WPHC 135 lost to Berowra 137 – a fantastic effort in almost pulling off the impossible victory against a strong batting order on a flat deck. Tim Scoular took 5 wickets and showed that the boys have the firepower to cause a lot of damage for the rest of the season. Match Report to follow.

A2 Grade

Blue (Rick) 274 drew with Glenorie 3/136 – for reference:

• Rowan Keating = 23
• Chris Williamson = Willy
• Alex Turner = Hooch
• Jules Raffel = Sean Anthony
• Rick Turner = The Flair
• Nick Starr = Ivan
• Jackson Preedy = The Preedofile
• Taki Manolelis = Taki Manolelis
• Justin Edwards = Clive
• Peter Flook = Slender

We were beaten by the rain today. After posting a good score last week we just needed 10 wickets. The bowling was good but without luck. We felt we were 1 wicket away from being right into Glenorie and rolling them. At 3/69 they were on the ropes but steadied with a partnership of 67 when the rain came and ended the match. Best of our bowling Rowan ‘Keats’ Keating 1/21, Justin ‘Jed’ Edwards 1/11 and Peter ‘Slender’ Flook 1/32. Another solid effort from the boys today.

A2 Red (Simon) 2/127 defeated Berowra 125 – Day 2 started comically, with Effie Banner struggling to park his car properly…. 3 times. Some may say his car is too big for him. Regardless, there were multiple fines.

We needed 70 runs to win, with 10 wickets in hand. The big test was for overnight not out batsman, J-Mac McBrien, who works on Saturdays, to make it in time. A traffic jam would have been about as welcomed as a Johnny Bairstow greeting. He made it though.

Pon ‘New Wheels’ Tam fell for 25, leaving J-Mac and Effie at the crease. J-Mac brought up a well deserved 50, with an exquisite off drive chip through mid off’s hands, and after Effie got off the mark, he look as good at the crease as Angelina Jolie does naked.

In other news, Raffa has a degree in geography.

A premature drinks break was called, with 3 runs to win. Berowra brought on a ‘declaration bowler’, who after a double bouncer, bowled the world’s best delivery, to dismiss Effie*.

This is a lie.

Specialist 0*outer, Hollywood Leyshon, then joined J-Mac, who’s 63* helped us to a massive victory, to see us leapfrog Berowra back into 2nd.

We locked up the 6 points before the rain came, and called it a day. This occurred about 80 minutes after Snumpty’s hamstring had.

Votes:

3 – Pon (delectable plethora of finger buns)

2 – Kaity Herzog (showing patience)

1 – Steve Smith (just played a magnificent cover drive)

B1 Grade

WPHC 3/92 drew with SKLPS 204 – going into week 2, we were chasing 204 with 10 wickets in hand, and the day started off quickly with Mathew Watts hitting 12 off the opening over! With impending rain on the way, our scoring was quick, however this did cost us a few wickets. We went into the drinks break 3/57, with the game in balance. However Michael Fiedler and Ronic Bedi then steadied the ship, putting together a nice partnership of 54 before rain stopped play. We finished on 3/92 before the draw was declared. Ronic Bedi finishing on 29 not out and Michael Fiedler 23 not out.

B2 Grade

Blue (Tim) 7/301 dec drew with Sydney Lions 1/156 – so with overbearing clouds in the distance, with 301 runs on the board, we launched into Sydney Lions first innings with tremendous gusto. Sam Hando (1-44 off 14) once again bowled superbly dismissing their quick scoring opener early into the day.

Ably supported by Nikki O’Meara (0/29 off 7) both these 2 opening bowlers were superb & went unrewarded from here on with some missed opportunities through nicks, splitting fielders, a foot to the left or right. Ruben Alexander (0/11 off 5), Jayson Smart (0/18 off 6) and Raghu Chary (0/17 off 3) all provided willing support and bowled committed line and lengths. Alas the weather beat us this week a draw was had.

Blue team onward and upward!

Red (Rob) 195 drew with Berowra 4/146 – we started the day with our runs in the book and Berowra at 0/31. We knew the weather was on its why so we had to get the early breakthrough and really turn up the pressure.

