Points Table

Standings after 3 Rounds are:

• A1 Grade – =1^st (2^nd on quotient)
• A2 – 1^st
• B1:
  • Blue (Rick) – =7^th (8^th on quotient)
  • Red (Gunny) – =2^nd (2^nd on quotient)
• B2 – =4^th (5^th on quotient)
• C1 – 7^th
• C2:
  • Blue (Fieds) – =1^st (1^st on quotient)
  • Red (Indranil) – 5^th
• C3 – =5^th (6^th on quotient)
• D1 – =3^rd (4^th on quotient)
•  D2 – =4^th (4^th on quotient)

Match Reports

A Grade Vs Kenthurst – no surprises but with all the wet weather, all turf grounds are closed this weekend. So this game will be played as a 1 Dayer next weekend at Kenthurst Park. So rather than leaving it at that, Captain JP shared some thoughts on what the boys actually do when they have nothing to do:

Jamakin spent the afternoon with the kids as his wife spent the arvo on a well earned break.

 Phil spent the afternoon with his boys. Word is he was teaching them that they are allowed to respect him, despite the obvious.

 Yoyo spent the afternoon crunching numbers and working out how he will score 1000 runs this year.

 Ashane spent the afternoon colouring his hair back to a respectable colour after going blue, then purple, then blonde and finishing on pink.

 Robbo spent the afternoon looking after his dogs and preparing to save lives as a doctor one day.

 Costo celebrated his wife’s birthday in style, taking the kids for the afternoon and allowing her to relax.

 Buckets spent the afternoon dreaming about hurting batsman and putting the fear of god into anyone that faced him.

 Jackson spent the afternoon pondering about how he has possibly lost the match report writing to Phil Wurth. JP’s advice to Jackson is to spend more time writing the match report and less time chasing birds on a Saturday night.

 JP spent the afternoon thinking about how he was going to beat Berowra outright next match.

 Tis and Ankit sighed with relief as they didn’t have to play down a Grade this week.

 A2 Grade Vs Kissing Point – another was out this time at Mt Ku-ring-gai Oval and a 1-dayer next weekend –something different for a change.

B1 Blue (Rick) 228 Vs Castle Hill – we arrived at Fred Caterson to a soft and damp ground but still playable.

There were no puddles of water excluding near the fences. Flair took the toss (and lost) and Castle Hill elected to bowl. This looked like a good decision early on when we were 2/16 (losing Willy and Zac early).

A good partnership of 71 between Raffa and Cooper got us back on track. Cooper went for a well made 44. We then lost 3/20 to be 6/107 and the game evenly poised. But great batting from Calvin, Daniel Schwartzel (filling in from C1), Ruben Alexander (filling in from B2) and Hollywood got us into a good position.

We batted the full day for a total of 228 which was a good score given the conditions (there were only 15 x 4s scored all day). Best of our batting Calvin 53, Cooper 44, Raffa 31, Ruben Alexander 30, Daniel Schwartzel 24 and Hollywood 18*.

A really solid batting performance putting us in a good position for day 2. If we bowl and field well we can win this game.

B1 Red (Gunny) Vs St Ives – no play today with Dural Park being pretty wet so we play a 1-Dayer next weekend.

B2 3/101 Vs ARL – we arrived at Howson Oval to find a very dry pitch waiting for us. We were keen to get a game in having had a Bye in Round 2 and the washout in Round 3.

Naps won the toss and we went into bat. Runs were hard to come by early and we soon found ourselves at 2/22 after 17 overs. Dinesh De Silva (21) came to the crease with positive intent, blasting a cracking shot over mid-wicket and over the fence for six.

Dinesh and Raghu Chary (50*) increased the run rate after the drinks before Dinesh was caught behind. Eric Junkkari (7*) joined Raghu and the pair pushed through to tea with Raghu bringing up his half century and taking the total to 3/101.

During the break we were hit with a big downpour. The short burst of rain was enough to washout the remainder of the days play. With runs on the board and wickets in hand, we will try and set a total next week and put the pressure on the Opposition.

C1 Vs Lankan Islanders 203 – overcast conditions greeted us today at a lush Greenway Park. Wortho lost the toss and so we were sent in to bowl against the Lankan islanders.

On a day dominated by the weather, the ball became extremely tough to control for our bowlers.

Extras were 39 (22 byes) in a team total of 203. Lots of chances were missed, put down or went close to fielders, this was probably the difference between chasing 120. However the bowlers toiled very handsomely and thus were rewarded, stars in the bowling consisted of, Assem Goswami (3-13 off 11) with 4 maidens bowled beautifully, ably supported by Sam Hando (2-9 off 5), with Pavan Cherupalli (1-43 off 13), Asees Rajput (1-8 off 5), and Rommel Pandey (1-20 off 4). Waris Trehan (0-40 off 10), Manu Verma (0-33 off 10), and Richard Hughes (0-18 off 3) were unlucky without wickets but continued to dry up their batters. 203 looks a par score on a very receptive Greenway pitch. Looking forward to the run chase next week … see you all there free entry

C2 Blue (Fieds) Vs Kenthurst 149 – we started 40 mins late after some showers, and after losing the toss, we weren’t unhappy to be asked to bowl.

