Level 1 Coaching Course
Cricket NSW is conducting another Level 1 Training Course. This is a sought after qualification for those interested in Coaching. Details are:
• When: Sunday 7th February 2010
• Where: Montview Oval, Hornsby heights
• Time: 9.00 am to 4.00 pm
• Cost: $120

If you are coaching a WPHC side we pay for the cost.

If you are interested then just let Ross Anderson know at wisden@bigpond.com

Juniors
The season starts again on Saturday 31/1/2010 when school resumes.

Seniors
Results from the weekend are:

A1 5/227 defeated Kissing Point 67 – our 5/227 was centered around a large partnership between Gav Taylor (84) and Alex Robertson (66). It was a huge score on what was a tricky pitch at times. In the bowling, Matt Spalding (0/3 off 5) and James Makin (4/13 off 8) bowled tightly early on, then Peter Stott, Scott Henderson and Matt Dawson picked up 2 wickets each.

A2 136 lost to Wahroonga 165 – details to follow but a turn-up with an important loss to 4th placed Wahroonga. We remain in 3rd spot but in a tighter competition.

Colts
Red Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee – match abandoned at Turramurra Oval.

Blue Vs Kissing Point – Sunday game, scores to follow.

B1 7/184 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 182 – another important match playing against Normanhurst who are a very strong one-day team. Although being 5th on the ladder they have had the wood on us lately beating us in our last two clashes. They won the toss and batted. A few quick wickets had them 2/20 before they fought back to 50 before losing another wicket. This brought their key batsman to the crease and he looked good cracking a few boundaries. Once again Rhino Cherrie delivered, catching the edge and Tim Millington took a screamer diving to his right at 1st slip. A few wickets followed and we had Normo on the ropes at 6/100. To their credit they fought back with some hard hitting and posted a challenging 182 before being dismissed from the last ball of the innings. Rhino continued his superb one day form picking up 4/15 from 8 overs while Rowan Keating 1/24 and Scott Jobson 2/44 were great in support. Rhino also took two catches and run out.

Our innings started off with a bang with Tim Worthington smashing his way to 39 off 20 balls. This knock included eight fours and gave us an early advantage as we surged to 1/66 from the first ten overs. From here we were able to pace our run chase.Best with the bat wereMatt Scoular (38) and Tim Millington (26) before a controlled innings from Scott Jobson (29 not out) saw us home with an over remaining.

B2 7/111 defeated Mt Colah 107 – another good win for the boys. Losing the toss and fielding first, we struggled to take early wickets but managed to keep the runs down, going into drinks after 20 overs with them 1/44 with Nick Starr (1/16 off 7). However, after drinks we were able to make the crucial breakthrough we needed, with Tim Starr (1/7 off 6) removing the other opener before Lachlan McBrien (1/31) claimed the prized scalp to have them on the ropes. From then, Ben Nolan (3/12 off 6, including a stunning 1 handed caught and bowled), Simon “Blocker” Roche (2/8 off 3) and Geoff Richards (1/8 off 7) tore through the middle and lower order to dismiss them for 107. A good day in the field as well, with stand in skipper Adam Walter taking 2 catches, with Alex Connell, Mark Bennett, Duncan Moore and Lach McBrien taking 1 a piece.

What should have been a straightforward chase almost ended in disaster, with Alex Connell (19) and Duncan Moore (14) the only ones from the top 6 to make double figures, and after 23 overs were struggling at 7/62. However, our strength all season has been our even contributions and depth throughout the team, and an unbroken stand of 49 from Geoff Richards (32*) and Ben Nolan (18*) saw us home with 4.3 overs to spare. This win sees us retain our 10 point buffer at the top of the ladder.

