A1 Grade

WPHC 123 lost to Sydney Lions 159 – we won the toss and sent the Lions into bat. The boys were eager to put on a good show. Jobbo and Buckets bowled superbly as we made a positive start with consistent wickets and tight bowling. The boys fielded extremely well as we kept the Lions to 159. Buckets took 3 wickets, JP 2 and the bowling unit all contributed well.

We began the chase with intent and positivity. Unfortunately along the way we lost consistent wickets and the |Lions bowlers found a way to keep our runs down as well. Unfortunately, we fell short and were dismissed for 123. Daniel ‘Digger’ Heidegger batted superbly and was the rock of the innings with Jobbo contributing very well at the end of the innings. The required run rate got away from us and we came second on the day. Bring on the final week before Xmas.

A2 Grade

Blue (Rick) 6/179 defeated Castle Hill RSL 59 – 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 turned up to Dural Park confident after a solid performance in our last game (just missing out on a win due to rain). Castle Hill won the toss and sent us in to bat. Matheesha ‘Tux’ Gunaratne and Rowan ‘Keats’ Keating got us off to a solid start before Tux fell. 1/22. Julian ‘Sean Anthony’ Raffel had a brief spell at the crease but injured his Achilles badly and had to retire hurt.

Alex ‘Hooch’ Turner and Keats kept the run rate ticking along. At the 20 over mark we were 1/77. Keats completed a well compiled 50 and lost his wicket. Chris ‘Willy’ Williamson ran himself out for a globe and Rick ‘Flair’ Turner joined Hooch at the crease.

A 44 run partnership put us in good shape when Hooch decided to run Flair out. A quick 28 to Tom ‘Job’ Hando and 12 to Bailey ‘Slinky’ Mielder got us to a solid 6/179 off our 40 overs. Best of the batting Keats 53, Hooch 46, Job 28, Flair 12 and Slinky 12.

Our bowling couldn’t have started better with 3 wickets taken in the first 2 overs. A cleaned bowled by Keats and a screamer of a catch by Tux in gully had Castle Hill 2/0 off the first over. Justin ‘Clive’ Edwards had a pole caught behind in his first over

We needed to remove Castle Hills danger man which we did on the 5^th over compliments of a great running catch by Job off Keats. After 5 overs Castle Hill were 5/38. We ran through the lower order bowling Castle Hill out for 59. Best of the bowling Keats 4/21, Clive 1/26, Slinky 3/10 and Job 2/0.

A2 Red (Simon) 6/249 defeated Glenorie 5/187 – those Red boys started a late on Saturday due to a mismanaged junior game that didn’t finish until 12:50. In the Simpsons’ season 15 episode ‘Marge Vs Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, Lindsey Naegle says, “Children are the future. Today belongs to me!” A sentiment we couldn’t agree with more. Juniors running late just isn’t cricket unless subsequently fined for it, so we’ll be invoicing both Clubs two bucks per 15 minutes over time, per player.

Allen “Small feet, big shoes to fill” Raffel eventually won the toss and sent us in to bat. Jimmy McBrien and Josh “Pho Kyeh” Banner got us off to a quick start before J-MAC set records for most body parts a ball can hit before it hits the stumps and Pho Kyeh picked out the only deep fielder on the leg side. $2 only pulls enough to need one back on the leg.

With a few good partnerships we eventually stumbled along to 240 odd. Special mention goes to Luke “I named my dog Steve Quanborough” Herzog and Michael “Is Elise Perry single?” Robertson for just a stellar effort out in the middle.

Balls were flying left and right, concentration was tough in the middle, but they gritted their teeth and dug in for a long 22 over umpiring stint. Oh and apparently Nick “Two legs, one knee” Bennett scored a couple runs…maybe more than a hundred of them. But he was really the beneficiary of a sensational pair of umpires. He scored 137* actually and this was our 472^nd century.

With Jake Ball in hand and a Galston Glenorie batting line up not even attempting to win, times got tough. Do you realise how boring cricket is when you’ve won the game 4 overs into the second innings? It was hot, we were tired and things got desperately close to us having to talk to each other. After 40 overs of what can only be described as the batting equivalent of being introduced to Jonny Bairstow we were done.

And so boring and uneventful was Galston Glenorie I didn’t even check the score. I’m not even sure we won, I was just in a sort of bored trance.

Anyway, if you want good betting tips and a few free bets – talk to I Named My Dog Steve Quanborough. Magrow got some deal and you can technically get free money out of it.

