Northern Districts T20 Final
ND’s have made the Final of the Grade Twenty/20 competition that is a fantastic achievement. The game is being played at the SCG under lights this Sunday (22nd February) with free entry to the game and parking in the Gold Members car park.

The game starts at 7.00 pm so come along and support your local Grade Club. If you see Dom Thornley, our Club Ambassador, then say good’ay and let him know that you are with West Penno.

New Ground
Hornsby Shire Council agreed during the week to proceed to DA with the Department of Education, to “extend the sportsground within the grounds of John Purchase Public Primary School, Cherrybrook . The field is currently used by both the public school and neighbouring Cherrybrook Technology High School. Under the proposal, the field will be used by local sports clubs outside of school hours, providing much-needed additional facilities.”

This is a tremendous next step towards alleviating the pressure on grounds to meet our numbers.

Heat policy
Last week now seems like a distant memory but no one wants to see a repeat of our kids or adults playing in conditions that were unsafe. To their credit, our Association has committed to have a policy in place for Seniors and Juniors next season. Hopefully the worst is behind us but things are happening.

WPH Sports Club Brassiere – Photo of the Month
Our photo of the month contest is back and running. Shane will decide the winner of the latest batch of photos over the next week so will keep you advised on the next winner. The next winner will be decided from the photo’s on the first 10 pages of the Photo Gallery.

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.

Junior highlights
After a very hot and uncomfortable weekend last weekend this one saw all game washed out. With one more Round to go before the Semi finals a number of our teams are well placed to make an impact in the big games coming up.

The latest Junior points table as at the end of Round 8 is:
U16 – Blue 2nd, Red 5th
U15 – Blue 3rd, White 4th, Red 7th, Green 9th
U14 – Gold 1st, Blue 4th, Green 8th , Red 11th, White 11th
U13 – Blue 2nd, Red 3rd, Green 8th, White 10th
U12 – Green 1st, Gold 2nd, Red 8th, Blue 16th, White 17th
U11 – Red 4th, Gold 6th, Red 6th, Blue 7th, Green 9th, White 16th

Seniors
Weekend results from day 2 of Round 13 follow:

A1 3/59 drew with Hornsby 175 – almost the story of the season for the A1 boys – being in a winning position only to have the game washed out. Unfortunately this now puts the boys out of contention for the top 4 which is a shame as they are good enough to win on their day. That’s cricket.

A2 drew with ARL – another game where wet weather prevented any play. We are still in the top 4 with a big game next Round against first placed Kenthurst.

Colts Red 190 defeated Kenthurst 118 – a day 2 washout but we still got the points from last weekend that now consolidates their position in the top 4.

Colts Blue drew with Normanhurst-Warrawee – no play either week due to a wet on this Saturday.

B1 8/330 drew with Mt Colah 0/29 – match drawn due to rain.

B2 White 1/20 drew with Castle Hill RSL 102 – another rain affected game with no play possible.

B2 Red 89 and 1/8 lost to Hornsby 7/179 – no play on day 2 due to rain. This finishes the season for our B2 Red team as they have a bye next week and will miss out on the top 4. Thanks for your effrorts this season fellas now to put your feet up and relax.

C2 9/216 drew with CHRSL – no play possible at Dural Park but the lads are comfortably in the top 4.

C3 7/295 drew with Normanhurst-Warrawee 2/25 – every effort was made to get the game going after Normo decided the pitch was too wet to play on and did not want to bat on it. After agreeing to not bowl anything short we managed to grab their first 2 wickets for 24. But then the rain came and we agreed to call the game off as Normo were playing under protest and were unlikely to agree to further play even if the rain stopped. This means that we will have to beat 2nd placed Glenhaven outright to have a spot in the playoffs. Having done this once already this season we are fired up to pull off a repeat next week

D1 drew with Kissing Point – no play either week but comfortably in 2nd spot.

D2 182 drew with Berowra – no play possible at Karuah which is a shame after a very good effort to get to 182 in the poor conditions last week. We should finish up at 2nd going into the Finals.

The dropped catch – the story behind the story
This is a story of intrigue. In last week’s C2 game, Andrew Fiedler dropped a catch while wicket-keeping – nothing unusual so far. The ball before though he was sharing with another senior player at 1st slip what happened after the Bradman Oval game the week before at around 1.00 am in a Bed and Breakfast at Bowral. Certainly no details, but suffice to say that some of the lads stumbled on some interesting activity underway through an open window where the breeze was blowing the curtains open. One of the lads even took a photo (with a noisy shutter) that was heard by everyone involved. The rest is best left unsaid, except on the ‘privacy’ of the cricket field ofcourse. Anyway, after dropping the catch, Andrew kicked the ball away and continued to tell the rest of the story. Perhaps this wasn’t an important wicket but the story sure was good.

A weird week
A match update from Mark Bennett, Captain of our Colts team says it all.

