Match Reports

Round 5 (1-Dayer)

A1 Grade

WPHC (Cam #25) 5/197 defeated Hornsby Gold 9/64

Cricket fans, gather ‘round for the blockbuster tale of how the mighty WPHCCCCC, our heroes of Berowra Oval, clashed with the second-placed Hornsby Gold. If you missed this one, you missed an instant classic—and you probably still owe Michael Gunn a drink. Let’s dive into this raucous recount of leather and willow, heroics, and sheer disbelief.

It all began on a sunny, albeit suspiciously humid, morning at our beloved Berowra Oval.

Word spread like wildfire—Kaptain K had succumbed to the dreaded COVID, leaving a Kaptain-sized hole in our line-up. But fear not, for who should step up but the tenacious Michael Gunn. Known as a cricketer who’s always two boundaries away from glory and three dot balls away from a meltdown, today Gunn strode out not just for the team but for our sickly, bedridden, fearless leader stuck out in Glenorie. No pressure, mate.

The day’s first innings belonged to the batting spectacle led by Gunn himself. With a look that screamed “I’m not here to mess about,” he set about constructing an innings so steady it could double as a bridge over the Hawkesbury. Chanceless, elegant, and punctuated with the occasional glance that would make David Gower proud, Gunn’s 61 was a chef’s kiss of an innings. He batted like a man who knew this knock would either secure his A Grade future or send him to the realm of the eternal lower grades. With every crisp cover drive, his spot in the side grew firmer. By the time he departed, there was an audible sigh of relief from the Hornsby Gold fielders, half of whom were Googling “how to bowl a Gunn out” in real-time.

But let’s not forget our middle order warriors.

Harry Hando, Sean Clarence, and Billy Gaunt strode to the crease like they’d just been informed we had indeed crossed the magical 200-run mark for the third game running. Yes, folks—us, WPHCCCCC, scoring runs. Consistently. If this doesn’t make you question the state of modern cricket, nothing will. Hando slapped the ball around like he was swatting flies at a summer BBQ, Clarence played a crucial knock filled with stoic defence and the occasional wallop, and Billy Gaunt—well, Billy treated the opposition bowlers like his personal bowling machine. By the time the dust settled, we were standing tall at around 200.

With the score set, it was time for our bowlers to turn the dial up to “extremely unfriendly.”

Enter Tiz—or, as he prefers to be known after today’s performance, The Speed Demon. He opened the bowling with a spell so ferocious that Hornsby’s openers looked like they were auditioning for the role of “confused pedestrian caught in a hailstorm.” The ball zipped through at warp speed, swinging like it was auditioning for Strictly Come Dancing. The wickets started tumbling—Tiz snared four with a grin so wide it could be seen from Glenorie, where our sick leader surely managed a fist pump in between doses of cough syrup.

Not to be outdone, Jack Hando, the unsung hero at the other end, took a page out of the “Lillee and Thompson” manual, tossing thunderbolts with a scowl that said, “Don’t you dare even dream of driving me.” His bouncer was an absolute peach, sending a middle order batsman back to the pavilion with a look that suggested he’d just seen his tax bill. Between Tiz and Jack, the first 10-12 overs were a masterclass in coordinated mayhem—five wickets down, and Hornsby were starting to wish cricket was a no-contact sport.

By the time Lichaaa and Gandis ambled in to clean up the lower order, Hornsby’s batsmen had the haunted look of men who knew their afternoon plans had been derailed. Lichaaa bowled with the confidence of a man who’d already picked his celebratory dinner spot, while Gandis chucked in a couple of sneaky deliveries that seemed to defy physics itself. With the support of Harry, our resident “I’ll just do everything” all-rounder, the last wickets fell like dominoes.

Lichaaa’s delivery rhythm was as smooth as the jazz he claimed to listen to on long drives, and Gandis, with his unique blend of unorthodox spin and mysterious arm angles, sent down balls that had the batsmen second-guessing which planet they were on. Harry rounded things off with a spell that may not have netted him lots of wickets, but definitely added to the psychological warfare—each delivery landing with an emphasis that said, “Go on, make my day.”

And so, in the space of a few feverish hours, WPHCCCCC had dismantled the once-formidable Hornsby Gold, sending them packing with their tails between their legs and a newfound respect for the ragtag bunch from Berowra Oval.

