SUCC v Parramatta . SUCC Metro v Norths
1st grade | 2nd grade | 3rd grade | 4th grade | 5th grade | 6th grade
| PGs | City & Suburban
The last round of Season 2008/09 – ‘Part One’ saw the Dents travel away to Parramatta in a bid to claim some much-needed points and book a place in the limited overs semi-finals. The venue: the ‘best ground in Sydney grade cricket’, Old Kings Oval. You can’t really ask for more when you get a Melbourne grade cricket outfield and a Brisbane grade wicket and square. The Parramatta ground staff can surely take a bow.
Ok, Nash was a lop-sided affair with excessive ‘panic-button’ pushing by the bowlers to go with poor transition speed, although it did appear that the batters appreciated Junk’s absence. Nicko ‘lurker’ Larkin was unfortunately ruled out with a troublesome knee prior to the start of play but I can confirm that Nashball contributed no part towards this.
Stand-in skipper Ian ‘the backstabber’ Moran lost a good toss to lose, for his new ball efforts were soon earning good lift and zip from the atypical strip. He grabbed an early pole just as Eddie ‘Poodle’ Cowan’s right pectoral muscle was beginning to darken. Canoe-paddlers 1/10. The supporting quicks bowled some clever deliveries and collected a few maidens. But it was the off-spin combination of Greg ‘line in the sand’ Matthews (0/27 from 10) and the brooding Mitch Cook (1/25 from 10) that succeeded in choking the run-rate and prevented what looked potentially to be a 200+ score. At 5/131 and their top scoring opener trudging off, it was really only the No.7’s streaky 41 from 36 balls that enabled Parramatta to reach 7/194 from their 50 overs. Moran Attias’ 4/35 from 10 was well deserved. ‘Cheers’.
The right-hand duo of the recently out-of-favour Moran (34 off 64 balls) and Benny ‘Old Travis’ Larkin (70 off 93 balls) treated the new ball with both respect and intent. The refreshing Larkin is in town and is continuing his fine form from both the Hawks game and the 2008 Cricket Australia Australian University Championships proudly supported by Australian University Sport and the Australian Sports Commission. He certainly earned his ‘bath’ today. Will…. Haaayyyyy laced 51 off 60 balls, the lovesick No. 4 proving that keeping a diary really does help you remember to watch the ball. However, he was clearly rattled after being called a %&$#@, %&$#@, %&$#@ing %&$#@ by the Parramatta spearhead bowler and so allowed Nick ‘now on the Rexona scholarship- PS.’ Dunford to blast our winning run to a mid-on misfield. We had reached 6/195 from 47.3 overs to claim six points, but in the end we needed seven to make the semis and will unfortunately be edged out on quotient this time. A somewhat disappointing piece of news for an improving team with winning momentum, and in what was otherwise a fantastic round for the club.
The Parrot
Report by Marty Paskal
2nd Grade Vs Parramatta
The 2nd grade boys turned up to No. 1 on a hot and sticky morning keen to continue their impressive form from the previous weeks double bonus point win. With Parramatta languishing in the lower half of the table hopes were high for a positive result.
Electing to bat on an uncharacteristically flat track at No. 1, Richie “off the mark in Australia after a few months” Berrington got the units off to a positive start, with a quick fire 46, along with some solid support from Josh “25 km’s” Ryan.
The following partnership between “25 km’s” and Adam “Inzie” Theobald blew Parramatta out of the water. The pair dominated the bowling attack putting on an almost double century stand with both finishing the innings having passed the hallowed triple figures. The pair supported each other well as “Inzie” dominated whilst “25 km’s” accumulated from the other end.
On the back of this dominant partnership the units set a formidable target of 303 for the Parramatta boys. A bonus point or two could well be on offer.
Parramattas batsmen never looked up to the task of chasing the imposing total as were vexed by the units bowling throughout, leaving straight one’s on off stump. Tom “man cans” Kierath was the pick of the bowlers as he finished off their line up early in the afternoon, leaving Parramatta crushed on 85 all out.
This performance was a clinical, dominating one as the units claimed double bonus points for the second consecutive week. After sitting in 9th a few rounds before the Christmas break, this hot run of form has thrown the team right up in the mix to be looking for a top four finish. Hopefully this form and dominance continues after the Chrissy break and the team and have a successful finish to the season.
Report by Nigel Cowell
Sydney Uni 5/218 (L. Robertson 61, S. Sivapalan 49, J. Crowley 26, M. Hackett 26) bt.
