Points Table

Standings after 12 Rounds follow. This will be refreshed early in the week as results come through across the Association:

• A1 Grade – 5^th
• A2 – 1^st
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – 8^th (13 points off 4^th spot)
  • Red (Gunny) – 1^st
• B2 – 4^th
• C1 – 6^th (2 points off 4^th spot)
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – 1^st
  • Red (Indranil) – 5^th (7 points off 4^th spot)
• C3 – 1^st
• D1 – 1^st
• D2 – 6^th

Match Reports

A Grade 6/99 defeated ARL 8/98 – a wet and dreary Parklands Oval greeted us today as we arrived for a must win, do or die contest between WPHCCCC and ARLCCCC. The covers were on and there was plenty of optimism that we would get on, however we did experience a 45min – 1hr delay which helped settled the nerves of a few players. Some of the team enjoyed the time to go and get some food, none moreso that Jackson “Chest” Preedy who chowed down a lovely vegan grass burger courtesy of Phil and Lichaaa.

The time was also used to talk real estate and the importance of pools in the backyard. Phil reminded us that he often tells his wife that they need to get rid of their pool, because he can no longer bear to see the sight of small insects and lizards drowning in the water.

Back to the cricket and Captain JP won the toss and elected to bowl on what looked to be a green top. Tim “Buckets” Scholar and Bailey “Andrew” Miedler kicked us off in fine fashion, good line and length had ARL under pressure from the beginning. Buckets especially was very good, a 6 over spell which applied the clamps and had ARL looking for suicidal runs.

Jackson Preedy had two prime opportunities to finish off run out chances however despite his deep voice cries in desperation, he missed both. The second one was so far wide that Lichaa and Yo-yo reminded him that the stumps were the BROWN things.

Lichaaa and JP came on next and continues to apply the pressure. It was at this point that Ross Anderson arrived at the ground to support – and it was just so great to have a club legend of his status, of his figure come to OUR game. Lichaaa wanted to impress him, and he did just that – 2-0 in his first two overs including a bizzare hit wicket that had everyone scratching their heads. He did get a hi-5 from Ross at drinks, his face beaming with pride.

Preeds came onto the bowl after drinks and he too continued to momentum in bowling tight. All the bowlers had it going today, partnering together to ensure ARL had to work for every run. And they did try to push the ledger with some suicidal runs, taking on one particular fielder who couldn’t escape the ball – Dan Cardigan. Fish had 5 opportunities to secure run outs, missing all 5 – and even trying an underarm option at one point in a desperate attempt to hit the stumps.

Despite all the missed run outs, the bowlers did their job and we were set a target of 99 to win off 28 overs.

Preeds and Phil opened and were conservative from the start. Very conservative. After 14 overs, we were 0/35 and the heart rate of Alex “FISS” Robertson was rising steadily.

Wickets fell semi rapidly after drinks – Preeds, Phil, Bailey, Buckets and Yo-yo were dismissed with starts. The run rate continued to climb and what looked to be an easy chase, was beginning to get closer and closer to a run a ball.

FISS and Jamakin were brought to the crease and they didn’t panic, ticking the scoreboard over in a fine fashion. FISS unfortunately dismissed when 7 off 8 was required, bowled all ends up. As Lichaaa strode to the crease, FISS bee lined him and gave his words of wisdom. Lichaaa laughed and tapped him on the shoulder “it’s all good mate”

And it was all good. Lichaaa and Jamakin running hard between wickets and seeing us home. A great win, thanks solely to our good luck charm – Ross Anderson.

A2 Grade 7/155 lost to Berowra 6/154 (rain affected) – we were about as much chance of playing today as Gandis is eating meat. Somehow we got on. Enjoy your steak big fella.

Fernie ‘Thunder From Down Under’ Meikle won the toss, and elected not to run in and break our ankles. Good thinking.

We got off to a reasonable start, and accelerated through our innings, to score 7/155 off 30 overs. Effie ‘Tall Car’ Banner was the star with 50, with Pear ‘$2 Bunga’ Partridge hit 26, including 3 x 6’s. A terrible moment occurred when Volc ‘Thick & Angry’ Banner got caught at deep cover, and high 5’ed the catcher on his way off. He’s been ordered to watch a Ben Barba highlights reel as a punishment.

Conditions were tough for bowling, with normally well executed bungas being pinned for dangerous no balls. Either that, or the Berowra batsmen are too short. Blowy ‘Go Penno’ Blow took 3 fa, Keats ‘Michael Jordan’ Keating took 2 and J-Mac ‘Go Knights’ McBrien 1. Berowra hit a 4 off the 2nd last ball, to get across the line.

Losing isn’t very fun. A bit like picking up in Thailand to realise she’s a ladyboy.

B1 Blue (Rick) drew with WPHC Red (Gunny) – there was no play today in the Sheep Station Cup between the B1 Blues and B1 Reds. The game was washed out.

B2 drew with St Ives 2/14 – match report to follow.

C1 5/149 lost to Hornsby 7/150 – beautiful field at Montview, alas a tad spongey from the weather. We won the toss & batted first 5-149, Richard Hughes (52) and Asees Rajput (36no) batted assuredly against a tricky bowling lineup with a cameo from Wortho (17).

Our turn to bowl, Sam Hando (0-18 off 6) bowled superbly creating so many chances, without reward, Napier Gryst (1-33 off 7) bowled well also, and took an outrageous c&b! The spin twins Asees Rajput (1-24 off 4) & Arjun Kumar (3-29 off 7) bowled with guile and enticed the batsman into many errors, with pressure coming from both ends and with plenty of chances going down.