But this isn’t just where the story ends, dear readers. No, we’re back at it again today—Sunday—at Lindfield for the NSW Community Cup. Entry is free, cost $nil, so there’s absolutely no reason for the Club’s loyal fan-base to miss out. Bring your voices, your snacks, and maybe even your disbelief, because if we keep playing like this, who knows what could happen next?

So, raise a toast to Michael Gunn, our modern-day gladiator; to Tiz, whose pace might soon be clocked by a passing traffic camera; and to every member of the squad who turned a routine Saturday into a triumph worth retelling over countless post-match beers. See you at Lindfield.

Go WPHCCCCC!

A2 Grade

WPHC Blue (Birdcage) 0/1 Vs Castle Hill 177

The day began in familiar fashion for WPHC Blue’s skipper Rohan, who lost his third consecutive toss. But luck still favoured him as Castle Hill opted to bat first on a green deck. Riken, aka “Kenya,” and Cameron, affectionately dubbed “Throbby,” were handed the new ball, and they quickly set the tone.

Kenya struck early, trapping Castle Hill’s leading run-scorer, Will, LBW. Will seemed less than eager to leave, but Kenya’s celebrations needed no confirmation. Throbby followed up with a fiery spell, taking down Castle Hill’s No. 3 and 4 in no time, leaving the opposition reeling. Sensing his dominance, Kenya took a well-deserved break, making way for his blood brother, Tanay “Tanners”, to join the attack.

And just like clockwork, Tanners struck immediately, pushing Castle Hill further into trouble at 4-41.

Castle Hill’s skipper, Emaad, fought hard to stabilize things, crafting a gritty 46 before giving Brent catching practice. Then out came Castle Hill’s No. 6, armed with a GoPro, eager to make a highlight reel. He managed a quick 23 before Sammy sent his middle stump cartwheeling—a shot we’d love to rewatch!

Abi held the innings together at the other end with a solid, unbeaten 51, steering Castle Hill to a competitive 177 all out in 69.1 overs. Throbby and Kenya were the pick of the bowlers, finishing with impressive figures of 3-22 (14.1) and 3-30 (10), respectively.

With just one over to survive before stumps, Dean stepped up as the self-appointed night-watchman. He spooned a chance to short leg straight away, but luck was on his side as the fielder fumbled, giving Dean the reprieve he needed to see out the day.

So, Blues head into next week with 10 wickets in hand and just 177 runs to chase. All set for what should be a thrilling Day 2!

WPHC Red (Todd) 129 Vs Berowra 2/103

Sometimes cricket’s ordinary.

Unfortunately for the WPHCCCCCCCCCCC A2 Red team, cricket’s been a little bit too crap a little bit too regularly this year. A few performances where we’ve been a long way from our best and when we have shown glimpses of what we are capable of, we just can’t seem to get over the line, sometimes due to factors well within our grasp and sometimes due to factors that are certainly not.

Today was no different. And to do it against the old enemy hurts.

With a top eight in the batting order reportedly apparently “all capable of batting top four” (T Hutchinson, 2024), we won the toss and batted first on your average Glade wicket, all batters ordered to “build a partnership”. Of course, in true WPHCCC A2 Red fashion, that did not happen. A bunch of starts, a bunch of guys coming back to the sheds claiming they were seeing it like a beach ball, and no one scoring more than thirty.

Of course, had super-star batter Lachy in his first game of the season not run out of partners – entirely his fault after asking the skipper to bat down the order to avoid facing too many balls and aggravating his injury (he ended up facing more than anyone else in the team) – no one would have doubted that another double century was on the cards, but sometimes it’s simply not meant to be.

Out of our paltry 129, Connor top scored with a classy 29, while Volc (22) also seemed to hit them pretty well, with only Lachy (19 not) joining them in double figures. A special shout to Ben (a rather good-looking 4) just because I don’t want him to feel left out.

It wasn’t much, but on the Glade, anything is possible.

Berowra showed us just that as after losing an early wicket to the Messiah, their number three worked his voodoo magic with a quick half century that seemed to primarily consist of skied slogs that fell between two fielders, edges over the slips and admittedly well-placed french cuts. By the time his seventeen lives ran out and Connor took an absolute skier that probably would’ve been sent back to Berowra had he connected properly, they were already well over halfway to our total.

