Points Table

Standings after 4 Rounds are:

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

Match Reports

1^st Grade T20 GF

WPHC 5/199 defeated Berowra 167 – a very green Warrina Street greeted us for the much anticipated, much discussed T20 Grand Final between West Pennant Hills and the old enemy, Berowra. Justin ‘JP’ Patterson got us off to the perfect start, winning yet another toss – he had no qualms in electing to bat first.

Phil ‘Wu’ Wurth – who arrived at the ground 5 mins prior to the game commencing – and James ‘Nashi’ Partridge opened the batting but struck trouble early. Nashi going for the big heave ho first ball was brought underdone, caught at mid-on for a golden duck. Michael ‘Lichaaaa’ Richards joined Wu at the crease and was greeted with a ‘Lichaaa, just sit back and enjoy the show’. Now Wu has said this many times before, but today he meant business. Leighton and McNay were carted all over the ground by Wu, huge sixes onto the rocks, over the trees, into the kids playground – no part of the ground was offlimits. The run rate exponentially grew as Wu teed off. Despite a vital role in the 56 run partnership, Lichaaaa departed for 5.

Ashane ‘Maaate’ DeSilva joined Wu and the pair went toe to toe in who could hit the most boundaries. Four and sixes were hit for fun, Berowra were spending more time running to the rope to collect the ball than they were arguing with themselves. The crowd began to build as Wu rapidly approached three figures – but alas, the century was not to be. Wu dismissed for 93, cementing himself as a big game player – Wu received a standing ovation from the crowd, a knock that we will ALL be constantly reminded of for the remainder of the season.

Maaate picked up the slack of the departed Wu and before long, he was raising his bat for 50. The run rate remained steady as we lost wickets thanks to cameos from Jackson ‘Take it MF’ Preedy, Alex ‘Fig’ Robertson and Dan ‘Fish’ Costigan. In the end, WPHCCCCCC setting Berowra with a mammoth ask, 200 to win off their allotted 20 overs.

With the ball, WPHCCCCCC got off to a fast start. Luke ‘I took 5 wickets yesterday’ Herzog picking up an early scalp. And he would have had two wickets in as many overs, had he had the decency to call for a catch that was straight down the throat of Nashi. The pressure mounted early for Berowra and they were well behind the required run rate when Lichaaa picked up the second wicket of the innings.

But Berowra weren’t going down without a fight. When Wu came on the bowl, they sensed a redemption opportunity and very easily took 20 off his one over. More runs through the middle part of the innings kept flowing, despite wickets from JP and Fish. Persistence and discipline paid off for West Penno, high standards in the field from Josh ‘Effie’ Banner and Maaaate restricted the runs and set us up for a titanic finish.

Lichaaaa came back on and got the wicket of Leighton quickly, the batsman not happy when Lichaaa very calmly farewelled his scalp. More wickets to Gandis and Bailey ‘Andrew’ Miedler had Berowra on the ropes, and it was shortly over when JP dismissed the well set Brad ‘Andrew’ Fiedler. West Penno were victorious and the crowd were ballistic!!!

Special mention to Andy ‘Emma’ Meikle who was the 12^th man today. Emma did a great job carrying the team esky, scoring and was also involved in a vital run out. Emma had to duck off straight after the game to his girlfriend’s dinner party but using this forum, we’d like to thank him for his efforts.

Well done to all – especially Wu and Maaate who batted incredibly well to get us into the game.

Thank you to all that came to the ground yesterday it was great to have your unwavering support.

Competition

A Grade 7/67 lost to Kenthurst 106 on adjusted run rate – JP won another toss today and elected to field first on what looked like a very good bowling wicket. The wicket had only been prepared that morning after lots of rain during the week. A special mention to the groundsman that prepared what was an extremely very well prepared wicket for a good days cricket.

We started the day with Tim Scoular and Ankit bracelet Grover bowling superb line and Length. The day could not have started any better with both openers being dismissed by Tim and Anky very cheaply. Phil Wurth took the gully catches and showed that he has at least 10-20 years left as an A Grade cricketer.

At 2 for 8 after 6 overs the home team where reeling, then came on Tis Mistry and took another three quick and sensational wickets from superb pace bowling. one of the wickets cut in at right angles and demolished the off stump. Congratulations to Tis for also taking his first A grade wicket. From what we saw today there could be a lot more A grade wickets in the future.

Selma Preedy also took a vital wicket which was a good day for the bowlers.

Another great keeping performance from Alex Robertson who also took a one-handed catch which resulted in a very arrogant walk back to the huddle.

