Competition Tables
Table after Round 9, (20/12/2025) is
PlayHQ link – Draw & Competition Table
- A1 (Cam #25) – 3rd (38 points)
- A2 Blue (Warren) – 7th (28 points)
- B1:
- Prats – 2nd (36 points)
- Red (Todd) – 3rd (34 points)
- B2 (Sparsh) – 1st (34 points)
- C1 (Aniket) – =3rd (36 points)
- C2:
- (Indranil) – =7th (26 points)
- Blue (Chintan) – =5th (33 points)
- C3: Red (Karl) – 6th (28 points)
- C4:
- Blue (Rob) – 2nd (36 points)
- Red (Ravi) – =2nd (36 points)
- D1: Note: 1-day competition (Round 9)
- Blue (Roger) – 1st (68 points)
- Red (Diggers) – 5th (45 points)
- D2 (Ross S) – 3rd (33 points)
Match Reports
A1 Grade
WPHC (Cam #25) 107 lost toNormanhurst 9/136
Could there possibly have been anything better than Travis Head on a Friday afternoon?
My god Travis was unreal and we were keen to play and emulate his Ashes efforts after being rained out last week. Despite no covers and a bit of rain around, we were on against Normo for the last time this season cause we definitely won’t see them in March.
A more even contest today for bat and ball.
With a pitch unlike the roads up north where first placed teams just like to draw finals. We were greater but a wicket at Kenthurst that favoured only the slow bowlers (i.e. Normo’s whole attack and Wu). Now whilst I love an even contest, this pitch resembled the moon and quite frankly was not up to an A grade standard. I’ve seen K prepare a better wicket at Les shore number 3 for Australia Day.
In team news, Horse was out with a PCL injury so we had to unfortunately take him to the tent out back. Cam was out too and with the Captain missing who would take the reins? Following in his dad’s footsteps, who is a multiple premiership winning captain himself, Harry Hando stepped up.
Speaking of Phill, he was back out of retirement, meaning we had two father sons (Hando’s and Makin’s) and three players over the age of 50, with an age gap of 42 years between the youngest and oldest (Phill and Ollie).
‘T’ was back too and I’m not sure why but despite Min’s effort’s to calm him down got very angry about his bald spot. Jed was also in and I quote “looked like he swallowed a small animal”.
Moving on and we won the toss for the first time all year.
Well done Harry and K take notes. We were bowling and had them all out for 130 odd. We then batted like WPHCCC circa 2021/2022 and that’s all I’ll say for the cricket.
Our number one supporters Mary and Phill (plus Heather and Bruce) cooked us a lovely BBQ to end the day and first half of the season. We will be back in the new year so Merry Christmas, happy Boxing Day and new years to all our loyal readers and in the meantime, please remember that as Wu said best “when fielding, you have to go right to go left”.
The votes went to:
3 – Mary and Phil
2 – Heather and Bruce
1 – Jewd
A2 Grade
A2 Blue (Warren) 9/187 lost to Thornleigh 7/207
Good morning avid readers.
Another Saturday morning was upon us and I was excited to travel up Pennant Hills road again.
Unfortunately today my GPS told me NOT to turn down Comenarra Parkway towards our favourite The Glade oval, but left towards Thornleigh Oval aka the postage stamp.
We knew this game would be tough.
Without the Hira brothers and Mr Asija, we were faced with the tough task of playing against the newly promoted Thornleigh side which had a deep batting line-up.
Warren “Admiral-General Aladeen” Schwartzel of course lost the toss and we were sent into the field. Today was going to test our bowling depth and it really did.
Rob “I’m Bobby Mom!” Knapman opened the bowling (yes you that read right) and bowled extremely well, finishing with figures of 3/23 off his 7 overs.
Thornleigh chipped away at our bowling, their number 3 scoring a well-made 81. The rest of the wickets were shared around with Warren taking 2, Diggers 1 and Matty “son of Admiral-General Aladeen” Schwartzel 1.
With 207 to chase, Zach “Rupert Grint stunt double” Turner and K “did you know he captained Jack Wildermuth in BBL SuperCoach?” T walked out and started positively as per usual. KT (27) and Zach (11) out, both bowled. Matty and Brent “230 strike rate” Larkham both steadied the ship a bit before Brent fell to a yucky ball out for 23 off 10 balls. Usual stuff.
