Headline achievements

Day 1 of the Semi Finals was played on the weekend. Highlights are:

• What better way to start the Semi’s than being declared Club Champions – our first time since 2008/09!
• Dean Carlin (C3) was the dominant performance taking our 46^th hat-trick and taking his 100^th wicket all in the first over
• Lachlan Vile (A1) scored his 2,000^th run in the Semi Final
• Matty Marsden (C1) scoring 64* in most of the day to bat the opposition out of the game.

A1 Grade

WPHC 227 Vs St Ives 2/36 – the match started well with Jimmy losing the toss and the boys being sent into bat. Jimmy and Philthy got us off to a solid start before a few quick wickets fell. From then on we were certain for a 200 plus score as there were solid contributions across the board. Bonga Miedler continued his superb form with 46 and maxim Bennett played a marvellous innings of 37. We managed to make 227 which was a very competitive score.

We then had a short period of time to have a bowl at St Ives. We managed to take two wickets thanks to Jobbo and Bonga. The fielding was solid with no drop catches and no misfields. If we bowl well next week, we will back ourselves to win the game and make it through.

A2 Grade

WPHC 3/2 Vs Kenthurst 192 – it was finally nice to get some sunshine, after 5 weeks of weather affected matches. The day started in familiar fashion, with Simon ‘Snumpty’ Smyth losing the toss, and we were asked to bowl. Wickets were sparse in the first 2 sessions, with dropped catches letting Kenthurst batsmen off the hook at different times. From 4/142, and with the second new ball, momentum swung our way, with the bowling lifting, and catches being taken, to see us bowl Kenthurst out for 192 – a wonderful fight back.

Darshan ‘Vader’ Pandya starred early with the ball, taking 3/14 off 15 overs. Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards owned the second new ball, taking 3 wickets in 3 overs, to finish with 3/33 off 15. Spin twins, Dan ‘Fish’ Costigan (2/32 off 18) and Andy ‘Fernie’ Meikle (2/55 off 20.1) looked dangerous all day, and were supported by Luke ‘Gandis’ Herzog (0/19 off 9), James ‘Jimmy Mc’ McBrien (0/16 off 5) and Snumpty (0/15 off 10). Catches were taken by Fish (2), Alex ‘Figjam’ Robertson (2), Alex ‘Hooch’ Turner, Jimmy Mc and Vader. Again, Anuj ‘Nuja’ Dhorajiwala starred in the field, with Allan ‘Raffa’ Raffel and Jules ‘SAJ’ Raffel providing solid support.

To restrict Kenthurst to 192 off 92 overs showed the control our bowlers had all day. With 6 overs to bat, we are 3/2, with a couple of nightwatchmen out, so we are looking forward to seeing our batting in action next week, as we look to make our way into the Grand Final.

B1 Grade

B1 Grade

WPHC 1/24 Vs Glenorie 122 – we were moved to Dural Park from Ern Holmes (Pennant Hills 2) the day before, and lost the toss for the first time in a long while, to which we were sent out to bowl. Dural Park was unusually mowed to short grass so we knew our bowlers had to be disciplined and accurate.

We struck wickets early, as we had Glenorie heavily under pressure after Cam ‘Hotballs’ McBrien’s best spell of the year got him our first wicket, as Justin ‘Clive’ Edwards was extremely economical coming from the other end. We got wickets every 10 runs they scored for their first 50 runs, putting them at 5/50 at the end of the 29th over.

The next few wickets took a little bit longer, but all of our other bowlers were bowling beautifully. Calvin, Tis (unlucky to get 0/12 off 9 overs), Ashane and Tim all bowled throughout the middle overs making the Glenorie batsmen struggle to find runs out in the field. We ended up bowling them out for 122, with Calvin (4/25 off 12), Cam (3/17 off 11 overs – and just too good for all of those overs), Justin (2/27 off 10 overs), Ashane (1/18 off 8 overs) all striking with the ball.

Poor Tim ‘Hollywood’ Leyshon would have had 2 wickets if not for one of the following reasons – haircut, lack of fielding practice, lack of fielding skill, tradition, or a certain lady Breytenbach not being present to watch Josh ‘F. Yeah’ Banner anymore.

We are currently 1/24 after 11 overs, with Michael ‘Volc’ Banner and Justin ‘best night-watchmen in the district’ Edwards holding the fort. A big week to come but if we do the hard yards we will put ourselves in the big GF! Looking forward to next week.

B2 Grade

WPHC 8/154 Vs ARL – this is a second versus third game. We turned up to Greenway Park which was lush from the weeks of rain and warm weather. We won the toss (only the 3^rd toss for the year) and after a delayed thought process from our skipper (because we don’t win the toss) we decided to bat.

