Casual job available
Hornsby Shire Council is looking to take on an Assistant Turf Wicket Curator on a casual basis.

The position will offer up to 38 per week commencing in October and going through to February 2010. Anyone interested should contact Geoff Witt, Co-ordinator of Parks Service Unit on 9847 4811.

Season fees
Thank you to everyone who has paid season fees. A friendly reminder that they increase by $50 for all Seniors fees outstanding on this coming Friday. If fees are outstanding the best way to pay is via the online facility under ‘Player Registration’.

Seniors Results
A1 Grade 134 lost to ARL 140 – the first of 2 one-dayers to catchup to the rest of the competition. Considering we had 5 players unavailable and were playing against last season’s Premiers this was a very good effort. Bowling first we did well with the ball and in the field with Nick Bennett, Scott Henderson (making his A1 debut), Simon Smyth and Peter Whitehead each taking 2 wickets. Batting second on an already poor and deteriorating wicket we got off to a flyer being 0/31 after 4 overs with Gav. Taylor and Peter Whitehead but the momentum shifted with the loss of these wickets. Well done to Scott Hendo who top scored with 27 and Nick Bennett with 26. Looking good for this season.

A2 6/239 Vs Kenthurst – another good batting effort shows the strength of the batting this season. Michael McGregor with 86 continued his very good form and got good support from Suji Dissanayake with 55. Everyone else got solid starts. After getting a draw last week after setting 311 we will be looking at giving ourselves as much time as possible to get the 10 wickets.

Colts Red 152 defeated Kissing Point 113 – difficult early season strips seemed to be commonplace this Round and it was no different at Berowra Oval. Kissing Point batted first and enjoyed the slightly better conditions but Isaac Malamel (3/21), Sam Croft (2/17) and Tim Anderson (2/5) all contributed to the regular fall of wickets. Matt Bennetts and Rob Aitken put 40 runs on for the opening partnership with Tom Blissenden (23) and Sam Croft (33) batting intelligently on a deteriorating pitch to see us safely pass the target. Early wickets next week might provide the opportunity to strive for an outright victory.

Colts Blue 58 lost on first innings to Berowra 7/197 – we had been forewarned about how badly the pitch had played yesterday, and anticipated the ball to keep low all the time, but our preparedness was not enough to handle this treacherous surface. Shsahankh and Thiru opened the innings and got off to a good few overs, until a lobbed shot from Shashankh's bat was busily watched by Thiru - and he did not hear Shashankh's call for a run, and ended running him out. Mike Dale, the centurion from Round-1 was the next to go, bowled again by one that kept low. Tim Scoular was our best top-scoring with 21. WPHCC knew that we could also achieve similar results, and Tim and Chris bowled extremely well, backed by excellent all-round fielding, and at one point Berowra were 3/40, but some lucky escapes saw Berowra carefully overtake our total and move on to 7/197 off 47 overs.

B1 351 Vs Hornsby 1/6 – a great batting effort after Hornsby interestingly sent us into bat. Matt Thorndyke was again superb at the top of the order scoring 64, while Tim Millington provided great support scoring 42. These two laid a perfect platform for the rest of the boys to really get stuck in later in the innings, and it also provided time for Matt Scoular to finish off his Maccas. Matt was the star of the day scoring a fantastic 92 featuring 15 fours. Together with Rowan Keating (39) they put on a 129 run partnership which well and truly took the game away from Hornsby. Andrew Joyce provided some great hitting down the order scoring a quick fire 59 leaving us with an imposing 351 off only 68 overs. This left Hornsby with a tough 30 mins at the crease. Rowan Keating took the new ball and didn't disappoint. The first ball of the innings was a rip snorting bouncer which took the glove of their opening bat (who scored 139 last game). At the close of play Hornsby are struggling at 1/6.

B2 6/84 Vs Pymble 108 – terrific effort in the field to roll Pymble for 108. Geoff Richards and Tim Starr both bowled superbly claiming 4 wickets each. In reply we got off to a solid start however some late loss of wickets in fading light saw us under pressure before we steadied the ship to be 6 – 84 at stumps. With batting still in hand hopefully should see us complete the job. Our B2’s are one of those understated sides who fly below the radar but will be there at the end of the season due to the depth of their batting and bowling plus experience.

C1 0/125 defeated on 1st innings Vs St Ives 0/125 – after a slow start to the season this side showed what is expected of them this season with a powerful day 1 effort. Our bowling was consistently good with all 4 bowlers used taking wickets – John Steel with 4/24, Eric Junkkari 2/30, Craig Hutchinson 1/10 and Jas Singh 1/19. We shut St Ives out in just 34 overs. Our turn to bat the momentum was continued. Eric Junkkari (56*) and Daniel Anderson (DA) with 55* were flawless and put on 125 without giving a chance. With an imposing batting order this should be the start of more successes throughout the season.

C2 2/54 Vs Berowra 178 – we bowled well with with Jacques Visser getting 3/20, Chris Williamson 2/20 and the rest shared amongst 5 other bowlers, all of whom bowled with discipline to put pressure on Berowra throughout. Jacques also had a good day at the office. His first wicket was from a powerfully hit shot back over the bowler, which ricocheted off the non-strikers helmet and looped into Peter Lees' hand as he was running to chase what he thought was a ball disappearing into the distance. The next 2 wickets were from consecutive balls to dismiss the no 9 & 11 batsmen – leaving him on a hat trick in this next spell. We closed the day on 54-2 with another quick-fire 30 runs from Russel Ingram. We should be in a good position to win this one if we bat sensibly next week.

C3 174 Vs Glenhaven 4/53 – after struggling to competitive score we struck back to be well placed overnight – with a bit of work to do. Brendan Harken with 54 and Sid Sethi, fresh from an U15s game got a busy 33. Taki Manolelis has two of these wickets and another early one nest week will set this game up well.

