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 163 Vs Berowra 1/95 – a bright and sunny Berowra Oval welcomed the players this afternoon and this was built as a redemption blockbuster – for just six short days ago, WPHCCCCC had been successful in taking the 1^st Grade 20/20 Trophy over the locals. Berowra still licking their wounds looking to be 90 mins into their warmup when we arrived 45 minutes from the commencement of play – hungry to redeem the embarrassing display they put up in the 20/20 spectacle. The ground staff had the turf looking in magnificent condition, a couple of large cracks were beginning to open up down near the southern popping crease however the strip was in a mint state. Captain Justin ‘Shades’ Patterson won yet another toss and didn’t think twice in electing to bat.

Phil ‘My Baby Takes the Morning Train’ Wurth and James ‘Ashane’s African’ Makin put the pads on and went out to face the music. Phil at his brilliant best in the pre innings preparation – no warm up, padding up in the dark, with indigestion of the burger he had just consumed, yet as confident as ever. We got off to a very good start, both Wurth and Makin rotating the strike and seeing off the shine of the new ball. Wu especially impressive with his aggressive strut back towards the bowler after every front foot defensive shot. The dream partnership however ended when Jamkin nicked one behind off the bowling of Nick ‘Timmy’ McNay.

Michael ‘Lichaaa’ Richards joined Phil at the crease and was greeted with an usually serious pre innings chat – it didn’t help, Lichaaa dismissed early, much to the enjoyment of all the Berowra players he had sledged the week prior. Wu went cheaply straight after and just like that WPHCCCCC were in deep trouble at 3/30.

Fresh off the safari trails of West Africa, Ashane ‘Assman’ DeSilva joined Josh ‘Yoyo’ Mathias at the crease and the pair began to rebuild. And rebuild they did, it both a smart and bold fashion. Classy shots all around the wicket allowed the run rate to climb and the Berowra heads began to drop. However, when all hope seemed loss for the locals, Yoyo holed out to deep backward square leg off a short ball and was unluckily dismissed.

Dan ‘Fish’ Costigan and Alex ‘Fig’ Robertson both had handy cameos with Assman during the middle stages of the innings, both getting starts however unable to continue on with their promising get go’s. Fish especially pleased with his time at the crease after Brad ‘Denise’ Fiedler dropped him early. At this stage, your friendly reporter was shocked at the amount of LBW shouts turned down by both umpires – he voiced his feedback to HKHDCA president and WPHCCC A Grade No1 ticket holder  Andrew ‘Harrison’ Miedler, who said he would launch an internal review this week.

Assman continued his great play, bringing up his 50 to the tunes of ‘Fight for your Right’ by the Beastie Boys. He was pleased with the song choice, after he specifically requested for loud music to be played through his Bluetooth speaker after every boundary or milestone. His dancemoves were shortlived however – a mass confusion between him and Tim ‘Buckets’ Schoular in the middle resulted in Assman getting run out. A brilliant knock which got us back into the game, Assman was welcomed off the ground with Rodriguez’s ‘Crucify Your Mind’ – another great songchoice.

The innings didn’t get a second wind from that point – Buckets, Bailey ‘Quack Quack’ Miedler, JP and Riley ‘New Wheels’ Miedler adding handy runs however all dismissed in relatively quick fashion. WPHCCCC relatively happy with their 165 total.

With about 90 minutes to bowl, the plan was to get them all out in the first 30 so we could simultaneously watch Winx win the Cox Plate and Aus/NZ in the Bledisloe. Fair to say Berowra had the same idea and they came out aggressively from the beginning, some lovely shotmaking ate into the total immediately. We were able to peg them back ever so slightly, great spells from Riley, JP and Fish slowed them down however Berowra kept finding the rope at the right time – racing to 1/95 at stumps.

We will need to be good with the ball next week to pull off the win but we have the bowling attack to make it happen. We also welcome in Lachlan ‘Cameron’ McBrien who will no doubt add his flamboyant flair to the change rooms.

