What it is all about

What a great story to start the season. I got this wonderful message from one of our Junior Blasters folk:

“I just wanted to share, I have one little nephew so excited to start Cricket Blast tomorrow morning that he is sleeping in his stuff.

 Great work everyone and thank you! :)”

This type of story makes all the volunteer effort of so many people all worthwhile and is a great reminder of what Junior cricket is all about.

Congratulations

All Grades are important but A1 Grade is the elite competition in the Hornsby, Ku-ring-gai & Hills District Shires. This year will be our 62^nd year in A1 Grade and our 54^th consecutive season – something no other Club has achieved.

We have had 327 players selected for A1 over 62 years. Congratulations to Billy Gaunt (pictured), Player #328^th who is an outstanding w/k batsman. Billy has also been appointed as Co-Vice Captain along with Lachlan McBrien – another fantastic achievement.

Billy’s appointment as Vice-Captain also makes him the first player since our debut season in 1951/52 to make his A1 debut in a leadership role.

Congratulations also to Phil Wurth (#312) and our 24^th Captain backing up for his 2^nd year as Club Leader.

Another important player in A1 is James Makin (#187) and Captain #22. James made his debut in 1993/94 and has now played every season since 2008/09 so this is his 13^th consecutive season in A1 Grade.

Well done boys.

On the Road again

This brings to mind the Willie Nelson classic – here

This season we have 13 Senior Teams. While the vast majority our players live in WPH / Cherrybrook & Castle Hill (93) we have folks who travel long distances to play every week. For starters well done to the following folks:

• Simon Smyth (B1 Red & pictured) – lives at San Remo – 183 kilometres round trip
• Lachlan McBrien (A1 & Vice Captain) comes from Green Point – 136 kilometres round trip
• Bill Peterkin (Junior Blasters Director and regular fill-in) – Maroota – 78 kilometres round trip
• Luke Christensen (D2) – South Windsor – 66 kilometres round trip

Well done boys and thanks for turning out for yet another season.

The World has changed

In the old days, like 7 months ago, everyone would turn up to the Club and cram in to catchup after the games. Enter Covid and the boys still come back to the Club but in a socially distant way – everyone sitting down and being socially distant. But…the drinks are still cold, the chips are great and the stories about what might have been are just as good.

Space Cadets

For those new to our Club, the Space Cadet Award is prestigious. To be a self-nomination is even more significant. This week we have 2 x self-nominations.

Rob ‘sharp as a bowling ball’ Knapman

Rob is our B1 Blue skipper. After winning the toss and with rain around the boys were 1/59 and doing it easy. When a wicket fell it went downhill fast. A wicket fell and padded up to bad was Asees Rajput who was a week 1 player only. Asees explained to Rob, numerous times, that it may not be a good idea to bat him as Nikhil Ninan, a “Supreme batsman” according to the great Eric Junkkari was his replacement next week. Anyway, a wicket fell with what turned out to be 3 balls before rain stopped play and the 2/59 became 3/59 with Nikhil not being able to bat next weekend.

Jake Smith

Jake has managed to achieve a Club record in his first game for us – a successful self-nomination on debut. Jake was playing for the D1 Blue boys and fielding in a close to the wicket short cover position. The Kissing Point batman smashed the ball at Jake who, thinking it was a boundary, was looking to pick up the ball from the fence. The only problem is that he held the catch cleanly.

The challenge is on

The A2 boys have developed a tote with real money flowing about achievements like top run scorer, top wicket taker. One of the outsiders is that Ray Khamis will score 300 runs this season. The big fella is 13/1 to reach this target and the stakes are high with already $100 sitting on the outcome.

For those who don’t know Ray’s record, he holds a couple of records way back on 3^rd December 2011 when he set a Club record of 11 x 6’s in his innings of 98. Five years later (9/1/2016) in C4 he belted 5 x 6’s in succession. We reckon that if Ray gets close to this milestone a few of the boys (most of the Team) will be queuing up to go out and umpire while Ray is batting.

We will track this one throughout the season.

Story of the year (so far)

This season we are privileged to have Dom Thornely coaching one of our Junior Blasters Teams. Dom is our former Patron, NSW Sheffield Shield Captain, Australia A player and is the current Coach of the NSW Breakers.

In this photo, Dom is with our all-Girls Junior Blasters Team along with our 3 Coaches – Anouska, Maddie and Danielle Chivers. Anouska and Maddie are accredited Level 1 Coaches and play in our Blowfly cricket program. This coaching opportunity gives these great girls their first opportunity in a Coaching pathway as professional coaches. Also, Danielle is the current holder of the Cricket Australia Young Community Leader of the Year Award.

Go the Girls!