With not many runs to play with and eight wickets to take, we’ve got no choice but to rely on an unreal bowling performance to turn the game around. It might not sound easy, but on the Glade, anything is possible.

And if not, cricket’s a shit sport anyway.

Editor’s note: Sir David Attenborough fears that’s giraffes are facing a silent extension. However hope is restored as WPHCCC’s very own Lachy Edward’s has found himself returning to the pitch. His wrist fully healed from the strenuous “shadow batting” session alone in his room, as he worked on how to properly grip the willow. Unfortunately this training was not enough as he was stranded on 19 runs, looking strong on his first hit since semi’s last year. Tally of his drop catches however increases to one (at least he’s consistent).

B1 Grade

WPHC Blue (Shomik) 105 lost to Berowra 148

What seems to be a game that is always earmarked on the calendar is the game against Berowra, probably the arch nemesis of the club, an Australia v England, Chooks v Bunnies, a Sydney FC vs. Western Sydney Wanderers (But back when it was all bloody chaos).

I don’t know whether we won the toss, but we were in the field first.

It seemed that Shomik’s spray at us during the week and that we had done catching practice before the game meant that we were taking very DIFFICULT catches and dropping the SITTERS. Tight bowling and good ball maintenance meant that the swing kept bringing wickets. But a frustrating 9^th wicket partnership put on 40-odd, turning a very convincing low hundreds score in 148.

A couple more than we were expecting, but again, we took 10 wickets and great credit to the bowlers. Vaibhav, the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets from his 7 overs, Shomik took 2, and the others one a piece.

The top order could not muster many runs, except for Shomik, who worked hard for his 20, but they homed in on the stumps and got many bowled and LBW wickets, and we slumped to 6-50 at drinks. But we knew the importance of a strong batting partnership to dig us out of the hole we were clearly in.

A fightback from Alec (27) and Agarwal (25) saw 40 runs put on in 8 overs, leaving 40 from the last ten, a chaseable total. But we fell short of the 49 target, being all out 105, we were disappointed.

I wish I could be more polite and cheerful, but sometimes you got to look and say, “Well bloody oath, where did that game go.”

Then you act like a goldfish, forget, and look forward to next week.

WPHC Red (Warren) 7/111 defeated ARL 110

Now don’t get me wrong, every day is a good day for cricket. Except the last couple of weeks haven’t been very good days for cricket. Not only has the weather been pretty ordinary but we had back to back 2 day games against teams who were more than happy to escape with a draw against the reigning B2 champions (the team to draw against).

This week the kings of escaping with a draw despite being really not that good would have no such luck coming up against the kings of winning games in a 1 day game. Weather was cracker, there would definitely be a result. Today was in fact a great day to be playing cricket.

ARL have managed to be the first team in history to get a promotion despite winning no games for consecutive seasons. (Source Ross Anderson). What are they doing in B grade? Do they have a naked photo of CEO of cricket Ross Anderson? I would suggest this is the case.

Nevertheless we were keen to rip and tear of the back of what was an extremely heated contest last time around. After Captain Roberto (F. Errari) Knapman and ARL captain Michael ‘Hall and Oates’ Hall agreed there would be no misbehaving today club legend Ray ‘Ray’ Khamis applied his muzzle and prepared for an innings in the field after Rob decided to let the other team decide what they wanted to do first, which was bat.

Nathaniel ‘big strawberry blonde’ and Dan ‘Pastor’ Schwartzel got proceedings going with a fantastic spell of line and length bowling. Someone actually had to remind ARL that it was a 2 day game.

At tea we had them 3/50 with Dan, Rob and Dingers (Matt Digby) all chipping in with wickets. ARL had ought to get a move on as Ray looked into the rules of the game and in a one day game the team batting first does indeed have to set a target. Usually they would try and set a high one but ARL were setting a low one. Everyone was extremely confused…

Thankfully for them they came out after tea with some positive intent and tried to make a match of the game….

The first 6 overs after drinks produced 2 wickets and 4 maidens, with more maidens to follow.

Matt ‘the pinball wizard’ Digby proved it was a dangerous day to be a front pad having the ball on a string and trapping 2 players LBW. Rob took wickets with his useless rubbish which has somehow managed to take more wickets than anyone else who has played the same amount of time for him ever in the history of cricket (source Ross Anderson).

