A1 Grade

WPHC 163 & 1/116 lost to St Ives 5/250 dec – A Grade unfortunately went down against a very strong St Ives team on a Turramurra wicket that was getting increasingly easier to bat on. Things looked good early for WPHCCC, with two quick wickets – one a piece to Andy Meikle and Darshan Panda – but from there the wicket really flattened out and St Ives passed our total and batted on to 250.

Luke Herzog and Andy Meikle both took their first A1 Grade wickets during the innings. Asked to bat again we moved quickly to 1/66 in 16 overs before the game was called off. Phil Wurth slogged his way to 22, and claimed he got out because he was bored – standard stuff from Phil. Next week we play a strong Normanhurst team coming off an outright win, but we also get several key players back – it should be a good contest.

A2 Grade

Blue (Rick) 104 lost to WPHC Red (Simon) 4/106

Grade of Origin: Part 2

Before play this week both Captains agreed that the most important part of the day was making sure we made it to the club in time for the GF. Something this writer can say was an honourable goal and was a complete success.

Simon “Dusty won the Brownlow and North didn’t sign him” Smyth expertly started the 50-run chase by picking his fielders as he edged one through Fids “Fiddles” Fiedler’s hands in the first over. Adelaide really need to lift here. Allen “Brother of Julian” Raffel took over the reins after Dusty won the Brownlow and North didn’t sign him spooned one to the captain of those blue pricks.

Brother of Julian then led the attack – as big Dusty says don’t argue – with Josh “Far Kyare” Banner chilling in a nice 4 before disgracefully running himself out. $2- out by Keats. Stanton “Pon” Tam came in and faced out a couple of overs – if Adelaide kick the next goal they’re still in it here – before being dismissed for zero in his debut innings, but had already earned his votes by stepping into his new role of Shopping List Manager and producing finger buns .

The battle for the Sheep Station Cup came to a close after Tim “Hollywood” Leyshon missed a fully off his first ball and it went for 4 byes.  Volc “Volc” Volc was unable to redeem himself from his misfield last week.

• 3 votes – Stanton “Pon” Tam
• 2 votes – Stanton “Pon” Tam
• 1 vote – Stanton “Pon” Tam

B1 Grade

WPHC 169 defeated St Ives 117 – going into week 2 with only 10 players, defending 169, we were focused on taking all the chances we were given, and that we did. The whole team played very well this week, taking every catch that presented itself, and one of the best caught and bowled takes by Semonn Oleksyn! With Nathaniel Chidgey, Ben Meikle Bowling was tight all day from everyone and wickets fell constantly throughout the day.

In the end we took the final wicket with 52 runs to spare, with Kobby O’Meara ripping through the tail! Best of the bowling were Kristoff O’Meara 4/17 and Semonn Oleksyn 2/19.

Special mentions to both Kobby and Michael Gunn, both breaking opponents bats in the process, 2 bats in one game.

B2 Grade

WPHC Blue (Tim) 193 lost to WPHC Red (Rob) 8/352 – heading back into the field with the Blues 5/91 we knew we had to keep the pressure on from the first over. Oliver Maybury (68) had other ideas. Oliver hit 15 boundaries inside 15 overs to reduce the deficit in quick time.

Aseem Goswami (3/27) got the first breakthrough of the day and next ball got the 2nd! Rob Knapman (5/40) then followed up with 2 wickets in 2 balls. Eric Junkkari (1/17) finished the innings with a great inswinger through the gate. Another match between 2 West Penno teams played in great spirits.

C1 Grade

WPHC 86 Vs St Ives 1/35 – scores and match report to some.

C2 Grade

WPHC 4/151 dec. defeated St Ives 139 & 152 – resuming at 2/64 we lost Nick for a well made 36, then Gunny to a screamer of a slips catch to have us 4/81. A disciplined innings from Gian (25*) and some punishing shot making (including a back foot cover drive for 6!) from Peter Lees (41) saw us comfortably take first innings points.

Taking the chance to see if we could roll them for the outright, we asked them to have another bat, but after a solid display and with St Ives 1/52 at tea, it was decided that the Club beckoned, so we agreed to call the game for an early return to the bar and GF watching!