MVP – Ashane

Joker – Jamakin

Today’s Crowd Attendance – 1 (Andrew ‘Harrison’ Miedler’)

 A2 Grade 0/3 Vs Hornsby 164 – welcome to A2 Heritage Round, where A2 legends like Mobbo ‘I Love Musicals’ Robertson and Pon ‘Finger Bunless’ Tam joined our team. Snumpty ‘Right Arm Backwards’ Smyth lost the toss, and we were asked to bowl.

Snumpty showed brilliant Captaincy, by just letting Tis ‘Bank Me’ Mistry bowl from 1 end, as he took the first 6 wickets. He bowled with the fire and venom of a non-vegan python, and the pace of Winx on Essendon peptides. He earns himself a choccy sauce bank.

Fernie ‘Dog Bloke’ Meikle ruined the day, by taking the 7th wicket of the day. We all wanted Tis to get 10 fa. Fernie should take a good hard look at himself, before he ends up living a life like Angry Wonder. We bowled Hornsby out for 164. Tis took 6, Fernie 2 and Kitty ‘Lords Hat’ Grover and Snumpty took 1 each. We are 0/3 in reply.

A really interesting night at the Bowlo tonight too. The lovechild of Angry Anderson and Stevie Wonder tried to intimidate us with his 2 glasses of orange juice. #security. Pear ‘Picachu’ Partridge replied by buying us 17 jugs of beer. Onya Pear.

Enjoy Tis.

B1 Blue (Rick) 186 Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee 0/1 – well the conditions at Normanhurst Oval were in mint condition for cricket.

Rick ‘Flair’ Turner wasted his time bothering with the toss, lost it again, and Normo chose to bowl.

Things started well with the Zac’s (Turner and Morris) opening the batting and doing a great job. Zac of the Turner version lost his wicket at 34. We went to drinks at 1/56. A quick cameo from Cooper ‘Coops’ Goddard then Zac Morris lost his wicket and we were 3/76.

Then followed a mini collapse Chris ‘Willy’ Williamson, Flair and Calvin ‘DJ’ Breytenach all back in the pavilion cheaply. We went to the tea break at 6/95 after the promising start. Kyle ‘Fabs’ Faber was batting beautifully – we just needed a few people to stay with him.

Enter Oliver ‘Olly’ Maybury, Tom ‘Jobbie’ Hando and Tim ‘Hollywood’ Leyshon. Fabs dominated whilst Olly, Jobbie and Hollywood dug in at the other end. Fabs was finally dismissed for a magnificent 75.

Peter ‘Flooky’ Flook a quick 7* at the end. We were all out for 186. We’ll take that after being 6/95.

Best of our batting Fabs 75, Zac Morris 38 and Coops 15. We are right in this game with a par score. We need to bowl and field well next week to bring home the points.

B1 Red (Gunny) 6/236 Vs SKLPS – in the first 2 dayer for the season, we won the toss and elected to bat at the ‘home of cricket’, Greenway Oval.

Gunny (33) and Matt Watts (24) got us off to a great start, as the pair dissected gaps all around the ground in an opening partnership of 49. We continued to build partnerships throughout the day, putting pressure on the SKLPS bowlers. Best of the batting was Brent, who showed patience and finesse on his way to 84 not out. Brent was well supported by Aaron Carlini (23), Ray (25) and Ben (19).

With batting to come, we will look to add a few quick runs next week and hopefully see Brent bring up triple figures!

B2 4/171 defeated Hornsby 60 – we lost the toss and were sent out into the field. Our opening bowler, Ryan ‘Birdcage’ Loveridge had been battling illness all week. On Friday night he was unsure if he would be able to play. A replacement player wasn’t found so Naps asked Birdcage to give whatever he could.

