WPH Sports Club Brassiere – Photo of the Month
Shane has decided the winner of our December Photo of the month award.

As Shane says “page 14 Kivan, little bloke with a big heart”. Congratulations to Abe Khamis who took this wonderful photo plus many more. Abe now get a dinner for 4 to the value of $100 courtesy of the WPH Sports Club.

Our thanks yet again to Shane who runs the WPH Sports Club Brassiere. Show you support to Shane who supports us by having a meal at the Brassiere – a top restaurant and supporting local a business.

The Competition continues right through until March so there is another Award to be given for the December photo’s.

Holiday-Cricket photo Competition
We are one of 75 Clubs Australia wide who have been invited to be considered for entry into a book about to be published on ‘Funny cricket poems’. Entry is free and the prize for ‘best photo’ is $250.

The author (Tim Slade) is looking for ‘happy snaps’ of holiday cricket; fun, family exchange, landscape beauty and oddity – just some of the themes to be considered. If you need any more info then please get back to me on wisden@bigpond.com

Did you know?
Internet use
Usage
• We are now getting over 3,000 hits month with 7,615 page views
• In November we had 3,252 hits which is the highest number over the last 12 months
• Since 1 January 2008, 27,826 people have visited our site
• Countries sources that visit our site are in order:
o Australia
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o Clubs News
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Other info
• Average page reviews / person is 3.96
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Junior highlights
The Juniors start again on Saturday 31st January 2009.

The latest Junior points table as at the end of Round 7 is:
U16 – Blue 2nd, Red 5th
U15 – Blue 3rd, White 4th, Red 7th, Green 8th
U14 – Gold 2nd, Blue 5th, 2nd , Green 8th , Red 11th, White 12th
U13 – Red 1st, Blue 4th, Green 9th, White 11th
U12 – Green 1st, Gold 2nd, Red 5th, Blue 16th, White 17th
U11 – Gold 5th, Red 6th, Blue 7th, Green 9th, White 16th

Record looming
Alex Rashleigh U16 Red has had a tremendous season. After 7 Rounds (2 to go before the Semi Finals) Alex has scored 463 runs @ 77.2 and taken 15 wickets @ 16.0. Alex is on-track to beating the 1994/95 Club U16 record of 569 runs scored (@ 63.20) by Steven Cass and the Association U16 record of 669 set by Nick Downie in 1973/74.

Irrespective of what happens from now this has been a special season by Alex – well done mate.

Country Tours
Tamworth
Our combined U14s participated in the Tamworth Country Carnival over the last week. This is Competition played against representative teams from the country and is fun Carnival where we are the only Club side invited. Results and photo’s will be on the website shortly.

Armidale
Our combined U15 Teams are playing in the Armidale Country Carnival starting this week (12/1). This is another Carnival where we are the only Club represented as we play against country based Rep teams. More information will follow.

Seniors
Weekend results (all 1-Dayers) from Round 9 that started up again on Saturday 10th January follow:

A1 96 lost to ARL 97 – what a way to go. After bowling 3rd placed ARL out for a gettable score we just missed out in one of those agonising results. Smokey Dawson took 3/13 (4 overs and Simon Smyth 2/8 (8) to star with the ball. Nick Bennett top scored in the batting with 20. Next week will be our turn.

A2 5/121 defeated Kissing Point 104 – a very good win defending a good score on the sub-standard Turramurra pitch. Batting is always difficult on this deck with Leigh Van den Broeke being the rock with 43 valuable runs. After having them 8/50 they recovered until Scott Henderson with an amazing effort to get 6/19 and Sam Baidya 2/9 combined to get us across the line. Back in the winners circle and a shot at the Semi's.

Colts Red 6/172 defeated Berowra 8/120 – batting first on the 'new' Parklands deck we got off to a great start with Giyan Dharmasa batting aggressively and Shane Campbell and Hiran each scoring over 20. Tom Blissenden continued his excellent recent form with 41no and the new look Carl Madsen powered his way to 34. Following miserly opening bowling of Parneet Bhatia (1/11 off 7) and Issac Malamel (1/13 off 6) Berowra never looked likely to threaten. Wickets were shared around. This was an excellent performance that goes a long way toward securing a semi final berth.

Colts Blue 3/56 declared defeated Kenthurst 47 and 3/15 – Kenthurst who won the toss and batted probably wished that they hadn't as they were dismissed 47 in 27.3 overs. Tim Scoular 3/15 (8 overs) and Dylan Brogan 3/9 ( 8 overs) were the main destroyers. Coming into bat we scored the runs quickly passing the total in the 11th over. Some confusion then occurred around the rules regarding going for an outright and in the end we declared at 3 for 56 at the end of the 12th. We put them back in but were unable to get the quick break through that we needed and they were 3 for 71 when the play was called off by the captains.

