AFL Recreational Football Comp
A long time ago, Aussie Rules was started to keep cricketers fit during winter. There is now an AFL Recreational Comp played during summer to get people even fitter. Games are non contact, played mid week, are non contact and teams are mixed.

Think about getting a West Penno team or two together to give this a go. Sounds like a lot of fun so if you want to know more – just give Simon Smyth a call on 0401 932 535.

Level 1 Training
More detailed information is below but if you are interested in becoming a fully qualified Coach, Cricket NSW is running a fully accredited programme at Edward Bennett Oval on the 11th and 25th November. If you are coaching a WPH side or intend to coach we will cover the $120 cost. There are only 4 spots left (15 already registered) so if interested then think about moving quickly or you might miss out. More details are below.

Kanga’s
So far we have registered just on 100 children – another excellent turnout. We have a ground capacity of 120 and these spots will fill up quickly so if you are thinking of playing then please let us know – contacts are on the Website under ‘Contacts’. The Kanga Managers and Coaches Information night is at WPH Sports Club on Monday 23rd September starting at 7.45 pm.

Girls
Competition starts on Saturday 13th October running through to the 15th December. Games then recommence on the 2nd February until 1st March with Semi Finals / Finals played over 8th and 15th March 2008. This gives us 14 weeks of competition plus finals.

Junior boys
Day 1 of Round 2 kicked off on the weekend- results will be advised when available.

Seniors
Here we go with the results:

A1 3/134 defeated Hornsby 130 – a very good start with the first of 2 1-dayers with a comprehensive win. Our bowlers set up the win with Smokey Dawson taking 4/12 off 7 overs but got very good support from Simon Smyth 2/34 and Peter Stott (2/20). Enter our batsmen who finished the job with Michael McGregor 51* and Troy Newman 22 setting up the win as the openers – god one fellas.

A2 186 Vs ARL – playing on a slow Headen Park we need to bowl well but have runs on the board. Sam Baiyda top scored with 35 followed by the evergreen James Makin with 25. Well done also to Greg and James Fiedler with solid 20’s. Still a lot of cricket in this game.

Colts 8/129 lost to Hornsby – close but just not enough in the season kickoff 1-dayer. Batting first we needed a par score of around 150. Rohan Dixit 28 and James Blair with 23 top scored. In the bowling, Tim Anderson was our most successful with 2/27 with one each to Dylan Brogan, Tim Scoular, Rohan, and Mark Bennett. A solid performance but just not enough.

B1 Blue 7/233 Vs B1 Red – one of those bitter / sweet games. A good start but it is against one of our own. A really good effort from our Blue team who were originally chosen in B2 but were promoted to the higher grade. Star of the day was Dom Burke who scored his first ton, 104* - his first and our 327th for the Club. Another good effort from Peter Taylor (49). The best for the Reds was Ryan Cherrie with 4/49 and Dan Moye 2/31.

C1 4/247 defeated ARL 63 and 2/9. Wow – what a powerful performance against an admittedly underdone ARL. After declaring 10 minutes before Tea we cleaned them up and then got another 2 when we sent them back in. So many highlights: John Steel belted a rapid 100 (our 326th), Tony Hadley scored a rapid 62* and Ross a brought up his 7,000 career runs before the declaration. Enter the bowlers – Kishore with 4 wickets, Ben McNamara 2 and Andrew Watt with wickets. In the 2nd innings Sahil has both wickets. Great aggressive Captaincy from John Mitchell set this one up.

C2 234 Vs ARL. Another very good batting performance with Peter Heidegger 50, thriving on the Captaincy, followed by Peter Lees 30 and Chris Williamson with 30. ARL are 1/24 so the game is well placed with the odds our way – if catches are held.

C3 Vs Kissing Point – scores to come.

D2 3/39 Vs Redfield 309. A lot of work to do here. Our moist successful bowlers were Bran with 3/39 and ben Pilipowski 2/20. In the batting, Jonathan van Blerk is our best, so far, with 23. A bit to do here but you never know.

Our youngest
When Gav Taylor (15 years and 4 months) took the field on Saturday he became our youngest player in 61 years selected to begin the season in A1 beating Chris Thorburn (2003/04) who was 15 and 5 months. Gav scored 9* and will get a lot more – well done mate.

Team commitment
How about Peter Taylor (B1 Blue). Peter’s son Gav made his A1 debut (above) on Saturday and Peter obviously wanted to be there for this special day. But….the team was short and he played so as not to let the team down. He scored 49 and was run out after cramping up going for a run (sad isn’t it) but the commitment deserves special acknowledgement. Well done mate on all counts.

Don’t mention the war
Got to hand it to Jaskaran (C2) who was trying to lift the team by encouraging Chris Williamson with the comment ‘let’s do it for the Irish’. Unfortunately, Chris is Scottish and there is only 1,000 years of intense dislike between these wonderful races – good one mate. This must rank with Eric Junkkari’s now famous comment on Nishane Pillay tucking into a hamburger during Ramadan.

