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Day 1
With the finals upon us, naturally with the adrenalin flowing and some nerves more tightly strung that usual you would expect to see some finals nash ball. Unfortunately, in what is becoming a worrying trend in first grade, the bowlers failed to show any real skill or commitment to finals football, and subsequently went down convincingly, in what some would describe as a nash non event.
The man with the second thinnest legs in the team (watch out, all reports indicate stuey has been smashing up the seated calf raise in a late attempt to save cash) strode to the middle and did us all a favour and won the toss and bowled on a lively Waverly deck. After hurtful memories of being bowled out for 108 vs easts a few weeks earlier after being sent in, the day was off to a good start.
After Russel Arnold smoked Sarf for a glorious cover drive in the first over, you could have been mistaken thinking it could be a long day for the boys in the blue and gold. However it didn’t take long for Moran to exploit the seeming deck, taking a wicket in the second over. The whole bowling performance was one of skill execution and great bowling from the three frontline quicks and our not so medium pacer, Mail. In a brilliant display of bowling, gerg took 5-15 and tore through the Sydney batting line up. I have no doubt that it was the attendance of his long lost brother, the father of Dave Miller, that spurred him on to bowl as well as he did. It must have been a proud moment for gerg to see his nephew under the lid and his brother up on the hill. Mentions to Sarf (3/35) and Scotty (2/27). It is encouraging to see that although they suck at nash, there still something for the bowlers to be proud of in a great bowling performance, well done bowlers, bowling Sydney out for 108 (note: batsmen take 7 out of 10 wickets).
On a deck that was still doing a bit, Gerg and Poodle made opening look easy, getting us off to a solid start. With a wonderful new edition to the squad, no thanks to an overstimulated morgs, it looked like it could have been a long day of getting the old ear nibbled off. Gerg did “I know have a shadow” Hayzer a favour and nicked off, only to see hayzer get a great rock early on. Moran looked the goods before being bowled by an Arnold Yorker. Eddie batted brilliantly for 79. At the end of the days play Funk Miller and Stuey had nurdled us over the line for a first innings win.
Day 2
Even Pete Sanders turned out to spur the bowlers on after word spread of their horrible performance on day 1. Even with the overlap and the injection of the SUCC founder of nash into their squad, the bowlers couldn’t even muster a challenge. Crisis talks are to be held at training this Wednesday for bowlers about how to turn their nash season around. All bowlers be there 7pm sharp. Rumblings among the batsmen are that this is a positive move, as they are no longer even getting a warm up out of the game.
After looking good early, the dismissal of Larkin brought a collapse of 4-1. What was to follow was one of the funnier on field incidents of the year. To do it any justice a timeline must be established.
11:33, Stuart Clarke dismissed by a well directed short ball.
2 minutes post Clarke dismissal; Marty Paskal is seen sluggishly leaving the SUCC change rooms, shirt out, bat, helmet and gloves all in hand.
4 minutes post Clarke dismissal; the baby giraffe undresses himself only 15 metres past the gate. Thigh pads all readjusted, draw string tightened, shoulder hair slicked back, and it would appear he is ready to go.
5 minutes post Clarke dismissal; hector chats to Funk level with the bowler’s stumps, goes through a full hamstring stretching routine.
6 minutes post Clarke dismissal; an appeal for time out is lodged from an unpopular character at cover. Umpires converge, Hector oblivious to the situation launches into a yet another stretching routine, this time it’s his quads.
7 minutes post dismissal; appeal taken back by a reluctant Moss at second slip. Bowler walks back to mark and prepares to deliver. As he reaches the top of his mark hector launches into his third and final stretching routine at deep square leg, this time his groin.
8 minutes post dismissal, ball is finally delivered, inside edge narrowly misses leg stump, no run. Play resumes.
Although looking the goods after a lengthy mental and physical preparation, Hec was soon bounced out. Scach provided some resistance before succumbing to a good slower ball, whilst Dave Miller batted well for 20 not out.
After being bowled out for 212, Sydney had a brief bat before calling the game off at lunch. In what was a convincing win we now go on to play Penrith at home in what should be a great semi final.
Qualifying Final vs. Sutherland at Glenn McGrath Oval
Day 1
The business end of the season arrives and suddenly council groundsmen have trouble covering the wicket square – anyone smell a rat?! With the wicket bone dry and hard and the other side of the square looking like the hot springs of Rotarua, the opposition dash off to Kennard’s to hire heaters to dry the square. The dash only took 2 hours – the equivalent of making Usain Bolt look like Kev – very “spirit of cricket”.