Justin Paterson had a great game in the field as Captain and pulled all the right strings. He bowled very nice deliveries to put the clamps on at the end along with Dan Cardigan Who took one wicket also.

The Kenthurst innings ended bizarrely with Justina Paterson claiming a sensational run out where he turned quickly and threw the stumps down from 10 meters after Kenthurst mixup. Tux and JP were also involved in an earlier run-out that took out one of their top players.

With the run chase on and only being 106 we felt extremely confident however the storm clouds were brewing above.

Phil Wurth and James Makin started well and unfortunately James went early being caught behind after looking the goods. Assman Ashayne DaSilva came in with his pink shoes and for once was unable to deliver today.

Phil Wurth and yo-yo Mathias were unable to build a sustainable partnership with Phil Wurth going after being caught by a full toss. A very frustrating way to go for Phil as some of his team mates were saying he was batting Lara like today.

Alex Robertson also looking good, went cheaply after being caught in the deep and yo-yo Mathias was given out by what he thought a dubious decision. Josh actually thinking that he didn’t hit the ball was given out caught behind by a very experienced umpire. A number of players watching from the side line said they definitely had heard a snick also, but Josh walked off bewildered and had become a little aggressive smashing up some of the Kenthurst rare flora, fauna and other forms of plant life only found in that area.

There would be no more joy in the batting department with the thunder and clouds looming it was all over for us today. The batting unfortunately was just not good enough to get the points.

Onto Berowra next week and looking to lick our wounds and come back with a big victory over the reigning premiers.

Thanks for the memories.

 A2 Grade 4/66 defeated Vs Kissing Point 64 – after 2 weeks of washed out cricket, the A2 boys were as excited as Luke Herzog at a Steve Quanborough lingerie shoot, to see a sunny Mt Ku-ring-gai greet us.

The Black Eyed Peas had a hit single, ‘I Gotta Feeling’, and Snumpty ‘It’s Hot In My Blazer’ Smyth had a feeling he’d win the toss today, so much so that he consulted with everyone who knew what cricket was, in what to do. Prince Harry said we should bowl, as storms were forecast in the afternoon, so we did.

A great display with the ball saw us roll Kissing Point for 64. The star was Gandis ‘Bank’ Herzog, with 5/15. His 1st wicket brought up his 100th A2 pole, and sees him become the first vegan to take 100 wickets in the top grade. Enjoy your lettuce Luke. Yummy. Blowy ‘I Don’t Appeal’ Blow claimed his first 2 A2 wickets, to be only 98 away from his 100th top grade wicket. Fernie ‘I’ll Bring The Misses One Day’ Meikle continued his fine full bunga to wicket ratio, claiming 2 poles from fullies, with one of them incredibly occurring as a wombat dug his way to the surface from his burrow. Lichaaa ‘Rag Shirt’ Richards took a wicket also, to celebrate his promotion.

Congrats to Cambo ‘My New Wheels Broke’ McBrien, who won today’s Most Improved Award, after taking an economical 0/13, following his last start 0/14. Your Maccas voucher is in the mail.

With storms imminent, we tried to hit our way to victory early, but at 4/9, the sun came back out. This allowed Effie ‘I Gamble Now’ Banner and Lichaaa to bat properly, and see us home with 6 wickets to spare.

This keeps us clear on top of the A2 ladder, and reinforces our claim as the stiffest of teams to play against.

B1 Blue (Rick) 228 defeated Castle Hill 101 –we arrived at Fred Caterson with 228 (a good score) on the board.

We knew which Castle Hill batsmen we needed to get early to put them under pressure. Conditions were about the same as last week. Damp and slowish.

Peter ‘Slenda’ Flook and Calvin ‘DJ’ Breytenbach opened the bowling. Thimgs could not have started better with Slenda bowling a maiden and DJ removing their danger man in the second over. Slenda struck again in the 5th over and Castle Hill were under the pump at 2/9.

Slenda got the Castle Hill Captain and we were on a roll. Change of bowlers. Rick ‘Flair’ Turner chipped in with 2 wickets and at drinks Castle Hill were 5/40 (20 overs). After the break we applied more pressure with Chris ‘Willy’ Williamson and Tim ‘Hollywood’ Leyshon bowling in tandem.

Willy took a pole. DJ came back just before tea and claimed another scalp. At tea Castle Hill were 8/87. The storm was coming – we could hear it.

After the break Cooper ‘Coops’ Goddard and Slenda finished off the Castle Hill tail for a big win. Our bowling DJ 3/30 (off 14), Slenda 3/12 (8.2), Flair 2/7 (6), Willy 1/13 (5) and Coops 1/10 (5).

