The last day of the season has just been completed. The results follow:

A2 258 defeated St Ives 247
Day 1
Playing against the Minor Premier in our 3rd successive Grand Final, this is an outstanding progress score. In recent games our batting has been fragile but has been held up by consistently outstanding bowling. Day 1 saw the batsman turn it on. Leigh Van den Broeke was outstanding with his patient 85 against negative bowling wide of the stumps. He got fabulous support from James Fiedler 43, Scott Henderson 41 and Alex Robertson with 37. The only ‘disappointment’ was the loss of 4 for 1 late in the day but this also gave us an opportunity to have a shot at the top order. Partnerships were the key with outstanding efforts from Leigh and James Fiedler with 73 for the 4th wicket and 75 between Leigh again and Scott for the 6th wicket. St Ives are a strong batting side but we have the best bowling attack in the Comp. If we bowl to our ability and probably more important field well we are in a very good position on a deck that will play lower as the match progresses. Stumps day 1 saw us 258 and St Ives 0/5.

Day 2
We did it in a game that went down to the wire. St Ives got to within 12 runs of pulling off victory. Our bowlers were superb on a wicket that kept its consistency all match. Darren Morrow was the standout. He bowled 27 overs and took 5/89 including the last wicket. He also got great support from Matt Jobson with his 3/36 that included his 100th Club wicket – what a match to get it in. Scott Henderson also bowled with good pace for 2/75. The match turned just before Tea when they were coasting but lost 3 quick wickets for 1 run. Great effort fella’s. This is now our 4th A2 Premiership.

C2 236 and 4/141 defeated St Ives 147
Day 1
After being 3/15, 5/69 and 6/100 to finish with 236 was outstanding. The highlight was the magnificent 118 by Paul Mullinger who combined with Andrew Fiedler, who scored 24 to put on a very important 103 partnership. Fabulous support also from Geoff Richards with 39 (out going for a 6 before his retirement score of 40) with Taki Manolelis with 25. Paul’s ton was our 337th and what a game to get it in. More about this below.

Our turn to bowl and as we got the runs so fast there was time to have a long bowl at them. At 4/77 there is still a bit of work to do but Finals have their own pressure. Geoff Starr did it again with 2 wickets and got good support from Riley Miedler and Pula Mullos with 1 each. In summary, still work to do but I know what position we would prefer to be in. Stumps score was WPH 236 and St Ives 4/77.

Day 2
Resuming at 4/77, we took a wicket in the 1st over the of day & didn't look back, eventually bowling them out for 147 just before 2pm. Best bowlers were Geoff Richards 3/23 Geoff Starr, also 3/17 and Michael Richards 2/8. Rather than concede, St Ives were happy to play on, so rather than enforce the follow-on, we batted them out of the game. After losing 3 early wickets, Geoff's Richards & Starr again shone with a consolidating 50 partnership. GS eventually retired at 40, GR was out for 24. Mullo's & Andrew Fiedler put on another 50-odd for the 7th wicket. We eventually agreed to finish proceedings at 4:55pm at 6/141, and an overall lead of 230. Mullo's completed a fine game with 45 no. All a bit of an anti-climax, really.

What was quite remarkable was that we beat the team who won the comp by 25 points, 3 times this year, every one of them convincingly. I guess we didn't always play to our potential many times, which is understandable with the number of junior players & the rotation policy we implemented. We also did this with 2 restricted players, 1 or 2 experienced players & the rest playing their first year in seniors. Quite a result in the end.

Congratulations boys on winning our Premiership since 2004/05.

D2 124 lost to Berowra 171
Day 1
The D2 boys just keep surprising. As Jonathan van Blerk mentioned it was a case of ‘David Vs Goliath’ but in this case David is standing toe to toe. Berowra have strong batting with an ability to build partnership around our former ‘great’ Greg Fiedler – not this time with regular wickets being taken at critical times. Ian Nichol continues to do what he has done so well all season and took 4 for 71 from 29 overs. He got very good support from Claudi van Blerk with 3/28 (14 overs), Arun Kumar 1/8 (13 overs) and Jonathan van Blerk 1/6 (11 overs). The run rate is not an issue as we held them to a low scoring rate. Berowra were 4/115 after 56 overs, we then got the last 6 wickets for 55, all out in the 83rd over. The game may well be decided in the first 10 / 15 overs – see off their openers and then milk the remaining runs. All of our games against Berowra this season have been close so this one will probably be the same but with us a nose in front – at this stage. Stumps Day 1 – Berowra 171 with WPHC yet to bat.

Day 2
Today showed a lot about the character of this team. After losing a wicket on the first ball of the day and being 5/34 we fought back well. A fantastic partnership between Vishnu Ratnam (50) and Sekhar Vardhan put on 54 to put us back on track. We ended up falling just short but managed to guts it out for 66 overs. Some of the experienced players commented that 150 was a ‘getable’ score and this proved about right. When you consider that this is a group of soccer dads, many of whom have not played for 20 years to even make the Final has been a tremendous effort. To push to Minor Premier so closely makes this achievement even better. Well done on a fabulous season fella’s.

Long time between drinks
Welcome back Paul Mullinger – C2 century scorer. Paul went overseas for a while in the late 90’s and made his comeback in style. His century is a reminder of what he can do. Way back in 1995/96 he scored 152 playing B2.

Perfect timing
Also on the innings of Paul. He hit one six that landed on the roof of Normanhurst Oval and managed to lose the ball. This was actually great timing as it brought up the 200 and with it a new ball. Very thoughtful of Paul to lose a ball at just the right time.

A day for the Fiedler’s
What a memorable day for the Fiedler family.
Andrew Captains C2 and was involved in a crucial 103 partnership and scored an important 24
James, playing A2 scored 43 and has made a big contribution to the imposing total our A2 have made
Greg, now playing with Berowra D2 with his youngest son Brad (we can forgive him on this occasion, scored 28* and Brad, top scored with 41. The only downside in this effort is that it was against our WPHC boys.

To cap it all off each person won their Final - 3 in total - A2, C2 and D2 (unfortunately - as Greg and Brad were playing against us.

Off season Web updates
While the season is over there is still a lot happening. Keep checking the website for news on major events that will be coming up.

Posted by Ross Anderson on March 22, 2009 08:37 PM