A1 Grade

WPHC 6/128 defeated Sydney Lions 126 – the day started well with skipper Jamaican winning the toss and electing to bowl on a mighty fine day in Berowra. The innings started well with Buckets Scoular galloping in to snag an early vital wicket. We put the Lions on the back foot early with strong bowling and fielding performances from the whole unit. That was until Bonga Miedler dropped and absolute sitter at cover. Thanks to Mobbo Robertson and Jobbo Jobson, Bongas drop catch was quickly forgotten as they ended up with figures of 4/18 and 3/13 respectively. We restricted the Lions to a below par 126.

Batting was slow and steady throughout as we went in with the plan to leave plenty of wickets till the end to allow for an acceleration of the innings towards our total. Bonga Miedler managed to snag a promotion to no.5 and he didn’t let down. His long levers allowed him to score an unbeaten 52 to get us over the line. He was well supported by the fat man Connell who made 23. It was a solid win over the 3rd place Lions as it increases our chance of a top 2 finish.

A2 Grade

WPHC 8/169 defeated Castle Hill RSL 7/168 – our first game in 4 weeks, and Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth surprised the world by winning the toss. We elected to bowl.

Runs were hard to score early on a soft Kenthurst deck. Our opposition rode their luck to hit out, scoring 7/169 off their 40 overs. Our 5 bowlers worked hard, with Snumpty (2/24), Luke ‘Gandis’ Herzog (2/43), Dan ‘Fish’ Costigan (1/23), Andy ‘Fernie’ Meikle (1/45) and Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards (0/27) doing the job. In the field, as always, James ‘Jimmy Mc’ McBrien was brilliant, with 2 catches and an assisted run out, while Alex ‘Hooch’ Turner, Alex ‘Robbo’ Robertson and Andy ‘Fernie’ Meikle also took snares.

With the bat, and our opposition bowled tightly, to see us score the winning runs on the first bowl of the second last over. Our batsmen built runs, but with Robbo (37) and Fish (30), we were able to build momentum. Matheesha ‘Tux’ Gunaratne (28), Allan ‘Raffa’ Raffel (20), Anuj ‘Nuja’ Dhorajiwala (13) kept us going, before Hooch (11*) got us home, with his second Bevo type innings. A tough but good win, which sees us cement our top 4 spot.

B1 Grade

WPHC 5/117 defeated Sydney Lions 116 – started off yet again losing the toss at Greenway and being sent in to bowl. Our team today however, took to the challenge of bowling out Sydney Lions before the 40 overs was up. We had the Lions as 2/45 at 20 overs, and then finished them off for 116 after 38 overs. Bowlers were too good for them with Calvin, Justin and Darshan all getting 3 wickets each, and Cam taking the extra 1.

Batting wise we had old Volcano Banner keeping one end for most of the innings with a hard fought 45, which could have easily been a 50 if not for an unusually slow Greenway outfield. Darshan also chipped in with the bat and got 22 not out and will be going back to A grade where he rightfully belongs.

We finished with 117 after just 30 overs, with a game against last place next week, we should be securing our spot in the finals in the coming weeks.

B2 Grade

WPHC 166 lost to Sydney Lions 171 – today was one of those days where the close calls didn’t fall our way (other than the coin toss). The ground at Annangrove was very lush and a lot slower than we were expecting. Captain (Rick ‘Flair’ Turner) actually won the toss (the first toss of the coin win of the season) and chose to bowl. Bailey Meidler and Patrick Phillips opened the bowling and kept things tight and the Lions crept along and after 10 overs were 0/25.

The change of bowlers did the trick and Flooky snagged a caught behind quickly followed by a direct hit run out by Aaron Carlini after some confusion between the Lions batsmen. Taki Manolelis bowled an incredible spell of 5 overs for 8 runs and was terribly unlucky not to get a wicket. At the 20 over drinks break the Lions were 2/49. After the drinks break the Lions played more expansive cricket and were scoring more freely. The bowling in the second session was dominated by Ben ‘Papa’ Meikle who took 6/40 with his wily leg breaks off 7.5 overs.