A 2 over opening spell was the plan. BC went on to take 4/13 from his 6 overs in a huge effort! Dean Carlin bowled a cracking opening spell from the other end, taking 3/10. The bowlers were well supported by some sharp fielding, with Eric Junkkari taking 2 great catches in cover to set the tone for the innings.

The Opposition fell to 6/6 on the 10th over! Eric Junkkari (1/12) and Rob Knapman (2/12) chipped in with wickets to have the opposition all out for 60.

Eric and Michael McGregor opened the batting and put on a 57 run partnership, just falling short of passing the Oppositions total without loss. Macca picked out the boundary all around the ground before he was dismissed for 41. Raghu Chary (25) was joined at the crease by Dinesh De Silva, and the pair put on another 57 run partnership.

Dinesh played with incredible focus, determined to not throw his wicket away and push towards a big score. At the end of the days play Dinesh finished unbeaten on 47.

We will look to build on this lead and push for maximum points next week!

C1 8/142 Vs Berowra – on a super day weather wise for cricket, Old Dairy at Brooklyn was the location, with weeds pretty prolific throughout the field scoring was going to be tough.

After the toss Berowra sent us in to bat. Losing an earlier one Arjun Kumar (8), Richard Hughes (42) & Manu Verma (17), built us a solid 57 run partnership before both were back in the pavilion. Two new batsmen, Nandu Ramesh (19) & Rommel Pandey (14) started again to build a new partnership of 30, bringing the score along to 100.

Some useful scores brought us to stumps at 8-142, with Wortho retired hurt, Matheesa and Raunik Sethi will look to build the score even further. Matt Digby will be Captaining the side next week in his debut, best of luck Matt!

C2 Blue (Fieds) 1/19 Vs Beecroft 153 – another toss loss this week, and while it would’ve been good to bat on a perfect day at Dural Park, it wasn’t the worst outcome to be asked to bowl first.

We had to work hard for our first couple of wickets, as the Beecroft top-order were playing sensibly and keeping our openers Jack Barry (1/17) & Dan Schwartzel (2/22) out in spite of their attacking bowling. By the first drinks break, we managed to remove both of them to have Beecroft at 2/51. It could’ve been far worse for Beecroft had a couple of catches been held and some bowling not been too straight to get LBWs – but ‘thems the breaks’.

After the resumption, we steam rolled the middle order following the introduction of last game destroyers Alex Chidgey (2/40) and Stuey Fiedler (3/38). They managed to hit the stumps instead of the pads, which seemed a far more effective mode of dismissal – pity we didn’t think of doing this earlier. We had reduced the Opposition to 7/83 at the tea break and were thinking about finishing things early.

But cricket is a funny game, and we had a repeat of last game’s effort, where the 8^th wicket got away from us. We shared the bowling around, but most found it difficult to exert pressure for longer enough to force a break through.

Enter Warren Schwartzel who had been instructed by his Captain that he wouldn’t get a bowl today, as we had too many bowlers, but instead worry about opening the batting soon. Well we decided to bowl him anyway – and he cleaned up the tail taking 2/5 off his 2 overs.

With 6 overs to bat, Dan & Warren were looking comfortable until Dan lost his wicket. Stuey was the happiest night-watchman you’ve ever seen, taking great delight in batting the highest he ever has in any cricket game (#3). We’ll resume needing a further 135 with 9 wickets in hand, and hope that we get equally good conditions for our run chase.

Special call out to C2 Blue team debutants Dave Behlevanas and Shaan Bakshi for helping out today.

C2 Red (Indranil) 5/62 Vs Kenthurst 85 – a lush green outfield at Kenthurst Park and we lost the toss and was asked to field first up. Birthday boy, Amitava Sen (2/5), started off his birthday celebrations taking 2 top order batsmen of Kenthurst in his first 2 overs. Runs was not easy to come by and Nikki O’Meara captitalised on their misery by taking 2/14 in 6 overs.

