SUCC v Campbelltown. SUCC Metro v Souths
1st grade | 2nd grade | 3rd grade | 4th grade | 5th grade | 6th grade
1st grade Limited overs | PGs | Green Shield | City & Suburban
9:30am and 34 seconds on Saturday morning I strode confidently onto the atmospheric Raby No. 1 to the cheers of my fellow SUCCers. At first I thought I'd been missed however it soon was very obvious that I was late and owed a case of coopers Red.....
Nash Ball:
Bowlers were a man down and fought hard however were outdone by a good top 6 led by Ian ("I cant believe they keep falling for it") Moran. Turning point occurred when Nick Dunford showed his true private school roots by suggesting "a draw is as good as a win!" From that moment on the top 6 had the advantage. A few dummies and the game was over.
Cricket:
Mail won the toss, and quickly muttered out of the corner of his mouth "we'll have a bowl", followed by some sort of mid wicket dance.
Cameron Marks and Ian "Hector" Moran opened up on a very lively wicket.
Ian getting the first wicket with a ball that would have "got any left hander in the world out!" More wickets, good bowling and catching followed and at lunch the Ghosts were 6 for not so much at lunch.
following lunch were a few showers, ("definitely in Waitara") We finally got back on to the pitch with Screech taking 6 very well deserved "Real Cricket" wickets. Ghosts all out 118 Moran 4 for 29 Screech 6 for 23.
Highlight of the innings was Butch working out just how old he is in this side!
Time for a bat. SUCCers lost an early one and then regrouped until the Jenny Craig sponsored Will Hay spooned one back to the bowler. it is possible William is possibly still walking off towards the sheds such was his disappointment. With the world coming to an end just south of Raby, Mail decided he'd had enough batting in the dark and walked off the field. For some reason everyone followed and that was the end of the days play. SUCCers 2 for 52 with Mail 25 very hard fought runs.
An enjoyable and successful days cricket that deserves another good day of cricket next week to take full points!
(Day 2)
1st Grade Syd Uni 9/229 (Dec) Dave Butchart 73 Matthew Morgan 63*
Defeated The Ghosts 118 (Nick Dunford 6/23, Ian Moran, 4/29) and 2/125
Nash Ball:
Bowlers won, Moran was useless without anyone falling for his dummy, Mail tried to cheat. All in all a good day for the bowlers!
Cricket:
The boys turned up to a very different looking Raby No.1 on Saturday, the wicket was dry for starters, which was great news considering we needed roughly 60 odd to win. Ian missed one 2nd ball and when Liam Gerg departed shortly after, 60 seemed like a lot of runs. It was left up to the old man himself Dave Butchart to turn things around and he did so beautifully. I.T.S (Morgan) proved to be a valuable assistant to Dave's cause and despite being half of Butch's age, showed great maturity. Between them we collected 6 points and built a lead of aroung 100 with some fine finishing from the 2nd smelliest in the club (Dunford).
On, what felt like the hottest day ever, Mail decided to call the boys in and have a bowl. (Possibly being a greater distance from Whispers (Hay) armpits may have been a factor here) and so, the students attempted to pull off an outright win. The situation was not unreasonable though, A very hot, tired and possibly hungover campbellton only had to lose a few quick wickets to give us a sniff. Unfortunately the wickets didn't really tumble. However, there were some very good LBW shouts but, as the captain found out, the ball needed to hit middle stump half way up for an LBW to be given. The game was called off and hour early. The end result was 6 points to Us and and unknown amount of points to the Ghosts (let me know when you find out Mitch!)
All in all a good 2 days of cricket, and while we had the better of the conditions, I believe we played the better cricket and deserved the 6!
Good work students! Roll On
Report by Mark Cameron, on behalf of Ian Moran.