The first session saw almost everything we did go to plan – our Openers Jack Barry (1/6) and Gian Gill kept things tight, and our change bowlers Rahul Mucherla and Alex Chidgey were able to consistently take wickets while keeping the runs down.

The introduction of Stuey Fiedler (3/11) to the attack also reaped benefits as he took wickets either side of the tea break. We had Kenthurst 7/62 just after tea, but things changed following a brief shower. The ball became wet and stopped moving, and we struggled to take more wickets.

After trying 7 bowlers, the re-introduction of Alex to the attack was the tonic we needed. He took the last 3 wickets to finish with his first ever 5-wicket haul, finishing with 5/26 off 12 overs.

We had our share of calamity throughout the day, as first our opening bowler Jack Barry strained his shoulder and was limited to just 6 overs for the day, and his father Mick limped off after pulling a calf muscle after celebrating a catch.

A big call out to Nathaniel Chidgey for coming down and fielding for most of the day.

Further showers prevented us from starting our innings, so we go into next week with a full batting line-up and plenty of confidence to chase down this total on a fast Cheltenham outfield.

C2 Red (Indranil) 8/185 Vs Beecroft – the Red’s won the toss and elected to bat. We got off to a steady star with Will (28) and Ben (17) seeing off the first ten overs.

The next ten overs saw 4 wickets fall with starts made but aggressive shot selection not working on our favour. At 6/79 Nick (29) and Sreeni (20) steadied the innings and enabled Ben D. (36*) and Amith (10*) to then see out the day.

Big thanks to Captain Mike (D2) for swinging by and umpiring for the day, true Clubman.

C3 6/274 Vs Hornsby – after a reconnaissance of Campbell Park by Patto on Friday, things looked pretty bleak with the South end of the pitch underwater. So it was a very pleasant surprise to arrive at the ground with 99% of the water drained away and the ground fit for play!

We deliberated on what to do if we won the toss given a couple of mediocre batting displays in the first two rounds and it was decided the best thing would be to lose the toss and let the Opposition decide.

Naturally Buzz then won the toss.

We elected to bat first, and were off to a bit of a shaky start and at 4/38 our innings was in the balance. This is where Ian Paterson who had batted resiliently whilst wickets fell at the other end was joined by John Rose and these two went about steadying the innings and tipping the balance back in our favour through clever shot selection and determined defence.

They added a great partnership of 63 before Rosey (who was looking a million bucks and in fine form) suffered the most cruel dismissal a batsman can get when Patto lofted one back at the bowler who spilled the catch, but by pure fluke knocked it back onto the non-strikers stumps to find John out of his ground and run out for a well made 22.

We have a number of very talented youngsters in our team and have been looking to them to step up in Senior ranks and today Xander Vink took his opportunity and joined Patto to continue the recovery, push the total along and tire out the opposing bowling with these two adding a further partnership of 72.

All the while Patto was resolute and determined to bat all day if he could, he eliminated the risky shots and capitalised on the bad balls. Somewhere around 60 odd not out he managed to tweak his thigh and was granted a runner. Connor keenly volunteered and we think Patto was quite happy to have a whippet 16yo as a replacement runner! (For the uninitiated, let’s just say there are a few decades difference in their ages!).

Determined to keep building the team score and securing a safe position, Ian (apparently now know as the ‘better Pattinson’ – sorry JP!) continued on to complete an outstanding 80 before he finally fell having blunted the Opposition attack and put us in the box seat – what a great team man to have, congrats Mate!

Xander continued his superb innings of application against the good ball and punishing the loose ones. His innings was an excellent example of what’s achievable by spending time at the crease.

When Patto fell, Xander was joined by Buzz and the pair blunted the Opposition attack with measured aggression, raising the run rate and contributing a fantastic partnership of 101* before a late storm saw us call stumps at 6/274 with Xander achieving his highest score of 66* and Buzz adding 53*

Great fight from the team today has put us in a strong position to push for our first win next week.

D1 0/7 Vs Berowra 127 – this week we chose to bowl first for the first two day game of the season.

The very first wicket was captured on the very first ball of the day, the next few wickets fell in the first 10 overs, leaving Berowra at 3/8 and setting up a comfortable run chase.

Roshan picked up early wickets after targeting the stumps. Some great pinpoint bowling from Marcus, was highlighted by one of his pacey deliveries crashing into middle stump.

Tight fielding from the team kept a low score, allowing for an achievable run chase next week.

D2 Vs Thornleigh – another wet one so we play next week as a 1-Dayer.