Grant & Zac – top score battle

Our Club has offered the opportunity for father & sons for generations with many great stories. Last weekend we had a fabulous story. In D1 Red, the father (Grant Gerber ) and son (Zac) combination have been in a competition to be the highest scorer in the family. Going into the last Round Grant’s highest score was 49. The Skipper, Ian (Diggers) Digby closed the innings with Zac on 49 not out and got the comment “I would have gotten 50 last week”.

Fast forward to last weekend with Zac away for week one and the old man made a statement – 120 not out.

Now for our next family challenge – a mother / son or mother daughter “Family Feud”.

Photo: Grant after his ton.

1,000,000 runs – the big day has arrived

We finally made it – last weekend (3^rd & 4^th December) we passed the 1,000,000^th runs scored against us in Senior’s cricket. There were a few false starts last Round with Opposition Team forfeits and lower scores than expected. This is the type of record that is a long time in the making – 92 years since we started in 1930:

• 484 Senior Teams
• 262,000 overs
• Average runs of 18.2 / runs wicket
• Highest Team total scored against us – 721 runs
• Highest score against us – 725 in the B2 Grand Final @ Parklands Oval in March 1991

This weekend (10^th December) the next big milestone was achieved. Going into Saturday we needed just 13 runs to pass the 1,000,000^th run scored by us.

• 65,000 innings completed
• Average runs / wicket = 18.1 runs / wicket
• Highest Team total – 4/516 also in B2 @ George Christie Oval (11/10/2014)

Based on this season, with 14 x Seniors Teams, the next 1,000,000 run landmarks will take around another 45 years!

Stars of the future

Our Club has a great record in producing champion cricketers. Denise Annetts and Lisa Stahlekar are World class Women’s cricketers. Add to this numerous Men’s & Women’s Premier 1^st Grade and NSW & NSW Junior players.

In the recently completed Australian Primary School Cricket Championships we had 2 of our boys represent NSW who finished runners up – Edward Byrom (left) & Ulrich Vosser who also both play in the U14 Blues. What a great achievement to have our 2 latest NSW reps playing for NSW Juniors and to have both from the same team is an amazing achievement.

Photo: Edward and Ulrich at the Australian Championships.

Special personal achievements

We had some great personal achievements:

• Jay Nanda (C3 Blue) scored his 1^st ton (100* & our 508^th)
• Ashane De Silva (A1) scored a century of the ages with 131 and our 509^th ton
• Congratulations also to Dylan Bish (B2) who made his A1 debut after starring in lower grades for a number of years. He didn’t disappoint. Coming in at 3 for not may chasing 275 he helped turn the tide with 22 that played a big part in the win.

Just on Ashane’s ton – also his 3^rd for our Club. The A1 win was a highlight of the season – by a long way. After being 6/90 chasing 275 the boys got there with Ashane’s ton a major contributor to getting us across the line on the last ball of the day – 9 wickets down. Have a read of the A1 Grade Match report – it is worth the read.

Photo – Ashane during the ‏1st Grade T20 Final Vs Berowra at Greenway Park – 16 October 2022

FIG jam performance

You have to hand it to Ryan ‘Birdcage’ Loveridge (B1 Red) skipper. Ryan scored 64 in a big run chase. In a classic Birdcage understatement of his performance was the quote “Cricket is such a easy game”

When asked about how good the innings really was, a senior player (Knapper’s name will not be disclosed to protect the innocent); ‘he got lucky….very lucky”.

In recognition though of this self-acknowledged masterclass what better song than – It’s hard to be humble

Photo: Michael Richards, Ryan Loveridge & Billy Gaunt at the Comedy Night – Greenway Park Community Centre, 27th November 2021

Our future revealed

First up, our musical theme to open this story – The Mullet song

It was great to see the mighty B2’s back at the Club after their good win. One of our long-termers commented that there was the future of our A Grade with so many young stars. When working out why the boys were dominating B2’s and what it will take to make the next level we found the secret – mullets and basically just ‘bad hair’. We didn’t include other emerging young stars  such as  Xander Vink, Todd and Jack Hutchinson because, well, they look normal. But for all those younger players aspiring to play the elite Grade, this is the secret – bad hair.

Photo – Connor Hindmarch, Dylan Bish & Sam Kirkgard proudly displaying their locks.

What would your Decision be?

Question

In a one innings match Team A scored 236 runs. Team B is 9/236 with the striker on 98. The striker drives the next ball and completes three runs. What is the result of the match? What is the final score of the striker?

The answer is immediately below.

Photo: Rob Hanich receiving 4th Grade T20 Trophy @ Les Shore 1 – 30th October 2022.