Points Table

Standings after 13 Rounds follow. This will be refreshed early in the week as results come through across the Association:

• A1 Grade – 4^th
• A2 – 1^st
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – 8^th
  • Red (Gunny) – 1^st
• B2 – 2^nd
• C1 – 5^th (2 points off 4^th spot)
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – 1^st
  • Red (Indranil) – 4^th
• C3 – 1^st
• D1 – 3^rd
• D2 – 6^th

Match Reports

A Grade 130 defeated St Ives 79 – welcome back to Turramurra Oval for Day 2 of this titanic clash between WPHCCCCC and St Ives. Some momentary confusion greeted the players today when the change rooms were locked, the local council electing to use three varying padlocks in size to protect the small, dark, smelly rooms.

Apart from the smell we could hear the flattering of birds in the background but when we could hear WU singing his tunes we knew we were going to be in for an audacious day of cricket.

After multiple messages on the team WhatsApp during the week, JP had us fired up. The warmup was done with such focus, such refinement that St Ives were even oooo and ahhhring. Catches were held from everywhere – and Preeds was punished for not paying attention by almost copping one right in the back of his head. We were ready. Ready to defend the very gettable 110 runs that St Ives required.

In all the commotion Jackson had actually busted his brand new thongs. Took a moment for the team to try to get Jackson to mentally focus back on the game.

Now it was time to play cricket. Lichaaa and Preeds were given the ball to open up. Everyone knows Lichaaa bowls better angry, so Wu tried to get him in the mood using things close to his heart – “your Mrs cheated on you, you lost a grand by a nose on the horses”.

The whole team were fielding like a pack of hungry hyenas, and it was vocal. There was a semi final feel to the game. Just like Cardigans waistline, The bowling was tight and compact.

Bowling in partnerships got us off to the best possible start, the pressure was on and runs were hard to come by. We were rewarded with our first wicket after about 10 overs of relentless persistence, Preeds getting his first much to the disgust of Lichaaa, who had beaten the bat of the same guy the over prior on all SIX deliveries.

The excitement started to grow and some guys were starting to get loud and excited. At the break, Jackson was so excited that he badly wanted to eat a banana slowly but the fruit shop was too far to travel.

Vital wickets to Preeds and Buckets had the game evenly poised at the drinks break. JP reminding us to channel our inner Freddie Mercury and have all St Ives batsman biting the dust ASAP.

After a mammoth spell of 11 overs straight without a wicket, beating the bat over and over and over, Lichaaa was dragged and Cardigan introduced.

There was to be no whale blubber and grandma arm bowling today from cardigan. He took two vital wickets and the celebration had started.

Cardigan was looking to clean up the tail, however was brought thundering back down to earth when Leftie crunched him for an over of tonking. Cardigan was quickly taken off for his poor over and Lichaaa reintroduced from the northern end of the ground.

Even though cardigan bowled great spell up until the Tonking by that big left hander. Cardigan was more interested in finding out who had eaten more hamburgers for lunch, him or the big left-hander and had lost sight of the big picture.

Bailey and Lichaaa began to clear through the tail. Bailey with 2 and Lichaaa finishing with 17.5 overs bowled, 4/14 – some great catching late in the day at first slip from Cardigan sealing the deal. WPHCCCC had won, and a finals berth was within reach. But one question remained, do we go for outright?

Mr experience, Jam Jammy Jamakin was pushing hard for the outright that and was very very passionate about playing more cricket. Four or five guys had to throw a net over Jamakin, Gag him, had safely escorted him to his car as we decided that cricket could wait for another week.

Well Wu had decided anyway with words of “ I’m just not feeling it” and some of the younger guys cried a sigh of relief and were able to knock off early to get to the club. Assman was the only one disappointed.

A great win! Thanks for reading.

A2 Grade 194 defeated Kissing Point 8/115 – after a washed out sunny day last week, we were greeted at The Glade by another sunny day. This time we played. When you have a wife and kids at home, playing cricket on a sunny day is very important.

It prolongs parenting and husbanding until Sunday, where hangovers normally render parenting ineffective anyway. Off to work Monday, and do it all again.

Snumpty ‘Stinging Eyeball’ Smyth returned from 9 weeks in rehab, and lost the toss. He’s back. We were asked to bat. That’s what we wanted to do anyway, so Snumpty just told the boys he won the toss #tactics. We were able to tick the run rate along, but some good Kissing Point bowling saw us at 4/42.

That brought Effie ‘90210’ Banner and Blowy ‘Snapchat’ Blow together, in what turned out to be a match winning partnership. Married At First Sight ‘relationship experts’ are having issues matching couples at the moment, but A2 experts got this partnership right, and Effie and Blowy will go into this week’s commitment ceremony full of A2 love for each other.

The partnership reached 120, and hitting 126 off the last 17 overs saw us reach 5/194 off our 35 overs. Effie finished on 96*, with Blowy making 56. It was a better looking partnership than Brangelina.

