SUCC v UNSW. C and S v Beavers. PG's v ND
1st grade | 2nd grade | 3rd grade | 4th grade | 5th grade | PGs | City & Suburban
1st Grade
SUCC 2/173 (dec) (Josh Ryan 97 Richie Berrington 55 and 3/194 (Dave Butchart 77*, Mark Faraday 52 Richie Berrington 28*) Defeated UNSW 167b (Marty Paskal 5/64) and 197 (Tim Ley 4/45 Josh Toyer 2/45) Outright
A cool and wet day met a young SUCC line-up looking for their fifth straight win. After mo issued tsunami warning at training during the week, the boys were all keen to get amongst it on day one.
Nash was an interesting yet somewhat predictable affair. After batsmen wrestled back the momentum prior the Christmas break, it was evident the bowlers had eaten far too much pudding over the festive season, as they struggled to keep up with the batsmen and regained none of their early season form. Not only did they lose, they were sore about it, only adding to the satisfaction of a comfortable win.
On a greener and bouncier deck than previously seen this year, ms Atias won the toss and elected to bowl. With scud available, and mail and Eddy both with state commitments, Atias proved that she is not only good looks. This paid off, with early wickets to Atias and scud. Scud terrorised a young kenso tech upper order, whilst mo instructed the boys in a valuable ‘how to get into a batsmen heads 1001’ class. After a tough start to the innings unsw was beginning to set the platform for a massive score, before mitch ‘swoon rat’ cook picked up the prized pole of Murray creed, giving mo a visible hard on in the team huddle. Two more well earned wicket to swooner and a fiery late spell from our big bash specialist saw unsw reeling at 9/210. However a flattening deck and some good batting saw the last wicket put on over 70, to leave kenso tech with a respectable 286. Mention to Scud finishing with 5/59, and cooky with 3/63
With 10 overs left in the days play stu griffin and cuddles hay were left with the task of seeing the boys to stumps without the loss of a wicket. Stu looked somewhat at sea early, possibly still thinking of how to best bring about an end to the world, yet cuddles played aggressively and carried on his pre Christmas form. At stumps Sydney uni 0/37. A good start in what could be a tough run chase.
Day 2
It looked like a bad omen to the day when it was sheepishly revealed before the scheduled start of nash that the ball had been left lurking in the SUCC animal house. After a few heated phone calls, a reluctant and clearly upset James Kevin Walsh was seen storming briefly in and out of the ground, not even bothering to send through any of his regards to the boys. After a good win weeks previous, the batsmen were clear favourites. Without scud, the bowlers were all at sea. After a 9 points to 1 trouncing the bowlers were left reeling, with mutiny and distrust evident amongst the ranks, Deef Miller even suggesting that he may improve his batting simply so he can be back with the batsmen. Mention to Seagull Larkin, who finally put a respectable game on the paddock, a big day for him I know.
Resuming at 0-37, Hay and Larkin ‘stu griffin’B set about chipping away at a formidable total. Cuddles set about blasting the attack early, whilst stu got into stride before lunch. At the end of the first session the units were 0-156, with both batsmen eyeing of their maiden first grade tons. The lunch break quickly brought the downfall of griffin, yet Hay barely missed a beat. Although visibly nervous throughout the late 80’s and 90’s, hay went on to make a well deserved and magnificent maiden century. With Mail at the crease, followed by Atias, the match was never in doubt, with both batsmen showing why they are some of the best in the state.
After cruising to victory, it was decided that the boys needed a roll. After hay saluted the crowd, including the empty hill, Hecta and Dunners set about causing some carnage. After two good spells from the openers, some rubbish part time spin, and a good spell from Mitch Cook, the day was finally called.
Highlights of the day must be Hayza’s beautiful innings, Mo enquiring as to why Hayza raised his bat to the hill when in fact, ‘there was not one cat on that hill’, and the satisfaction of crushing kenso tech.
After 5 wins on the trot, the tidal wave is building.
SUCC 2/173 (dec) (Josh Ryan 97 Richie Berrington 55 and 3/194 (Dave Butchart 77*, Mark Faraday 52 Richie Berrington 28*) Defeated UNSW 167b (Marty Paskal 5/64) and 197 (Tim Ley 4/45 Josh Toyer 2/45) Outright
Day 1
During the Christmas break Michael "suck my" Culkoff lost the teams' Gilbert so Nashball was henceforth played with the tea lady's pink netball (yes, we kicked it many, many times and we're sorry). The teams were formed on a city/country basis with the city rank and file hailing from Sydney, Mumbai and Thedinburgh. The match ended in a dour tie so the ever-thirsty country boys claimed the beers pursuant to the one-man-down rule.