The Lions were all out for 171 (off 39.5 overs). Best of our bowlers Ben ‘Papa’ Meikle 6/40 (7.5), Flooky 2/26 (8) and Prats Datar 1/14 (1).

Our innings was one where there were a lot of starts but nobody was able to cash in and get a big score. Aaron Carlini was run out (a direct hit) after some confusion in running between the wickets with Willy. Willy and Michael Gunn then put together a solid 49 run partnership before Gunny was out for 31 (good to see him make some runs as this season has been lean so far).

We then proceeded to lose 3/0 and at the drinks break were 4/74 but definitely in the game. We lost wickets regularly for a patch (more to poor batting shots than outstanding bowling) and at 7/116 we were looking a little shaky. This brought Bailey Meidler to the crease with Flair who set about chipping away at the Lions total. A nice little partnership of 39 got us to 8/155 within 17 runs of a win when Flair was out caught.

Flooky and Ravin batted on with Bailey and Ravin was run out (a direct hit from a throw from the boundary attempting a 2) and we were all out for 166 (5 runs short). We finished all out for 166 off 38.4 overs (we just ran out of wickets). Best of our batting Bailey Meidler 34 (no), Rick ‘Flair’ Turner 31, Michael Gunn 31, Chris Williamson 24, Aaron Carlini 14 and Pat Phillips 11. We were right in this game and for a few silly shots whilst batting could have easily bagged a win but it was not to be. Although it was a close loss there was a lot to like about the performance. We’re looking forward to bouncing back in the next game.

C1 Grade

WPHC 4/176 lost to Sydney Lions 6/180 – we won the toss and batted on a pretty fast Dural track. Our B1 fill-in & Lions specialist Josh Banner proceeded to control the innings scoring a fantastic 108 – our 458^th century. He was so dominant that he was dismissed with the score at 155, which was about 70% of the team’s score to that point.

Other contributions were made, the best of them Mikey Fiedler with 21 not out. We thought 176 was just above par, but we didn’t expect what was about to happen.

Kyle Townsend took a wicket in the first over, but following this we put in our worst fielding performance of the season. Over the rest of the innings, we put down no less than 12 catches, many from our most reliable fielders. The bowlers tried hard, with Kishore Rampersad getting the best figures of 3/39, but our butter-fingered performance saw the Lions pass our total in the last over. Hopefully we will finish digesting our Xmas pudding in time for next week’s game.

C2 Grade

WPHC Blue 9/135 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee – 8/177 sending the opposition in, we created 7 chances or near misses in just the first four overs without snaring a wicket including three dropped catches. This allowed their opening pair to put on 77 with the first wicket not falling until the 19th over. After drinks we applied the brakes for several overs and picked up steady wickets. Great effort from all in the field was rewarded. Two run outs by Raghu Chary including a direct hit put us right in the match. Adrian Chau was the best of the bowlers (3/25) with Buzz, Gopy and Wortho picking up one each. We finally clung onto a few catches, but somehow managed to leak runs in the last ten overs to see their total reach 177, (30 more than they should have scored).

Our innings started well, but we lost both openers with only 20 on the board. Raghu (20), Oliver Mayberry (22) and Tim Worthington (25) were our top scorers, and contributions from Peter Lees, Gopy Parathan and Nikki O’Meara kept the game alive, but we lost wickets at inopportune times and could only scrape to 135 in the end.

Normo are the top team on the ladder and we held our own for much of the match, but we need to shake off the Holiday hangover and apply ourselves for a win next week, which I’m sure we will.