Sydney University V Randwick Petersham 1st Grade LO
Sydney University 10/132 ( Will Hay 35, Matt Morgan 31) lost to Randy Petes 9/212 (Ian Moran 3/31 Nick Dunford 3/44; Mitch Cook 1/35
The day started with the bottom five, “the good guys”, taking on the top 6 in the pre-game ritual of Nash ball. What ensued seems to be this season’s typical game of Nash:
- The good guys are a man down;
- the good guys score first;
- Moran dummies several times but never passes to his team mates;
- the good guys score a second time but the goal is disallowed because (insert Mail/Moran excuse here);
- The good guys win convincingly, Tim “plugger” Lhey and Matt “Fanckles” Morgan named MVP’s; and
- the top 6 turn on themselves and blame each other ,especially Will ‘Whispers’ Hay, for the loss.
Having not won a game at home for the season, everyone knew that this was an important game to win. In Mail’s absence, Moran was captain and he proceeded to mimic Mail by losing the toss ensuring that we would bowl first at home again.
In an innings of few highlights, we bowled well and restricted RP’s to 9 for 212 off their 50 overs. Moran and Cook were the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 31 and 1 for 35 respectively off their 10 overs. On what was the best deck that had been produced at home for a long time, the par score for the day was probably 230-240 so the boys were quietly confident on the upcoming chase.
The chase started terribly with Mark Faraday (Solicitor) being cleaned bowled second ball of the innings. From this start, unfortunately Uni showed little fight and were bowled out well short of the target for 132 in the 37th over. With constant wickets falling and a highest partnership of 38 runs, we were unable to get close to the target which meant Randy-Petes picked up a bonus point. The pick of the batsman was Hay with his customary 20-30 and Matt Morgan snuffing out a useful 30.
Back in the sheds, a very frank post mortem of the game and the season so far was carried out. All players had a turn to speak. What was great about this, however, was the fact that after the serious talk, the boys still hung around drinking beers and having a laugh.
With this loss, the remaining 24 points before Christmas are crucial. The competition is very close with the team coming 12th on the table only one win out of the top 6. The next one-dayer is against the competition leaders Hawkesbury. Half the team will be sent to Queensland for a week’s training camp in preparation for this big game.
The Stallion,
Report by Nick Larkin
Limited Overs 1st grade v Hawkesbury
Sydney University 5/213 ( Greg Mail 75 Will Hay 48, Ben Larkin 45*) defeated Hawkesbury 9/211 ( Ian Moran 2/22; Mitch Cook 2/41; Mark Cameron 2/46)
Intro.
The Sydney units had lurked a win against the boys out west on Saturday and where eager to get a couple in a row to “get back on the train”. With a seven man bowling line up backed up by a classy but youthful batting line up we were confident that, if we out enthused the opposition, we would take the 6 points.
Nash ball.
For the second consecutive game in a row the bowlers outplayed and destroyed their batting counterparts. The game was highlighted with greed from the batsmen, and class by the bowlers. Not even the extra man could help the batsmen, and neither could their 3 umpires. Nash ball on Sunday morning was the bowler’s game and how sweet it was, fining 6 batsmen those 3 dollars in the fines session.
Game.
We bowled first for the 5th time in a row. In the back of our minds however we had a belief that the deck was going to stay true the whole day and that we could chase successfully. The first over by “scud” was electric and pumped everyone up for the game; it was tainted however with a poor read on the length of the last ball of the over. A massive crack in the helmet, Morgs laughing his head off and a disturbing but funny murmur as their batsman was walking off suggesting that there was no point him staying out there as he hadn’t seen one of them so far.
The Hawks got off to a pretty steady start after that, consolidation of wicket and putting that one loose ball away every now and then saw them reach 2-120 after about 25 over’s and we found ourselves behind in the game. Wickets to Tom ‘ ive never seen ben larkin make any runs’ kierath and mitch ‘the swooning king’ cook turned the game back our way and when there opening stick held out to deep square leg we could sense the game was there for us to take control. Scud and Hero came back on to pick up a couple of ‘cheap ones. But French cuts and nicks through a vacant slip region saw heartbreaking boundaries in the final overs for the Hawks to post 211. Screech Dunford bowled exceptionally again, this time without luck. The spinners were very influential too picking up major wickets and sustaining pressure from both ends.