C1 92 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 79 – a really important game for us playing 2nd placed Normo with us just out of the top 4. Batting on a Mt Ku-ring-gai pitch that held up and a slow outfield this was always going to be a battle of attrition especially against an attack that lacks pace and made scoring even more difficult. We scrapped to 92 thanks largely to DA who top scored for the match with 30. The next best score was 13 to give an indication of how difficult to bat. We had to bowl and field well to defend the total and we did. Andrew Watt chose a good day to be ‘on-song’ and took 3 key wickets for 23. He got very good support from Greg Stoneham with 2/10 (8 overs), Craig Hutchinson 2/20 and Eric Junkkari 1/5 (3 overs). The fielding was also a big factor. While putting down a couple, DA took 2 screamers and Eric got the big wicket with one of his special flat throw run-outs. This now puts us back in the top 4 in a tight competition.

C2 8/132 lost to Hornsby 190 – playing 4th placed We played 4th placed Hornsby at Montview. They had a solid opening partnership of 100 in 20 overs before we managed to make a double break-though after some good bowling pressure from us. We managed to dismiss them all for 190, with wickets going to Narendra (3/17)and Sonny Kulkarni (3/13) who dismissed 6 batsmen in the space of 6 overs to finish them off in 38 overs. Our run chase started well with a opening partnership of 70 between regular opener Chris Williamson and our usual #10 Fergus Waterson We missed a number of our regular batsmen and wickets fell at a regular rate thereafter. We were unable to keep the run-rate under control and ended the day on 132 for 8 to bat out the remaining overs.

C3
White 5/152 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 5/148 – given our top position on the table, we now feel we are under pressure to beat all comers. We were up against a Normanhurst side who had lost only once since round 3 and were running a tight 3rd behind us. After winning the toss and choosing to bowl as usual , we restricted Normo to 5/148. Best were James Creais (2/39) with Brett Hawkins, Andrew Fiedler (3 catches) & Riley Miedler the other wicket takers. Pratah Sinnetamby (16), Riley Miedler (42) and Dave Creais (17) ably supported Brendan Harkin (56 no) to see us home albeit with our usual middle-order jitters, to finish at 5/152 with 3 overs to spare.

Blue 7/145 defeated St. Ives 8/139 – yep we lost the toss again and we had to field first. A bit of a frustrating day in the field as we feel that we gave them too much. Vikas Manchanda was able to get 3/30 followed by Ian Nichol on 2/21 and Nat Mistry having to settle on 2/19 after we dropped 3 of his catches (sorry Nat). St Ives managed to get to 139.

Going in to bat Russell Smith and Mike Fitzpatrick managed to hold out and take some shine off the ball before Russell made his way back followed shortly by Mike. Vikas and Claudio van Blerk were in and started to gain momentum before Vikas departed. Rahul joined Claudio in a great 72 run partnership, Rahul Sabherwal was out on 23 and Claudio smashed his way to 66, which included four great sixes. The rest of us made our way in and out with Nat hitting the winning runs. We beat St Ives with one and half overs in hand.

D1 3/183 defeated Glenhaven 8/172 – by far the toughest game we have had playing Glenhaven at on a very slow Northholm Grammar outfield. They got stuck into us rather early and posted a competitive 172 but our bowlers all chipped in nicely with the top wicket takers being Roger Friend 2/24 and Julian Raffel 2/27 and Marco Delgado 1/9. Once again our batting was well tested chasing down this score, and after an extremely slow start due to accurate bowling from Glenhaven, we were able to get the runs with an over to spare, thanks to some patient batting and worthy contributions from Lachlan Vile 66no, Julian 45no and Allan Raffel 30. This win puts us into 2nd place cementing our positioned in the top 4 and giving us a chance to close in on 1st place.

D2 156 tied with Castle Hill RSL 9/156 – winning the toss we set out to get the batting monkey off our back after a run of poor performances in recent rounds, and were pleased to turn in a more respectable total of 156 thanks to an in-form Ben Pilipowski (31), batting for the first time at 3 and liking it, assisted by good knocks from Ankit Grover (29) and Peter Flook (24) and supported by Sahil and Rajesh Talpade and Josh Murray-Howard, all of whom stuck around to make double figures.