Why bother running
Great to see Peter Whitehead (A1) making a comeback to WPHC. The long offseason must have been kind to him – Peter got a good 23 but after scoring 5 successive fours in one over it must have got too much and he finished with a good 23.

Mystery solved
One of the long term mysteries around team selection was resolved in the C1 game on Saturday. Emerging Club Legend Andrew Fiedler (number 14 on the all time list with 3,700 runs) was not selected in the A2 Premiership winning team for the 1987/88 season. The reason (direct from the Captain of that match) – he gave the Captain out LBW for 87 from an inside edge onto the pads. To make it worse this was the 1st LBW of Andrew's umpiring career (4 given in 20 years) – a justified omission in my book in light of this evidence but we now have closure on this infamous event in our club history!

The Energiser Man
John Steel (C1) is a bundle of energy. Anyone who has a chance to see this bloke wears you out just watching. Apart from the pirouette stretches while batting, attempting to score off every ball, elaborate push-ups and stretches while fielding plus speedy running between wickets there also are those moments of intimacy when touching opposition players – but what a player.

Personal achievements
Congratulations to the following folk who clocked up major personal achievements:
• Ross Anderson 7,000 career runs
• Rtyan Cherrie with 150 career wickets

Watch the following big ones coming up:
• Matt Dawson – 7 off his 200 wickets
• James Makin 60 to 3,000 runs
• Andrew Mills 28 to 2,000 runs
• Simon Smyth – 1 to 200 wickets

Name Grade Achievement
Sean Doohan A2 100 wickets

Nathan Fathers C1 1,000 runs

Jacques Visser C2 50 wickets

Ross Anderson C1 7,000 runs

Ryan Cherrie B1 150

Steve Baker C2 864 runs – 136 to 1,000

Jon Burns B1 291 wickets – 9 to 300

Matt Dawson A1 • 2,811 runs – 189 off 3,000

• 197 wickets – 3 off 200
Roger Friend D2 93 wickets – 7 to 100

Lachlan Gill B1 957 runs – 43 to 1,000

Chandana Jayasekera B1 944 runs – 56 to 1,000

James Makin
A2 • 2,940 runs – 60 to 3,000 runs
• 332 wickets – 18 wickets to 350
David Meizis
C1 935 runs – 65 to 1,000
Andrew Mills B1 1,972 runs – 28 to 2,000

Bruce Poehlsen B1 844 runs – 156 to 1,000

Kishore Rampersad
C1 • 3,763 runs – 237 to 4,000 runs

• 245 wickets – 5 from 250 wickets
Iain Ryan B1 139 wickets – 11 off 150 career wickets

Simon Smyth A1 199 wickets – 1 from 200

Peter Whitehead A1 47 wickets – 3 to 50 career wickets

Craig Willmott C1 1,919 – 81 to 2,000 career runs

Coaching Courses

Northern Districts School Holiday course

When: Tuesday 2nd October to Thursday 4th October
Where: Waitara Oval, Waitara Avenue, Waitara
Time: 9.00 am to 3.00pm
Cost: $165 for full 3 days or $88 per day (9.00 am to 3.00 pm)

Registrations close Wednesday 26th September. The application form is on the website. The course is aimed at Girls and Boys aged 8 to 16 years of age

Please contact Arthur Souter on 9484-5609 if you are interested. The course has fully qualified coaches and includes Dominic Thornely – our Club Ambassador. We recommend this course as one worth considering.

Level 0
Entry level coaching course for people interested in knowing the Basics about coaching – ideal for mums and dads who want to know enough but not too much about the detail. Details are:

When: Sunday 7th October and Sunday 4th November
Where: Edward Bennett Oval (just behind the Sports Club)
Time: 9.00 am to Noon
Cost: Nil.

Please also contact John Coulthard (9484-2924) in you are interested in participating.

Level 1
We are also hosting a Level 1 Training Course at Edward Bennett Oval in November. The course is fully accredited with Cricket Australia and is run by Cricket NSW professional coaches. These courses are highly sort after. There are only a limited number of courses run across Sydney each year and this is the first in our area. Details are:

When: Sunday 11th and 25th November 2007
Where: Edward Bennett Oval (just behind the Sports Club)
Time: 9.00am to 4.00pm
Cost: Nil – provided you are coaching or intend to coach a side this coming season. Otherwise the cost is $120 per person.

Places are running out fast. We already have 16 nominations and there are only 4 places left. The course is available to anyone in the District so time is running out.

Please get back to Ross Anderson asap on 9476-0595 if you are interested in registering.

Website developers and graphic artists
We are privileged to have Peter Lees do all the website work for our Club. However, it is run by volunteers and we always need to involve others to share the fun.

If you have abilities in Perl scripting, graphic design or other web-related skills, and would like to contribute to your Club, please contact Peter (AT) wphccc.org

Posted by Ross Anderson on September 23, 2007 06:51 AM