Competition Tables
Table after Round 14, (21/02/2026) is:
PlayHQ link – Draw & Competition Table
- A1 (Cam #25) – 3rd (52 points)
- A2 Blue (Warren) – 7th (37 points)
- B1:
- Prats – 4th (52 points)
- Red (Todd) – 2nd (62 points)
- B2 (John K) – 1st (55 points)
- C1 (Aniket) – 2nd (60 points)
- C2:
- (Indranil) – 5th (50 points)
- Blue (Chintan) –6th (47 points)
- C3: Red (Karl) – 4th (51 points)
- C4:
- Blue (Rob) – =2nd (57 points)
- Red (Ravi) – =2nd (57 points)
- D1: Note: 1-day competition (Round 9)
- Blue (Roger) – 1st (99 points)
- Red (Diggers) – 5th (61 points)
- D2 (Ross S) – 5th (52 points)
SEMI FINALS
(Day 1 – 28/2/2026)
A1 Grade
WPHC (Cam #25) 2/11 Vs ARL 152
Now before we get into the semi-final action.
As always, I would like to say thank you to our loyal readers who have followed along during the regular season. It is truely amazing the reach of these reports and the support/feedback is always greatly appreciated.
We have readers in Brazil, Cambodia, Mexico and more recently I found out even from other teams in the comp. So good luck to those teams reading who are still alive. Whilst for those teams out of finals, please keep tuning in and I hope you are enjoying your early holidays and no more pitch preparation.
Onto the cricket and we start with some team news.
Ass was a week one and his like for like replacement Shaan was in for week two. Whilst Mieks was back as a bowl only and despite his ambidextrous abilities, Belly was a bat only.
It was very moist this week with a couple of inches expected throughout. There was also a bit of rain around, so being the lower ranked team we were in charge of covers. As such Wu camped out at Parklands from Wednesday to make sure we got on and boy what a great job his did. To their shock and despite some moaning, we were on with just a 30-minute delay.
K won a toss and we were bowling. ARL attempted the team up Norths method and tried to bat for 180 overs.
We all saw how that ended up last year and there were similar results again today. Full credit to our bowlers who were on point all day as we steadily made inroads and bowled them out for 150 off 68 overs. The pick of the day was O who came out after his happy meal for lunch and took 4-20.
12 tricky overs to face at the end of the day.
Unfortunately K and Jim are back in the sheds. However, Juw and T who batted like Rahul Dravid (technique reference only) both put up a wall to have us 2-11 at the end of the day.
140 more runs needed next week to win and head to the big dance again. We’ll see you all again next Saturday.
B1 Grade
B1 Red (Todd) 128 Vs St Ives-Wahroonga 2/16
Welcome, loyal readers, back to your WPHCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC B1 Reds on our quest for the coveted crown. In this stanza, we are back at the Home of Cricket, our heavenly Greenway Park in a pivotal semi-final against St Ives.
Despite the heavy rain leading up to the game, Greenway for once actually absorbed the water and we were able to get underway bang on 1pm. Unfortunately, things very quickly began to not go our way.
Todd lost the toss, and St Ives very understandably put us into bat.
Crawley and Volc agreed to see the rest of the team at 6pm, but Crawley lived up to his namesake and was back in the sheds three balls into the first over. Volc followed soon later, bowled leaving a ball that hit his elbow, thigh pad and bounced back onto the stumps. When it’s not your day, it’s really not your day.
We never really had any partnership get going, losing wickets steadily throughout. Unlike last week, though, there were less loose shots and more simply good bowling. Alec top scored with a very fighting 41, probably the best innings I’ve seen him play, but was eventually also dismissed by a very good ball.
Defending 128 on Greenway is never an easy task. However, if St Ives thought they were in for a saunter, then they thought wrong.
Three overs in, both of their openers were gone as Todd got it hooping, bulldozing straight through one before trapping the other dead in front. But St Ives shut up shop against our pace onslaught, Todd and Jack in particular drawing regular plays and misses.
Of their 16 runs, about three quarters came from inside edges down to fine leg. The rest were edges through slip and gully. Alas, while we came close, we could not get that third breakthrough as St Ives finished 2/16 at stumps after 17 overs. Our opponents last week would be proud.