Keats ‘Keats’ Keating and Matt ‘h’ Schwartzel closed out extremely well at the death to keep them to an extremely chase-able 110.

ARL bowled defensive lines and made it extremely difficult for us to score.

At 2/17 off 12 overs what should have been a stress free run chase was looking pretty bloody stressful ladies and gentlemen..

Enter Ray ‘steady the ship’ Khamis. Ray decided to fight fire with fire and try and chip away at the total as quickly and as irresponsibly as possible. He hit some good shots to get to drinks on 20 odd and single-handedly swung the momentum of the game back in our favour and more importantly got the run rate moving.

What happened in the first over after drinks can only happen in seniors cricket.

Ray gets dropped on the boundary 1^st ball of the over (absolute sitter) and runs two. Ray then hits next ball for 4 over cover, next ball 2 through cover, next ball 6 over deep square leg and next ball edges to short third man who takes an absolute screamer to dismiss the big fella on a well-made 40 odd.

By that time the damage had been done and we simply had too much batting in the shed to lose (despite resident idiot Adam Van Saarloos’ best efforts).

Keats, nicholas dirty ring duck, Nathaniel and Pastor Dan all contributed to nudging us over their score with plenty of time to scare.

A special shout out to recent C grade centurion, hard worker and potential FAG (Future A Grader) Nicholas ‘pricey’ Price for coming up and helping the boys out. Pricey put in a great effort in the field and did a fantastic job seeing off the new ball for us. Definitely one to watch out for in the old FAG department is young Pricey. Stay tuned.

Other news

• Adam suffering from long Covid somehow has more brain fog and general stupidity than before

C1 Grade

WPHC (Indranil) 8/209 defeated Normanhurstr-Warrawee 7/159

Last round 2 legends of the team deserve to be congratulated – Aden Hanich (2,000 runs club) and Dan Vink (50 career wickets) for their milestone achievements. Well done lads.

A great atmosphere at Normanhurst Park greeted the team, albeit a junior’s game still going on. For a moment it felt like so many spectators to watch a C1 grade game, anyway once realisation sets in we move to weekly chores. Won the toss and deciding to bat first was a no brainer. Aden found a new opening partner Cam Bliss, who is in form having made a promising 40 odd runs in B1 game last weekend. BTW regular player, Nic Price making great runs as an opener was promoted to play B1 side.

Aden started off well, but the uncharacteristic Normo bowler got few wickets, with such deceiving slow balls. It was left to Ben Dunkerley 55 and Olly 48 to build a good partnership. Vishnu 31 and Dan Vink 27* played some great cameos till the end to put a decent 200+ score.

Normo started off well with one of their openers taking on our opening bowlers but bowling change with Paul Vink proved quick success. All bowlers-maintained rhythm through the innings and at one time did not understand whether this is a 2-day or one-day format. A big call out to Aden to take 3 keeper catches, Paul Vink taking 2 wickets and our top bowler Dan Vink with 3 wickets.

The other C1 rounds results shows top 4 teams likely to remain strong through the season and will be a good fight next week at Dural.

C2 Grade

WPHC Red (Aniket) 1/168 defeared Kissing Point 7/164

After a couple of tough losses, the team was more determined than ever to turn things around and start a winning streak. With this renewed focus, Ani won the toss and opted to bowl first, counting on the team’s bowling strength to restrict Kissing Point to a manageable total.

The opening bowlers set the tone with precise line and length, offering very little to Kissing Point’s batsmen. The early breakthrough came when Shakeel dismissed one of the openers with the score at just 11 runs. However, despite tight bowling and a few changes in attack, Kissing Point managed to build a solid 74-run partnership. This was broken by Saurabh, who took two quick wickets, sending both set batsmen back to the pavilion.

With runs harder to come by, Kissing Point’s remaining batsmen began taking risks, swinging at nearly everything. While they managed to add a few quick runs, they also lost wickets at regular intervals, finishing their innings at 7-164. The wickets were shared among the bowlers, with Shakeel and Saurabh claiming two each, and Shankar and Ani picking up one each.

Chasing a slightly higher target than expected, the team’s batsmen were focused on securing the win. Though Lakshya was dismissed early, Saurabh and Mohan put together a commanding partnership, patiently waiting for loose balls while expertly defending the good ones. Their unbroken 161-run stand showcased excellent technique and resilience. Saurabh finished with 81* and Mohan with 74*, leading the team to a nine-wicket win in the 28^th over.