D1
Blue 2/275 Vs ARL – the boys are on a roll. After a good opening start of 61 this was just the beginning. Mike Fitzpatrick came in at number 3 and with a shaky start, gave them about 8 chances to catch him out before they obliged with Mike on 47. In came Claudio van Blerk who eased himself in and gradually opened up and managed to get 3 x 6's. We eventually declared at 2/275 with Claudio on 48 and Chetan Bhatt on a well earned 120 (our 341st century). We managed to get 4 over's in before they decided they did not want to play anymore and called bad light and walked off with their wickets. After their 1st taste of Finals cricket last season the fat lady is already starting to warm up.

Red 114 Vs Berowra 2/72 – finding ourselves in a tough climb after posting a low score, but it could have been worse if not for the superb efforts by Peter Dick 25, Allan Raffel 16 and Perry Waldron 13. Also a great one handed catch by Roger Friend to dismiss their best batsman has given us a sniff of hope for next week.

D2 162 Vs Galston-Glenorie – finding ourselves up against much a tougher bowling attack than we faced in Round 1, we struggled to 5 - 62 when Sam Thariani (85) and Luke Christensen (33) came together for an 88 run partnership that put us well and truly back in this match, finishing with 162 to give us something reasonable to bowl to next week. Sam's superb, controlled back-foot play provided an invaluable foundation for our innings while Luke's lusty hitting and great running between wickets was the perfect complement to wrest control of the game from the Galston-Glenorie bowlers. If our bowlers can rise to the challenge a tight finish awaits next week.

Player of the Year
In Seniors, the Player of the Year this will be done by a 3-2-1 points allocation at the end of each match. The points allocated (all 3 point allocations for week 1) for Round 1 are:
• Carl Madsen (Colts Red) – all 3 points
• Michael Dale (Colts Blue
• Matt Thorndyke (B1)
• Mark Bennett (B1)
• Dinesh de Silva (C1)
• Chris Williamson (C2)
• Pratah Sinnentamby (C3)
• Lachlan Vile (D1)
• Ian Nichol (D1 Blue)
• Arkit Grover (D2)

After each match we will list the top 10 based on cumulative points.

As a batsman he makes a great bowler
Got to hand it to Jacques Visser (C2). Jacques, as a bowler is in the form of his life but not real keen on facing the quicker stuff. Have a look at the Photo Gallery and see the latest photo posted on the site. The only conclusion in seeing the fear in Jacques eyes facing Nikunj Patel in the nets is that as a batsman he makes a great bowler.

Eric Junkkari – the new Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley is a legend in our Club with countless stories of this exploits on the field. Tony is now in Perth but enter Eric (C1). His latest efforts follow:

When you are ready
Eric’s first up effort was yesterday. While opening the batting he played and missed at one – not unusual for Eric. To correct the technique he stepped to the side of the pitch and kept practicing the shot until it was perfect. Problem is that the bowler was almost about to deliver the ball and Eric was still practicing. He finished the day with 56* so it must have worked.

New bat
Eric also has a new bat that looks pretty good. After extolling the virtues of the willow he hit one on the toe of the bat and then complained about the lack of centre in the bat – wonder why.

Speaking of Tony Hadley
Even when the great man is in Perth he still makes the headlines. This time he bought himself a new bat with a plastic sleeve. For reasons known only to Tony he then removed the sleeve taking with it the face of the bat and then wanted advice on whether to oil the bat or not.

Personal achievements
After each game this will be updated so that we can track these achievements over the season. A couple of big ones are coming up:
• Amir Marzouk – 1 wicket for his 250
• Simon Davies 84 for his 5,000 runs
• Peter Heidegger needs just 6 for his 1,000 runs
• Marco Delgado 27 for his 1,000
• Chris Williamson – 36 to his 1,000
• Peter Westerberg – just 16 for his 100 runs.

Gavin Taylor A1 Scored 1000th run Vs Kenthurst @ Kenthurst 28/2/09

Mark Bell C2 44 wickets – 6 to 50

Alex Connell
B1 1,943 runs – 57 to 2,000

Simon Davies
A1 4,916 runs – 84 runs to 5,000

Matt Dawson
A1 239 wickets – 11 to 250

Marco Delgado D1 963 runs – 37 to 1,000

Nathan Fathers
C1 1,770 runs – 230 runs to 2,000

Peter Heidegger C2 994 runs – 6 to 1,000 runs

Matt Jobson
A2 889 runs – 111 to 1,000 runs

Eric Junkkari
C1 329 wickets – 21 to 350 (check)

Rowan Keating
953 runs – 47 to 1,000
Peter Lees
C2 2,790 runs – 210 to 3,000 career runs

Amir Marzouk A2 249 wickets – 1 to 250

Tim Millington
B2 951 runs – 49 to 1,000 runs

John Mitchell C1 45 wickets – 5 to 50

Matt Nolan B2 890 runs – 110 to 1,000

Andrew Percival B2 866 runs – 134 to 1,000

Alistair Rayment 185 wickets – 15 to 200 wickets

Faisal Shamis
C3 829 runs – 171 to 1,000

Simon Smyth
A1 1,865 runs – 135 to 2,000 career runs

231 wickets – 19 wickets to 250 career wickets

Leigh Van den Broeke
A2 2,768 runs – 232 to 3,000 runs

Andrew Watt C1 940 runs – 60 to 1,000 runs

Peter Westerberg D2 84 runs – 16 to 100

Chris Williamson
C2 964 runs – 36 to 1,000 career runs

Posted by Ross Anderson on September 27, 2009 06:25 AM