The bowlers kept the pressure right through the innings and Kenthurst finished their 1^st innings with just 85 runs on board. Wicket takers were, Ben K 1/10, A Driscoll 1/7, Shanks 1/26, N Duck 1/7 and Peza 2/4. The top score of the opposition came from extras i.e 23 runs.

It was our time to bat, and we had new opening partners, Ben K and Vinod Kumar. The pair batted off sensibly the first 10 overs. We had a mini collapse in the middle ending the day at 5/62 with Ben K 11, Ramil, 17, and A Driscoll 11. We have 2 batters coming back next week, so should consider ourselves in a good place.

C3 V8/195 defeated ARL 118 – hoping to win the toss and bat first, Buzz promptly lost the toss (situation normal!) but we were asked to bowl first anyway!

Our opening bowling combo of Paul and Rowan challenged the bats and Paul achieved the first breakthrough. To try something different Will Harvey was first change with his leg spin and he preceded to have the Opposition tied in knots, at one point he’d picked up 5/9 and finished with a fantastic return of 5/31 destroying the ARL batting middle order.

One catch stood out with Dylan Bish grabbing one right on the mid wicket boundary, looking like falling over the boundary, he did his best BBL fielding and lobbed the ball up, stepped back into the field of play to complete the dismissal! Top skills displayed!

Real commitment and keen fielding kept us on top and when Dylan hit his stride at the bowling crease, he dismissed the remaining batsmen to finish their innings on 118. Paul (1/37), Dylan (3/27) and Will (5/31) the wicket takers.

After losing an early wicket, Patto and John Rose dug in and saw off the (challenging) opening bowlers with Patto continuing his recent form with 37 and Rosey making 25.

Xander Vink showed great shot choice and was looking really good after his runs last match to add a classy 31. Once past their score, there was a number of valuable contributions from the incoming batsmen who looked to push the scoring rate along and work to place the team in a strong position at the end of the day’s play sitting 77 runs ahead with the first innings points in the bag, we will look to capitalise on our chance for an outright next week.

D1 8/195 Vs Castle Hill RSL –– the match got off to a great start with Connor leaving his kit in his mums car, adding to Rob’s shoe debacle from last week.

Castle Hill won the toss and elected to bowl, and we lost our first two wickets early in the innings for not too many runs. At the first drinks break we had only scored 35 runs, and at tea had only scored 65. But some good partnerships saw our total increase before the end of the days play.

Gautam and Amith batted well together and saw our run total rise quickly. Quick runs from Roger and Roshan gave a great addition to our total.

We finished the day with two wickets left and a total of 195. Gautam 87*, lead the way out of a troubling situation, superb captains knock.

D2 2/10 Vs St Ives 6/296 – well about the only thing that went well today was winning the toss. We decided to bowl at Karuah Park. It was interesting to see that St Ives changed 7 of their players who were different to those we played in Round 2. We were one short for the first 25 overs but eventually Nirav’s son (a 9 year old) came to help us. We were very grateful for his help.

After 36 overs St Ives were 153 with no loss. After 44 overs they were 1 for 225. Praneel Singh managed to bowl out their opener on 108. Their other Opener hit 101 and their third change batter hit 63. We managed to get another 5 wickets and St Ives declared after 59 overs at 6 for 296 runs. We only bowled 6 sundries in their innings. Our best bowler was Parin Pillamarri who bowled 13.3 overs to get 3 wickets for the loss of 42 runs.

We batted for 9 overs to be 2 for 10. Not a great start but there are 8 wickets in hand and we will need to bat 70 overs next week.

The problem today was that our bowlers continued as they have all season to bowl down the leg side or too short or a full toss. There was a lack of discipline and consistency of line and length. Until we learn that lesson, don’t expect to keep other teams from scoring runs. We didn’t have any luck with most catches difficult and also coming out of the sun. Hopefully we can achieve a miracle next week. So keep praying fellows!!