Parramatta 7/217 (S. Mclean 2/26, S. Keshar 2/41, M. Hackett 2/36)
The Uni boys arrived at Merrylands eager to end the calendar year in first place remaining undefeated before the holiday break. The days proceedings began with the customary game of Nash with the very young, handsome youngsters taking on the elderly, time ravaged faces of the oldies including the recruit of Stu ‘Mush for brains’ Mclean and Mark ‘Thorpy’ Hackett. A closely fought battle ensued with a miniature-sized ball provided by Charlie ‘and the chocolate factory’ Cull. A free kick from the youngsters found the back of the net before the oldies came back to steal it at the end thanks to some inspired goalkeeping from Huw ‘oxidisation’ McKay. Special mention goes to Chris ‘slower ball’ Dan for being the worst on ground.
Dave ‘the director’ Jessep won the toss and elected to bowl following the news that James ‘The Bad Egg’ Walsh was required to head back to Uni No. 1 with the wheels of Chris ‘I have to pick my brother up from the airport’ Dan.
Parramatta made an aggressive yet somewhat fortuitous start with their much too eager captain, closely resembling our fourth grade skipper ‘the snow leopard’ scoring well whilst attracting some open words of advice from Mark ‘The poorest of chat’ Hackett. Parramatta surged to 0/90 after 17 overs before Stu ‘The Professional Marliner’ Mclean entered the stage to pick up two cheeky wickets in a spell complete with discipline lines and plentiful in-swinging arm balls to finish with 2/26 off his 10. Shashi ‘the Sherpa’ Keshar made a strong debut for Sydney Uni picking up 2/41 from his 10 with his leg breaks that were doing just enough. Mark ‘A Professional Marliner is a Deep Sea Fisherman’ Hackett finished with 2/36 off 7 overs, taking two wickets with his final two deliveries after copping some early punishment.
218 was the target as Mark ‘I open the bowling and batting’ Hackett and Suda “the two game veteran’ Sivapalan making a solid yet slowish start before Thorpy fell for 26 (68). Enter Liam ‘the natural Redhead’ Robertson who proceeded to combine well with Suda in a well balanced partnership of 87 before Suda was Run Out for a well made 49 (86) and ‘Robo’ out for 61 (45).
Huw ‘Comb-over’ McKay and James ‘Stu McLean’s partner in marlining crime’ Crowley kept Senior Suda ticking the scoreboard over at the asking rate before ‘The Economist’ was adjudged LBW from underneath the umpire’s nose. ‘Slinky’ and Dave ‘I should’ve told them to go for the double bonus point’ Jessep steered the Uni boys towards the target with smart running and disciplined stroke play before ‘Jimmy’ fell for 26 (23) with 6 runs remaining. The Skipper hit the winning runs to finish 18 n.o. (14) to keep the students at the top of the table and undefeated prior to the festive season; an early Christmas present indeed.
Special mention goes to Stu Mclean for confirming to the world throughout the day that there is nothing within his head except his head except stagnant mush.
Report by Liam on behalf of Chris Dan.
200, Parra made 135 in reply. 1 BONUS POINT
The 4s arrived at Number 2 Oval under numerous clouds, the first being the imminent weather, another being the changing nature of selections as Saturday approached, and the third a tinge of disappointment following a devastating loss to Norths the previous week. Following the late arrival of Nolan ‘My kit’s arrival at any cricket ground precedes my own entrance’ Matthews, the day’s proceedings begun as follows:
The somewhat random collation of soccer, aussie rules and rugby in the form of Nash was summed up as ‘shit standard’ by Smash ‘I don’t sleep before cricket’ Cowan. To make matters worse, the bottom six managed to win convincingly. The game’s only high(low)lights were Ed ‘we don’t play this in England’ Freeman’s inability to adjust to the demands of this unusual sport, and Dougal ‘Blood Drawing’ Robinson inflicting another, though less serious injury to Dan ‘well of course its f%*king bleeding’ Bragg, than the scar(s) still paraded by the Pale Whale.
As the 4s then moved towards some cricket-related activities, we learned of N.Larkin’s injury, and the subsequent drama on Parramatta Road. This unique 9.30-10am relay race involved notable SUCCers such as Butch and the Egg, while the 4s lost Ed Freeman to the golden west, and welcomed the arrival of Jack ‘I look like this guy called Pedro who used to play at SUCC’ Hill.
Matt ‘Pale Whale’ Skinner approached the square in a manner so athletic that it could only be matched by his fielding later in the day, before winning the toss and electing to bat. Pete ‘looking for a job with customs’ Jordan’s use of his left pad to stop the ball hitting middle stump allowed the umpire to determine that his batting Visa would not last past the first over. This particular umpire was keen to make his presence felt, the old man informing Skins upon his arrival 10 minutes before play begun that ‘if you were with a bird as beautiful as the one that I was just with, you’d understand why I’m late’. Pity he wasn’t in attendance at the post-match fines to help out an atrocious week on the circuit, in which the vast majority of players contributed 100 cents to the kitty at the very outset of the meeting.