The game didn’t start ideally with Aaron Carlini losing his wicket in the first over. Michael Gunn and Chris Williamson put a small partnership together before Gunny fell. At the 20 overs drinks break we were 2/42. After drinks Dinesh De Silva’s aggression partnered with Chris Williamson’s steady approach had us ticking along nicely.

Dinesh lost his wicket just before the tea break and we were 3/92 (off 39 overs). The next period of the game was slow where we lost 2 wickets for a further 28 runs and went into the 5pm drinks break at 5/120 off 56 overs. The last session of the day yielded 34 runs for the loss of a further 3 wickets.

At the close of play Ben Meikle 16* and Ravin Wijesuriya 3* are the not out batsmen. We ended the day at 8/154 off 75 overs. Most of our batsmen got starts today but none were able to cash in after doing the hard work. Best of our batting Dinesh De Silva 39, Michael Gunn 20, Chris Williamson 17, Ben Meikle 16* and Dinuka Jayasuriya 13. The game is evenly poised but it’s good to have runs on the board. We’ll bat on as long as we can with a view to posting as many runs as possible and chewing up some overs.

C1 Grade

WPHC 4/150 Vs Sydney Lions – as the minor premiers, we exercised our right to bat the opposition out of the game on day 1 and that’s exactly what we did. Les Shore #2 was very lush and slow today, and we had to be prepared to grind the opposition down to earn our spot in the final in a fortnight’s time.

Openers Stanton Tam and Mat Marsden followed the match plan to a tee and managed to negotiate the first 20 overs before Stanton departed for 8. From here we had a mini collapse to find ourselves at 3/36 off 30 overs, with the game teetering. Enter Ray Khamis – he has been low on runs since Xmas, but his influence on the game with a quick-fire 37 can’t be understated. When he departed at 4/86, and all of a sudden we had some momentum.

Following his departure in the 44^th over, Mikey Fiedler joined the dogged Mat to take us through to stumps and give us a total that is already looking insurmountable on such a slow outfield. The pair will resume next week with Mat on 64* and Mikey on 21*, with plenty of batting to come. Mat’s effort to bat through the day was superb, even if he made Chris Williamson’s knock some months back in B2 of 80-odd for the day look like a Glen Maxwell special.

C3 Grade

WPHC 146 Vs Hornsby 6/25 – on a bright sunny day, after a long run of no luck with tosses, coin finally landed right for us. We decided to bat on what was a very slow ground at Les Shore 1. Things did not go to plan with some players arriving late, and then to lose a wicket on very first ball of the innings. We knew we had to dig deep but some good disciplined bowling had us struggling at 3/25 into the 14th over of the innings.

Perry Waldron and Asees Rajput started the re-building activity but we lost 4th wicket in Perry (16) with score on 61. Lost wicket numbers 5 and 6 on score of 77. Asees and Cameron Bish managed to take score to 103 when Asees’s very patient innings came to an end by a very good catch. Asees was in the middle for about 26 overs and was second highest scorer with bat (18).

Cameron showed maturity beyond his young age to take team score to 126 in partnerships with Asees, Ben Waldron and finally with Dean Carlin. He was out after scoring 28 which included two fine 4s (4 in total from the bat in the whole innings). Last wicket pair of Dean and Ryan Loveridge put on very valuable 20 runs to the score, batting for almost 10 overs where opposition had to try various bowling combinations including their opening strike bowlers.

We had 16 overs to bowl and needed a good start with the bowlers. Next what we saw was not short of a dream. Dean in his very first over got a hat-trick which were all clean bowled. Dean and his run around the park was something special to watch after we had seen pegs come down three times. Dean’s hat-trick is only the 46^th hat-trick in our history and it is Dean’s 2^nd. It was also part of his 100^th Seniors wicket – more on this in our anecdotes.

We did not have to wait long before Ryan got us the 4 wicket with a brilliant one handed low catch by Gautam Ayyar behind the stumps. And two balls later Ryan gets another one with Rommel taking a tough high catch completed with a juggle. 5/7 after 6 overs was the dream start we got.

Next breakthrough came in 14th over when Zac Turner had their main set batsman caught behind with 4th ball of his spell. Hornsby finished day with score on 6/25.

D1 Grade

WPHC 110 Vs St Ives 2/15 – we were sent in against our wishes at a slow Cheltenham Oval (yes you read that correctly) and started strongly. Good work by Pratah Sinnetamby (32) and Cody Waters (13) had us 1 for 55 until a mix-up in communication ran out Pratah.