In the meantime Nashball saw the bowlers taking on the batsmen with the batsmen more concerned with preserving energy than scoring points.
Captain courageous won the toss and decided to bat. So we sat down and waited for the heaters to arrive. And waited. Dunford showed that with too much time on his hands he is adept at marlining himself – a notable skill. The heaters finally arrived and another game of Nash with the same result. After an hour or so of artificial heating the ground was deemed worthy of play and Griffo and the Boar strode out to face the music.
The new ball was swinging both ways and nipping around especially off the ridges at both ends. Rig got a good one early, Nick “Rig’s marlin bitch” Larkin played a forgettable stroke and the Big Ship nicked one to have us in trouble at 3 for 40. Faraday and Butch steadied the ship with a 45 run partnership in which Fara’s showed a consistent ability to count to 5. Alf became the first victim of the ridge when he got an unplayable searing delivery and the Merchant of Mumbai edged a jaffa to have us struggling at 5 for 103.
Enter Tom “Tom Tom” Kierath who proceeded to play with controlled aggression and got the score ticking over. TK made batting look easier than anyone else had all day. Together with the old man they added 85 for the 6th wicket and saw the Students reach 5 for 182 from 62 overs at stumps and in a solid position to launch an attack early on day 2.
Day 2
Another sunny day. The batsmen knew there was no need to conserve energy today in Nash ball so accordingly smoked the bowlers who, despite needing to both bat and bowl, still ran around like headless chooks but came up short. McLovin’ made up every excuse in the book for the inept performance and still didn’t get that it was all part of the batsmen’s grand plan. No one ever accused a bowler of being too smart.
The first three balls showed that it was going to be a very difficult day to bat. Ball 1 kept low, ball 2 kicked off the ridge and ball 3 kept low. Butch departed early chasing quick runs caught at deep cover and TK soon after bringing up his half century in a similar vein. Nick Dunford’s new found confidence with the bat has been impressive in recent weeks. Equally impressive was his ability to shrug off playing and missing at 3 balls in a row and then belting the next one for a boundary – every over! Nick combined with “Yeah Yeah” Toyer for a crucial 24 run last wicket partnership which saw us get to 245.
With 90 overs to bowl the Minor Premiers out the Students knew that it would require a big effort from everyone to get the points. Wickets fell steadily throughout the day and both teams were always in the contest.
While the frontline bowlers made the initial inroads, with Dunford taking the big wicket of Dudman, it was the big Rig who changed the game. He bowled 9 overs of quality aggressive medium pace to pick up 2 huge wickets of batsmen who were set. He got in the batsmen’s faces and produced what may be the ball of the season – an off cutter which hit the top of middle stump (by now the ball will have likely swung out a foot before pitching). The captain took a superb diving leg side catch which started the rot.
At 7 for 192 we were in the box seat but their number 9 batted particularly well farming the strike and we didn’t get many balls at the bunnies. That was until TK took the ball for the second last over. The number 11 had only seen the quicks for his stay and so Tom fired one in that straightened and kept low to hit the unsuspecting batsman in front. With a huge prolonged appeal the umpire finally gave him out Steve Bucknor style and the rest as they say is history.
A gutsy win to the good guys and one that we can really build on in the semi this week.
Sydney Uni 283 def Easts 124
Syd Uni Batting: David Jessup 100, Tim Harrington 52, Michael Culkoff 26.
Syd Uni Bowling: Nigel Cowell 5/48, BJ Smith 3/32 Michael Culkoff 2/24.
Playing at Uni 1. in a qualifying semi was a great moment for this 3rd grade side who where all looking of taking advantage of such a great occasion and book ourselves into the semi’s still holding on to the number one top rank spot.
Day 1
Nash:
To put Nash in one word, I believe annihilation is most fitting. With
6 a side a rarity in the oldies vs. young’uns weekly clash the young
pups adjusted first and a swift early move put them in front. The
oldies soon leveled the scores at 1-1 before all hell broke loose with
the final score lingering around the 8 or 9-1 margin with the youths
running riot on their older masters. It seems the oldies may have to
invest in some newer models of walking frames if they want any chance.
The youths now have solid tactics which take full advantage of Nigel
‘glow worm’ Cowell in set plays (surely a contender for Hayza’s A team
for social Nash).