Nick “3kg of lollies next year please” Duck gone for a duck (haha) as we were about 4-90 heading into drinks, our chase in an ok spot.
Rohan “Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localised entirely within your kitchen?” Arora batted well out for 38, hitting some big bombs with Matty, their partnership ending at 69. Shout-out to Arjun for filling in, unfortunately he fell for a golden. Matty ended up on 47, out to another yuck ball.
Warren fell shortly after and Nathaniel “could tell you exactly the year that India gained its independence” Chidgey tried to steer us home with a well-made 20*, hitting only his 6th six of his illustrious career, unfortunately we were 20 runs short in the end.
The boys battled hard and unfortunately our bowling depth was exposed.
We will need to win many, many games in the New Year for a last push towards finals. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
B1 Grade
B1 Red (Todd) 6/75 defeated WPHC Blue (Prats) 78
Saudi Arabia has poured tens of billions of dollars into global sport over the past decade as part of its Vision 2030 strategy.
Since around 2016, an estimated $50 billion+ has gone into football, motorsport, golf, boxing, and major event hosting, using sport as a tool for economic diversification and international influence.
Now, you might be thinking this is a match report, not a financial briefing — but I include this because I’m increasingly convinced Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is attempting a hostile takeover of the HK&HDCA.
The evidence?
Dural Park had 20 tonnes of sand dumped on it this week. Clearly, we’re being prepared for cricket in desert conditions.
This match was important — the Sheep Station Cup, against the top of the table, and a chance to see if last week’s momentum was real. Todd started things perfectly by winning the first battle: the toss. We sent them in to bat with an outfield clearly designed to protect bowling averages.
For the second game in a row, we opened with a strong spell.
Todd (0–10) and myself (3–14) strangled the run rate and picked up an early wicket, safely held by Sagnik — reassuring, given he was nowhere near last week’s catching yips.
Keates (1–12) and Shomik (3–20) came on first change and kept the pressure firmly applied. Shomik had a hat-trick ball, which unfortunately didn’t come off — though it wouldn’t be the last of the day.
Willy (3–19) then did what Willy does best: apply relentless pressure, picking up wickets caught, bowled, and one very sharp stumping by Bish, who spent the entire innings diving around and stopping absolutely everything.
We cleaned the Blues up for 78, with myself also getting a hat-trick ball — again sadly wasted.
Chasing, we sent out Crawley (Lachy, for those behind on the nickname updates) and Volc (whose nickname may actually be on his birth certificate).
Volc fell early for 2, bringing in birthday boy Alec, who struck a well-paced 26 off 26, impressive given the outfield’s refusal to cooperate to run scoring.
Momentum carried us forward until we briefly allowed Dean onto a hat-trick — thankfully defused when Crawley left one through to the keeper, sparing us a lifetime of reminders.
Speaking of Crawley, it was good to see Lachy adapting his game to modern English trends. With Bazball fading and English strike rates plummeting, Lachy embraced the movement fully, finishing with a strike rate of 28. In fairness, the outfield was slow, and he anchored the innings well.
The finishing touches were applied by superstar fill-in Rafs, with Sagnik adding some beautifully timed boundaries to see us home.
Two wins in a row now gives us real momentum as we head into the Christmas break with a 100% win rate in B1.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas
B2 Grade
WPHC (Sparsh) 9/147 lost to Hornsby Green 3/151
It was the rematch of the century against our arch-nemesis, the ever-pesky Hornsby Green — a clash so big it probably deserved fireworks (or at least fewer dropped catches).
We started solidly with the bat as Corbs and Harshil negotiated the new ball sensibly, rotating strike and frustrating the bowlers.
Harshil’s resistance came to an end for a well-earned 21, before Manas and Corbs steadied the ship through to drinks. Unfortunately, that’s where the ship hit the iceberg.
Manas departed just after drinks for 24, and Corbs followed the very next over for 27, triggering a middle-order collapse that would make professional Jenga players proud. A flurry of wickets followed in quick succession, but Maz, John and Mukund showed some late-order fight to drag us to 9–147, a total that felt slightly under par but defendable.
Heading into the bowling innings, confidence was high — after all, bowling is our thing.
The bowlers actually started well… until we decided catching was optional. Six dropped catches in the first 10 overs set the tone, much to the opposition’s delight.