Our run chase started positively and it again set our mood for the entire innings to back yourself when it was in your zone. When Hayzer and maily got together at 2-50 they put on an exhibition of first class batting, they dismissed any ball in their area and put it all the way to the fence, they matched the running between the wicket that Hawkesbury did so well and took calculated risks when the time was right. Greg ‘I don’t have the smallest legs in the team any more’ mail finished with a well compiled 75 and will ‘lawnmower’ hay with 48. Enter Ben Larkin, who had just come off the week of a successful AUG’s, proceeded to smoke the Hawkesbury bowling line up just like back in his taree days. Everything came off the middle. He showed maturity well beyond his years to again wait for the ball to be in his area, but score fast enough to relieve pressure at the other end. The game was in safe hands as long as he was at the crease, but with one over remaining there was still 5 runs to chase down. Ben had waited long enough to in his own innings and in his time at Sydney uni to hit the winning runs of a first grade match and whacked a plus 70 metre horn to win the game. High fives everywhere for the next 5 minutes and some proud parents up in the stands, and one of the loudest renditions of the club song at my time at the club.
It was a great day for us, and the end result see’s the first graders 3 points off 3rd place.
Funny fines.
Mitch Cook: excessive brooding
No report tendered by Kev Desai, that sucks.
3rd Grade Match Report v Campbelltown
Sydney Uni 202 (Harrington 62, Crowley 37) defeated Campbelltown 150 odd (Cowell 5/52, Khalko 2/21)
In Troy ($) Stanley’s absence (apparently he is away bodybuilding to raise some funds for subsequent fines sessions), I will pick up the slack and recount the events of the match.
Day 1
The day started promisingly enough and, with the Smith Family delegated task of ferrying me to the ground being assigned this week to Braggy (cheers mate), Hale and I arrived (essentially) on time at (God’s country) oval and ready to play.
Given the reputation that I have for enjoying Nashball (the game they play in heaven); it would be remiss of me not to mention it in my report… In summary, the older generation routinely pumped the young pups, and they were disgraceful again in their ineptitude… Even with BJ’s pedometer registering him covering a total of 7 metres during the game (all of which were in a circle in midfield), and Sanjiv the gatekeeper remaining ensconced in goal, it was true domination from the old men, with experience, flair and general lack of retardation telling the story on the day…
And on to the game…
The director elected to bat on a great cricket wicket (would you expect anything else in God’s country?) and from the start the Uni boys set about with great application. Hale and Mark “possibly the only person in the history of the world with a worse Nashball win/loss record than Nick Larkin” Hackett dictated terms early and provided a solid platform for James ‘pushups = life’ Crowley and Timmy ‘not so unfineable now’ Farrington to build from. These gentlemen were sublime in their domination of the attack, with Harro’s (lack of) running between the wickets a standout. Their partnership put us in a great position to post a big score in the (of course perfect) surroundings, however the middle order did not capitalise on the good start and largesse was paramount in the dismissals throughout. Nevertheless, 200 was considered sufficiently enough to defend, and the director was not at all rueful at the chance to have a few overs at the host prior to stumps. ‘Just doing enough’ and Nigel bowled well for 4 overs, however with the heavens tearing themselves apart above, commonsense prevailed and play was wisely suspended.
Day 2
The Smith Family’s wheel landed on Aaron ‘I’m a personal trainer and they aren’t real push-ups so it doesn’t mean anything’ Hickey this week, and once again I was conspicuous by my (essentially) on time arrival at (God’s country) oval. Given that it was approaching 99% humidity (approx 4 above average) and with blinding sunlight, the director wisely delayed the warm-up proceedings (either that or everyone else wasn’t as keen as I was to start Nash…). Once again the old blokes played the greenhorns, and, to save myself the trouble of typing it out again, please see Day 1’s entry for a summary of proceedings. I will however add the following:
- Hugh ‘well……… that hail wont go well with my soft top convertible’ McKay decided that the heat was overbearing and bopped out what can only be described as a ridiculous white muscle t (or singularly the worst piece of clothing ever worn in public) for the game; and
- BJ probably covered only 6 metres in total this week (still in a circle in the middle of the park, but to be honest, when you win 45-0 every week against chumps this was not considered to be relevant).