But in the wise words of philosopher and resident Captain Obvious Jack Hutchinson, “If they get set now then they have to do it again next week.” Or something like that.
Either way, his words ring true.
WPHC Blue (Prats) Vs Beecroft 120
A warm welcome and hello to all long term and new readers of the famed B1 match report, sit back relax and enjoy the tales of attritional semi-final Saturday.
We arrived back at Cheltenham Oval for the second time this season under a cloud of selection dramas & headaches…. Rick “BDR” Turner was dropped for being north of 40 (Prats is ageist) & Aden “Man-Flu” Hanich was out on GameDay – he was neither dying or dead and his non-appearance at wicket-keeper made this 1st slipper feel extremely unsafe.
As the 4th placed side in the semi-final our plan was quite easy and simple, take 10 wickets on day 1 and limit the runs… Both were achieved and we will tell the tales in good time.
After Captain Prats left his scorebook & brain at home, it was up to this humble match reporter to give a pre-match talk for the ages.
If there was a Club mandated swear jar, it’s fair to say the Sporto could be bought with plenty of cash to spare…. With F-Bombs & C-Bombs galore the message was simple – be big bad WPHCCC and play the party spoilers on our opposition’s big day…. And that we did.
A tremendous start was had again with the Blues leaving Beecroft at 4/23 after the first 17 overs we had our tails up….
However, the day is long and when an opening bat scores 12 of 121 at a strike rate of 9.91 it’s going to be a struggle.
We hung in there all day, something we can’t say for Mr Dravid 2.0 who departed after our crafty spinner Nat “I’m Sore” Watkins bowled a long spell of tight bowling.
Again, it was time to strike with more wickets in clumps as we had reduced to Beecroft to 9/83.
Now you’re probably thinking surely you guys lifted knocked them over and batted late in the day…. Ummm about that.
With the tiring legs Beecroft’s last partnership managed to put together 37 runs with the help of a No.11 out of place and a 13-yr old who loves to WAIT!
Thankfully at 5:49 Rey “Stevey” Ahmed took his 2nd for the day and with our umpire sick of listening to the M2 traffic behind the ground it was stumps and a very successful day was had.
Benny “Hugggggeeeee” Waldron had 3, Patty, Stevey, Nath all with 2 wickets and Captain Prats was at his burgerling best taking 1 wicket and that of No.9 – never change skipper.
A fantastic result filled day for the mighty Blues who again established themselves as a resilient bunch who shone in the field – 7 catches 0 drops, nice to change it up after dropping some absolute sitters on the road to finals.
We will go again next week looking towards 121 and a potential GF weekend birth…
Until Next Time.
Viva La Blue!!
B2 Grade
WPHC (John K) Vs Hornsby
Scores and Match Report not received
C1 Grade
WPHC (Aniket) Vs Castle Hill 193
Here we are, the knockout.
The game that really matters and the rest can be passive. The team arrived today in a calm spirit. Maybe because we sit second on the table and the opponents are in third, so nobody was panicking just yet.
Castle Hill were already at the ground and had prepped the field for us, good on them for taking the ownership. Ani won the toss and put Castle Hill into bat without hesitation. Anand, and Ani started off and kept things tidy. No easy runs and the bowlers were bowling to the field.
First bowling change came in the form of Ram who was really getting some purchase off the field. He kept troubling both the openers. He finally cracked through the Castle Hill opening partnership during the 14th over, dismissing the opener who has scored about half of Castle Hill’s runs this season, with an absolute jaffa.
A ball that none of us, including the batsman himself, will forget for a long time. The batter ooked to leave the ball and Ram nipped it back to take his off stump on a cartwheel ride. A ball that could fire up any bowling team and oh boy did it fire us up.
Ram continued to trouble the other opener who seemed to have Lady Luck firmly on his side.
He was not given out to a caught behind and later rode his luck again when he had a big nick to Ray off Mridul’s first over. Mridul almost got the opener out again but only for Ram to catch him at square leg off a no ball.
Ram was the only fielder cheering the catch and I’m pretty sure the batsman quietly joined in once he realised it was a free life.
Chetan dropped an absolute sitter.