Despite this, Maz, Manas and Mayank bowled some disciplined spells and picked up a few scalps, while spinners Shanks and John threatened at times and kept things interesting. Sadly, it wasn’t quite enough to wrestle back control, and Hornsby Green snuck home.
Plenty to take out of the game, plenty to improve on, and hopefully the boys will come back refreshed and firing in the new year. The rivalry now sits at 1–1, and if history tells us anything, this saga is far from over — see you in the finals, Hornsby Green.
C1 Grade
WPHC (Aniket) 6/139 defeated Mt Colah 138
Riding high on four straight wins, the team was super excited to finish the year on a high.
However, with the holiday period approaching, we were two players short—something a few other teams were also dealing with. Thankfully, Indranil’s team had a bye and he helped us out with four fill-ins.
Ani and Vishnu opened the bowling for us.
While they kept things tight, wickets were hard to come by early on. Saurabh gave us the breakthrough in the 11th over. From there, things started to improve, runs became difficult to score as our bowlers built pressure and took wickets at regular intervals. We did well to restrict Mount Colah to just 138 runs.
Bowling highlights:
Saurabh 3–14, Prashant 2–18, Vinod 1–14
Chasing the target, we were confident but knew we still needed to score the runs. Ray and Lakshya opened the batting, but unfortunately both returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers. Chetan and Mridul then provide some stability to the rocking ship. Just as things were looking settled, we suffered another blow with the loss of Chetan.
That brought Saurabh in the middle and he was in a hurry. He took on the bowlers one by one, showing no mercy and raced to a quick 39. Unfortunately, the heat and humidity began to take their toll on him and he struggling to run between the wickets, we eventually lost him when he was trying to play a pull shot and top edge went straight to the fielder.
Mridul however had other plans. He rotated the strike beautifully, found the gaps and showed immense determination. Working hard for every run, his consistency helped us regain control of the chase.
We reached the target in the 33rd over, with Mridul falling just five runs short of a well-deserved fifty.
A great team effort and a perfect way to close out the year.
Thank you Vishnu, Jaydev, Prashant and Advay for your help today.
You guys were really great and did incredible job all around.
Wish you all Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Stay safe and looking forward to keep the momentum in 2026.
C2 Grade
WPHC (Indranil) Vs BYE
Our next game is on Saturday 10 January 2026 – the draw has yet to be released.
C3 Grade
WPHC Blue (Chintan) 4/165 defeated Beecroft 161
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The match was played between C2 WPHCCC Blue (Chintan) and Beecroft, with Beecroft (leading the pack at No 1) winning the toss and electing to bat first.
WPHCCC Blue opened the bowling with Ram and Pritam, who maintained tight lines and built early pressure on the batters.
The breakthrough came at 18 runs when Adi took an outstanding catch btw his nuts 😉, giving Ram the first wicket.
Despite the early losses, Beecroft rebuilt through the middle order, with partnerships until the spinners came into the attack.
WPHCCC Blue continued to apply pressure with disciplined bowling and sharp fielding, resulting in regular wickets and limiting Beecroft’s momentum.
Several key dismissals in the middle and late overs helped restrict Beecroft to a total of 161, with the innings closing after the fall of the tenth wicket.
Ramamurthy led the bowling attack with four wickets, supported well by Anand and Chintan who claimed two wickets each. Pritam also chipped in with a wicket and was particularly economical, finishing with the best economy rate of the innings at 2.28.
Chasing 161 at Mills Park, WPHCCC Blue approached the run chase with composure and control.
The innings was anchored by Aditeya Nair, who top-scored with a well-constructed 47 off 65 balls, setting a solid foundation at the top of the order.
He was well supported by Blues wicketkeeper Vishnu Rajesh, who contributed a fluent 40 from 52 deliveries, ensuring the scoreboard continued to tick over steadily.
Chintan Shah played an important role through the middle overs, adding a composed 32 off 42 balls to maintain momentum and keep the chase on track.
Anubhav Ghatak also chipped in with a valuable 15, helping stabilise the innings as wickets fell at intervals.
The chase was finished calmly by Arunava Chaudhuri (who just left his 9-day baby at home to support the team as they were short of players), who remained unbeaten on 18, alongside Brahdadesh Ramamurthy, who stayed not out on 4.