And on to the game…
As is default in God’s country, we strolled out (sweating puddles, see aforementioned humidity) to the best strip seen since Rig last went to Cargo (depending on when you last went there, this would be any Saturday night from 11pm for the last 3 years). Nigel ‘doesn’t yet have an unnecessarily long and descriptive nickname so I’ll go with Nige’ Cowell put on a quality display of fast bowling and from his first ball it was clear that he was a class above the opposition. Bowling with good pace and bounce, he finished with a well deserved 5 wickets and was unlucky not to pick up more. An honourable mention goes to Sanjiv ‘how good is my englsih?’ Khalko, who bowled a quality spell and also bagged a couple.
All in all it was a solid display in the field and the Ghosts were never really in the hunt during the chase, however it must be said that we let ourselves down a bit last week by not cashing in on the good start. An early finish, which left us to enjoy a beverage and watch Leunig endure the most outrageous bout of cramps I have ever seen (approaching 5 minutes), and also to somehow fine Harro more than he has ever had to pay in any previous fines session (even that day when he got a hundred and a 5 for on debut, wore whites, had the wrong warm-up kit and was unlucky during the week). The 3rd grade juggernaut rolls on, and the boys should definitely take some confidence into the final 2 rounds before Christmas and hopefully keep the perfect record intact.
Please give generously to the Smith Family by the way, petrol is expensive
Cheers,
Smash on behalf of Troy Stanley
Sydney University 195 (E Freeman 64, M skinner 35, P Jordan 33)
Campbelltown 1/26 (C Cull 1/10)
The team arrived at Uni 2 needing a win. However things didn’t start great with the usual game of nash ball resulting in Skins being sent to hospital thanks to Dougal’s spikes. Things didn’t get any better with stand in captain Jim Kazaglis losing the toss and the team being sent into bat. After a short delay the game got underway, with the openers doing a good job in tough conditions. The top 3 fought hard to get to 1/48 with Pete Jordan doing most of the scoring. But a few quick wickets saw the team at 4/56 with Ed Freeman and Dougal Robinson batting with the team in real trouble. Runs were hard to come by especially with a young offie bowling well at one end with 5 consecutive maidens. Just as the 2 looked set Dougal fell to the offie, who then picked up two more quick wickets. This brought Skins limping to the wicket who during this time had just returned from the hospital with 3 stitches and some loss of blood. Batting with AJ as a runner Skins set about belting the bowling giving AJ little work to do. At the other Ed also picked up the scoring rate with some great cover drives. Once again when a partnership looked set wickets started to fall. With the innings ending on 195 there was plenty of work left to do, with Ed Freeman’s 64 by far the best performance with the bat. There was still a few overs left giving the opening bowlers a few at their top order. Both J Kaz and Charlie Cull beat the bat on numerous occasions. However big Charlie grabbed the only break through with a good caught and bowled.
Day two
Sydney Uni 195 v Campbelltown 180 (Cull 4-47, Kagz 3-35, Hasi 2-70)
The team arrived with plenty of work to do in conditions which should have favored the batting side. The game got under way after a short warm up in hot conditions. Kagz and Charlie opened up with the first breakthrough taking a while. However wickets started to fall with Charlie taking the first three.
The Campbelltown team struggled to get another partnership going after this with all bowlers applying pressure. Hasi grabbed two quick wickets and Kagz got his first after beating the bat on numerous occasions during the day, putting us in a strong position at tea, needing 2 wickets with around 60 runs in hand.
Kagz then grabbed his second straight after tea. The boys were hoping to finish things up quickly. Their number 7 had other ideas hitting everything whilst avoiding giving strike to their number 11 who was injured and needed a runner. He carried them to within 15 runs of victory before Kagz bowled him to give the team a great win.
All chances were taken and both the fielding and bowling applied good pressure which was required to defend a total of that size.