Gandis ‘Schooner Salad’ Herzog made life even tougher for Kissing Point, striking in the first over. Well done vegan. Tis ‘Short Mullet’ Mistry then struck the big blow, dismissing the Kissing Point captain. Blowy then decided he hadn’t done enough already, taking 2 wickets in 2 balls. Just a tremendous athlete.

Snumpty then came on, firstly surviving being able to bowl with only 1 hamstring, and secondly, taking 2 wickets, the first of which brought up his 400th.

Experts say that had he not been injured for half the season for the last 15 years, he may have taken as many wickets as Murali, Warney and Eric Junkarri. Cambo ‘Finger Wangle’ McBrien took the 8th wicket, as the young Kissing Point batsmen played out the last few overs looking for a draw, before realising it was a 1-Dayer.

Our commitment was best demonstrated late in the day, when LMac ‘S.Waugh’ McBrien and Volc ‘J.Gillespie’ Banner clashed heads running for a catch that they both wanted. LMac will need to pass a concussion test to play next week, while Volc will need a good lawyer to get him off a 3 week suspension for reckless high contact.

Kissing Point made 8/115. Howe nice it is to win.

B1 Blue (Rick) 6/234 dec drew with Castle Hill Green 5/137 – resuming on our overnight score of 4/164 the plan was to bat for 10 or so overs and post a score of 200+. Cooper ‘Coops’ Goddard and Rowan ’23’ Keating started exactly as they finished batting with controlled aggression.

Coops lost his wicket in the 5th over of the day for a great score of 72. Keats went on to post a fifty (62) before losing his wicket at 210. There were nice cameos from Kyle ‘Fabs’ Faber 23* and Michael ‘Mobbo’ Robertson 15*. We had posted a good score of 234. This left Castle Hill about 60 overs to get the runs.

Castle Hill was never really in the hunt batting conservatively. Out opening bowlers of Calvin ‘DJ’ Breytenbach, Peter ‘Slenda’ Flook, 23 and Mobbo all bowled well without luck. It took the introduction of the skipper Rick ‘Flair’ Turner to break the opening partnership in the 21st over. Castle Hill lost 3 quick wickets and were quickly 3/48 in the 23rd over.

Castle Hill dug in and Oliver ‘Ollie’ Maybury scored and pole 4/77. Coops cleaned up the other set batsman and Castle Hill were 5/86 in 34 overs. Castle Hill then shut up shop and the game petered out to a tame draw. We thought Castle Hill would have shown more intent given they were in the top 4 and a draw might see them drop out of the 4.

Best of our bowling Flair 2/8, Coops 1/9 and Ollie 1/26.

WPHC Red (Gunny) 9/264 defeated Berowra 213 – we declared with 264 on the board against a good batting side who were going to test our bowlers. At a time like this, we turn to Ben Meikle and Ben Meikle turns the ball.

Benny bowled some superb deliveries, beating the bat, catching the edge and bamboozling the batsmen. He also bowled some full tosses and half trackers which got wickets. Finishing with 5/80 from 22 overs, Papa Meiks guided us to victory, supported by some excellent fielding including a direct hit run out from Nathaniel to break the key partnership.

Just 5 overs were left in the day when we took the final wicket, giving us a win that secures a top two finish. With spots in the finals team on the line, good chat and team snacks in the last round will push an irresistible case for selection.

B2 8/234 dec defeated Kenthurst 196 – we started the day at 6/205 and planned to bat on for 5 overs and put on another 30 runs. Ruben Alexander (21) knocked the ball around between boundaries to put us in a position to declare at 9/234.

Heading into the field, we knew that a win could move us into the top 4. We needed 10 wickets from 62 overs.

Things didn’t start well as the opposition made it to 0/70 after 22 overs. The introduction of Eric Junkkari (3/27) had an immediate impact, getting a wicket on his first ball. Eric took his next wicket in his 2nd over, thanks to a catch by Macca in the slips.

At the tea break Kenthurst were 2/89, and with the ability to leapfrog us on the ladder, they came out looking to chase the runs.

Our bowlers kept their heads and made the opposition earn their runs. In the next session we took 4 wickets. Dean Carlin bowled a great second spell to pick up 3 wickets, knocking the off stump out of the ground 3 times.

Ryan Loveridge (2/21) finished the job thanks to 2 great catches. Naps held on to a tracer bullet at short cover and Raghu held on to a high miss hit at midwicket.

A cracking game of tough cricket that gave us an important 6 points! A special thanks to Haydn Murray who came out to field for the day after we had a player go down during the week.

C1 7/171 dec defeated Sydney Lions 81& 6/177 – going into this week we wanted quick runs, with 17 overs max for a lead, giving us 50 overs to bowl them out. Starting from 3-60 with 22 runs for 1st innings points, 5 overs had elapsed and we had gained these.

After 46 overs we declared 7-171, a lead of 90, best with the bat were Asees Rajput (47), Richard Hughes (34) & Napier Gryst (33). Our turn to bowl, and we used 10 bowlers, in an extreme toil from all bowlers we reached a stalemate with 2 overs remaining in the day we called the match.

