Grand Final appearances

In Seniors, excluding the latest 4 x GF’s we will have played in 168 Grand Finals with a win / loss ratio of 92 wins & 76 losses. The top 4 players who have played in the most Grand Finals are:

• James Makin (A1) – 19 (11 wins & 8 losses)
• Andrew Fiedler – 15 (11 wins & 4 losses)
• Simon Smyth – 12 (7 wins 7 & 5 losses)
• Michael Banner (B2) – 9 (6 wins & 3 losses)

This weekend, James will be playing in his 20^th GF (7 in A1) and Michael Banner his 10^th Grand Final. This is an amazing 17% of all the Grand Finals played in our history.

Photo: Michael Banner (centre) with James Makin (right) and Eric Junkkari – Seniors Presentation Night, Castle Hill RSL, Friday 4th May 2018.

A message to our Girls

Before their Semi Final game last week, the manager and Coach reached out to Women’s cricket great Lisa Sthalekar who is in Mumbai with the WIPL, to give the Girls a message before the big game – Lisa Sthalekar message . The Girls went on to win through to the Cup Grand Final!

For those who don’t know, Lisa played all her Junior Cricket with us from U10 to U16s before following the pathway through to Premier Cricket with Gordon.

Photo: Lisa Sthalekar with the World Cup trophy, Australia v West Indies, Final, Women’s World Cup 2013, Mumbai, February 18, 2013.

Not a record you are after

Back in 1992/93, Eric Junkarri, playing C1 Grade, took 5 x catches and dropped 1 catch in a game at Auluba Oval. This remains the record number of catches by a non-wicket-keeper in a game.

In the Semi Final, last week we went one ‘better’ and spare a thought for the bowler Nick Starr (B1 Red) who had 6 catches dropped off his bowling. Rob Knapman, who has one of the safest hands in the Club dropped the last one that was a ‘sitter’.

To quote Knapper about the ‘achievement’:

Unfortunately this is actually true!!!

 Nick was a broken man after the first week.

 Then, with my dropped catch, it looked like lightning was going to strike twice!!! Starry took matters into his own hands and decided to aim at the stumps. He picked up 3 wickets this week. Caught behind, bowled and LBW!!

Photo: Rob Knapman (centre) with Andrew Morris & Dinesh De Silva at pre-season training – John Purchse Oval 13 August 2022.

Family Affair

Going into the Grand Finals this weekend, our Minor Premier B2 side has an amazing bowling attack – led by the Hutchinson family. Todd leads the bowling aggregate with 36 wickets (average of 9.8), Craig (dad) sits 2^nd in the Leader Board has 22 wickets @ 10.8 & Jack is in 3^rd place with 17 wickets @ 12.3.

Add to this, Craig took match figures of 10/51 (6/7 & 4/44) and Todd a best return of 6/29.

With Chris Williamson (12 wickets @ 15.8) unless something extraordinary happens in the GF this means that for the first we will have a family takeout the top 3 bowling spots in a Team.

Photo: Craig and Jack Hutchinson after Jack top scored with 68* in the game Vs Glenorie @ Holland Road, 19 October 2019.

The Barnacle

Last week we did a story on Chris Williamson (B2) who batted for 90 overs for an important 50 runs in the Semi Final.

On to the GF and Chris backed this up with another 50 in another batting effort that passed 90 overs with wickets falling around him. To quote his skipper, Todd:

“…..he batted for yet another 90 flippin’ overs and brought up back to back 50s. A knock of pure class, grit and determination. 180 overs of batting accross this finals campaign… more overs than I’ve faced in my whole seniors career.”

Time will now tell if this is another season defining innings.

Photo: Chris Williamson – Greenway Park – 18 December 2022

Reelin’ in the years

First up, our theme song – the Steely Dan classic Reelin in the Years

The C4 boys (Hiresh’s Team), have a Team ‘tradition’ to take turns to wear Hiresh’s old Kanga Cricket legionnaires cap – the one with the sun protecting back-flap. The plan is wear the cap in a potential attempt to distract the batters.

While the boys had some memorable wins they also had some games worth forgetting about. So we are wondering just who the cap was a distraction to – the Opposition or our own Team.

Photo: Ratul Kumbam wearing Hiresh’s original Kanga cap – Campbell Park – January 2023