B1 5/199 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 3/200 – on paper we should have snapped Normo but not to be. Scoring just on 200 in 40 overs was outstanding with Rowan Keating (61*), Michael McDowell 43 and Dan Moye dominating with 31. After having them 3/30 the rest should have been history but the Normo boys didn’t lose another wicket.

B2 White 126 lost to Castle Hill RSL 7/127 – this was our first batting effort since the since way back on the 22nd November (washouts, byes and Christmas break and it showed. Playing on a very slow Caterson 2 we got to a competitive score after the loss of early wickets. Nathan Fathers with 41 was the standout but we failed to build partnerships around him. We needed to do everything right to hold this score but a couple of important catches and a bit of luck counted against us. Next match with a bit of match practice behind us will help.

C2 127 lost to St Ives 6/128 – playing against top placed St Ives we batted first and got a reasonable score. Top score was Geoff Starr with 40 ret. Geoff Richards also got 30-odd. A late-order collapse (incl a hat-trick) saw us fail to bat out the overs, after a solid start. St Ives passed us about 6 wickets down in 30 overs. Best bowler was Chris Creais with 2 wickets. We will stay in the top 4 after this result but it just gets a bit tighter.

C3 1/45 defeated Glenhaven 43 – Glenhaven won the toss and chose to bat and rolled them in 26 overs. Tight bowling all round saw them lose wickets at a steady rate. Bowling figures were Mark Bell 3/15 off 8 overs, Steve Baker 4/9 off 5.1, Riley Miedler 1/4 off 6, Peter . Heidegger 1/3 off 6 and Chris Williamson 1/5. In other words, everyone performed. Nobody in the Glenhaven side scored double figures with 5 ducks in total. In reply we were 1/45 in 11 overs. An encouraging win against the 2nd placed side by the 5th placed team. This shows what we can do with our full strength bowling side on the field.

D1 6/61 defeated ARL 60 – a great performance by our bowlers saw ARL all back in the pavilion for a paltry 60, then, when our turn came, the batting wobbles continued as we lost six wickets on our way to chasing down their total. Bowling for WPHC, Sid Sethi put in a great opening spell with 2 for 3 (6 overs, 4 maidens), Faisal Shamsi (2/10) and Shankar Ravi (2/9) also amongst the wickets. The Club’s top wicket-taker, Roger Friend just keeps on going, taking 3/10. An important win that will strengthen our position in the top three as our competition table begins to spread out.

D2 9/182 lost to Normanhurst-Warrawee 4/184 – after winning the toss and electing to bat we got a good score on a fast Normanhurst oval. All batters were able to get a start with Vishnu Ratnam (59) and Ian Nichol (26) putting on a 93 partnership. Normanhurst chased the runs down in the 36th over. Best of our bowlers was Arun Kumar at 3/25.

350 Club
James Makin (A1) reached a huge personal milestone of the weekend with his 350th Club wicket. To put this in context, James is now the 6th ranked bowler of all time in our 78 year history. His next target is to move into 5th spot with 389 wickets. Tremendous effort James.

Change of bowler
Got to hand it to Jaskaran Singh (B2 White). Back after long break he made his opening appearance as an Umpire. Taking the 2nd over Jas informed the scorers that there was a change of bowler. There probably was but given that it was the 2nd over of the match you’d hope that there was a bowling change. Good to have you back Jas.

“Tomorrow I am going to kill myself”
Spare a thought for Matt Dawson (A1 Captain). After going down in a really close one by 1 run and having a couple of other really close ones the pressure showed with this comment. Nothing like a couple of beers to let the exasperation come out. Fortunately Smokey was joking but this will change with the next win – starting next match. To be fair, everyone probably feels the same way as this season has been 'one of those season's' with narrow losses against the top teams, and washouts against the weaker teams (including one where we were absolutely dominating the opposition but day 2 was rained out). At least the boys can still smile and can still make the Semi's with just a tiny bit of luck. Once there they are good enough to win.

Top 10 run scorers
1. Peter Heidegger (C3) – 346 @ 34.60
2. Brendan Harkin (D1) – 341 @ 48.71
3. Geoff Richards (C2) – 324 @ 46.29
4. Faisal Shamis (D1) – 310 @ 38.75
5. Geoff Starr (C2) – 272 @ 30.22
6. Vishnu Ratnam (D2) – 253 @ 42.17
7. Alex Connell (B2) – 227 @ 45.40
8. Matt Thorndyke (B1) – 216 @ 43.20
9. Tim Starr (Colts) – 208 @ 29.71
10. James Fiedler (A2) – 202 @ 28.86