Their ensured WPHCCC Blue crossed the target with a strong 165, without further trouble, sealing a six-wicket victory with confidence.
Go blues!Match Report to follow by Monday morning
WPHC Red (Karl) Vs Sydney Lions
Scores & Match Report not available.
C4 Grade
Sunday game. Match Report will be updated by Monday morning
WPHC Blue (Rob) 45 lost to Berowra 125
Match Report not received.
WPHC Red (Ravi) 146 lost to Hornsby 7/247
Reds and Hornsby locked horns at the Montview Oval before the tournament breaks for festive season breaks.
Ravi lost toss (who’s surprised?) and were asked to field on a hot summer day with highs of 40 degrees.
The Hornsby openers were on a roll, swinging at everything and moved at a rapid pace in the initial overs. They brought up the 50 partnership in under 6 overs and Ravi introduced spin to slow down the shot making.
It gave instant results and one of the hard-hitting openers top edged a sweep to give keeper Vishnu a simple catch.
The run flow could not be stemmed as the no.3 batsman too started smashing from ball one. Hornsby crossed 100 in 12 overs and was looking ominous until the ball was thrown to fill in star Harjit. A smart return from Harjit sent home the no.3 and he followed it with a testing spell of fast bowling with good pace and movement. Harjit capped off his spell with another wicket , thanks to a sharp catch at covers by Siby.
Regular strikes from Siby and returning Ravi followed, but scoreboard kept ticking at a healthy run rate. A late flourish from the lower order targeting the spinners pushed Hornsby total to 245.
A steepling target on a big ground meant Reds had to be on the money from ball one.
A disciplined opening bowling attack kept things tight, but Praveg went for a few shots to keep the run rate in check. After reaching 24 in 5 overs, Reds suffered a mini collapse of 3 wickets for 10 runs and that brought a promoted skipper Ravi and Vishnu together. Some tight high-pressure bowling meant Ravi and Vishnu had to rebuild the innings in singles and occasional boundaries.
Vishnu was struggling to find gaps initially, so conceded to rotating strike and pass the strike to Ravi. After a partnership of 42 , Ravi was run out due to a mix up. Asking rate was over 14 by this point and Reds needed around 160 runs to win at this point. Vishnu went for a few shots but was too little too late. After Vishnu was out caught by keeper, Waman came in and played some shots but not for long.
Hornsby was on the money with fielding as there were two direct hits out of 3 run outs.
Eventually Reds folded for 146 and would feel they were outplayed by a superior team who simply batted, bowled and fielded better than them on the day.
D1 Grade
1-Day games
WPHC Red (Diggers) 6/160 defeated Thornleigh 7/157
After a close loss last Sunday, we headed to George Christie Oval to try and keep our season alive against Thornleigh.
With several of our players heading away earlier, we fielded our, shall I say, most experienced 11 of the season. Diggers lost the toss and Thornleigh and they decided to bat first.
This suited us fine as, considering our four wins so far this season came from us bowling first and they was our plan today, in spite of the hot humid conditions.
Disco and Parin were their usual miserly selves and with Munish starting his spell with a couple of maidens, we had Thornleigh 1/43 after 12. Zach, Buzz and James continued with the tight bowling and at the 2nd drinks break Thornleigh were 4/91.
After that final break Thornleigh came out with a bit more intent and had a bit of a hit against some slightly loose bowling and they finished with 7/157.
One wicket to each of our bowlers including a first senior wicket to James.
Onto our batting and Cliff and Ross, our esteemed Club Secretary turning back the clock with some elegant cut and pull shots helping us reach 64 without loss at the first drinks break.
Unfortunately the conditions got the better of Ross and he opted to retire for a well made 24.
Munish batted well with Cliff to get the score to 95 before he was out, soon followed by Cliff(46). Kiran then supported Zach to get our score to 120 before he was out. Zach tried one big shot too many before being out for 38 but, with the score on 138 and plenty of overs in hand. Parin then finished the job with a few boundaries and we passed Thornleigh’s score 5 wickets down and with 6 overs to spare.
A great win going into the mid-season break.
On behalf of the D1 Reds, I’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe, successful and happy New Year!!
WPHC Blue (Roger) 6/116 defeated Berowra 114
Roger won the toss and invited Berowra to bat first.