Following this, we were in trouble with the relatively cheap dismissals of the scribe, Cowan and Aaron ‘back foot punches’ Hickey. As Dan ‘Upper Cuts’ Bragg and the Pale Whale (25) were dismissed having showed good form, the side looked to be in real trouble, crumbling to 7-90. However, great batting from debutant Jack ‘Yellow Hair’ Hill (40) and Jim ‘humidity suits me’ Kazaglis (29) saw a good rescue job. Kazaglis’ departure brought to the crease Nolan ‘Kevin Pietersen’ Matthews (29), who brought out numerous of the English skipper’s trademarks – Woodworm bat, sweep shots and most notably the skunk hairdo. Eventually, thanks largely to these three players, we were all out for an even 200 in the 45th over.
Lunch was more festive than usual - the 4ths break timed perfectly with the twin tons of Rig and Theo on Uni 1 in the 2s. Bowling began well with Josh Lawrence and Kazaglis teaming up well with the new rock, keeping the runs down and each picking up some poles along the way. From this point, it was all about keeping on the pressure. Nolan ‘Gold Coast toolie’ Matthews’ bowling practice during the week helped him stand out, taking 3-34 off his 10 consecutive overs.
The bowlers did well all afternoon, creating more than enough chances to bowl out Parra for under 100. Aaron ‘I have taken 0 from 5 chances this year in 4s’ Hickey managed to drop, and then later hold a slips catch, as well as bowling well too. Bowling honours went to Jim Kazaglis with his 4-28, while Peacock and Bragg kept the side upbeat in the field.
The fines meeting was poor. Hill’s lack of SUCC experience meant that he was absent, while little cash made the journey from wallet to kitty. The meeting was punctuated only by a vigorous argument between Ben ‘200 cents first up for 2 years’ Peacock and Aaron ‘how could you do that’ Hickey, over their polar opposite approaches to females. In the end it was a hard fought win for the good guys, getting our season back on track with how many bonus points? 1, as well as seeing the club take the outright lead in the Club Championship.
Report by Dougal Robinson
Uni 8-259 A.J Grant 75, M.Barwick 43, J.Hammond 37, W.Shirvington 27 not out
Parra 156 G.Metcalfe 4-62, J.Rodgers 2-9, L.Truashiem 2-22.
In this game there was...
Lots of shit talked...Hale
there were also lots of...
#runs scored...AJ 75 off 63 balls, Jack Hammond 37 on debut, and 'Sports Guy' Barwick 43 invaluable runs as we cruised to 1-177 at one stage.
#sixes hit...AJ 2, Shirvo 2, Burke 1(his only scoring shot) Hale 0
#catches taken...Barwick 3, Momsen 2, Hale 0
#wides bowled...54 by both sides, 18 by Metro
#wickets taken...4 by Metro, 2 by debutant Truashiem, 2 by seasoned campaigner Rodgers
#late comers...Hale twice
#competition points...7 to us to put us in the top 6 going into Christmas.
Report by James Rodgers.
Match Report - Metro Cup
SUCC vs North Sydney 20/12/08
Match won by North Sydney
Undaunted by a greenish wicket Paul Bertelle won the toss and the uni boys batted first. Although the opening pair of Steve Green and Srin Vasista handled a moving ball well, a disastrous mix up led to an early wicket and Vasista was run out. Runs were coming as Bertelle hit well around the ground before he was trapped in front of the stumps, perhaps a little unlucky as the ball struck him well above the pad. Whilst the runs were coming, wickets fell too and intermittent rain did not make life easier, especially for Jack Lerade who was in serious need of new spikes. By some genetic miracle, a common shoe size with Srin made all the difference for him on a slippery wicket. Some not so serious but seriously effective hitting by James Munday ramped up the prospective total and contributions from the tail resulted in a final total of 130. It was short of a par score but still defendable.
The SUCC bowling attack started strong with Jono Brayshaw making life difficult for the Norths batsmen by swinging the ball. After picking up a couple of early wickets, Norths were in a similar position to Sydney Uni. However, the Norths’ talkative left handed wicket keeper batsmen looked solid and turned the match in Norths’ favour. The same couldn’t be said about his partner who made playing and missing an interesting new dramatic artform that would belong in the MCA at Circular Quay or better still the Guggenheim in New York. Somehow all the Uni boys got the impression that he took life quite seriously and found it hard to roll with taunts coming from the cordon. His spontaneous flare ups in conjunction with his inability to hit the ball made it a vicious closed loop for him and one can only offer him the advice to contemplate the question posed by the late Heath Ledger’s Joker in the Dark Knight - “Why so seriousss??” Eventually he was dismissed and another spell of rain followed. Unfortunately the efforts of the fielders and bowlers Munday, Alex Mihalyka, Bertelle and Brayshaw (who picked up a five wicket haul) wasn’t enough to defend the total and Norths got there with 3 wickets in hand and 11 overs to spare.