Raunak Sethi (0-15 off 4) bowled tight as well, and Waris Trehan (0-25 off 6) was unlucky with plenty of edges and chances.

Hornsby fell over the line in the 2nd last over. Special mention to Rick Turner who fielded for us and was very helpful throughout the match. 2 games to go are must wins now

C2 Blue (Fieds) drew with Kenthurst – a case of wet day. No play. The end.

C2 Red (Indranil) 7/111 defeated Beecroft 4/96 – with two Captains wanting to get on and a fair amount of patience from the players, we got on at 3pm for a 20 over a side game.

The weather held off and improved as the afternoon went on (luckily). Indy called incorrectly and we were asked to bat first. The opening partnership didn’t quite go to script, Graham smashing a ball to mid on and was promptly dropped unbeknown to Graham, who was then run out in the ensuing confusion. Indy (31ret no) and Sreeni (15) then set about forming a strong partnership of 44 before Sreeni was trapped LBW in the 9^th over.

Peter (34) joined Indy and set about accelerating the innings. Indy known for throwing everything at a loose ball, threw his shoulder out and was retired in the 12th over, enter the Duckster (14), who promptly deposited the bowler over the fence for the only six of the day before being run out in the worst fashion backing up a little to far at the bowlers end. A flurry of wickets with few runs in the last three overs left us at 111 and feeling maybe a little light on runs.

But that worry was soon allayed as the bowling unit set about making the task unachievable. Rowan Dickerson 0/8 off 4 overs and Amit 1/17 and Shankar 1/19 off their 4 over spells had Beecroft all at sea.

The fielding was strong today ensuring no easy runs and turning possible 2s into singles. A great win over 4^th place Beecroft has us within 2 points of 4^th and 5 points of 3^rd. Strong wins in the last two rounds should see thru to the finals. C’mon Reds!!

C3 drew with ARL – no play unfortunately. Pitch soaked and covered in (what must have been old) grass cuttings plus the entire field covered with 4 inch long grass (conservative estimate!).

D1 6/114 defeated Berowra 5/95 – after some deliberation, it was eventually decided that the game would commence with a 30 over game a side after wet weather delayed play with a damp pitch and runups.

New Captain Steve moved himself up the order to opener after complaining he was “dropped” to number 5 previously even though he claims his lowest score of the season is 17 for D1.

Siby got his opportunity moving his way up to an opener, luckily for him Berowra dropped a sitter that would’ve seen him out for a duck, however, he was shortly removed afterwards LBW. Aden ran himself out shortly after, but claims he was in, since Hanich senior was umpiring. Steve and Papa Digs ran themselves out setting new low personal scores for the season and putting us in danger of a very low score indeed at 4/20 off 8 overs.

Connor (48*) and Roshan (28) brought the game back into contention with a fabulous 57 run stand-off 16 overs together. Connor continued to push on well supported by Disco Dave (13) to put on 37 runs for the team to finish 6/114. Both were spent at innings end.

Disco (0/6 off 6) and Amith (0/20 off 6) opened the bowling and bowled tight to halt against the Berowra main guns. After 15 overs Berowra were 0 for 38. Clouds were rolling in and Berowra were madly looking at the run rates required if rain intervened.

After a few well bowled overs by Roger (2/16 off 6) and Connor (2/23 off 6) the Berowra bats realised they had to up the ante and this played into our hands. 1^st wicket went to a good catch to Mitch off Connor at Mid On and then the critical wicket of the Berowra captain with Roger using all his guile to induce a cow corner whack well caught by player of the match Connor.

Another catch to Mitch and then to Aden a wicket a piece to Connor and Roger had Berowra slump to 4/58 off 22.

Marcus (1/5 off 2) finally got a chance and took a pole well caught by chick (whoops I mean ball) magnet Mitch.

Berowra were gifted a few late runs but came up well short at 5/95 even if a change of ball was needed in the last over – refer anecdotes.

This was a huge result for us to recover from a disastrous start and the middle order showing some smart batting to give us a score to defend. Bowlers finished the job with some good catching. This result leaves us in 3^rd spot but puts us 15pts ahead of 5^th place. We have a game against 4^th placed Hornsby and the team to beat St Ives who are 2^nd in the final 2 rounds.

D2 73 lost to Kenthurst 81 – we won the toss and decided to bowl at Dural Park where the rain seemed to have dissipated. Kenthurst is coming second in the Competition and we are last. However our bowling is improving especially over the last couple of rounds.

Nirav Desai took 3 for 11 off 5 overs and Aayush Tamhankar 2 for 19 off 7 overs. Lakshya, Praneel, Vishaal, Waman and Captain Mike took a wicket each to have Kenthurst all out for 81 after 33 overs.

We managed to bowl 4 at their batters for a duck and 4 other batters for less than 8 runs. One of the reasons for these good results was the ball keeping low however on the pitch due to the rain soaking earlier in the day. This plagued us when we batted later in the innings.

Kenthurst bowlers were much faster than ours with a number of them obviously playing in a lower grade than they should be. In fact one of their bowlers was bowling bouncers at high pace which I considered dangerous. That bowler eventually hit the helmet of Nirav solidly and I had to give him a warning because of it.

Their openers took 2 for 8 off 7 overs and 3 for 7 off 6 overs. We were 5 for 29 after 17 overs. This game was going down to the wire which it continued to do through the remaining overs. We were bowled out in the 32 over for 73 just 8 runs short of a draw.

Our bowling has improved to the point where we are now taking 10 wickets which has been the case for the last two rounds. So a big improvement in that respect. We continue to work on the batting but there is no doubt that we are getting more competitive now.

So congratulations for a much improved performance probably due to the fact that half the teams comes to practice twice a week. Well done guys.6^th Vs 2^nd