent back to the sheds early.

Throughout our innings we were consistently losing wickets with partnerships never lasting more than 46 runs. Ashane “A-Train” De Silva (56) was yet again our best with the bat, and new signing Ross “Forrest” Holdman (31) showed why we should permanently keep him in the side ahead of Fabs. Justin “Jane” Edwards and the returning Michael “Fester” McGregor both got a handy 15 each at the end of the innings to finish our score with 171.

Bowling wise we had plenty in the tank but unfortunately went down in a thrilling ending (for the other team we did not enjoy the loss one bit). Hornsby finished the game in the 4th last ball after a solid fielding performance but bowling was a bit off par which is unlike our side. In the end we needed more runs from our batsmen to make our bowlers lives easier. Justin, Tis and Calvin all got 2 wickets each, with Cam and Ashane each picking up 1.

B2 Grade

WPHC 6/126 defeated Hornsby 123 – we turned up to Montview Oval and the skipper proceeded to lose the toss again (7 straight toss losses). Apparently Captain Rick Turner is considering not wasting time taking tosses for the rest of the year and will ask the opposition Captain what they’d like to do.

The Hornsby Captain had no hesitation in deciding to bat in good batting conditions. Bailey Miedley got an early breakthrough in the 2nd over and Hornsby were 1/3. The change of bowlers did the trick with Captain Rick Turner removing the other opener and in the process bringing up his 100th wicket for the Club.

Dinuka got a scalp from the other end and Hornsby were 3/40 at the 20 over drinks break. After the drinks break Hornsby put together a solid 72 run partnership and at the fall of the next wicket (taken by Anushka) chaos ensued and Hornsby lost 7/21 to be all out for 123 (off 37.4 overs) with Prats Datar picking up a superb 4/3 including being on a hat trick. Best of our bowlers Prats Datar 4/3 (3.4), Bailey 1/5 (6), Rick 1/9 (6), Dinuka 1/27 (8) and Anushka 1/23 (4).

Our innings started slowly losing Aaron, Dinesh and Bailey in the first 10 overs to have us 3/22. Captain Rick Turner and Stanton Tam came together and proceeded to start to put a partnership together to get our innings back on track. At the 20 over drinks break we were 3/61. After the drinks break Rick and Stanton continued where they left off and continued to put together a 66 run partnership until Stanton lost his wicket at for a valuable 23 (we were 4/88). We quickly lost Dinka and Ben Meikle but Rick and Chris Williamson got us over the line in 35.1 overs finishing 6/126. Best of our batting Rick Turner 67no and Stanton Tam 23. The day belonged to the captain who carried his bat and brought up his 100th wicket for WPH. That’s 7 from 7 and we’re playing solid cricket. Let’s keep it going boys.

C1 Grade

WPHC 154 defeated Hornsby 105 – we batted first on a much slower Glenhaven outfield than what we’ve seen earlier in the season, so we suspected it may not be a high scoring contest today. We got off to a very circumspect start as we found the going a bit tough early, losing our top 3 batters with only 28 runs on the board by the 14th over.

Our aim from here was to ensure we bat our overs out and see if we could defend whatever score we could post. Eric Junkkari (52) and Mikey Fiedler (19) gave us a good platform and started to lift the run rate before Mikey departed with the score on 81 in the 26th over. We kept momentum going whilst losing wickets and managed to almost double our score in the final 14 overs, largely thanks to a whirlwind knock by Kyle Townsend who finished on 32* including 2 big sixes. We thought 120 was about a par score today, so our 152 was always going to be a big ask for Hornsby.

Rahul Mucherla did what he regularly does and got us off to a great start with a wicket in his first over. He along with fellow quicks Kyle (3/10) & Aaron Hawkins kept things very tight early on – and when Matty Marsden claimed our 3rd wicket, to have Hornsby at 3/32 after 16 overs we were always going to be tough to beat. So the stage was now set for a guest appearance from our returning club legend Kishore Rampersad to enter the fray, and he didn’t disappoint us.

Keesh proceeded to take down Hornsby’s last 2 batting hopes in his first 2 overs – he makes the game look so easy sometimes (don’t you hate that !). Bowling in tandem with the other ageless veteran, Eric (bowling his left arm orthodox nudies), they wove a web of deception – bringing back memories of the great Lance Gibbs & Murray Bennett at their peak (who of course never bowled in tandem, or in fact even played each other… but those with great memories will see the similarities….. ). So Kishore 2/20, Eric 3/19 and Kyle 3/10 all enjoyed a great day out and allowed us to keep a spot in the top 2 at the halfway mark of the season.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 2/124 defeated Kenthurst 9/123 – losing the toss (again) we were asked to bowl first. A great opening spell from Nikki and Rash kept things very quiet on the scoring front. Wickets fell regularly with only a slight resistance from two lower order batsmen who managed to lift the score to 123 at the end of the opposition innings. Nikki (8 overs 4 maidens 0/12), Rash (8 overs 1 maiden 3/26) Dave Behlevanas (8 overs 2 maidens 3/29) Buzz (8 overs 4 maidens 1/15) and Gopy 1/14 off 4 overs were the wicket takers and run deny-ers!