Our bowlers made steady inroads but were put to the test when the Castle Hill middle order began hitting out in pursuit of an all too gettable total on this small ground. A nail biting finish ensued with Castle Hill top scorer falling to a brilliant catch at point by Shankar Ravi off the bowling of Peter Flook with the scores locked on 156. Bowling for WPHC the honours were shared equally by Niranjan Sundararaj (2-24), Ankit Grover (2-47), Ben Pilipowski (1-12), Sahil Talpade (1-24) and Peter Flook (1-26), while Gareth Linaker put in a superb effort behind the stumps with three catches and two run-outs to his account. In all a great team effort to pull off an unforgettable result.

Not surprisingly the result of this match is pending appeal. Whatever the outcome nothing will take away from us what should remain our greatest fight back and most thrilling finish of the season.

One for the road
Got to hand it to Luke Christensen (D2) who announced after Round 2 that he now knew how much he drink the night before a game after getting his highest score of 38. Move forward to Saturday morning (Round 10) and Luke ‘phones through unable to play – he had a bit too much on Friday night, stubbed his toe somewhere/somehow and couldn’t walk and had to pull out. Looks like the lesson may have been forgotten.

Iron Man
A little known fact is that Peter Westerberg (D2 Captain) has not missed a game since his debut in 2002-03. Records aren’t kept of this but it would have to be close to a Club record. Last weekend Peter decided to use his ribs to play a ball rather than his bat and managed break a bone. But not one to miss a game Peter played again, dosed up on pain killers to get on the field. He didn’t test out the injury batting getting a first ball duck but did manage to test the pain barriers in a Group celebration at the end of the game that finished in an exciting tie. What fantastic commitment! Well done mate.

Commitment
Just on commitment how about Fergus Waterson’s effort (C2). Fergus had to take a flight out to the US and leave by 3.30 pm. As he usually bats at number 10, we batted him as an opener to allow him to get away early. But....at 4.20 he was still batting at 46* and trying to win the game. He got out at 46 and raced to the airport in a cloud of applause for his great effort. Secretly we are hoping he missed his flight and will be available for next week's game. Well done Fergus.

Game changer
One of the stories behind the story is the 1-day performance of B1 player Ryan Cherrie. In a very tight comp our B1’s have won 3 in a row after losing every 1-dayer last season. The game breaker has been Ryan 'Rhino' Cherrie. Coming on first change Rhino's pace and bounce has changed every innings so far. He has picked up 10 wickets at 6.60 in our last three matches at an economy rate of 2.75. He has also taken three catches and two run outs. Well done mate – on fire.

Player of the Year
In Seniors, the Player of the Year is determined by a 3-2-1 points allocation at the end of each match. We will stop publishing the running results after the next round so that the final result is a not known until Presentation Night.

Points at the end of Round 10 are:

• 14 points
o Sam Thariana (D2)
• 13 points:
o Rowan Keating (B1 & Colts)
• 12 points
o Russel Ingram (Colts & C2)
o Andrew Joyce (B1)
o Riley Miedler (C3 White)
o Nik Patel (C2)
o Caludio van Blerk (C3 Blue)
• 11 points
o Nirinjan. Sundararaj (D2)
• 10 points
o Daniel Anderson (C1)
o Michael Dale (Colts)
o Brendan Harkin (C3 White)
o Rahul Saberwhal (C3 Blue)
o Geoff Starr (B2)
o John Steel (C1)
o Chris Williamson (C2)

The elite
The latest top 10 cumulative run scorers (Seniors) and wicket takers as at the current Round 10 follow.