 Aaron Hawkins (4/49) got the first wicket in the 4th over. Aaron went on to take another 3 wickets to have the opposition at 4/66. Another wicket fell and we had Berowra 5/102 and well on top. The batsmen then put on a quick 40 runs before the rain hit and play was abandoned. A tight game against the Competition leaders. We remain in striking distance of the 3 teams above us as we head into the 1 Dayers.

C1 Grade

WPHC 163 & 0/9 lost to Berowra 4/193 dec – needing some quick wickets early where we had 121 runs to defend, opening bowlers in Ryan Loveridge and Alex Chidgey bowled good line/lengths. With rain forecast later, Berowra batsmen were aggressive and got away with few.

Our first wicket of the day came with Nandu Ramesh getting the set batsman out caught behind with score on 88. Next we were hammered all around ground with our bowlers not able to bowl consistent good balls. Our score was passed with loss on 2 wickets. Berowra declared at fall of 4th wicket with a lead of 31 runs.

Although it had started drizzling and heavy rain forecast, we were asked to bat again. Opening batsmen saw through 3.4 overs bowled before heavens opened up. We need to get better in batting and bowling heading into the one dayers next.

C2 Grade

WPHC 163 defeated Hornsby 148 – Peter Lees and Tanay Hira started where they left off last week to take the score to 87 where we unfortunately lost both set batsmen. We lost a few wickets cheaply and at 7/107 we had plenty of work to do!

A steadying partnership between Buzz and Cody settled things for a while until Buzz holed out to midwicket – 8/125. When Darcy was run out it brought George to the wicket with Cody 7*.

We then witnessed a masterclass from Cody as he accumulated runs and cleverly stole the singles to secure the strike only exposing his partner to a couple of balls to survive during their partnership. This last pair needed 22 to post the win and Cody calmly placed the ball beautifully under pressure to steer us past the winning total! A fantastic effort and wonderful support from George to seal the win. Cody remaining 33*.

A nail bitter, but well deserved win to get us in the right zone to head into the one dayers leading up to Christmas.

C3 Grade

WPHC defeated outright on forfeit Normanhurst-Warrawee – while the boys would have liked to have got on and played the wet weather has given us a real bonus with us picking up 10 points due to an Outright win in another game when most other Teams were washed out. This will push us comfortably into the top 3.

D1 Grade

WPHC 245 drew with Hornsby 3/122 – the day started off well with a few early wickets stemming from tight bowling by Roshan (2/33). Hornsby then batted well to reach 102 runs before another wicket fell. Soon after the match was called off due to rain with Hornsby on 3/122.

D2 Grade

WPHC 4/115 drew with St Ives 280 – this two day match was something that we expected to win having beaten St Ives easily in Round 1. However, about half of their team changed in this Round.

We lost the toss and St Ives elected to bat. We bowled them out for 280 runs in the 63rd over which included 29 sundries. Unfortunately, we bowled far too many balls down the leg side and we weren’t disciplined in that regard. However, we also dropped 6 catches which didn’t help.

There were some positives from our youngsters. Agni Sen took 2 for 28 off 5 overs and Parin Pillamarri also took 2 for 23 off 5 overs. Ian Williams to 2 for 57 off 10 overs and Ben Kinchington and Captain Mike took a wicket a piece.

We then had to bat 9 overs to finish the first day. Our luck continued to be poor and we lost 3 wickets for 25 runs with 2 being deflected off bats onto the stumps.

Today we faced 34 overs before the rains came. Simon Rahmani who normally bats at 8 or 9 in the order managed to survive 27 overs giving us a real chance to consolidate. Well done Simon.

Ben Kinchington as our opener hit 48 runs and never looked like getting out. He continued batting with Captain Mike for a further 7 overs who was 12 not out when the heavens opened up and we secured the draw we were aiming for. In fact I think we were a chance to continue and win in this initial difficult scenario.

So well done fellows in being stubborn and keeping your Captain sane.