They made 6-177, a lead of 86 with 1 of their batsman 85no, a case of missed opportunities. Best with the ball, Napier Gryst (3-58), Arjun Kumar (2-30) & Asees Rajput (1-10), we play Kissing Point in a must win match for the final round for an hope of a finals berth.

C2 Blue (Fieds) 178 defeated St Ives 161 – they say cricket is a funny game and this was another great example.

We arrived to find the ground significantly quicker than last week’s quagmire-like conditions. We resumed on 7/164 with the aim to bat for 5 or 6 overs & knock up a quick 30 or so, but when has a game ever gone to plan? Our tail was skittled for 178, and we had a minimum of 62 overs to defend it with.

We got off to a flyer with Jack Barry knocking over the stumps with the 2^nd ball of the innings, but for the rest of the afternoon wickets were tough to come by. St Ives were able to form partnerships and we continually changed bowlers to search for breakthroughs.

Warren ‘Good Ball’ Schwartzel, The Chidge & Stu ‘Dizzy’ Fiedler all took wickets when needed, but we found ourselves behind the 8-ball the longer the afternoon wore on. 4 or 5 dropped catches didn’t help either, and we certainly need to assess the rule book as it seems every full toss is now called a ‘no-ball’.

At the final drinks break we needed a miracle. St Ives was cruising at 4/135 and we had 18 overs to go. Dan Schwartzel had a bung knee, and our other assorted juniors were running out of their allotted overs. However Avi Lath & Jack stood up and produced spells of great accuracy and skill. Avi finished with 3/14 and Jack 3/33. Shaan Bakshi also chipped in with a wicket and the final catch to cement our minor premiership for the season.

We now look forward to the Sheep Station Cup Vs the Reds next week.

C2 Red (Indranil) 8/159 defeated Castle Hill 158 – day 2 and all to do, and 70 + overs to do it…the Captain detailed the plan, adjusted the batting order to suit the plan and away we went.

A steady start was abruptly interrupted with the dismissal of the skipper and not long later Ramil joined him on the bench. Vinod (27) and Nikki set about righting the innings and got us thru to the first drinks break.

With the loss of Vinod, Peter (28) joined Nikki (41) and they set about accelerating the innings putting on 59 for the 4^th wicket. Nikki’s dismissal was quickly followed by Amit and Peter, leaving Jack (10), Sreeni (18*) and Amith (3*) to sure up the innings to get us home with 2 overs and 2wickets to spare.

A great team effort, that now has the Reds in fourth place.

C3 257 defeated Castle Hill 131 –with a very solid score last week we knew we just needed to be disciplined in our attack this weekend to ensure we took the 6 points.

The day started well with Paul and Dylan pushing for the breakthroughs and Dylan snagged two early wickets to have them 2/4! Throughout the day we were always on top and heading into tea we had them 6 down.

They decided then to try and block out for the draw, which was frustrating, but with the depth of bowling we have, it was just a matter of being patient enough to keep to our plans and we ended up bowling them out with 16 overs to spare!

Dylan, Xander and Rosey took 3 wickets each with Paul collecting one as well.

This almost certainly secures us the minor premiership, but leaves us with the challenge of continuing on our form not the finals!

A great team effort once again saw us to our 9th win in a row! We hope to keep that going into the last round!
D1 8/185 dec 7/128 lost to Hornsby – we batted on after being 7 for 128 after Day 1 with the ground running a lot better. Siby (32*) and Quan (50) put on a further 53 until the last over before declaration Quan running himself out unselfishly in the attempt to get an additional run to the score.

WPH declaring 8 for 185 giving Hornsby 42+ overs to get the runs.

After 13 overs we had Hornsby 2 for 30 with a wicket to Roshan (1 for 41 off 12) and Marcus (1 for 27 off 7). This was a great start and with Rishab Iyer (2/29 off 6) the next bowler to make impact, Hornsby had slumped to 4 for 67 off 22.

Obviously we thought we were now in the box seat with a win or draw a more likely result and were hussling through the overs. Hornsby dug in against our bowlers and at times the ball was pretty close to the fielders but no wicket eventuated. Roger (0/17 off 6) bowled well without luck and the re-introduction of the main pace bowlers had little impact.

Hornsby did lose another wicket with Josh Elliott clean bowling the no 3 but that was all she wrote with Hornsby hitting aerial at the small Fred Caterson 4 winning with an over to spare. Two shining lights came out of today’s play with Siby Joseph hitting his 2nd top score for WPH with 32* and Marcus Exton’ s bowling was outstanding.

While we didn’t get the win we are still in 3rd place, 1 point ahead of Hornsby. Both of us face the top 2 teams in R15 which will be a pre-cursor to finals as the top 4 teams are now known.

D2 79 lost to Hornsby 6/133 – match report to follow once Captain Mike’s PC is working.