Top 10 batsmen
1. 649 @ 92.71 – Russell Ingram (C2 & Colts)
2. 457 @ 41.55 – Sam Thariani (D2)
3. 394 @ 49.30 – Gavin Taylor (A1)
4. 374 @ 46.75 – Matt Scoular (B1)
5. 349 @ 38.78 – Michael McGregor (A2)
6. 340 @ 85.00 – Lachlan Vile (D1)
7. 325 @ 36.11 – Sahil Talpade (D2)
8. 297 @ 74.30 – Riley Miedler (C3 White)
9. 296 @ 32.89 – Matt Thorndyke (B1)
10. 294 @ 42.00 – Alex Connell (B1)

Top 10 bowlers
1. 28 @ 11.50 – Rowan Keating (B1)
2. 24 @ 10.54 – Rahul Sabherwal (C3 Blue & D1)
3. 23 @ 13.70 – Nik Patel (C2)
4. 22 @ 9.36 – Matt Dawson (A1)
5. 21 @ 16.43 – John Steel (C1)
6. 20 @ 9.65 – Tim Starr (B2)
7. 20 @ 13.45 – Scott Henderson (A1)
8. 20 @ 14.05 – Chris Williamson (C2)
9. 19 @ 14.60 – Taki Manolelis (C3)
10. 18 @ 12.11 (A2) – Darren Morrow
11. 18 @ 12.28 – Dylan Brogan (A2)
12. 18 @ 13.39 – Andrew Joyce (B1)
13. 18 @ 14.72 – Arun Kumar (C3 Blue)
14. 18 @ 14.83 – Ryan Cherrie (B1)

Top 5 catches (non wicket keeping)
1. 7 – Brett Hawkins (C3)
2. 7 – Allan Raffel (D1)
3. 7 – Daniel Anderson (C1)
4. 6 – Tim Anderson (Colts)
5. 6 – Rohan Dixit (A2)
6. 6 – Chris Grima (D2)
7. 6 – James McBrien (B2)
8. 6 – Tim Millington (B1)
9. 6 – Nik Patel (C2)
10. 6 – John Steel (C1)

Competition table
Standings after Round 10 are:
• A1: 3rd
• A2: 3rd
• Colts Red: 3rd
• Colts Blue: 4th
• B1: 1st
• B2: 1st
• C1: 4th
• C2 3rd
• C3:
o White 1st
o Blue: 2nd
• D1: 3rd
• D2: 6th

Personal achievements
A couple of big ones are coming up:
• Peter Westerberg – just 10 for his 100 runs
• Simon Davies – 40 to 5,000 runs
• Mark Bell – 1 to 50 wickets

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

Peter Heidegger C2 1,000 runs Vs Hornsby 2 Annangrove 10/10/09

Marco Delgado D1 1,000 runs Vs WPHC Blue @ Northholm Grammar 10/10/09

Alex Connell
B1 2,000 runs Vs Mt Colah @ Mt Ku-ring-gai 11/10/09

Rowan Keating
B1 1,000 runs Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee @ Normanhurst Oval 17/10

Tim Millington
B1 1,000 runs Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee @ Normanhurst Oval 17/10

Matt Jobson
A2 1,000 runs Vs Glenhaven @ Headen Park 24th October

Amir Marzouk A2 250 wickets Vs St Ives @ The Glade 18/10/2009

James McBrien
B2 1,000 runs Vs Hornsby @ Montview East 31/10/2009

Matt Dawson
A1 250 wickets Vs Castle Hill RSL @ Berowra 1/11/2009.

John Mitchell C1 50 wickets Vs Kissing Point @ Mimosa Oval 7/11/2009

Chris Williamson
C2 1,000 runs Vs Castle Hill @ Montview Oval West 15/11/2009

Scott Jobson
B1 100 wickets Vs Berowra @ Thornleigh Park 21/11/2009

Faisal Shamsi
D1 1,000 runs Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee @ Normanhurst Oval 19/12/2009

Mark Bell C2 49 wickets – 1 to 50

Simon Davies
A1 4,972 runs – 28 runs to 5,000

Nathan Fathers
C1 1,858 runs – 142 runs to 2,000

Andrew Watt C1 966 runs – 34 to 1,000 runs

Peter Westerberg D2 90 runs – 10 to 100

Posted by Ross Anderson on January 17, 2010 05:49 AM