It must be said that he was looking a million dollars and the team collapsed from there to be9 for 92 with Sreeni Pillamarri (14) being the main stay. 4 weeks without cricket showed with our shot selections and running between wickets. Amith Ninan (11*) and Roger Friend (4) put on a 18 run last wicket stand to get us to 110 which may prove vital in our chances to get up week 2.

In reply we bowled 16 overs at St Ives and have them 2 for 15, both wickets to Amith Ninan (2/3) with good catches taken by Pratah (keeping) and Roger at gully.All bowlers were tight and there was around 10 runs saved by good fielding. The 2 batsman out are in the top 5 run scorers in our grade and while St Ives bat deep we are right in this game. 125 runs in a day at Cheltenham, Barry McDonald umpiring must have struggled to keep his eyes open.

D2 Grade

WPHC 1/14 Vs St Ives 9/151 – St Ives is the leader with 20 points ahead of second placed Castle Hill on the table. We are fourth on the ladder but also on equal points for third. The match took place at Karuah Oval with long grass in abundance. We won the toss and sent St Ives in to bat with our opening bowlers Dinal Silva and Ben Kinchington.

St Ives loss their first wicket on 6 and their second on 9 runs through the efforts of Ben and John Rose. They did not lose another wicket until 77 runs when Ben Kinchington bowled their top batsman for 47 runs. This particular batsman has scored over 550 runs this season. Ben then bowled the next batsman for a duck. Dinal Silva then took out the next batsman 1 run later and St Ives were 5 for 79 runs after 31 overs. Roshan Withange then bowled out the St Ives Captain for 4 runs with St Ives losing 6 wickets for 98 runs after 48 overs. At this point the remaining batsman started to hit out seeking boundaries as the grass keep the singles to a minimum. The next wicket fell at 113, then 143 and 150. The St Ives captain then declared at 9 for 151 runs at the 59 over mark with 29 sundries called.

We had to bat out 14 overs and Captain Mike sent out our 9th and 10th batsman (Michael Clipsham & Ian Williams) as night watchman openers. Both players did a superb job and at the end of play we were 1 for 14 requiring 138 runs to win the game.

Ben Kinchington took 3 for 9 runs off 10 overs today. John Rose also took 3 wickets for 18 runs off 10 overs. So if we can get these runs we will have knocked out the first placed team. So it’s on for young and old next week.

John Hayne Cup

Game 1

WPHC Blue 41 lost to Kissing Point Blue 0/23 – this showed just what a toll 4 weeks of next to no cricket can do! Batting first we were 7/12 at one stage before scrapping together a few more (Joel Behlevanas top scoring with one of the best 7* anyone can recall) to be bowled out for 41 in just 50 mins of play! Having given KP a 23 run head start on handicap, it left them only a total of 19 to win! The highlight was the long awaited return to the bowling crease of Peter Lees opening the bowling. Having not bowled a full over since the turn of the century, things did look a bit bleak when his first ball only managed to travel about a metre from his hand before coming to rest! But he made amends with the rest of the over, and bowled a further two overs in game two (and almost had a wicket but alas the catch went to ground).

Game 2

WPHC Blue 2/132 lost on handicap to Kissing Point Red 82 – we returned to some normality with Riley, Joel, Ollie Mayberry and Peter Lees all getting to their 20 runs before having to retire, Dave B chipping in with 17* including 2 x 6s. We posted a good score of 2/132, but gave away 59 runs on handicap to KP.

Despite bowling well, they scraped home with 81 which gave them the win on handicap.Great to have a couple of games of cricket after the last few weeks of weather, played in good spirits with more than a few laughs!

Last Premiership wins

• A1 Grade – 2014/15 (Captain – James Makin)
• A2 – 2014/15 (Julian Raffel)
• B1 – 2013/14 (Rick Turner)
• B2 – 2014/15 (Justin Paterson)
• C1 – 2015/16 (Andrew Fiedler)
• C2 – not playing in the Semi’s this season
• C3 – 2013/14 (Brett Hawkins)
• D1 – 2012/13 (Perry Waldron)
• D2 – 2006/07 (Rob McBrien).

Elite performers

Our website has the latest stats on our Top Performers this season. We only use Seniors stats as with Juniors we promote Participation over Results.

The following information is on our top fielding performances as at the end of Day of the Semi Finals:

Top 5 fielders

1. Riley Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 19 (plus 2 w/k)
2. Tarun Lath (C3) – 15 catches
3. Stanton Tam (C1) – 13
4. James McBrien (A2) – 10
5. Steve Quanborough (D1) – 9
6. Tis Mistry (B1) – 9

Top 3 wicket-keepers

1. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue) – 15 catches + 2 stumpings + 1 as a non-keeper
2. Gautam Ayyar (C3) – 15 catches + 4 as a non-keeper
3. Nick Bennett (A1) – 14 catches.