WPHC Red 7/206 defeated Berowra 118 – we won the toss and elected to bat on a nice looking Brooklyn Dairy. Our innings got off to a poor start, losing 2 quick wickets. Leaving us 2/9 after 6 overs. Ryan Gunn and Joel Herzog knuckled down and got our innings back on track with an important 40 run partnership before Ryan was dismissed. Joel continued to dominate the bowlers, belting them to all parts of the ground. Brent Larkham (19) joined Joel at the crease and added another 77 run partnership. Another 55 run partnership with Rob Knapman saw Joel take his score to 147 before being dismissed in the final over. A fantastic, classy knock that was our 457^th ton. We finished the innings 7/206.

Heading out into the field we knew Berowra were a broken team. We needed to keep our lines tight and we would break-through the top order. Brent Larkham (1/10) got the first wicket with a great yorker that the batsman played all around and cannoned into middle stump. Matt Carpenter was making his Seniors debut and made an instant impact, taking a wicket in his first over. Matt finished with 2/19.

Rob Knapman jagged a few wickets to finish with 3/25. Even though we had plenty of runs on the board, the boy’s efforts in the field were that of a team defending 100 runs. The pressure continued to build and wickets continued to fall. Ross Anderson was a fine example, taking a fantastic catch diving at full stretch with one hand just millimetres from the ground. Brent Larkham and Ian Paterson supported the bowlers with a couple of sharp catches each. All 7 bowlers got amongst the wickets in a great team effort in the field. A comprehensive victory.

C3 Grade

WPHC 57 lost to Castle Hill RSL 8/58 – losing the toss, we were sent in to bat on an incredibly slow Fred Caterson 2/3. With no value for shots we knew a small total could be defended with good, tight bowling. Zac Turner and Cody Waters got us off to a solid start, but with wickets constantly falling we only managed to reach 57 with Rommel Pandey (19) and Zac Turner (9) the highest contributers.

Ryan Loveridge got an early breakthrough and with consistent wickets falling the scores at the drinks break were very close to ours. Despite good bowling from Ryan Loveridge (2-10), Zach Turner (2-10) and Tom Poole (1-5) and some great catching, Castle Hill managed to chase down our total.

D1 Grade

WPHC 148 lost to St Ives 8/149 – the match report will follow but we went down in a last over thriller to the equal Competition leaders despite the efforts of Pratah Sinnetamby with 77.

D2 Grade

WPHC 112 lost to St Ives 141 – we won the toss and we elected for St Ives to bat as the grass was uncut with some rain earlier in the day. This was a good decision as we managed to bowl out St Ives in the 37th over for 141 runs. St Ives is the D2 grade leader out of six teams and has won all matches bar one.

Their best batsmen hit 44 runs and their next best hit 27 runs. Seven of their players hit less than 10 runs. Our best bowlers were Dinal Silva who took 3 wickets for 13 runs off 8 overs plus an additional catch. Roshan Withanage who has just come back from a six week break due to fractured fingers took 3 wickets for 14 runs off 4 overs. John Rose took 2 wickets for 18 runs off 6 overs and Captain Mike took a wicket as well. This was a very good start as the St Ives has proved very difficult to contain in their batting.

We started our batting but the opening pair were out for 11 runs following a catch and a run-out. Ben Kinchington came in and stayed the entire remainder of the match hitting a very valuable 38 runs not out. Our unrated player John Woodcock hit 14 runs which was the next best score for our team. The next best was Roshan who hit 11 runs at number 10. Unfortunately, we just did not accumulate enough runs at the start to provide a good base which then put some pressure on the players who followed.

Our bowling has improved greatly over the 9 rounds and hopefully our batting may follow. A good effort with some very good positives notably in the bowling.

Points table

After 9 Rounds we have 8 Teams in the top 4 with 3 Teams leading the Comp:

• A1                   2^nd
• A2                   3^rd
• B1                    =2^nd
• B2                    1^st
• C1                    1^st
• C2 Blue           4^th
• C2 Red             7^th (5 points out of 4)
• C3                    2^nd
• D1                   =1^st
• D2                   6^th (6 points off 4^th spot).