The match had a tense moment near the end, as Saurabh suffered a severe cramp with just 11 runs left. Though he considered retiring hurt due to the pain, encouragement from the sidelines motivated him to finish the innings. His determination was an inspiring example of grit, sealing the victory and lifting the team’s spirits.

With this well-earned win, the team is excited to keep up the momentum in the coming matches and build on their success.

WPHC Blue (Hiresh) 7/163 lost to Castle Hill 2/166

It was a bright and promising morning at Dural Park as the Blues looked to cement their place at the top of the table.

Hiresh, continuing his stellar toss form, choosing to bat first. But the optimism quickly faded as the Blues were rocked early, finding themselves at 3-31 within the first 10 overs. Mukund fell in the second over, edging to slips, followed by Hiresh in the sixth and Rishab in the eighth, leaving the team shaken. However, a valiant partnership between Sparsh and Rudhra offered some stability. They navigated a tricky period, only for Rudhra to be controversially given out caught behind for 14 just before the drinks break by our captain Hiresh.

It was tough luck for Rudhra as the only thing he appeared to nick was the air. Unfortunately, Sparsh couldn’t regain momentum, missing his trusted batting partner in Rudhra, he fell in the first over back from drinks for a well-deserved 28, leaving the tail exposed at 5-60 and the inevitable collapse looming.

That’s when John Koleth (Maz) and Ratul stepped in, producing one of the best counterattacking partnerships of the season. Constantly rotating the strike, smashing boundaries for fun, piercing gaps and putting immense pressure on the field, they turned the tide of the innings. From the sidelines, it was like watching our very own Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head middle order blitz taking the opposition apart. After an entertaining stint, Ratul eventually fell for an incredible 32, and Maz followed shortly after for a spectacular 38, leaving us at 6-143.

It was then up to our favourite nightwatchmen, Renesh and Meet in an unfamiliar role to add the finishing touches to the innings score. Both came into the game brimming with confidence. Renesh fresh off his iconic 5 off 66 and Meet from his gritty 9 off 54. Renesh saw an opportunity to assert dominance early, boldly removing his helmet when the spinner came on and the duo went on to combine for a solid 20-run partnership. Both scored 10 runs apiece, ensuring the Blues ended their innings at a respectable 163.

With adrenaline and emotion running high from the back end of the first innings, the team huddled with a clear message: start fast and take early wickets. But things didn’t go to plan. Castle Hill raced to 31 runs in just 5 overs, capitalising on sloppy fielding and the bowlers’ struggles to adjust to a tricky right-hand/left-hand opening combination. It took the ever-reliable Maz to break through in the 6th over, despite fatigue from his batting heroics. The Blues regrouped after our first wicket and tried to “reset,” but the game slipped away in a flash.

Despite commendable bowling efforts from Sparsh, Rudhra, Ratul, Harshil, Rishab, Meet, and John Kurian, the Blues struggled to recover. Our final consolation wicket fell after 150 runs, thanks to a determined effort by Kunal. However, it was too little too late, as Castle Hill RSL reached the target with 10 overs to spare, sealing their win at 2-166

Ultimately, this match served as a clear reminder that being on top requires constant effort and focus.

Complacency has no place in cricket—runs, wickets, and clinical fielding must be earned through determination and discipline. While the result was a tough reality check for the Blues, it also highlighted the depth of character within the team, with several players stepping up when it mattered most.

The road to Christmas is challenging with tough matches ahead and in-form players missing, but if today’s fightback is any indication, the Blues will be back & firing.

C3 Grade

WPHC (Mick) 113 defeated Mt Colah 85

Match report to follow

C4 Grade

WPHC Red (Ross S) 8/162 defeated Berowra 159

Campbell Park for a second game in a Row Beautiful playing conditions, ground fast.

Skipper won the toss, not sure what to do, but at the last minute decided to send Berowra in hoping the ball would hoop around with the humidity.

Ram and Anand started well again. 4 over spells from each , a wicket to Ram with a catch behind to Raynaldo, two plumb LBWs to Anand, and brilliant fielding from Alex resulting in a run out. Berowra in heaps of trouble 4/28. A well-judged catch by Anand off Henry . Berowra 5/44., with their #3 still in taking heaps of risks.