Cricket:
Director Dave was somehow able to put the Nash loss at the back of his mind and after winning the toss decided to have a bat. Suda ‘ I like my bats to way 8 punds’ and ‘Bad Chat’ Hacket strode out to the crease looking to give us a good start, which they proceeded to do. Suda was unlucky with one that popped up to short leg and this brought out Troy‘Quiz Master’ Stanely to the crease. With the opening bowlers putting the ball is great areas and moving it around at pace these guys did a great job staying it out there and gutsing it out. After seeing out most of the first session these two departed which left us at 3-55.
Enter Tim ’23 balls in 2 overs’ Harrington and the Director to the
crease. After early plays and misses the ball seemed to stop moving us much towards the end of the first session and after one of the bigger blow ups from their opening bowler for being taken off (must be getting ready for footy) we where now into the change bowlers which and began taking charge, playing each ball on their merits.
Post lunch we saw some great strokes from Harrow and Dave had begun
dispatching the bad balls for maximums. After reaching his 50 Harrow
departed, bringing in Cramps Culkoff, hoping not to be cramped out
again against Easts for the second time in 3 weeks. Culks and Dave
batted superbly putting on 70 (5-207) before Culks used his elbow to
hit the ball which trickled back on to the stumps. This did not halt
Dave who continued his fine knock, bring up his 100 with a dash over
mid-off from their offy. A few balls later he tried the same from their leggy but a bit extra bounce found a top edge and was caught. Unfortunately Crowley and Sanjiv ‘Nigel look alike and emu’ fell soon and we where 8-227. Some hard battling from BJ, Stu ‘guns’ McLean and Nigel and a phenomenal spread at tea allowed all three to contribute 60 between them bring the score to 283 with 15 overs left in the match.
With the talent in the opposition batting line we thought this may be around par and a good bowling/fielding performance would get us through.
With 15 overs in the day we hoped to snare a few early wickets.
‘Wizard’ Smith started us off perfectly trapping their opener in
Front with no shot offered. Not long after Nigel snared the prize
Wicket of their experienced captain in a brilliant display of bowling
and well caught by Crowls ‘I miss Liam Robbo because no one falls for
my marlins anymore’. After being 2 for not money Warner and Pegs
batted well despite good bowling until the last over of the day when
Culks got one to rise and found the edge of Pegs leaving them 3-53
over night.
Day 2 (9:30 – 12:18)
Nash:
The oldies did not have long to recover from the embarrassing loss the previous day and clearly the physiological scars where too great let alone the physical aspect. The young ones got an early point and where is arrogance mode, attempting to go for tough 4 pointers instead of taking the easy points on offer in the early minutes. Despite the score only having 3 points in them the young ones had too much skill in their ball in hand, free flowing Nash style – maybe 7 vs 5 might be fairer next week? Player of the Weekend – N. Cowell.
Cricket:
There was a definite buzz in the dressing room before walking out to
the ground – was it that we where enjoying No. 1? The fact we may book
ourselves into the semi’s? The Wesley informal was only 3 days away?
No, Quiz Master Troy ‘Buzz’ Stanley was readying the SMH quiz 5
minutes before going out to field with all getting involved including
the umpires. Unfortunately we only had time to do half the quiz. At
3-53 overnight we thought a few quick wickets would get us on our way
which Nigel ‘skinny’s’ Cowell leading the way. Some confident BJ
appealing got us our first wicket off a Cowell bouncer which BJ
confirmed definitely hit glove or bat or something and the umpire
agreed. Cowell then got Warner to edge one to Harrow at third slip who
had been watching to much Ronaldihno on Youtube and chipped the ball
off his ankle to the awaiting Suda and second slip. 5-71. Nigel then
finally got his stock ball working for the first time of the day in
bowling their lefty and not long after claimed his 5th wicket of the
innings. With the game almost clinched enter BJ and Culks who rapped
up the tail in good time which including some clinical catching by
Suda in the slips of BJ.
After a morning of 2 broken bails, some horrendous chat from Hacket,
Great bowling from our 3 seamers, 7 wickets and around 82 minutes of
Hard work we had secured a spot in the semis. Back to the sheds to
Sing a team song, or so we all thought. As soon as we where in the
sheds Quiz Master Stanley got straight back to where we left off.
After another 10 questions – which confirmed to me BJ knows too much rubbish – we sung the song and post celebrations we where off to watch fellow Units around the grounds.