3 votes Pon

2 votes Pon

1 votes Pon

B1 Grade

WPHC 148 lost to Sydney Lions 5/204 – going into the first one dayer in a while, we lost the toss and Sydney Lions elected to bat first. And it was tough going for our bowlers, as it was tough all day to stop the steady stream of runs with such a fast Greenway outfield. Unfortunately we didn’t take our opportunities in the field with quite a few drop catches throughout the day, which made wickets very tough to come by. The standout bowlers for the day were Ben Meikle 2/21 off 8 and Simonn Oleksyn 2/28 off 8 including 2 wickets in 2 balls! The Lions set a tough but gettable score of 204.

Our batting innings did not go well at all! With a top order collapse we sat at 6/45 after 14 overs. Ben Meikle and Nathaniel Chidgey then started a brave fightback, putting on a 62 run partnership and giving us a little hope! But unfortunately with the close of the innings coming, there were just too many runs to get. We finished all out for 148 after 38.2. Best of the batting were Ben Meikle 37 and Nathaniel Chidgey 26.

B2 Grade

Blue (Tim) 3/233 defeated to Lankan Islanders 122 – Groundhog day Wortho lost the toss!

Lankan Islanders sent us in to bat, Tim W (14) was first to go 1/40 in the 6th over, from here it was an outstanding 158 run partnership between Oliver Maybury 90, and Zac Turner 113no.

Oliver’s innings was assured and batted with maturity belying his age, a pleasure to watch finally out in the 35th over. Zac Turner’s innings was just as good some scintillating shots with brute force and smart application with both young men turning over the strike. This ton was our 471^st century and Zac’s second this season!

Quick cameos from Raghu Chary (6) and Jayson Smart (3no). 233 was finally posted a great start to the day. We bowled some very pleasing spells of bowling and were rewarded handsomely we rolled Lankan Islanders for 122. James Reynolds (1/31 off 6) bowled beautifully, constantly troubling their batsman, ably supported by Sam Hando (2/10 off 4) also bowled beautiful lines and length to trouble the Lankans as well.

This led to pressure building and our 1st and 2nd change bowlers continuing the rot with Matt Rashleigh (3/46 off 5.3) and Jayson Smart 3/30 off 7). Special mention to Nick “safe hands” Duck took some great catches today. Blue team onward and upright!

Red (Rob) 9/195 defeated Sydney Lions 9/173 – Naps won the toss and elected to bat. After losing a couple of early wickets, Ray Khamis (28) and Brent Larkham (59) set about increasing the run rate. Brent was later joined at the crease by James Mielnik (36), who was making his return to WPHCCC. The pair put on a solid 84 run partnership, and moved us in to a position to put on a defendable total. Steve Quanborough made his B2 debut and came out swinging, scoring 17 runs off 8 balls.

Dean Carlin (2/39) got the early breakthrough on the first ball of his first over. The Opposition began to dig in and chip away at our total. Poor fielding and missed opportunities really let us down. After the drinks break Naps (2/34) got the important wicket of the oppositions main run scorer. From there everyone lifted, with the standard of fielding also rising. Eric Junkkari bowled a great, tight spell picking up 2/8 and really strangling the opposition. Aaron Hawkins (2/23) and Dean closed out the innings with great 2nd spells to guide us to victory.

A tough game of cricket that we can take a lot out of moving forward!

C1 Grade

WPHC 3/155 lost to Vs Sydney Lions 3/203 – bowling first on a quick Gilroy Oval, we made a solid start to the game with two quick wickets taken by Nandu Ramesh at the first change. Ryan Loveridge also chipped in with a wicket in the middle overs, however some smart batting and quick runnning in the final 20 overs saw Sydney Lions reach a total of 203. Ronick Sethi along with Avi and Tarun Lath also put in good spells that went unrewarded.

Batting saw Pratah Sinnetamby stick around for the entire innings compiling a solid 62, well supported by Asees Rajput (23) and Nandu (27). Congratulations to young Cameron Tunks making his seniors debut with a classy looking 20 not-out in the final overs of the game. Unfortunately we couldn’t make the runs quickly enough, and reached 155 for the loss of 3 wickets. Some positives to take into next week.

C2 Grade

WPHC 153 lost to Beecroft 8/204 – bowling first on a fast Cheltenham Oval, Tanay Hira and Gian Gill bowled with excellent pace and control with Tanay picking up an early wicket. The 2nd and 3rd wicket partnerships hurt us with the rub of the green going against us on a number of occasions to take the score on to 3/150.

