Competition Tables
Table after Round 4, (1/11/2025) is:
PlayHQ link – Draw & Competition Table
- A1 (Cam #25) – =1st (24 points)
- A2:
- Blue (Warren) –6th (11 points)
- Red (Todd) – =7th (6 points)
- B1 (Prats) – 1st (21 points)
- B2 (Sparsh) – =4th (14 points)
- C1 (Aniket) – =7th (6 points)
- C2 (Indranil) – 7th (4 points)
- C3:
- Blue (Chintan) – =1st (24 points)
- Red (Karl) – =5th (9 point)
- C4:
- Blue (Rob) – =2nd (16 points)
- Red (Ravi) – 1st (21 points)
- D1: Note: 1-day competition
- Blue (Roger) – =2nd (31 points)
- Red (Diggers) – =4th (18 points)
- D2 (Ross S) – =3rd (16 points)
Match Reports
A1 Grade
WPHC (Cam #25) 4/220 defeated Normanhurst 219
Week two and we rocked up to that oval up north with a week of wet weather not knowing what to expect.
Unlike Nasser (Kenthurst’s Captain) Normo as the HOME team had the covers on all week and with a new hessian (full credit to the Association) we were welcomed by an outfield wetter than Juw with his 128gb SIM card and a pitch with a very specific patch on a good left handers length. Our two lefties clearly had no issues as they both went on to make 50’s.
With Ass on the super soper, cotton picking his way along and drying off the oval we were slightly delayed with a 1:50pm start. 200 to chase in 50 overs. Unfortunately, despite a new SD card being picked up, the frog box was still out of action.
K with his exceptional leadership delegated this to belly (our number 7 who is still yet to bat and may never) as he was preoccupied with a 4m long snake at his house. We are not sure what species, but initial thoughts was it could be a king brown. Speaking of king browns, T was out again this week with rib and nEgroni awareness.
Speaking of T we had some great support from a lower grader who asked if ass him were related. I can confirm they are not but TBC if there is any relation with them and Shaan. Anyway I digress, and onto the batting and wow Temu Griff no more as K, despite not knowing how to mark centre brought up another 50 and Jamaican a steady 30. Rumours are that grade have rescinded their offer for Ollie and it is in fact K who has been offered a contract for next year.
P in his new shoes scored another unbeaten 50. He really had a knack of scoring unbeaten runs at that oval (circa March 2025 GF 90*). After being hit with a ball he called for a runner as Harry reluctantly went out to run before he made Jamaican to run for Preeds because he was sad. Good news is that despite pulling up lame we did not have to take this horse to a tent out the back.
So many runs and could’ve been even more as nothing ran with a wet outfield. Despite this we chased the runs 4 down with Shaan and ass finishing it off.
Again a team hasn’t had enough up north. Whilst the Umpires gave 3 votes to Harry and 2 to P the Richard’s memorial medal votes for round 4 were:
3 votes: K
2 votes: P / H
1 vote: J / O
Thank you as well to the Hando’s for their hospitality post game with BBQ in Hawwy’s room.
We look forward to next round against St Ives at Kenthurst.
A2 Grade
A2 Blue (Warren) 6/166 drew with Berowra 4 dec/306
Welcome back to another week of this wonderful game.
We arrived at a very moist Dural Park, the Berowra team were quick to bring out the brooms and blowers.
Zach “Ed Sheeran“ Turner and K “Should go back to bowling” T walked out at 1:40pm extremely keen to chase down 300. KT walked back to the pavilion about 3 minutes later (new personal record) after bottom edging a beautifully bowled half tracker. Yuck.
“Absolute mine field out there guys, be careful” as he trudged off.
Zach and Matty “Dan’s brother” Schwartzel put on a nice 97 run partnership together, Matt skying a ball to mid-off to end the stand.
This brought in Nick “Pujara” Duck, he batted a fanatic innings of 16 not out off 32 overs to put the game in the dust.
Tanay “worse Hira” Hira and Riken “worse Hira” Hira both tried to defend with their front pads, not a great idea in hindsight. Rohan “LMS Specialist” Arora put up a good fight with 28, questionably caught behind.
Warren “Fidel Castro” Shwartzel and Nick saw out of the day, earning us 3 points, a decent outcome after conceding 300.
Next week we have the winless A2 reds in a massive derby 2-dayer at The Glade.
A2 Red (Todd) drew with Sydney Lions 287
No play at Greenway due to the rain
B1 Grade
WPHC (Prats) 1/22 drew with Berowra 169
No play at a flooded Warrina Street Oval.
B2 Grade
WPHC (Sparsh) 2/146 defeated Normanhurst 144
The pitch was damp after early rain, but determination ran deeper than the puddles. As soon as the drizzle stopped, out came the brooms, and we got to work drying things up.
After a strong run of form in recent weeks, the team arrived full of confidence and with just 45 runs to chase, the goal was clear: finish it as soon as possible.