D. Ward subsequently lost the toss and cleverly said to those within in earshot: "they're batting" whilst making a bus-driving motion with his hands. Hector, Plugger and Michael "suck my" Culkoff, who were not in not in close proximity to the Black Prince of Dural, assumed that he had in fact said "we're batting" and took it upon themselves to hit up for fifteen minutes and take a few slips catches as their warm up for bowling. Nice work.
Plugger took the new ball with Hec and he was feeling as light as a feather after themptying on Avalon Beach the previous evening (chalk another one up to the Mona). Plugger was noticeably more aerodynamic and flew miles across the crease umpteen times and took two wickets with no balls. One must be careful when conducting an exercise in ball depletion not to end up with no balls. In his early efforts Plugger also managed to thump one into one of the opening batsmen's fingers resulting in an early shower and a trip to hospital for him.
Despite Plugger's efforts, Hec was the man for the hour taking five classic wickets and landing several nasty blows on the helmets of the University of New South Wales top order batsmen. One such blow was struck with force enough for the ball to rebound to mid on. Ouch. True to form, Hec couldn't get through his spell at the bowling crease without an instance of entertaining verbiage (cue parrot). Upon being accused of running in the danger area in his follow through by the umpire, Hec summarily dismissed the allegation by telling the umpire to speak to Matthew Mott about it. Case dismissed!
In regards to our fielding innings which ended with Randwick TAFE being dismissed for 167, honourable mentions must also go to T.K. and Michael "suck my" Culkoff for each of their wickets and Rig, who is clearly still "just doing enough" in the gym, as evidenced by him tossing the ball five metres over D. Ward's head with both batsmen stranded at one end.
On the topic of Rig, the man's mountainous contribution to the weekend's proceedings cannot be skimmed over. Indeed, the ingrown hair on his thigh that he, at various stages, picked at, squeezed, displayed whilst parading in the nude and comparing it to his other less voluminous body parts, was as large as Kosciusko and far more grotesque. Seriously, it's massive, if you haven't seen it, take a ticket and get in line, an ingrown hair as juicy as this one is as rare as Halley's comet. Rig also scored a pretty decent 97 in the afternoon but I won't divulge too much because no doubt Rig will tell you about it if you missed the ad he took out in Monday's SMH.
Richie Berrington also knocked up a useful half century and the SUCCers have already claimed six points.
Outright points beckon next week.
M.F.
Day 2
It was old versus young when it came time for the customary game of nashball on Saturday morning. Led by the Methuselah, Dave “I’m gonna be the sorest man in Sydney on Sunday” Butchart, the Oldies took the points and the beers.
The Black Prince of Dural, who’s confidence has been bolstered by many hours of lapping Benson’s Lane in his new suit/root ute, was hawkish with his early tactics. He declared first thing on Saturday morning with a lead of only 7 runs so as to facilitate an outright result.
The bowlers immediately set about dismissing the demoralized and depleted UNSW line up that was missing two players due to injuries that had been inflicted on Day 1. In the lead up to lunch it appeared as though UNSW might not muster 100 runs but some resistance after the break saw them rack up 197. The pick of the bowlers was Timmy Ley who took 3 wickets plus another 2 with no-balls. Timmy was accordingly very cranky and his mood was shared by the balance of the bowlers (especially Tom Kierath who is, pound for pound, the angriest man in grade cricket) who were subjected to probably the poorest fielding display EVER in a 2nd grade match. Several simple catching opportunities slipped through buttered-up fingers and most fielders were guilty of playing tunnel ball at some stage. Probably the only highlight was Rig, sans his horrendous in-grown hair, effecting a simple run-out that was not dissimilar to the one that he butchered in the first innings. Rig, of course, is a noted fast learner, so much so that on last check Rig (2) was still tallying more university degrees than noted scholar Greg Mail (0). Rig, of course, is all about quantity and not quality.