Our bowling through overs 10 to 18 was very messy at times, Berowra #3 dropped twice and too many boundaries taken from full tosses and leg side bowling. At the 18 over drinks break Berowra 5/80.

After the break a wicket in the first over catch behind by Raynaldo off Henry, but things did not get any better with our bowling, very frustrating as we are a much better bowling side than shown today.

With Berowra cruising to 6/139 and 9 overs left skipper rolled the dice and brought back Ram to try break the partnership. Finally, Berowra no 3 caught in front for 79 (14 boundaries)

Another wicket to Ram and then 2 wickets to Anand, dismissing Berowra for 159 in the 31^st over. Could have been much better given our earlier efforts, and then much worse given our middle overs.

Wickets to Anand 4/29(6), Ram 3/26. (7), Henry 2/30(7).  2 catches to Raynaldo and Anand, 1 catch and a runout to Alex. 160 to win, a challenging but achievable total.

Anand and Raynaldo opening the batting.

From ball 1 the Berowra fielders did not shut up. Chatter directed at the facing batter continued for the whole innings.

Anand got a good one, caught behind 1/20. Mridal and Raynaldo then put on a brilliant partnership. Both were quiet early given the good bowling, taking singles, hitting the occasional boundary and trying to ignore the chatter directed at them. At the 11 over mark both flicked a switch and proceeded to hit the bowlers into and over the boundary. 66 runs off 7 overs. 3 huge 6s to Raynaldo high up on the hill, chatter silenced somewhat. At the 18 over drinks break Reds cruising 1/118, a 98 run partnership, just 42 needed. Both guys bringing up their 50s just before drinks. Everyone up beat. Berowra captain giving his players a good talking to….

Walking out after drinks we needed to start again……but what followed was a typical Reds collapse. 3^rd ball after drinks Raynaldo holing out to deep mid-wicket (again) for 54. A few runs and overs later another wicket caught behind, then next over Mridal bowled by a full-toss for a well-made 58. Then next over another catch behind, then two overs later an unnecessary runout. Suddenly we have lost 5/15 off a hand full of overs 6/133 needing another 27 runs.  Berowra fielders serving it up to all the batters now and up for the win.

A couple of boundaries from the Kelly boys, before Berowra brought back their young and quick opening bowler, Darren dismissed first ball of the spell 7/147….Ross and Henry together. 13 runs needed. A boundary from Ross, and over seen out. Next over a couple of runs to Henry and a bye .Another over gone….7 overs left 6 runs needed.

Could there be a final twist ? Fast bowler steams in , 1^st ball , Henry loses his off stump, and typifying the Berowra game plan he gets an in the face send off from a fielder, Berowra captain not seeing as an issue or seeing any need to apologise.

Paul to face the last 5 balls of the fast bowler spell…..4 wicked balls saved, before the last ball of his spell wide outside leg for 4 byes…2 runs needed. Bowler says “I hate left handers”…as his spell finishes…

6 overs to go and plenty of time to score the runs…..fielders crowding, Ross blocking out an accurate over from their other opening bowler.

A bowling change, First ball of the 31^st over a short ball to Paul who pulls the ball to the boundary……a WIN…! 6 valuable points lifting us into the top 4…..

This was almost the game that got away, losing 7/44…..before creeping over the line. Heart attack material we almost gifted a win to the opposition. Good win but we need to do better in facets of our game.

As a final comment on today’s game.  Whilst we all want to play competitively we play to have fun as well. Over the last few seasons we have played many of our games in good spirit and shared friendly banter on and off the field with the opposition, but today’s game was definitely not one of them. The fielding team did not shut up our whole innings even with Raynaldo and Mridal playing beautifully, the Berowra fielders continually referring to poor play and edges, even when wonderful boundary shots.

I’m glad we don’t play that way and proud the way our lads play every week, always showing the opposition respect, although it was very hard to do so today. Let’s hope we get to play more gracious opposition in future rounds.

WPHC Blue (Rob) 7/136 defeated WPHC White (Agniva) 135

Today was Sheep Station Cup day for the WPHC C4 Blues and Whites.