The Metro cup squad left St. Andrews a little disappointed and with a sore hand courtesy of a painful hand shake by none other than the much loved Norths’ star batsman. Not the best way to head into the Christmas break and the SUCC Metro Cup squad will be looking to turn their performance around in the New Year.
Report by Srin Vasista
On the final day of cricket prior to a visit from St Nick (with no doubt a few of the younger guys in the squad well and truly excited) the uni young guns were shaping up against a handy Sydney XI. A late injury to Nick Larkin saw the inform Robbo drafted into the team, and a shuffle to the line up, putting captain Cook up to open the stick.
The day started well for the batsman with a comfortable nash victory swiftly followed by a win of the toss and a subsequent chance at first use of a good uni 1 deck. It started well for Uni with Cook and Larkin keeping the score ticking over in the first ten overs, before Stew Griffin copped a jaffa and was on his way back to the sheds for an entertaining 26.
This bought inform keeper/batsman (or possibly batsman/keeper?) Matt ‘scubar’ Morgan to the crease. He immediately made his presence at the crease felt dispatching anything of width and keeping uni in the hunt for a big total. In between blazes of brilliance from Morg’s, the skipper was fighting hard at the other end, earning every run.
Morg’s went on to slam a majestic 105, which was in fact his first ton, and appropriately was fined the maximum 20c when his own mother came up with sledge of the day – “about time”. Cookie worked his way into his best form seen yet with the bat grinding and grafting (with some brilliance mixed in) to 84, a true captains knock. The tail wagged unselfishly for the units and a very respectable 6 for 270 was posted.
While the boys had been toilng hard with the bat the rest of the club had found its way to the Nag’s Head for a few quenching Christmas ales, before making the trek down to Uni 1 for a well lubricated afternoon of support.
Sydney got off to a solid start with the bat, but never managed to get away from the uni boys, with the likes of Lazy, JT and Nigel squeezing every drop of effort of their bodies prior to the 3 week break. While largely rewardless the pressure was built, and by the time Cookie and the ever present Stew Mclean came on the wickets began to fall at a steady rate. 3 poles to Leunig and 2 to Cookie (in what was a fine all round effort), to go along with a great display of out-fielding from all the boys saw the wickets going down at a rate only matched by the beers on the hill.
In the end Sydney capitulated for a meagre 181. A brilliant all round effort from the team involved and a great way to go into the Chrissy break. Many thanks for all the support from the Christmas party attendies and to Geoff and Mrs Morgan for there tireless work to keep the hungry players and crowd fed.
The story so far, PG’s 3 from 4 with momentum building.
Report by Ben Larkin
After another washout ay Uni, we were greeted with a cold and wet day at St Ives as we faced off against Old Syds for our final game before the xmas break.
Sam "intensity" Al-Maliki took the reigns of Uni for the first time and took up the charge with the 'intensity' required of a successful skipper. We generously gifted Old Syds with 3 of the dads of the team (including Phil Logan!) and with the teams at 10 a piece, Sam offered Old Syd's the chance to bat first.
Travis McKenna opened the bowling and paid immediate dividends with early wickets on a skidding pitch finishing with the great figures of 4/16 from 7 overs. His efforts were supported with wickets to the skip, Jarred Waterlou, Greg Aird and Cam Hawkins with a nice cameo of 2/7 from 4 inciting the comment from one of the loaned uni players batting for Old Syds "I had no idea what that was doing".
Respectability was brought to the score by 34 and 21 from messers Waterlou and Hawkins lifting Old Syds to 9/130.
Faraz and Alex Logan opened the batting and began to club the Old Syd's bowling attack into submission, with Alex stumped on 47 before John LeCouteur, Faraz and Zac Roberts finished the job, with John retiring on 24, Faraz retiring on 46 and Zac not out on 17. Uni finished the day at 1/132, overall a big win.
Congrats to Sam for his intensity as skip and on a maiden win as skipper of the uni team. You are welcome to skip again Sam (especially after the three over spell!)
PS: your correspondent actually bowled this week and finished with 0/12 off three overs, a dropped catch and catch dropped off his own bowling. Won't see the likes of that for another 18 months