“Here are the scores.
Week 1
No play due to hot weather
Week 2
No play due to rain”

President’s meeting
Last week, our Leaders met with the Association to look at improvements for next season. The main takeouts are:
1. There was solid support for the introduction of field markings and “leg-side” wides being called in 1 day matches for all matches that had official umpires;
2. There was overwhelming support for the introduction of a new rule allowing players to play 1 or even 2 grades below their rating excepting zero rated players;
3. There was sound support for U/19 players to have no rating and the zero rated players only be current outstanding players in HKH, former top grade players etc. This would mean that most A grade players would be rated a 1, A-Reserve a 2, B grade a 3 and so on;
4. It was agreed that guidelines need to be put in place for extremely hot days
5. The ability to impose restrictions caused much discussion with varying thoughts. The end result was they probably need to be put in place to protect the smaller clubs with 1,2 or 3 teams but should not be in place for larger clubs, especially if the ability to play 1 or 2 grades lower than a players rating came in. There was also strong support for the transparency of restrictions to be shown to avoid so many appeals and a definition of “dominant” be put in place;
6. There was general agreement that the batting restrictions , when imposed, should be lifted to 50 runs from 40 runs
7. There was strong agreement that teams should not be moved after the season commences. Teams should be rated (not players) and put a points cap on teams.
8. It was agreed that an adjustment needs to be made in the case of uneven Byes Rounds for future seasons.
9. There was some support for a Sunday cricket competition (every 2nd week) being played next season in lieu of a full Round of cricket in a particular grade. An alternative was to have a 20/20 competition on alternative Sundays to ensure we are utilising a grounds to maximum effect.
10. The Normanhurst-Warrawee club felt the Colts comp only should stop for the HSC – not Schoolies.

Top 10 run scorers
1. Peter Heidegger (C3) – 532 @ 38.0 (87)
2. Geoff Richards (C2) – 485 runs @ 48.5 (66*)
3. Brendan Harkin (D1) – 477 @ 59.6 (94* top score)
4. Geoff Starr (C2) – 453 @ 32.4 (57)
5. Faisal Shamis (D1) – 376 @ 34.2 (92)
6. Vishnu Ratnam (D2) – 326 @ 36.2 (79)
7. John Steel (B2 and C1) – 278 @ 34.8 (106)
8. Alex Connell (B2) – 275 @ 39.3 (102)
9. James Makin (A1) – 259 @ 37.7 (54)
10. Matt Thorndyke (B1) – 247 @ 30.9 (Matt’s 125 on Saturday is not in these figures)

Top 10 bowlers
1. Scott Henderson (A2) – 31 @ 9.7 (best 6/19)
2. Roger Friend (D1) – 31 @ 14.2 (5/40)
3. Matt Dawson (A1) – 24 wickets @ 13.1 (8/38)
4. Sekhar Verdhan (D2) – 22 @ 9.4 (7/12)
5. Ian Nichol (D2) – 22 @ 12.9 (5/52)
6. Jacques Viser (C3) – 22 @ 21.0 (5/44)
7. Andrew Joyce (B1) – 21 @ 12.0 (6/21)
8. Chris Williamson (C3) – 20 @ 26.7 (6/27)
9. Marco Delgardo (D1) – 19 @ 23.4 (7/61)
10. Ravi Shankar (D1) – 175 @ 25.6 (4/60)

Points table
All the information is contained on the Association website but at a quick glance as at the end of Round 12 show:

A1 Grade – 6th (30 points – 4 off the pace)
A2 – = 2nd (40 points)
Colts:
• Blue – 1st (53 points)
• Red - 4th (39 points)
B1 – 6th (44 points – 2 off the pace and a game to be played)
B2:
• White – 1st (52 points)
• Red – 7th (33 points)
C2 – 3rd (48 points)
C3 – 5th (42 points – 6 off 4th place)
D1 – 2nd (50 points)
D2 – 2nd (57 points)

Standings
After 12 Rounds we have:
1. 2 teams coming 1st
2. 2 coming 2nd
3. 1 coming 3rd
4. 2 coming 4th
5. 2 in 5th spot
6. 1 in 6th spot
7. 1 in 7th spot

Personal Milestone achievements
Congratulations to Andrew Watt who took his 100th wicket for the Club this match – a wonderful achievement.

• Coming up are the following big ones:
o Matt Jobson is just 4 wickets away from his 100th wicket
o Peter Westerberg – 17 runs from his 100 runs
o James McBrien needs just 46 for his 1,000 runs
o Nick Bennett – 9 to 1,000 career runs.

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 Makin A1 350 wickets Vs ARL @ Storey Park 10/1/09.

Kishore Rampersad C1 4,000 runs Vs Hornsby @ Montview West, 17/1/2009

Peter Whitehead A1 50 wickets Vs St Ives @ Parklands 31/1/09

James McBrien
Colts
• 954 runs – 46 to 1,000

• 50 wickets Vs Kissing Point @ Storey Park 12/10/08

Andrew Watt C1
• 928 runs – 72 to 1,000 runs
• 100 wickets Vs Castle Hill @ Caterson 2 8/2/09

Nick Bennett A1 991 runs – 9 to 1,000

Peter Heidegger C3 962 runs – 38 to 1,000 runs

Matt Jobson A2 96 wickets – 4 to 100

Amir Marzouk A1 246 wickets – 4 to 250

John Mitchell C1 46 wickets – 4 to 50

Peter Westerberg D1 84 runs – 16 to 100

Posted by Ross Anderson on February 15, 2009 06:15 AM