Top 10 bowlers
1. Roger Friend (D1) – 22 @ 16.41
2. Sekhar Verdhan (D2) – 22 @ 9.41
3. Chris Williamson (C3) – 17 @ 17.76
4. Adam Hutchings (Colts) – 16 @ 11.38
5. Scott Henderson (A2) – 16 @ 15.06
6. Chris Thorndyke (B1) – 15 @ 12.73
7. Marco Delgardo (D1) – 15 @ 26.67
8. Matt Dawson (A1) – 15 @ 14.13
9. Dylan Brogan (Colts) – 14 @ 8.07
10. Craig Hutchinson (B2) – 14 @ 13.70

Points table
All the information is contained on the Association website but at a quick glance as at the end of Round 8 show:

A1 Grade – 4th (21 points)
A2 – 5th (27 points and 3 out of the top 4)
Colts:
• Blue – 1st (45points)
• Red - 4th (26 points)
B1 – 1st (42 points)
B2:
• White – 1st (43 points)
• Red – 6th (24 points – 1 point off 4th spot)
C2 – = 2nd (29 points)
C3 – 5th (22 points – 7 off 4th place)
D1 – 3rd (31 points)
D2 – = 1st (38 points)

Club Championship
Standings as at the end of Round 8 are:
1. WPHC – 1096 points
2. Kenthurst – 962
3. Berowra – 850
4. Normanhurst-Warrawee – 792
5. Kissing Point – 756
6. CHRSL – 741
7. ARL – 735
8. St Ives – 713
9. Hornsby 606

Standings
After 8 Rounds we have:
1. 4 teams coming 1st
2. 1 coming 2nd
3. 1 coming 3rd
4. 2 coming 4th
5. 2 in 5th spot (all in striking distance)
6. 1 in 6th spot

Personal Milestone achievements
Well done to James Makin on his 350th Club wicket! This makes him 6th all time in the Club's histyory of wicket takers.

As at the end of Round 8 standings are:
• Coming up are the following big ones:
o Kishore Rampersad is 13 from 4,000 runs putting him in the top 10 Club run scoring batsmen of all time
o Andrew Watt is 4 off his 100 wickets.

Name Grade Achievement
Rowan Keating B1 50 wickets Vs Glenhaven @ Glenhaven 20/9/08

Rohan Dixit A2 50 wickets Vs St Ives @ Greenway 27/9/08

Ben McNamarra B2 100 wickets Vs CHRSL @ Caterson 2, 25/8/08

Dylan Brogan Colts 50 wickets Vs Normanhurst Warrawee @ Turramurra 1/11/08

Andrew Fiedler C2 4,000 runs Vs Hornsby @ Campbell Park 1/11/08

Craig Hutchinson C1 100 wickets Vs Hornsby @ Campbell Park 8/11/08

Steve Baker C3 1,000 runs Vs Glenhaven @ Glenhaven 15/11/08

Geoff Starr C2 1,000 runs Vs Kenthurst @ Kenthurst 2 29/11/08
50 wickets Vs
James Fiedler A2 1,000 runs Vs Galston-Glenorie @ Northolm 6/12/08

James McBrien
Colts • 898 runs – 102 to 1,000

• 50 wickets Vs Kissing Point @ Storey Park 12/10/08
Nick Bennett A1 939 runs – 61 to 1,000

Matt Jobson A2 94 wickets – 6 to 100

James Makin A1 348 wickets – 2 to 350

Amir Marzouk A1 246 wickets – 4 to 250

John Mitchell C1 44 wickets – 6 to 50

Andrew Percival B2 842 runs – 158 to 1,000

Kishore Rampersad C1 3,987 runs – 13 to 4,000 runs

Andrew Watt C1
• 894 runs – 106 to 1,000 runs

• 96 wickets – 4 to 100 wickets
Peter Westerberg D1 84 runs – 16 to 100

Body Science Compression sports gear
BSC are Club sponsors. They provide compression sporting clothing to major sporting stars. Many NRL Clubs use BSC in preference to Skins. For every purchase, BSC rebate 10% back to our Club that is then used for development - training improvements, coaching and so on.

This product is especially useful for any player who gets niggles during or after games. It is also a very good idea for for Junior and Senior Rep players who have to back up on Saturday's/Sundays plus added training requirements.

If you are thinking about buying compression sports clothing then look no further than BSC - they are superior to Skins and the Club gets a benefit that goes back to our players.

The gear is available in black or white. If you need more information then please go to the BSC website on http://www.bodyscience.com.au/. The website also has a more complete listing of the compression gear product range and also sizing charts to help you work out the right size.

How do I get this gear
Bill Peterkin has kindly offered to be the link between our Club and BSC. All you need to do is to work out what you would like and let Bill know your requirements.

Bill can be contacted on 0488 110 942 or via email billstar@optusnet.com.au

Posted by Ross Anderson on January 11, 2009 06:23 AM