Once play resumed, ‘I have a $5000 GM bat’ Corbs and ‘Would rather play golf’ Raffa, continuing from last week made it look easy smashing Normanhurst’s bowlers all around the park and each bringing up quickfire fifties in style.
With only 10 or so runs left, Sparsh and Manas walked in and wrapped things up MS Dhoni-style with some clean hitting, calm heads, and a boundary to seal it.
Big thanks to all of the fill-ins that helped out over the past weeks!
Much appreciated and thank you West Penno!
C1 Grade
WPHC (Aniket) drew with ARL 8/279
No play at a flooded Bannock Oval – see picture below.
C2 Grade
WPHC (Indranil) drew with Beecroft
Match abandoned due to rain.
C3 Grade
Sunday game – Match Report available on Monday morning
WPHC Blue (Chintan) 5/114 defeated Glenorie 110
Welcome back to another week of cricket! For a few of us, this felt longer than the mid-season Christmas break, and we were glad to be back on the ground in our shiny whites (no I am not talking about Halloween costumes).
Before we get into the details, I would like to take a moment to remember the untimely and unfortunate passing of Ben Austin in Melbourne. We are all brought together by this game we love, and the game Ben loved as well – so let us take a moment to remember the bright young lad who left this world too soon.
Onto the match now but first a bit of a build-up. Who knew that having the India-Aus ODI on a Saturday would cause almost 80% of tour team to be unavailable [actually it was totally expected], leading to some scheduling nightmares for skipper Chintan. After a lot of back and forth, and perhaps some very convincing ‘sales talk’, our beloved skip managed to convince Glenorie to change our 2 dayer into a 1 dayer, giving the team a bonus weekend off.
The day looked promising as we all began to arrive at Glenorie Oval [tbh it did feel like a way longer trek], the same venue where we met none other than the Yellow Wiggle a couple of years ago. Sadly this year he was not part of the C3 Glenorie squad, much to Arun and Pritam’s disappointment [they were hoping to get their Wiggles T-shirts signed by him].
Let’s get into the details now. Chintan continuing his recent ‘form’, lost the toss and we were put in to bowl first. Mridul and Pritam started things off and kept things quite in-check, and it was only a matter of time before Mridul sent back both the openers in back to back overs [one to a superb catch by keeper Sitabja]
What followed was a decent partnership between no.3 and 4, which involved no.3 blocking every ball and no.4 going for the odd shot every now and then. Pretty sure I heard Anubhav check with their skipper to confirm that no.3 knew it was a one dayer.
Our bowlers kept things tight along the way, and soon Chintan and Praneel were brought in to the attack. What followed for the next hour or so was just top class cricket from our team. Pritam took an absolute screamer of a catch at long on, covering some serious ground and dismissing their no.4 batsman who was looking in form, much to the delight of the bowler and skipper Chintan. Praneel too chipped in and got a couple of wickets, which included another great catch by Chintan, running back towards the boundary from slip to a top edge.
And then came the ‘wonder over’, where our very own skipper bowled what I can only describe as a ‘dream over’.
Supported by Sitabja with a brilliant stumping, and Sayan by an equally brilliant one-handed catch, he picked up 3 wickets in that over getting to his 4-fver. Glenorie had all but given up by this time. Mridul cleaned things up and we were set a target of 111 to chase down.
With some encouragement from a few mates, Adi was sent in to open the innings, along with Sitabja. Adi saw the ball particularly well and had it not been for a slow outfield, could have easily gotten a few more extra boundaries.
We continued to lose wickets at regular intervals, most to our most loved loopy balls. However the danger was never really there chasing such a low total. Solid contributions by Adi and Anubhav made sure we chased down the total with 5 wickets to spare [a few more than we would have liked but a win nonetheless]
Onto the next round where we take on our favourite opponents, Beecroft
Special shout out to C4s Vishnu for filling in, C4 skipper Ravi for the extra spectator support, Amitava for coming out on a Sunday and umpiring, and Ed and Reneesh from B2 for encouraging the squad on and staying on until we saw it through – it’s what we all love the most about WPHCCC!
Onwards and upwards C3 Blue!
WPHC Red (Karl) 9/207 lost to Mt Colah 8/219
After a rainy Saturday yesterday, we were happy to have the Sunday game this round. We started the day confident our 207 from last week would be enough for the win.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite get the job done.
After having the so far undefeated, Mt Colah four down for not many at drinks, the wickets dried up and the opposition found themselves eventually needing just over 40 runs in the last hour, with three wickets in hand and two batsmen set at the crease.
Despite some tight bowling in the last session, dropped catches ultimately cost us the result on the day.
Notable mentions
- Will D (56no) and Kristian (69) last week with the bat
- Isaac 3/51 and Mick 2/29 for getting us close with the ball
Despite the narrow loss, this was a solid all-round team performance that points to better results ahead. Hang in there boys!