Very fortunate to get Greenway for the match (the Association senior secretary must be a good bloke) we turned up to a fine day. Much nicer than the miserable weather last week. Time for the toss and Agni called tails, but it came up headsRob chose to bowl first. We were ready to start.

Father and son, Vinod and Adi, strode to the wicket to open the batting. The Blues knew both were key wickets so tight bowling was needed. Ryan and Lance opened the bowling and kept things nice and tight initially.

Despite losing a couple of early wickets the Whites put on some good partnerships and found themselves at a healthy 3/86 at drinks. Post drinks the runs kept flowing initially and the 4^th wicket fell on 112 with 11 overs still to play. But no one could have predicted the influence that Kaushal “I eat wickets for lunch” Gandhi would have on the remainder of the innings. In the space of 5.5 overs Kaushal took 6 wickets for only 7 runs. And the final 3 wickets that ended the innings were a Hat-Trick. So a 6 Fa including a Hat-TrickAnd the Blues will be nominating Vinod for Umpire of the Year, as the final 2 wickets in the hat-trick were given LBW.

So the Whites ended their innings on 135 in the 30^th over. Still a very competitive score, but not quite as large as it was looking. Great contributions with the bat from Anubhav (26) and Arunava (37). And a classy knock from Sufyan (37 n.o.) unfortunately running out of partners. Now the Blues turn to head out and chase.

Good tight bowling from the Whites early, saw wickets tumble and the Blues were soon 3/32.

This brought Andrew to the crease to join Jake. A nice steadying partnership of 45 slowed the loss of wickets, but the Blues now only had only 10 overs left and needed 6.3 per over if they were going to get the runs. It was time for Jake to step up and play a gem of an innings to steer the Blues home. Despite losing his wicket with 10 runs still to get, Jakes 66 was the difference in the end.

With Lance and Manu at the crease, the Blues needed 7 runs for a win. Manu hit the winning run with 2 balls remaining. A nice tight Sheep Station match that went down to the wire. Great bowling from Pritam taking 3/13 off his 7 overs.

D1 Grade

WPHC Red (Diggers) 4/137 lost to Beecroft 151

After a couple of really poor losses, we headed out to Northholm Grammar for another “home game”, this time against Beecroft, determined to get our season back on track.

Diggers won the toss and sent Beecroft in to bat first and, thanks to Disco and Manraj, they were 5/30 after 10 and we were well on top.

Unfortunately Beecroft then got away from us a bit and, thanks to a century from one of their batters, they somehow managed to get to 151 despite us fielding pretty well.

Disco finished with 4/22 off 7 and Manraj 4/9 off 7.

So, with us thinking that Beecroft made probably at least 50 more than they should have, we went about our run chase.

Beecroft bowled really well to start but we managed to get the score to 30 before losing our first wicket in the 12^th over. Nandit (23) and Cliff (57 not) and at 1/80 in the 25^th, we started to think we were half a chance.

Unfortunately we lost a couple of quick wickets after that, and we ended up falling 15 runs short.

I won’t say that cricket sucks but it is testing our resolve.

WPHC Blue (Nirav) 231 defeated Hornsby 224

It was a splendid day at George Christie Oval for a D1 match between West Pennant Hills and Hornsby.

Excitement filled the air as Hornsby won the toss and elected to field, setting the stage for an intriguing contest. West Pennant Hills began their innings with a strong partnership between Vikrant and Chinthan, who combined for a solid 61 runs. However, Vikrant’s dismissal left the team at 1/61.

Waman then joined Chinthan, and the pair played exceptionally well, guiding the team to a score of 1/93 by drinks. They continued their impressive batting display, with Chinthan scoring an incredible 87 before being dismissed. Waman also contributed significantly, scoring a tremendous 50. West Pennant Hills concluded their innings with a commendable total of 231.

Hornsby’s batting innings started on a shaky note, losing their first two wickets quickly, reducing them to 2/3. Despite this early setback, they built a strong partnership until Jaques made a crucial breakthrough, bringing the score to 3/64. While wickets fell intermittently, the game nearly shifted the match in Hornsby’s favour. However, Siby and Vikrant’s tight bowling halted their momentum.

In the end, West Pennant Hills narrowly secured a victory by 7 runs. It was a day filled with thrilling performances and strategic play, leaving West Pennant Hills well-positioned as they look forward to their next challenge.

D2 Grade

WPHC (Roger) Vs Bye