Sydney Uni v Western Suburbs
Pratten Park
21/22 March 2009
Day 1
The Students arrived keen and eager at Pratten Park looking to continue the defence of their crown. After a tightly fought contest of handball (as no nashball available) in which caps lost out to no caps, the Students were accused of copying the hosts training drill, even though the fielding run through is a standard exercise any good coach would employ.
Shervo strode out to the road in the middle of the oval to see if the units could have first use, especially after hearing horror stories of previous 2nd innings at Pratten. On winning the crucial decision, Wests had no hesitation in batting first and Uni continued their fielding drills in preparation.
With a full strength bowling line up comprising Ben “Fastest in 6th grade” Joy and Jono “Deep Heat” Brayshaw leading the line, Uni felt confident of making early inroads. Early wickets did not fall as hoped but expert lines by both bowlers restricted the runs as Wests crawled along at barely a run per over at the 1st drinks break. Jono must have heard the taps being turned on, as he struck twice in the same over. However this was the end of the success as no chances came the Students way as lunch approached. But as before Wests were pegged back and only reached 60. This demonstrated the bowlers tight lines and backed up well in the field.
The lunch time BBQ seemed to fire the bowlers up as almost immediately Shirvo snuck one through gate as the opener played all round a “ripper” of a delivery, then the frog took a sharp reflex catch at shortish mid wicket of Jono. Then when Shirvo deceived another batsmen with his “spin” the Uni boys were in full control as Wests had struggled to 5-110 off 50 overs. However, then something must have been put in the afternoon drinks as nothing really happened for the 3 hours! Wests managed to accumulate another 130 runs and the Students had nothing, not even a spilled catch. J Shankar for Wests had batted since just after lunch and had amassed a crucial ton to put his side back in charge. For the students we managed to snare a late wicket which gave us hope as we ploughed on over after over as we racked up 102 for the day.
Positives for the 1st day was our disciplined bowling that never allowed Wests to get away from us, even when wickets did not fall and our enthusiasm in the field to carry on even though it was growing more apparent that Wests were playing to draw with the knowledge they had the better league position behind them and were in no rush to make this an even encounter.
Day 2
The Students arrived a little bit sore and battle scarred from the previous day in the field with Jono “Band aid” Brayshaw patched up leading the attack again with Ben “Its a” Joy. As all the bowlers were clocking up more overs we made 2 early break throughs before first drinks to give us hope of chasing a reasonable target. Again though the deceptively fine tasting cordial (perhaps pineapple) must have been spiked as we could not remove the now pedestrian scoring Shankar and numbers 10 and 11. Eventually the final 2 wickets fell, but not until 30 mins before lunch. This meant we had to chase a mammoth 316 over a minimum 72 overs on a pitch that to put it kindly was “showing signs of wear and tear”.
Things did not start well for the Students as we lost Barwick before lunch and only managed to scratch together 5 runs and then with Ruhnau falling straight after lunch it left a huge uphill struggle. Out strode Virosh to join Mikhlya and signs were good as the run rate started to climb slowly to 2 an over, but just as both were looking settled a change of blowing sent them both back to the hutch. Captain Will was joined by the frog and both seemed to be comfortable at the crease but found scoring difficult as pull shots were played with caution and ended up more as sweeps, and singles were rare due to the defensive field in place. With the required run rate climbing, more ambitious shots were the order of the day as the Students needed to win to go through. This however proved the downfall and Pentecost followed Shirvo and Green back to the pavilion after making starts. Wests' friend Metro was the next man in and was greeted warmly by the opposition, but unfortunately did not last long. Then out hobbled Ben “ow my quad, but then ran a 3 with ease” Fessey to join Brawshaw. Some glorious straight bat shots deserved more runs, but curiously the West's captain had opted for sweepers on the boundary as he got worried that the 250 more runs that the Students needed were clearly not enough! This almost started to become true as Ben “You should be opening for 3rd grade” Joy joined Brayshaw and they swash buckled their way to the best partnership of the innings of 36. The highlight of the partnership was Joy abusing their 8 year spinner by ruining his figures from 3 – 9 to 3 for 28 in 1 over after smashing 3 fours and a huge 6 much to the cheer of the grandstand.
However the late cameo only went partially towards saving some of Uni's blushes as we still got well and truly beaten by a team whose game plan was to not lose and executed this plan perfectly with the bat. Lessons can be learned for next season but overall it has been a pretty good season in defence of last years' title
Steve “The Frog” Green