Report by Josh Lawrence
Day 1
Campbelltown 7-164 (Dan 4-36; Metcalfe 2-30)
The 5ths rocked up to Raby oval to be greeted by overcast skies and a soft wicket. It was a toss to win and James Rogers won it, having no hesitation in sending Campbelltown in. After a short wait for the pitch to improve, we started with Danks and Dan opening the bowling. Dan removed one opener in his first over, and the other in his 5th courtesy of some sharp catching in the slips.
After the second wicket, the Campbelltown batsman refused to come to the crease due to the rain, and after some deliberation the umpires decided to go off. The delay was extended due to their captain considering the runups too unsafe for us to bowl on. After this delay and some more rain, play was finally restarted at 3.
With Chris Dan and Dave Crawford bowling good lines after the break, the wickets continued to fall at a steady pace. Danks returned, bowling at a pace seldom seen in 5th grade. As is often the case in this grade, the batsmen proved unable to edge any of the good deliveries, but very capable of slashing the looser ones over the slips/gully.
The introduction of Metro saw two wickets in his first over to leave Campbelltown at 6/78, and there should have had another when the batsman smashed one through to the keeper, however the umpire's hearing aid had clearly been turned off and the batman refused to walk, much to the annoyance of Greg "F!&&!!”. walk on that" Metcalfe.
Unfortunately from here our catching let us down, with a number of catchable chances going down. This allowed Campbelltown to escape from a tricky situation, and get to 150. Some more quality bowling from Dan saw him break the partnership and pick up his 4th wicket for the day. Soon after the rain returned, leaving Campbelltown 7 down at the end of a frustrating days cricket.
Despite our lapses in the field, we are still well placed for next week.
5th grade match report day 2
Campbelltown 191 (Dan 6-60)
Sydney Uni 183 (Hickey 49, Crawford 57)
The day started off with Campbelltown resuming at 7/164 and looking for quick runs. After Danks picked up his first fifth grade wicket in a long time, Chris Dan finished off the tail courtesy of a good catch from Aaron Hickey and a shocking LBW decision. The Ghosts final total was a very chaseable 191.
The run-chase got off to a bad start with both openers quicky departing due to some early movement. A steadying partnership from Dan Bragg and kiwi James Macpherson followed, and we looked to be getting on top when Bragg hit a massive six. However, he fell the very next ball. A couple more wickets saw us in trouble at 5/70.
This brought together Dave 'Cindy' Crawford and Aaron Hickey, who put on 70 in the best partnership of the day. Both batted well, playing sensibly to the good balls and punishing the bad balls. Unfortunately, Hickey on 49 scooped up a shot to deep midwicket.
A fighting partnership from Crawford(57) and Chris Dan brought us to within
16 when disaster struck. We lost our last 4 wickets for 8 runs to fall agonisingly short.
A disappointing loss, especially as we had plenty of chances to take the game away from them on the first day, and the 5ths have plenty to work on in the coming weeks.
Report by Nolan Matthews
SUCC 8-153 (Paul Bertelle 69, Jack Lerade 16, Cam Hawkins 15) drew with South Sydney all out 231 (Steve Green 2-7, Cam Hawkins 2-43, Dave Gatt 1-10)
The first day was washed out but we turned up still expecting a good game with some co-operation from our opponents. But skipper Paul “Olive Oyl” Bertelle (Olive, as in olive oil, as in Bertelle olive oil as in Olive Oyl, Popeye’s girlfriend) was in for a rude shock when the Souths captain asked what the situation was after winning the toss and electing to bat. Olive told him the usual genleman’s agreement was that both sides should agree to face 60 overs each so as to try and achieve a result. The Souths captain replied: ‘’But, we can bat all day if we want?’’ ‘’But why would you want to do that?’’ Olive replied. It was immediately apparent that this was going to be a rather interesting day.
So, 78 overs, about 15 turned down LBW appeals and 231 runs later, Souths were back in the pavilion. 14yo Cam Hawkins produced a Shane Warne style performance of leg spin guile, finishing with 2-43 off 15 overs and often making the Souths’ batsmen look like rabbits. Steve Green finished with 2-7 off six overs and yours truly got 1-10 off four overs and showed Olive that had he bowled me much earlier than number nine we might have dismissed them for far less!!!
