We finished the season on 7th spot (out of 14 teams) but in a really close competition could have made the Semi Finals if we won the last game and other results went our way. We are a good side as shown by the thumping we gave Normanhurst-Warrawee in the Kimbo Cup by scoring 264 in 30 overs! On our day we can beat anyone but we weren’t consistent and lost some games that we should have won.

We finished the season by winning 1 outright, 3 on first innings, we had 2 washouts and lost 3 on the first innings and that horrible outright loss against the Gold’s that cost us any chance of making the Semis. We also had a very tough draw. In our 9 games, we played the top 6 teams and were washed out against one of the lower placed sides.

We had a fun season with everyone achieving a personal best at some stage of the season:
• Sid was great. He topped the batting and bowling averages for the first time (together) and took 10 wickets for 7 in one game. My dad reckons this is the best bowling performance ever by a West Penno player in our 61 year history
• James got his highest score and took 6 wickets
• Ronic got 2 wickets and will get a lot more next season
• Eric went overseas and missed a few games but batted well against the Gold's and bowled well throughout the season.
• Angus scored 26 in one game and was the equal 2nd highest wicket taker with 8. I am sure he will develop into a very good Rep bowler.
• Matt got his highest ever score with 16 and got a wicket. He is great to have in our team
• Calvin scored his second highest score with 22 and bowled really well consistently taking wickets
• Madds started off brilliantly with a great 61 and took 3 wickets – not bad for a wicket keeper
• Chris took 6 wickets and is so close to becoming one of the very good players. A defensive shot he played in the last game looked like a Ricky Ponting shot
• Hazza did a great job behind the stumps and what about his 32 against the White’s under pressure. His bowling is also coming along really well with 3 this year
• Pranav also got his highest ever score with 19and took 2 wickets. He also took a really good catch against the greens to get their best batsman out and a direct hit in the last game to run someone out for a diamond duck.
• Ryan also did really well. His top score of 18 was his second best ever and he took 3 wickets
• DA while topping the aggregate had a very average year by previous years standards but finished off with 87* from around 30 balls to get back into form for next season.

Highlights
• Having Madds, Sid and DA make A Reps this year
• Beating the WPHC Whites after we lost early wickets with a great fight-back by players like Hazza, Calvin, Angus and Matt – what about Matt’s shot through mid wicket
• Our outright win over the WPHC Green’s put us back in the running for the Semi Finals
• Sid’s 11 wickets in a match
• Our game against the Premiers Berowra was so close we almost beat them
• Everyone agreeing to have pink batting grips to support Breast Cancer was great

Coaches Comments
• Our aim this season was to see every player be a better player than when they started the season and achieve a personal best in at least one game – this was achieved
• We also wanted to give everyone an equal opportunity with the bat and ball. This was not always possible with some players being unavailable during parts of the season but overall we did this pretty well
• We finished 7th (one win out of the top 4). While it would have been nice to finish in the top 4 this is not such a big deal – the important thing was that the kids learnt something and enjoyed themselves
• We will lose some of our players next season to Private Schools but hopefully most of the boys will back-up again and we can build on our successes from this season.

Thank you
Thanks to everyone who contributed this year: my mum who coached us, Garry our Manager and scorer with help from Leonie, Ron and Peggy, the coaching support from Keith and Peter, the fantastic umpiring by Adhir, Peter and Keith and all the parents who turned up every week.

Next season
Our team will probably be a bit different next season with a few people going to Private schools but it would be great to have everyone back and doing our best again.

DA™

Posted by Ross Anderson on March 15, 2008 07:32 AM