The kind of catch that even a blind man might have somehow managed. For a moment the whole team just stood there in disbelief. But to be fair, they backed him straight away. Maybe because they know these things happen in cricket… or maybe because when the star player drops one, you pretend it was just “a tough chance.”
Castle Hill kept losing wickets at every 25 to 35 run interval and the lads were doing exceptionally well bowling to the field. After some-time the batsmen seemed to build a bit of momentum and put together a partnership of around 60 runs. The other opener made the most of his luck and went on to score a well deserved 83. By that stage we were all starting to wonder if he had nine lives or if the umpire had simply decided he liked the bloke.
Lakshya was introduced into the bowling attack and he didn’t take long to trap the fifth wicket right in front of the stumps. Once that wicket fell, we found our rhythm again and started picking wickets at regular intervals, bowling Castle Hill all out for 193. A respectable total for a semi-final, though we definitely made them work for every single run.
Ram started the day with a clean bowled and ended the day the same way and ended up taking 4 wickets that made a big impact with a brilliant assistance from Lakshya, Amitava and Dan.
When these guys were busy taking the wickets from one end, others were helping from the other by bowling tight line and length and building pressure on the Castle Hill batsmen.
We are going into next week with the intention to win.
It is important we keep our winning stride going. The mood in the pit seems relaxed and optimistic ahead of next week.
Bowling figures:
Ram – 4-23, Amitava 2-15, Lakshya 2-28 and Dan 1-19 And brilliant run out assist from Mridul.
C3 Grade
WPHC Red (Karl) 169 Vs Mt Colah 2/8
C3 met Mount Colah at Mount Kuring-gai oval. The outfield looking exceptionally wet. We lost the toss and were sent in to bat.
Karl opting for experience early on with Nick and Paul the opening pair. The first over did not go to plan. With Nick on two, the boys looked for a quick single. A direct hit sent Paul walking. Word on the street is that he looking at setting up a jewellery shop racking up two diamonds this season.
Nick and Callum favouring the drive through covers for runs.
Callum was looking like a player well advanced off his age. His body also took on this persona- shoulder breaking down with a big swing. He was met at the boundary with multiple cans of Pain Away (care of all the dads).
Isaac joined Nick in the centre.
The boys settled into a nice rhythm, scoring at a slow, even pace. Mount Colah’s keeper tried everything, even eyeing a Johnny Bairstow dismissal a few times. A couple of dropped catches assisted us to drinks without loss of another wicket. 1/32 at the break.
The Skip must have had a quiet word to Nick, who started finding the boundary before passing the 50 mark. The crowd went wild but it was business as usual for Nick, who after a nonchalant wave continued with the boundary onslaught.
Mount Colah brought on some spin and a lanky pace to try to break up the partnership. It nearly worked straight away but catches went begging again.
Nick finally was dismissed by the spinner with a deceptive straight ball. A great innings of 64 off 101 balls.
Isaac followed for 19 of 50 caught in in mid wicket. That partnership had put us in a solid position.
Kristian and James D were now in the centre and they quickly took us over 100. They looked settled in and scoring at will until James edged one through to the keeper.
Team Erdmanis now with Big K facing and Special K backing up on the non strikers end. Karl was beaten by the Mount Colah’s captain (another caught behind) and was replaced in the centre by Damo, who saw us through to the break. 5/117 at tea.
After tea, Kristian continued his effortless batting with Damo withstanding Mount Colah’s attack at the other end. Damo was looking well established until a deceptive looping ball got him bowled. Callum re entered with copious amount of Dencorub wafting behind him. He didn’t get a chance test the shoulder as was caught way too early.
Dom came in to support Kristian, who was in superb form knocking up another 50. An awesome effort!
Drinks called when we were at 7/160.
After drinks, it moved quickly, Dom got a quick fire 9, Wil P came in and exited just as quick, followed by Mick. Both popping it up over the bowlers head for routine catches.
All out for 169 with Kristian not out on 56.
We had 7 overs to get an early advantage going into next week. Mick and Karl opened, hoping to replicate our last game. This time Mick was smiling picking up the first two wickets, both LBW in the same over. In walked Colah’s captain. Karl was eyeing this wicket. He’ll need to wait until next week.
Mount Colah 2/8 at stumps.