So, the Sandstone Students were set a total of 192 to be scored in 23 overs for 10 points. After hitting the best shot of his career and possibly the best shot played in the first over of our batting innings, Rig was run out (too many weights and not enough speed work). Theo was surprisingly bowled shortly thereafter leaving Butch to do the majority of the scoring (77*). Butch was assisted during the run chase by Richie Berrington and your scribe and on Sunday, a wheelchair at the old peoples’ home due to the fact that he ran upwards of 20 twos during his fine hand.
The outright win was, of course, a great result that has usefully rocketed us up the points ladder to second place.
A battle of the titans beckons next week in our fixture against the first-placed Sutherland Sharks who will, no doubt, be reduced to hake chowder.
MF.
The Uni boys arrived at Uni 2 eager to continue their good form from the last calendar year and remain on top of the table. The day began with the customary game of Nash with the young guns taking on the elderly, time ravaged oldies. A one sided battle ensued with the youngsters finally managing to assert their authority with a comfortable victory.
With a terrific bowling side available Dave ‘the director’ Jessep won the toss and elected to bowl. Unfortunately for the Uni boys, Josh ‘Hector’ Toyer had forgotten his playing whites. With things going wrong early the Uni boys needed some luck and the umpires yet again failed to deliver with Nigel ‘the kid’ Cowell being very unlucky to not pick up a wicket early. The UNSW openers made a somewhat lucky start to 0-42 before, Chris ‘slower ball’ Dan dominated the batsmen with figures of 5-8.
Nigel ‘churchie’ Cowell continued to bowl well towards the end of the innings and finished up with figures of 3-34 to have the Uni boys needing to pass 115 with the bat to secure first innings points.
With just over half the days play gone the Uni boys began their assault on the UNSW bowlers. James ‘the worst Marliner’ Crowley was an early casualty which brought ‘Harro’ to the crease with Suda. The two combined well and took the score to 1-61 before Harro departed for a well made 39. A minor collapse followed with four Uni ducks leaving the score at 5-65. Then enter Josh Toyer who finished it off with the reliable Suda. The Uni boys cruised to 5-124 with Suda 46 n.o. before declaring with 8 overs remaining in the day.
Josh Toyer and Nigel Cowell once again made life hard for the UNSW batsmen and with luck this time on our side, UNSW were 2-11 at the close of play. With six points already grabbed by the Uni boys, outright points are there for the taking.
Day 2
The Uni boys came back the second day with high hopes of gaining the full 10 points. The day began well with Nigel Cowell grabbing himself some early wickets to put the Uni boys right on top. He was backed up by Mark “I open the batting and bowling” Hackett the new recruit for the week.
The middle order from UNSW showed some stubborn resistance with tremendous luck to gradually creep towards tea. However Stu ‘full of stagnant mush’ Mclean 2-36 and Shashi ‘the mountain climber’ Keshar 2-57 began to create the chances and eventually picked up 4 quick wickets between them. Nigel Cowell then returned to wrap the innings for 155 up with figures of 4-38.
The Uni boys then entered the crease to begin the run chase requiring 147 to win off 34 overs. The chase began steadily with James ‘egg’ Walsh playing well for his 26. With the pressure of an increasing required run rate the Uni boys began to loose wickets in search of quick runs. The Uni boys finished their innings 45 runs behind with three wickets in hand to just miss out on the full 10 points. Nevertheless the Uni boys remain 15 points clear at the top of the table.
SUCCers 8 for 335, dec. (Hackett 138, Cowan 65, Robinson 50, Stanley 33)
UNSW 65 (Stanley 8/22, Hackett 2/5) and 9/191 (Kazaglis 5/29, Stanley 2/35, Bragg 2/47)
I was awoken at a leisurely 10.15am and fixed myself a double espresso. Fresh aromatic grounds evocative of a strong Morroccan brew I had several years back, a viscous body with notes of cantelope and elderberry, and a fulfilling aftertaste conjuring themes of dark chocolate and utter bullshit. Today would be a good day.
Before the match, it seemed Divine guidance could sometimes be a few kilometres off the mark, with Freeman and Charlie “Flanders” Cull calling to say they’d arrived at the wrong ground. Those punctual enough were treated to Dougal “more toey than a Roman” Robinson’s embarrassing choice of footwear. Fines ensued.
Nash was disappointing to say the least. Once regarded a top exponent of the game, Ash Cowan’s cheating resulted in the degeneration of play into a complete mess. Purists of the game would be horrified. The result was unofficially scratched...by me.