C3 Grade

WPHC 7/118 drew with St Ives 8/330 (dec) – a great comeback by the team on Week 2 to show resilience, patience and never die attitude to draw against a strong bowling attack of St Ives. Our opponents did not declare after a strong week 1 performance and continued their innings to pile on some quick runs. But that was not to happen, as Sreeni Pillamarri and Shankar Ravi bowled 8 good overs taking 3 wickets, with Sreeni having the last week not out centurion batsman clean bowled in just the second ball of the day. St Ives made a declaration after scoring 330 run losing 8 wickets. The pick of the bowlers were Shankar Ravi 3/64, Sreeni 2/21, Peza 2/44 and Anthony Kwok 1/22.

It was our turn to bat and realised it would be a long day. Having an experienced senior side meant all were aware of the task at hand – just hang on and spend as much time in the middle.

Indranil and Anthony opened the innings and there was just no loose balls from St Ives bowlers but they played off steadily the initial spell.

Anthony was looking good but was unlucky to get an inside edge to the stumps and that brought Amitava, promoted to No 3. Both Indranil and Amitava played on till tea break scoring run rate being just under 2 rpo. Then followed some steady responsible innings from Amitava, Manu and Peza till the start of mandatory overs.

A flurry of wickets just after the last drinks break, meant the No 8 and 9 batsmen had to see off last 15 overs of the day, and Jr Louis Maddison and Amith Ninan did not disappoint. Play had to be called off due to bad light with just 4 overs short but no complaints from the opposition and all agreed it was a fair call to close. Top scorers were Indranil 32, Manu Verma 24, Peza 14 with Louis 10* and Amith Ninan 4* being the not out batsmen.

A special note of thanks to Ragini Sen (U13 Rep Girls team and daughter of A Sen) who stood by the team as the 13^th man for the entire day.

D1 Grade

WPHC 6/320  drew with St Ives 7/297 – after putting on 320 runs last week, attention shifted to bowling and fielding.  Opening the bowling with Nic Sparks (1/45) and David Larkham (2/62) things were tight early.  We had a steady fall of wickets leading to the first drinks break and had Kissing Point at 3/68.  Following the drinks break, things continued in similar fashion and we continued to get break throughs, getting us to the tea break with KP at 6/162.  Things were looking good!

Not long after the tea break we took the 7th wicket, and had plenty of time to get the final 3 wickets for a win. But then the shutters went up with the batsman.  They were no longer looking for runs and defended everything. Gautum tried everything, but nothing was working anymore, and when light stopped play it ended up a draw.

Great bowling today from David Larkham, Roger Friend (2/45) and Connor Hindmarch (1/13).  And a special mention to Nic Sparks who helped us out this round and performed very well with both bat and ball.

D2 Grade

WPHC 8/351 defeated St Ives 78 & 3/126 – we batted last week after losing the toss to hit 351 runs which I think is one of our highest totals in D2 grade. We declared at the end of the match last week. This week St Ives were bowled out for 78 runs in their 23rd over. That included  Ben Kinchington taking 5 wickets for 21 runs in his 7 over spell. Brent Van Wck and Steve Quanborough also took a wicket plus Steve also created a run-out off Ben’s bowling.

We put St Ives back in to bat seeking an outright win. Ben Kinchington took out their opener and achieved 6 wickets for 30 runs in 10 overs over both innings. Thiru Pukazthenthi took another wicket followed by Parin Pillamarri who took his first wicket in seniors. Parin’s figures were 1 for 12 over 7 overs including 4 maidens. What a fantastic effort by Parin. We dropped two catches which were difficult ones but at this stage St Ives were blocking every ball with a view to not losing by an outright.

A big thank you to Deven Solanki who also took 2 catches but bowled a mean fast ball over his 5 overs. Simon Rahmani bowled 4 overs for a economical 7 runs in the second innings. Simon Friend also bowled 4 overs conceding only 16 runs and came close to having two batters stumped. After 40 overs we decided to call it a day with a well deserved first innings win.