C4 Grade
WPHC Blue (Rob) 2/16 Vs WPHC Red (Ravi) 187
An important moment in our Club history – First time in our Senior main comp, we are having a sheep station semi’s.
Ravi’s luck with the toss against Blues continued as he won his 3rd straight toss against them, except that this time he chose to bat first.
Arindam walked in with Sahil, with both batsmen coming in with some form and runs under their belt. After negotiating initial 4 overs well, Arindam got one in the channel to take his outside edge and was gobbled up by the first slip. Waman and Sahil soaked up the pressure and stitched up a fine partnership and the former even started playing some eye-catching shots for fours.
Just as Sahil was watching and negotiating the fiery spell, he missed a straight one and got bowled for 15. Waman and Vishnu continued some smart running and kept the score ticking, but Waman unfortunately got out thanks to a sharp catch at point.
Captain Ravi walked in but got trapped LBW soon after and Reds were in a real spot of bother at 73/4.
It brought Praveg and Vishnu together and they had to shed their ego and play the time to bring back calmness in the middle. Praveg played particularly well by smacking boundaries when the lengths were slightly off and Vishnu gave able support by stealing singles and rotating strike. A great 77 run partnership followed, and it gave some respect to Reds’ score. Just as the momentum was shifting towards Reds, Vishnu hit one ball straight to the fielder, started for a run, and Praveg was run out.
Reds had to reset and recalibrate, but a big partnership never took off and wickets fell in regular intervals. Vishnu made the most of his luck after getting dropped at 27 and brought up his third 50 of the season and remained at 59 not out, his highest score of the season.
Reds were folded for 187 in 57 overs, with excellent bowling efforts from Malinda (7/3),Zia ( 16/2) and Ryan Manson (50/3).
Blues had to negotiate a tricky period before close but skipper Ravi was on the money from ball one and got one opener leave an in-swinging ball to castle the off stump.
Ravi capped off the day with one moving away and taking the edge of Blues’ number 3, to finish the day at 16/2.
Reds would believe the job is only half done and will look to capitalise on the momentum on day 2.Match Report to come.
STANDARD COMPETITION
D1 Grade
1-Day games
WPHC Red (Diggers) 8/132 defeated Kissing Point 6/121
With pride to play for and to maintain 5th spot, we ventured to Bannockburn Oval only to find the pitch half under water.
Both teams were still keen to play and we were lucky to quickly relocate to Samuel King Oval at Turramurra for a reduced 30 over a side game.
Stand-in skipper, Buzz, followed Digger’s coin tossing instructions and lost the toss and KP decided to send us into bat.
With team trophies up for grabs, three of our star batsman were in the running for the award, Gus, Cliff and Grant.
Gus (6) and Cliff (12) opened the batting but were unfortunately knocked over early.
Finally a strong candidate for the permanent No 3 position, Disco (4), joined the crease and was unlucky to be caught out by a player over the boundary – should have been a 6!
Pete (2) also fell cheaply but the runs were still coming with the Big Dog, Grant Gerber (23* ret hurt) putting on a good partnership with Munish (15) in the middle order.
Some late contributions from Parin (19*), Tim (12), Sarthak (2), Bhargav (1) and James (2*) got us to a reasonable and defendable total of 8/132.
Congrats to the Big Dog, Grant G on winning the batting award!
At the change of innings, we were confident we could defend the total, although we thought we may have left a few runs out there.
Parin (1/20) and Disco (0/15) opened the bowling and kept KP’s scoring tight.
Bhargav (1/7) got the big break-through, but KP kept defending their wickets and at the drinks break we felt on top, even though we only had them one down.
After drinks we lost our inspirational stand-in skipper Buzz to an injury, so reserve-reserve skipper, Disco, took over the captaincy for the final overs.
It wasn’t until the 23rd over before we took our second wicket, when KP started to swing the bat because they were behind on the run rate.
James (1/20) pitched one up and Disco took a good catch out in the deep. For the remaining overs Disco mixed-up the bowlers and Grant (1/8) and Tim (1/26) chipped in with wickets both falling to catches by Disco. A great piece of fielding by Cliff also got us an important run-out.
KP required 16 runs off the last over to win. Parin was brought back into the attack and bowled brilliantly restricting KP to only 4 runs and clean bowling a batsman on the final delivery.