C4 Grade
WPHC Blue (Rob) 3/64 drew with Castle Hill RSL 208
No play at Northholm Grammar due to the wet outfield.
WPHC Red (Ravi) 244 drew with Kissing Point 9/143
Who says draws are boring ?
Some of the best dramas in cricket gave unfolded slowly, and the slower it gets, the more romantic it becomes for a cricket tragic.
With the weather forecast not looking great and with a steady drizzle right since morning, there were quite a few sceptics predicting a washout for day two. The ground, though, suprisingly stayed dry with not any dangerous spots for bowlers and fielders. Both captains inspected the ground and seemed happy enough to play. What then unfolded was nothing short of classic test cricket.
Photo
The Reds had the opening bowler and star batsman Praveg available and walked out to bat with Nirav who was not out over the last week. The game plan was to go hard for 10 overs and Praveg delivered exactly that with his unbeaten 34 off 32. Two towering sixes in a longish ground was a hallmark of the innings, to go with quick sharp running. With Nirav departing for a well-constructed 28 and Siby falling for 5, Reds folded for 244, a more-than-respectable total in these conditions.
Ravi and Praveg started off the proceedings with the ball and- surprise surprise – was right on the money from ball one. Ravi got one early wicket with one of the openers getting trapped LBW. A partnership followed with stoic defence and occasional boundaries, but Reds found a breakthrough with Rohit getting the other opener nicked off to the keeper.
There was an increased tempo in scoring with Kissing Point building another partnership.
They attacked our spinners and capitalised on our wayward bowling during the middle overs. Nirav and Siby once again came back to keep things tight and grab a couple more wickets. Nirav was puzzling the batsmen with his and the highlight of the stumping was the batsman venturing out of the crease and coming back to search for his crease, only to be stumped off.
As captains were beginning to ponder about a possible “handshake” , the biggest turning point of the day happened.
Ravi introduced himself to the attack and got 2 back to back wickets. He got the no.3 batsman with a ball drifting down the leg. Arindam, our stand in keeper, moved well and pouched the dying ball with an excellent dive. What followed was golden duck and all of a sudden Kissing Point were at 128/6 and Pennos had their tails up. Nirav got another ball to dip and stop at the batter with the ball lobbing off a leading edge to short mid-wicket. Siby was on the money all day with his sharp inswingers and looked threatening every time he had the cherry in hand.
Siby bagged two wickets bowling batsmen with balls swinging from wide outside off stump and coming back in. They were soon down to 139/9 with 5 overs to go.
Some watertight defence and a couple of edges dropping short meant Reds had to contend with a draw. The game looked like it would meander towards a draw, Reds were inspirational in their come back to have a genuine shot at a win, but later had to settle for a draw again. Ah the beauties of long formal cricket, which the T20 generation may never understand.
The fact that the opposition was still 100 runs away from Reds’ total was a mighty moral win and gave us all the confidence to take forward to the next games. At the end of the day, Reds can go home with their heads held high.
Observed a moment of silence along with Kissing point before the match as mark of respect to Ben Austin.
D1 Grade
1-Day games
WPHC Blue (Roger) 5/136 defeated Berowra 9/132
Looking at the Club wide chat looks Iike we were one of the few lucky teams to get a full game in today.
Berowra lost the toss and were put into bat by Captain Roger.
They put on 132/9 including 43 by a higher-grade player with a 40 run restriction. Sandeep Pathak really shone behind the stumps with 2 stumpings and a catch. Our bowling was consistent, taking wickets at regular intervals but the main miss was in the number of extras being the 2nd highest scorer for Berowra at 30 (partly contributed to by the narrow pitch but a fair few front foot no balls that we need to work on improving.
After batting 2nd we were 3 for 27 runs at one point but we really trusted in our skills and built partnerships and recovered the way we did in the previous match. 3 partnerships saw us through- 35 runs for the 4th wicket between Vinoth Sambasivam and Malinda Dharmadasa, 30 for the 5th wicket between Malinda and Shehan Fernando and then 44 unbeaten for the 6th wicket between Shehan and Niranjan Suruliappan.
Niranjan Suruliappan made an explosive 36 not out including 1 six and 6 fours which enabled us to reach the target in the 33rd over.
Other top scorers were Vinoth Sambasivam 24 , Malinda Dharmadasa 22 and Shehan Fernando 20 not out.
WPHC Red (Diggers) drew with Thornleigh
A heavy shower made Campbell Park unplayable so we finished with 3 points.
D2 Grade
WPHC (Ross S) drew with Kissing Point 7/237
Field looking good despite the rain over the last few days. KP indicated before play that they would continue batting giving us a tough chase.
15 minutes before play is to start a heavy shower and a couple of puddles around the crease at one end.
Captains agree to review the conditions in an hour.
Another heavy shower and with weather radar not looking good captains agree conditions too dangerous to play.
Points shared.