Berowra were all out for 114 in 35 overs. Daniel McEwan 2/24 and Tej Randhawa 2/11 were the highest wicket takers. Bala Raghuraman shone in the field with 3 catches.
In reply we scored the required runs in 23 overs.
Highest scorers were Vinoth Sambasivam 47 and Malinda Dharmadasa 21 n.o including a 54-run partnership.
Our thanks to Mason Sinclair and Aarush Shah who from WPH Juniors who filled in.
Photo of highest scorer Vinoth Sambasivam 47
Photo of the team celebrating David Tanna’s birthday at the ground with cake (kindly organised by Bala Raghuraman).
D2 Grade
WPHC (Ross S) 6/229 defeated St Ives-Wahroonga 8/224
Our first game of the year at Campbell Park and an early noon start for both sides.
Sitting in 5th place against 3rd place St Ives. Only 4 points separating 3/4/5 positions on the table so a must win.
Skipper loses the toss and St Ives batting first. Cloudy, yet humid conditions, but even after the overnight rain the outfield is quick. Earlier in the season the same side put on almost 300 against us, so we knew the powerful batting line up would be a challenge.
A steady start by our bowlers Sandeep and Lachlan M, ball hooping, with Sandeep cartwheeling middle stump in his second over. 1/10….two batters then playing safe cricket before one of the batters had to retire hurt with an arm injury after slashing a ball to the boundary.
Enter the St Ives skipper who belted us around the park last time.
After Sandeep and Lachlan put on some more scoreboard pressure, Sandeep took out middle stump again…Skipper gone for a Blob. St Ives 2/34 after 10 and us doing well. For the next 16 overs the St Ives batters tee’d off.
We bowled ok but just could not contain the 2 batters.
A couple of dropped catches did not help. At 2/151, with 10 overs remaining a moment of brilliance from Sachin (U14) fielding on the boundary at backward square leg. Opener (on 93) smashes the ball straight to Sachin on 93 and walks a run, a bullet 50+ metre throw to bowler’s end hits the stumps with batter short…the breakthrough we needed.
Enter St Ives best batter who is averaging a sold 300 this year…..Raymond bowling. First ball smashed for 4. Second ball. A play and miss, stumps cleaned up. Then Sachin back on for his second spell, stumps fly 3rd ball, his first seniors wicket. 5th ball a plump LBW….double wicket maiden.
A few more hefty hits , a runout to Sandeep off his own bowling, then a final wicket to Sandeep. St Ives 8/224 after 35/overs. Fielders wilting under hot humid conditions but our enthusiastic u14s (Thenuk, Flynn, Sachin) fly around the field stopping numerous boundaries.
Great to have some young legs.
A tough score to chase though. Wickets to Sandeep 3/19(7), Raymond 1/34(7), 2/38(5). Two runouts to Sachin and Sandeep with direct hits.
So our turn to bat and we did not get off to a great start with both openers Sandeep and Ramil chopping on.
Early trouble 2/18 after 5.
Some confident cricket from Gihan and Sachin accelerated our score with Sachin (u14) putting a ball up onto the hill. A change in bowling and a small edge Sachin dismissed for 17. Raymond and Gihan then playing safe and sensible cricket moving us along at a steady rate. Disaster in the last over before drinks , Gihan caught in the gully for 29, 4/97…..17 overs to go 138 needed.
After the drinks break, Raymond and Jaques played very safe cricket, pushing the ball around and putting the bad ball away.
Relatively slow batting putting on just 24 runs off the next 6 overs but more importantly building an innings. 5/122.
So this is where the game changed….The St Ives skipper yells out to the scorers…. How many runs needed off the last 10 overs. Reply 90….Jaques and Raymond then tee off, both peppering the hill.
Jaques is finally caught at long off for 47(6*4 and 2*6). 6/184. Partnership of 74 off just 8 overs sets us up. Lachlan J then joins Raymond. 41 needed off 5 overs and what a great effort.
A great team effort with partnerships playing a big role today. Although Raymond 108no, our 566th century, Jaques 47 and Gihan 29 were the top scores,
Partnerships with our two U14s Sachin and Thenuk, and Lachlan J played a crucial parting our win.
We now go into the Christmas break in the top 4….some important games in January to consolidate our position.