Nor did the cricket begin without incident. Having lost the toss on a flat DP’s wicket, Matt “Snow Leopard” Skinner assumed he would be exposing his pallid skin to the sun in the field. Instead, the TAFE College skip won the toss, remarked that he wasn’t too sure what to do, and sent us in.
This allowed Mark “I’m mainly good at one man sports, like swimming, and cricket” Hackett to nurdle his way to thirty-odd off about as many overs. “He looked a chance every ball,” one onlooker remarked. “Did you reverse the batting order?” asked another.
That said, the hundred runs he scored the session before were pretty good. The highlight was probably a straight horn which hit Skinner (read: sightscreen) in the head to bring up the ton. As the saying goes, there are only three certainties in life: death, taxes, and a hundred at Dave Phillips.
Hack’s knock laid the platform for a dominant Nerds effort. Handy contributions from Troy “the main thing I’m good at on computers is deleting my internet history” Stanley and Matt “the hairy milkbottle” Skinner kept the runs ticking over. At the back end, Ashley “who said the drought was over?” Cowan and Dougal “Teflon” Robinson both knocked up 50s with some attacking play.
Hickey came and went without troubling the scorers.
That took the more good educated side to about 330 with a bit under an hour to play. Worried he’d not done enough for the day, Hackett took two quick poles in an accurate spell. Stanley chimed in at the other end, leaving the Sam Sparrows reeling at 3/26. And so ended an eventful day.
Day 2
Approximately 70 working hours later, this diarist rocked up to the ground chuffed with the prospect of a rare day without seeing Hickey with his shirt off.
Speaking of shirts off, the Sun-Herald’s ‘S Magazine’ had this to report on Sunday:
Z List: two of Sydney Grade’s better known circuiteers surely have 7 years bad luck after they were spotted in the bathrooms of notorious nightspot Cargo, semi-naked and flexing in front of the mirror. The bar’s females were duly unimpressed, with one telling S that clearly 100kms on the bike was “just not doing enough”.
With Nash not even worth a mention, to the game. Troy “I just hit my monthly download limit in 35 seconds” Stanley grabbed the first one of the morning, and the one after that. Plus another five, but who’s counting? With a favourable breeze at his back, Troy was virtually unplayable all day, and gave the cordon (at one point there were 5) plenty of regulation catching practice to finish with eight quality poles, including the last two in succession. The man seemed completely at home all day, so much so he found the boundary as good a place as any to answer mother nature’s call. Twice.
Having rolled the Kensingtonians for a meagre 65, we decided to have another crack. Again the wickets fell at a steady pace, with Kazags rescuing himself from a whirlpool of sweat to take a very handy Michelle. Dan “Beverly Hills: 90210” Bragg burgled a couple, while Swollen “Nolan” Matthews and Chris “Lieutenant” Dan both bowled good lines and were unlucky. Ed “Fierce Mike” Freeman was as inspirational in the field as in the boxing ring the night earlier, with play disrupted as he momentarily lost his bearings. Old Father Time also rounded off his 10 for the match, leaving us with 6 overs to grab the last pole. It was not to be.
To their credit, the UNSW tail batted quite well to deny us the outright points. Although that would’ve been ideal, it was a pretty tidy display and a convincing win with some outstanding individual performances. Good to see the Fours are back on track with some momentum into 2009.
Cheers,
DNB
5th Grade vs UNSW: UNSW 111 Truashiem 4-14, Grant 4-30, Lawrence 2-23
Sydney Uni 4Dec 113, Hammond 39, Burke 26n.o
UNSW 6Dec 196, Hickey 2-15, Burke 1-10
Sydney Uni 5-114, Hill 34, Sydney Uni win 1st Innings
Week One:- We won the toss and decided to bowl based on the trial form from mealier in the year and their position on the table. AJ and Josh started well for us without much luck, a few chances going down and numerous other balls passing the edge. AJ eventually made the breakthrough. But the introduction of Luke saw the game turn heavily in our favour as he sliced through the middle order with pace and accuracy, the 6 over spell limit was the only thing stopping him getting more than the 4 he finished with.
AJ followed up from that end and deserved his 4 as well, Josh also returned to snare a couple he should of had earlier. All this meant Metro went wicket less for the 1st time this season and Jimmy was not required not the 1st time this season!