There were good spells of bowling from Dave B, Murray and George, backed up by second spells from our openers to close the innings out at 204. Tanay (3/24), Dave (2/41) and Gian (0/10 off 7) being the best of the bowlers.

Through good fortune, that was probably 30 runs more than they deserved.

Our turn to bat and Ross A and Will Harvey started well, and took the score to 27 before a mix up saw Will run out for 14. Ross continued to be aggressive and pushed the scoring along before falling for a well made 28. Peter Lees continued his good form to smash 46, however we lost wickets regularly with batsmen just getting set but falling trying to push for runs under the mounting pressure of the rising run rate that was required.

We were in the game for 70 of the 80 overs, so not disgraced, but ran 2nd today.

Next week we are the home of cricket – Campbell Park, so we are hoping for a turnaround of fortunes to get back n the winners circle.

C3 Grade

WPHC 4/137 defeated Galston-Glenorie 133 – again on a small Fred Caterson 2 it was a good toss to lose.

Sent in to bowl first which we would have done had the toss went our way, our opening bowlers maintained a tight line but were unable to penetrate. First change Shankar Ravi got us the breakthrough to finish his full quota at 3/14. Shanks was also outstanding in the field with a catch and 2 run-outs.

Indranil Mukherjee had a good day wicket-keeping with 2 catches behind and a fine stumping. Amit Sen 2/18, Amith Ninan 1/18, Ben Waldron 1/29 and Sreeni Pillamarri 1/6 all contributed to keep the pressure on the opponents throughout the game. We were given a competitive but below par total of 133 to chase but we had confidence in our batting depth.

During batting we lost a few quick wickets which put us a bit on the back-foot. At 3/53 off 15 with Indranil, Perry and Sreeni’s early departure, we were a bit concerned. What came after was complete carnage and I’m sure Glenorie Captain at that time would have wished we hadn’t lost the wicket.

While Manu (40*) was consolidating from one end, Rommel Pandey (54) who came in at no.5 turned the match in one over. Rommel hit five sixes in one over. By the time Rommel got out, we were just about home and he had also clocked-in five more boundaries by then.

A win at last leading up to the Xmas break is definitely helping to get the tail up but we are faced with a tough opponent St.Ives in round 8 next week from which all teams will aim for the semi-final spot.

Solidifying at the no.3 spot on the ladder a little bit more, we are hoping we have left behind the cobwebs of the first half of the season and setting ourselves up nicely for the elimination round.

D1 Grade

WPHC 9/116 lost to St Ives 1/119 – we won the toss and chose to bat first. Unfortunately luck was not on our side today and wickets were dropping regularly early on. After 12 overs we were 5/37. Gautum (38) provided much needed runs for us during the collapse of wickets. Some supportive batting from Roger Friend allowed Siby (20) to put on a few runs at the end. We finished up 9/116.

The next innings started off good with economical overs from Dylan and Roshan. Unfortunately no break-through was made and the St Ives Openers were settled and playing their shots. David Larkham managed to get a breakthrough but it was not enough with St Ives finishing the game comfortably after 25 overs.

D2 Grade

WPHC 6/190 lost to Hornsby 104 – this was always going to be a difficult match against the leading team in the competition. Hornsby won the toss and elected to bat. Their opening batsman hit 120 runs which is his third century in seven rounds not including a 75 from the last round.

We managed to bowl 6 of the batsman out but Hornsby still managed a decent 189 runs over the forty overs. Wanam Tamhankar bowled 2 for 29 runs in his 6 overs including the centurion.

Our highest scores were 28 by John Rose and 19 by Luke Christensen. Three other batters got into double figures but no one scored more than 15. Hornsby bowled line and length which made it very difficult to score runs. One of their 15 year old female bowlers (Lucy) who I’m told plays at state level took the last 5 batters achieving 5 for 31 off 8 overs. We did manage to get just past the 100 mark but Hornsby were scoring double our over rate and easily won this match.

Five of our batters got into double figures but only one got past 20 runs. The last five batters were out for 11 runs. Bowling has improved but at least 20 runs occurred from our own fielding mishaps. Catching was better with Wanam and Captain Mike taking difficult catches. A bit of soul searching (its Christmas isn’t it) is in order before our last game next week. Let’s make it a winning one.