Team performances
• What a weekend – temperatures over 40 degrees again and some big games that had to be won to consolidate spots in the Finals race
• The West Penno machine is beginning to roll with a Club record 9 wins from 11 teams including 5 outright wins!
• With one Round to go our standings are:

Team standings
A1 5th (3 points out of the 4)
A2 3rd
B1 1st
B2 Blue = 2nd
B2 Red 5th (7 out of the 4)
C1 = 1st
C2 Blue 3rd
C2 Red 5th (10 away)
C3 6th – (10 away)
D1 1st
D2 4th

• A1 have fired back into the race – convincingly beating ARL who were running second. We now control our own destiny by playing Beecroft next week – a win will put us in the top 4 to defend the Premiership - a loss - thanks for coming
• Despite losing outright A2’s are coming good at the right time of the season with a good win over St Ives with a 1st innings on day 1 to take 3rd spot. The game next week is an interesting one. If we win (against the team coming 2nd) we are safely in the top 4. If we lose, ARL (coming 5th) play Kenthurst who lost outright on the weekend. If we lose and they win we finish equal on points. If they win outright we could miss out.
• B1 had a barnstorming game. Playing the 4th placed Kissing Point we rolled them for 38 and then 130 to win outright!
• B2 Blue got their money’s worth. After having a number of players out they scrapped to 60 and then rolled Mt Colah for 82. With a fabulous team effort won outright to make our position in the top 4 a certainty
• B2 Red also had a big win but need an outright next week to get there – fingers crossed
• C1 also had a crushing win to take 10 points and make their position at the top of the table safe. How about star strike bowler Matt Spalding (the man with the shaved legs) who scored 32.
• Both C2’s – the Reds (outright win) and Blue’s 1st innings had big wins
• C3 had a close loss – going down by 2 wickets in a tough fought game
• D1 just keeps doing it with another outright win – the good thing about this is that the performances are well spread with everyone contributing
• D2 had a loss but are still sitting in the top 4.

After 13 Rounds we now have 7 of our 11 teams in the top 4 – with the real possibility of A1 Grade making it and B2 Red C3 getting outrights to scrape in.

Club Championship
With 1 round to go we are leading the table and look unlikely to be pulled back. The last time we won the Championship was in 1997/98. Great stuff.

The top 4 standings are:
• WPHC 1,882
• Kissing Point 1,603
• Normanhurst 1,460.

Personal achievements
• How about Andrew McKinnon (124) and Andrew Clarke (74). Some achievements were:
o This is a Club C2 1st wicket record of 171 runs
o It was only 3 short of the Association C2 record
o Andrew’s ton was the 291st century for the Club.
• Also in A1 how about Greg Stoneham who took 6/17 to destroy ARL – who were coming 2nd.
• Raj Anand (B1) playing his 2nd match back from a heart attack scored 65 and then backed this up with 3/5 from his bowling – a living marvel
• B2 stormed back into the semi’s with a fighting comeback. Big performers were Eric Junkkari who took 4/57 and scored 43. Big Martin Boon smashed 58 in his first 50 of the season.
• Welcome to Sujith Dissanayake (U14) who made his debut in Seniors B2. Sujith is an emerging Blue scored 70 in his junior match and managed 5 and 19
• Alec Connell in C2 Red took his best bowling figures with 6/66 – well done mate

2,000 Runs!
Eric Junkkari (B2 Blue and already the taker of 200 wickets) scored his 2,000th run for the Club with his 45 on the weekend. This now moves Eric into the top 50 batsman of all time for our Club.

Watch this space
Peter Lees (C2) now has 1,981 run s- just 19 short of his 2,000 runs – with a bit of luck he will join Eric in the elite listing very soon.

Play of the week
Big Marty Boon (B2 Blue). Despite having a damaged back that made life really uncomfortable Martin played so as not to let the team down. When he went out to bat he walked out to bat on his toes and looked like a refugee from Mardi Gras. He faced one ball, missed it, scored his second golden duck for the season but really put in for the team. He then hammered 58 in rapid time on Saturday.

Gutsy effort of the week
Who else than Mark Tubs Taylor – B1 super star and Club legend. Tubs managed to face 3 balls in his innings and was caught off his pad. In between he was hit on the toe, broke it but then came out to bowl after icing it and took 5/18! Amazing.

Posted by Ross Anderson on February 22, 2004 05:29 AM