Finally we put a game together of both solid batting and bowling. Hopefully this kick starts our season with some big games coming up.

B1 Red (Gunny) 4/74 defeated St Ives 73 – after being washed out last week, we won the toss and sent St Ives into bat, hoping to bowl them out for a small total and get the runs before the rain came.

It was a strong performance from all the bowlers, never allowing St Ives a partnership and bowling them out for 73. Aaron Hawkins was the star with 5-14 from his 7 overs. Aaron was supported by Benny and Justin who chipped in with two wickets each.

Pricey (16) and Ray (11) batted aggressively to kick-start the innings for us and it never looked like the small total was going to trouble us. Matt (23) was the best with the bat but it was the effort in the field that set up the win.

B2 5/184 defeated ARL107 – starting the day at 3/101, we knew we needed to put on some more runs before declaring. The question was how many was enough, and would the weather play a part.

Eric Junkkari (19) and Raghu Chary (77) continued on the form they showed last week, adding another 30 runs before Eric was dismissed. Ryan Gunn joined Raghu and was given free rein. Ryan played a great knock scoring 33 from 41 and put us into a position to declare at drinks on 184.

The Opposition openers came out prepared to play their shots and have a crack at the run chase. Exactly what we wanted. What we didn’t want, was to see them on 84 without loss!

Prats Datar bowled well without luck but really tied the batsman down and they decided to take their frustration out from the other end.

Rob Knapman got the breakthrough in the 20th over with a juicy full toss that managed to dip on the batsman and take out middle stump. From there the collapse began, with Naps taking 7 wickets in his next 5 overs. Naps was supported with some great work in the field. 3 great catches were taken, with each one better than the last!

Zac Morris took a sharp reflex catch behind the stumps, followed by a great catch in the deep by Prats who covered a lot of ground and took the catch inches above the ground. The next catch was a great effort by Ryan Loveridge who was under the lid at short leg.

The batsman was defending on the back foot and popped the ball up just enough for Ryan to dive full stretch across the pitch and snatch the ball just before it hit the deck. The only problem with the catch is that Ryan will remind us all about it for the whole season (and probably many seasons to come).

Naps finished with 7/35 with Eric taking 2/3 thanks to a great stumping by Zac. Rob’s 7/35 is just the 143^rd time in our long history that 7 wickets or more have been taken in an innings.

Just as we were putting the stumps into the kit, the storm hit. After a frustrating start to the season with a loss, a bye and a washout, this win will set us up for moving forward!

C1 199 lost to Lankan Islanders 203 – beautiful weather decked out a picturesque Greenway Park, chasing 204 to win. Lankan islanders had 7 fielders all day, so we were hoping to score the runs in 40 overs, and send them back in.

However, these plans didn’t come to fruition, with lots of singles everywhere, our batting at times was quite circumspect. Lots of starts across the card, just no one scoring above 50, Waris Trehan (28), Richard Hughes (27), were our openers putting on 42, Wortho was very unlucky direct hit runout from sideon for (8), Manu Verma didnt trouble the scorers, 3-65 at drinks.

Pavan Cherupalli hit a patient and well compiled (24) after the break, Rommel Pandey (11) entertained with a quick cameo, Asees Rajput consistently scores runs and didnt disappoint with (33), supported by Aseem Goswami (26) and a quick fire 28 from Sam Hando who played well, getting us very close. Alas we fell 4 short 9 down in the 52nd over, 10 mins later the storm hit.

C2 Blue (Fieds) 8/153 defeated Kenthurst 149 – we started the day aiming to chase down Kenthurst’s target on an outfield that had become considerably more lush following the week of rain.

We were the walking wounded with Mick Barry batting with a torn calf from last week and Pratah (broken finger) only intending to bat if needed. Add to this the fact that half our batting hadn’t scored a run all year, we knew we had to rely on getting off to a good start.

Following the early loss of both openers, youngsters Ollie Linschoten and Jack Barry (21) managed to wear down the early Kenthurst onslaught to see us through to 72 before Jack fell. Ollie was playing the dominant innings as others chipped in around him. He hit 9 boundaries in an attractive innings of 61 before falling with us needing 24 for victory with 5 wickets remaining.

It should’ve been easy but the lack of batting form for our middle order showed, as we lost 3/2. Enter Stuey Fiedler (7 no) and Alex Chidgey (9 no) who batted with plenty of confidence and urgency to see us home shortly before the storms hit.