It was a great way to finish the season with a win.
Congratulations to all the players and a huge thank you to our permanent skipper Ian ‘Diggers’ Digby for managing the season.
Look forward to the Preso night and some of the boys have already started to organise training during the off-season in preparation for next season.
WPHC Blue (Roger) 7/133 defeated Hornsby 131
Hornsby innings
Hornsby won the toss and chose to bat first on a surface, with wet conditions at one end, thus we opened with spinner Mahesh Kadaganchi, at one end who proved unplayable for Hornsby and ripped through the top order with a brilliant spell of 3/17, including being on a hat-trick and completely shutting down Hornsby’s early scoring options.
The remaining wickets were shared evenly across the attack, with everyone contributing a breakthrough.
Special mention goes to Mahesh Shinde and Tej Randhawa, who each removed one of Hornsby’s key danger men at crucial stages.
A major milestone was also reached today:
• Tej Randhawa, already the team’s leading wicket-taker this season, claimed his 50th career wicket.
• This has been Tej’s most prolific season yet, now sitting on 21 wickets — a standout campaign.
Hornsby were eventually bowled out for 131.
D1 Blue innings
In reply, D1 Blue took a steady approach, chasing the total in 34 overs.
• Vinoth Sambasivam top-scored with 27, guiding the innings through the early overs.
• The rest of the batting line-up contributed valuable cameos, with several players reaching the teens but none passing 20.
The innings wasn’t without controversy. Hornsby effected a Mankad dismissal of Niranjan Kumar — executed without the usual courtesy warning. This marks the second Mankad against D1 Blue this season, after Daniel McEwen suffered a similar fate earlier.
Despite the setback, the side remained composed and crossed the line comfortably.
Result & Season Note
With this win, D1 Blue have now beaten every other team in the D1 competition at least once this season — a remarkable marker of consistency and resilience.
The victory takes the team another step closer in what has been an excellent campaign, securing the Minor Premiership and showcasing depth across both batting and bowling.
Photo attached of openers Roger Friend and Mahesh Shinde just before striding out.
JOHN HAYNE CUP
WPHC 8/139 tied with Castle Hill Black 8/139
Our Jh team this week is our D2 team with a couple of U14 juniors, playing Castle Hill D2 with a couple of significantly higher rated players.
Skipper won the toss and asked Castle Hill to bat on small Fred Caterson 4.
Our initial 18 overs of bowling was exceptional.
6 bowlers used. Even with a few dropped catches we managed to restrict Castle Hill.
At one stage 6/36 and looking to clean them up early. At 18 over drinks break 6/45.
Enter the higher rated players that put on 94 runs with the loss of just 2 wickets in the next 17 overs.
Close of innings Castle Hill 8/139.
Still a good effort with 11 bowlers used. Wickets to Sandeep 1/4(3), Gihan 2/7(3), Muthindra 1/5(3), Lachy M 2/8(3), Jake 1/21(2). Catches to Lachlan, Gihan, Flynn and Ross. 2 runout assists to Sachin with bullet throws (to Dhaval and Ross).
Our initial batting was great just losing our 3rd wicket at the drinks break, 3/89 and cruising….after the break runs flowed at 3/117 off 23 overs, looking great, but then a mini collapse losing 4 wickets for just 13 runs off 7 overs
9 runs needed of 5 overs on a small field…..nail biting stuff as we simply could not buy a run.
Then 4 runs needed off 2 overs….finally 3 off the last over to win.
A run out at the start of the over, a single then coming down to the last ball…1 to tie, 2 to win. Opening fast bowler on, Lachlan facing, Dhavil at non-strikers end. Guys yelling from the boundry, run at all costs.
Now an ending to remember in more ways than 1….
Let’s just say memories of Jeff Thomson bowling to Bumble come to mind. Fielders all around the bat. Fast bowler to Lachlan, he collapses in agony, but somehow manages to lift himself off the ground and scamper a single before collapsing again at the bowler’s end.
An absolutely heroic effort.
Match tied.
Our major batting contributors, Gihan 44, Sachin (u14) 36, and Lachlan (15 no), after opening, retiring, then coming back in with 2 overs left. In the end a fair result in a very even contest.