(Our people. Our memories. Our identity)
Why the change from Anecdotes?
Our long-term readers will be familiar with our Anecdotes that would be updated every weekend along with the Seniors Match Reports.
From this season, the stories are the same – insights into events, funny stories, significant achievements and things that are interesting. It is all about our people – who we are and what makes up different. For this reason referring to these stories as ‘Stories of WPHCCC’ is a more appropriate description of what this is all about.
Many details are based on fact, some are rumours but may well be fact and there are still many stories to be told during this season.
The best of the best are then included in our Club History. Check out the Club History and you will see how important these are in telling the stories about our people, over generations – Stories of WPHCCC – History
A Team’s respect
We are all aware of the tragic flood in Nepal.
Of the 36 Australian’s who remain ‘unaccounted-for’ 8 people, from 2 families are from our Club.
Two of the players are from B2 (Rishab & Rudhra Iyer) also the Muralitharan family play Juniors Mixed with their two sons (Aarush U12 & Ashwin U15).
At this stage we remain hopeful that they will all be found safe and well until we are advised through official DFAT channels.
Our B2 Team is making sure that their memory is kept alive and the hope of them being found by having Rishab & Rudhra’s name on the playing shirts so that they are constantly with the Team and in our thoughts.
Our latest Australian representative
Congratulations to our latest Australian representative – Trisha Yadav, Stage 3 Girls, who was selected as Captain of the Australian U16 Indoor Cricket Team.
Trisha will lead Australia in the World Championships to be played in South Africa in late September.
Trisha is now the 7th player in our history to represent Australia. Checkout the photo gallery on our Australia Representatives – https://wphccc.com.au/gallery/australian-representatives/
The returning legend
Breaking News – with A1 Grade about start their chase for Premiership glory our A1 and Club Captain, Cam McBrien (Captain #25), is greeted by his adoring players and multitude of supporters as he arrives at Club pre-season training.
While all Grades are important, A1 is our elite Team and so it is the pinnacle of sporting achievement in our District.
A few insights into A1 – by the numbers:
- 1951/52 – our first season in the top Grade – 68 years
- 60 years continuously in A1 Grade (starting in 1966/67)
- 9 – the number of Premiership wins
- 9 – the number of times Runners-up
- 25 – number of Captains
- 340 – the number of players who have been selected in our top Grade
- 161 – highest score by an individual – Laurie Tuckerman 1951/52
- 9/34 – best bowling figures 1978/79 (Storey Park)
- 8,006 – the number of innings played
- 133,751 – the number of runs scored by us (19.6 runs / player / innings)
- 131,213 – the number of runs scored against us (19.0 runs / player / innings)
- 1,361 – the record number of runs scored in one season by a player (Laurie Tuckerman in 1951/52)
The Road to greatness
Last season we launched our Hall of Fame and Club Legends. There are 27 Hall of Fame Members and just 7 Legends
Of this group of all-stars, there are just 2 players in our 96 years who are both Hall of Fame and Legends members. One of these is Dave Carey – our highest wicket taker (623 wickets) and the person who spent over a decade in manually creating our Club Wisden (statistical records).
The following photo shows his path to Club greatness. from Dave himself:
“It includes my 1st WPHCC Trophy in 1972 (Under 13s) and my last, the 600th wicket trophy, plus the Life Member plaque, 1st Senior Premier cap, 1979/80, the new cap, some historic emblems and a club tie.”
How good.
Hall of Fame – next in line
The qualifying criteria for our Hall of Fame is:
Batting – 5,000 runs
Bowling – 400 wickets
Service – 25 years
So…who is next in line? This is an impressive list so who will be our next all-star. The most likley contenders are:
Batting
- Rowan Keating (B1) – 4,493 runs
- Phil Wurth (A1) – 4,051 runs
Bowling
- James Makin (A1) – 371 runs
- Rowan Keating (B1) – 359 wickets
25 years service
- Rowan Keating (B1) – 23 years
- Chris Williamson (B1) – 23 years
Well done and watch this spot!
Space Cadet
One of the great achievements for any player each season is being nominated as a Space Cadet.
Each season we are privileged to have a handful of our players make this prestigious status.
To be a Space Cadet, you need to do something that is, well….memorable for reasons other than sporting achievement. That is, for doing something pretty silly.
As background, the inaugural Space Cadet was Eric Junkkari who was trying to assemble a sun shelter – that ended up in a rubbish bin. This started the legend of the Space Cadet Award – Gilroy College – 9 October 2016.
Last season our winner was Sarthak Khatri (D1 Red), putting out the boundary cones at Campbell Park.
So, if anyone sees anything that meets this challenging criteria just let your friendly Club Secretary know.