We were left with just 42 overs to chase the target. Showing the error of his ways, Olive then ordered me to open the batting with Ben Fessey! It didn’t help. There was a procession of wickets but Olive was still there and was batting like a man inspired. His was a true skipper’s knock. He smashed the ball all over the park in a slick display of batting. He only had to touch the ball with his bat and it ended up flying past the boundary rope. While he was at the crease SUCC were a real chance of pulling off a miraculous victory. Unfortunately when he fell for a brilliant 69 with the score 116 it was then a matter of survival. Hawkins and Lerade did a great job to hang around for 16 overs and the match was just about saved. Mind you, Souths did their very best to make things difficult, with one bowler resorting to trying to Mankad young Cam twice in successive balls. He could not be convinced that the Mankad was outlawed many years ago. We must make special mention to Cam Hawkins’ father who umpired for a good portion of our innings. We have nicknamed him Noddy because of the number of times he nodded his head in denial to their boring LBW appeals which came at a rate of about one every four balls.
Not content with having ruined a good game, Souths refused to come off the field at the end of the game, claiming there was still one over left for them to claim the last two wickets. They eventually came off and checked, double checked and triple checked the scorebook. While the checking was going on one Souths whiner, convinced we were wrong with the overs, attempted to insult our fine establishment with the comment ‘’this is Sydney University, you should be able to count’’. He was rather sheepish when he had to concede the overs recorded were indeed correct. The suggestion that playing cricket at St Paul’s would be the only time he would see the inside of a university did not go down too well. He had no comeback! However, had he checked our scorebook and added up the overs via the bowlers, he would have discovered we were indeed wrong…we had, in fact, bowled 43 overs – one more than we should have!!!!
After my interesting day I was greeted with the news that Olive had ordered me to do the match report after Jumpin Jack Lerade decided to leg it straight after the match despite being rostered to do the match report. Olive’s last words to me were to make it funny.
I’ve put one over Olive. It pays to have a father who is a journalist, so this report, and having some fun at Olive’s expense, came very easy.
Dave Gatt on behalf of Jack Lerade
Sydney University C & S V Barker Old Boys
Played at the beautiful Rosewood Oval as Barker, Sydney Uni got out on the park for the first time in 3 weeks against Barker Old Boys. Bolstered by two boys from the 5/6th grade squad and the youngest players ever to play for the team in Haiden Connor, uni lost the toss and was sent into a field of lush, green grass but framed by the dark clouds of impending rain, which of course hit us around 6 overs and kept up until we came off the field after the 11th.
Jon Souter and Chris Hudson opened the bowling and were rewarded witha still dry ball and two quick wickets. The rain brought Max Bonnell into the game who with his 2nd ball took the off stump of the 3rd Barker bats. A rain delay (and a reduction in overs to 30 per side - no stinking Duckworth-Lewis system for us) changed the fortunes of Barker and they went through the next 19 overs thumping sixes (including 2 lost balls) to reach a total 4/196, with Bonnell and Hudson the best of our bowlers with a greasy ball. Apologies from your correspondent to Max Bonnell for dropping a skied chance. I, like most cricketers blame a swirling wind, lack of visibility, getting lost in the crowd, lights, trees, flight path of a low flying Singapore Airlines Airbus A308 bound for Changi or the blind spot etc
Uni opened with Srin Vasista (playing his first game in 2 years) and Nick Fitzgerald who started us off well, with Nick adjudged LBW for 28, John le Couteur continued with good season form with a quick 19 before Srin was joined by Will Shirvington who pounded 53 from a smany balls, Srin also notched up his 50 finishing with 58 before a swashbuckling 18 from the prince of tonk, Rob Manning put us in the hunt, from the 16 over we needed 11 runs per over which we achieved with regularity. However, we fell just short, needing 12 runs from the final two balls, which our skip Jon Souter attempted to deliver, going down with the sinking ship, but a mighty, mighty effort from uni to get so close in a good game of cricket.
Many thanks to Max Bonnell and Greg Aird who umpired the whole event, sorry lads!