Heading out to bat, Tim Wortho and Adrian Chau put on a quick opening stand of 48 with Tim 36 and Adrian 22 ensuring a great start. Riley B (32*) and Divyan (Sir Viv) Shankar (27*) played some exhilarating shots to see us home easily in the 28th over only two wickets down.

The last few weeks have seen marked improvement in our bowling and solid batting from a number of players who are settling into form. We’re enjoying our cricket and looking forward to the inter-Club derby next week as well as post match Christmas drinks at the Club – whatever the result!

WPHC Red 55 lost to Hornsby 155 – we won the toss and sent Hornsby into bat. Nathaniel and Diggers took the new ball and both got early wickets. Jono Moran was helping us out this match from U/15 and took a fantastic catch at square leg, diving behind the umpire and taking it at full stretch. Jono then took the ball first change and managed to get one straight through the gate. Wickets were shared around with every bowling taking a scalp. Pick of the bowlers was Nathaniel who took 3/17 from his 8 overs.

There’s not much to report on in regards to batting. Some resistance was shown by Ryan Gunn and Ian Paterson, but another poor performance with the bat left us embarrassed.

C3 Grade

WPHC 3/83 defeated Thornleigh 78 – with some seniors missing this week being as holiday season around the corner, we fielded a team of young lads and few seniors to mentor. We were playing at Campbell Park and looked like a good batting stretch, but unfortunately we lost the toss and the opposition chose to bat first. That’s probably the only positive thing happened for Thornleigh, as they were bundled out for 78 runs from 23 overs and no drinks break was required to be taken.

It was a scintillating display of medium pace bowling by our youngsters, right from the first over by Dean. We could only use 5 bowlers and all ended up taking wickets – Dean 2/13, Ryan 1/16, Zac 3/19, Ishaan 3/10 and Rhys 1/6. There was some good catching by our fielders mainly Ryan, Asses and Zac taking 1 each.

We started to bat knowing there can be no complacency even though chasing a small total. However our openers were back very early and at one time we were 3/25 from just 7 overs. Rhys was promoted up the batting order to spend some time in the middle and lived up to his potential. Together with Indranil they carried on ‘till the finish without any more hic cups, both batsman being not out on 29. The match winning runs was achieved with a six from Indranil and that made an early close for the day.

Next week we play against Beecroft at Greenup Park, a venue which is getting popular with the team.

D1 Grade

WPHC 9/108 lost to Glenorie 6/119 – match report will be updated once received.

 

D2 Grade

WPHC 2/86 defeated Kenthurst 83 – Arcadia Oval is known to be slow because of the long grass. We lost the toss and Kenthurst elected to bat first. The first two wickets fell in the 11th over with more falling at 28, 30, 44, 49, 67, 72, 80 and 83.

We managed to bowl out Kenthurst with very disciplined bowling using eight bowlers. Their best batsman was out for a duck through the bowling of Ben Kinchington with an edge caught by our wicket keeper Thiru Pakazthanthi. Their second best batsmen Alf James who scored 19 runs was bowled by John Rose with a high and long catch at long off taken by Captain Mike. Their third best batsmen was bowled by Dinal Silva with a catch by our Junior Tremayne Sinnetamby. Ian Williams took 3 wickets for 5 runs off 3 overs. John Rose took 2 wickets for 9 runs off 6 overs and Ben Kinchington took 2 wickets for 11 runs off 6 overs. Dinal Silva, Siby Joseph and Tremayne Sinnetemby took one wicket each. This bowing was a fine effort and well rewarded.

We then went in to bat with Pratah Sinnetamby hitting 27 runs, Luke Christensen hitting 20 runs and Dinal Silva getting 24 runs with Ben Kinchington hitting the winning runs in the 29th over. We only lost two wickets in reaching the required total. A big thank you to Pratah Sinnetamby and his son Tremayne for all their assistance today. They made a substantial difference in the bowling and Pratah as an opener.

This is our third win from seven games and was especially needed to keep us in contention for the semi-final. Next week’s match against Castle Hill will be important and we hope to repeat our bowling effort for that match. Well done to everyone.