This leaves us undefeated in 1^st place, though we have a number of tough games against the top teams in the weeks to come.

C2 Red (Indranil) 194 drew with Beecroft 7/133 – we continued to bat on Week 2 on a pretty dry outfield at Glenhaven Reserve. The tail-enders lasted another 6.5 overs finishing off the innings at 194 with Ben Dunkerley top scoring 43*.

The score looked to be at par with the outfield being on the slower side and the opening bowlers, Amitava (1/8) and Ben Kinchington (1/15) had a tight spell giving away just 19 runs in first 10 overs.

At one time the extras outscoring the batting. Some good fielding and tight bowling had Beecroft at one time 3/40 in 16 overs; The Opposition had a good partnership in the middle for 68 runs. Their main bat scoring 64.

We just had to believe taking that one wicket and it happened just after tea which got us 3 more wickets in quick time. Unfortunately, when things were looking good the game was called off due to lightning with min 18 more overs to complete in the day and Beecroft at 7/133.

Top bowling effort from Amitava, Ben K, Nich Duck (1/23), Amith Ninan (1/22) and Shanks (2/25). A big thank you to the fill-ins for this round – Amith Ninan, Sam K, Will Harvey, Peza and special call out for Louis Madison to fill-in Week 1 and then fielding week 2 when we lost 1 player before start of play.

C3 6/274 dec defeated Hornsby 252 – declaring on our overnight score things got off to a great start with Paul Vink picking up 3 quick wickets, well supported by his opening partner Rowan at the other end, both making sure runs were hard to come by. Xander then chipped in with a wicket in his second over. John Rose and Dylan Bish then got in the wickets and at tea we had them 7/90.

We knew there were 3 Opposition bats capable of hurting us, and having dismissed the first 2, things were looking good. However, threat number 3 , ably assisted by their number 9, then went about adding an 8th wicket partnership of 133!

Despite some power hitting, we stuck to our guns and Connor Hindmarch provided the partnership breaking wicket and then with the reintroduction of Rowan into the attack we achieved the game changer when their big hitting batsman smoked a pull shot right out of the middle, only to be magnificently clutched by a leaping Ross Anderson at midwicket with a two handed screamer!

Some late lucky blows from their last pair brought them within 20 or so of our score, but Rowan’s pace proved too much for the tail enders as he cleaned up the last batsman to seal our first win.

Wicket takers were Paul (3), John and Rowan (2 each) and Connor, Xander and Dylan one apiece.

Many thanks to Nikki O’Meara for coming down and fielding for us as we were short, grabbing a catch that definitely would have been missed without 11 fielders!

Some great work and persistence this match to build the team confidence heading into the next round.

D1 114 lost to Berowra 127 – after a great bowling spell last week, a win for the first two day game seemed like an easy target. However, after some tight bowling, WPH fell just short.

The day started well with Rob forgetting his shoes, then having to borrow Aden’s, pushing Aden down the batting order. Ian and Rob opened the batting and survived the first twenty overs until some great bowling ended Rob’s time in the middle.

Gautam whacked a nice pull shot, unfortunately straight to the fielder. Some great batting from Steve (43*) saw WPH with a chance, however, wickets fell quickly after tea and his great innings wasn’t enough to pull off the win.

Unlucky loss for WPH, certainly have to improve the batting for a big game next week.

D2 70 lost to Thornleigh 4/72 – we won the toss in this one day match at Thornleigh Oval. The outfield was slow. By group consensus it was decided to bat first. Well this was a monumental mistake as the humidity just got worse and the ball swung like crazy.

Not only did it swing through the air but then swung again as it landed in front of the batters. After 10 overs we were 4 wickets down for just 18 runs. By over 20 we were 6 for 41 runs. The highest score was 14 runs from Parin Pillamarri, followed by 11 runs from Nirav Desai and 10 runs from Waman Tamhankar. We were bowled out for 70 runs which included 14 sundries off 33 overs.

Nirav started the bowling and took the first wicket via lbw for 1 run. Captain Mike bowled 4 overs with 2 maidens and took 2 for 7 runs. Praneel Singh got a wicket in his second over but Thornleigh hit the winning run in the 23rd over. Of course the swing that had been present early on had disappeared by the time we came to bowl.

A very disappointing day. We’ll put it down to experience. We dropped 3 reasonably easy catches today and we continued our spate of run outs x 3 which didn’t help our cause. There is a real need for consistency and discipline in both our bowling and batting which is not happening so far. Until we get that we will likely continue to achieve disappointing results.

So guys the only place where you can get consistency and discipline is in the practice nets. I hope to see you there.