Our batting was solid and sensible in the pursuit with Jack Hammond opening up and scoring a controlled 39, Burkey had just got his eye in when the surprising declaration occurred leaving UNSW 1 over to struggle through to get to stumps. Luke bowled it and should of had 1 if the umpire had of had his eyes open.
Week Two:- We arrived confident of taking the ten wickets required and then chasing a total. The patience and accuracy of the bowlers went for the majority of the day un rewarded as the UNSW bats sluggishly added runs with pokes and prods and other generally incompetent cricket. After tea the ball was finally tossed to Aaron (still Hung over) Hickey who rewarded the decision with the wicket of their captain and another in his next over. At tea Jimmy had suggested a declaration from UNSW might be in order if we bowled a few part timers. This was flatly refused. but it did not stop the human highlight real Nick Burke taking the ball and a wicket with some quality leg spin thinking. They declared giving 195 to score off 19 overs we were on pace after 5 overs but also 3 down, attacking cricket was played by all the batsmen and some selfless shots played.
Sydney Uni 175 (M. Morgan 74 n.o. D. Miller 39) def. by Northern District 205 (T. Ley 4/45)
The young, talented and visually appealing PG’s lads arrived at Uni. No. 1 eager to overcome the ND Rangers for a spot at the top of the table heading into the final two rounds.
The day’s proceedings began with the customary game of Nash with a newfound theme of Teens v Twenties. The youthful evergreen teens went behind early to the withered, time-ravaged faces of the Twenties and that’s where it stayed, complemented by poor time wasting strategies from Tim ‘Old Timer’ Ley. With Nash completed, Mitch ‘Captain’ Cook lurked into his pre-game pep talk, reframing our minds to the task at hand whilst inspiring us all to enjoy our time together.
ND’s made first use of the facilities and began well with their right-hand opening batsmen punishing overpitched bowling to the cover boundary routinely. Tim ‘Wizz Fizz’ Ley picked up an early caught behind nicking off the left-hand opening batsmen with disciplined lines. Nigel ‘Gumby’ Cowell proceeded to send down an excellent spell of fast bowling, hitting the deck hard with numerous hand grenades that had the remaining opener pleading for mercy as the leather consistently slapped into Matt ‘Kerrod’ Morgan’s gloves. Nigel finished with 3 well deserved wickets as did Stu ‘Mush for Brains’ Mclean, including their opener for 93 caught on the boundary by Tim ‘Who doesn’t drop em’ Ley. ‘The Old Timer’ lurked in for some sneaky poles at the death to lead the boys off with 4/45. Josh ‘Mary Ilker’ Toyer never stopped trying, bowling without luck while ‘The Brooding One’ chipped in for his usual 10 tidy half dozens. Strong efforts were made in the field but the lads did lack urgency and an element of anticipation gifting ND’s 15-20 runs than they otherwise did not deserve.
The Larkin brother strolled out with 206 required for celebratory soft drinks. Ben ‘Old Travis’ Larkin clipped one straight to midwicket without troubling the scorers while Nick ‘The Seagull’ Larkin chased one to the keeper for 8. The skipper soon followed leaving the uni boys reeling at 3/40. Matt ‘The Norwegian Beach Lifeguard’ Morgan disregarded the situation to put one into No. 2 to take his total to double figures. He and Dave ‘Tree Trunk’ Miller forged a strong partnership with fluent stroke play to take the total to 3/115 with less than 100 required. Enter their right-hand opening batsmen turned express bowler who sent down deadly straight rockets to send Funky’s off stump cart wheeling into the canteen for 39 and trapping James ‘The Worst Kind of Egg’ Walsh in front next ball. The next 5 wickets fell in quick succession thanks to accurate bowling somewhat aided by poor shot selection. The Uni boys managed 175 with ‘The Snuff’ stranded at the non-striker’s end on 74. Matt ‘Frog’ Morgan demonstrated unparalleled aptitude with the willow, punishing poor deliveries whilst rotating the strike in an innings that put our fellow efforts to shame.
Thus the PG’s boys suffered their second loss for the calendar season leaving us positioned 8th and out of semi final position with 2 games remaining.
Crowls
First game for 2009 turned out to be a close one against our Round 1 opponents - Beavers. Sporting a much stronger team (and 11 players!) Beavers were looking for their first win in 2 seasons.
Captain Max Bonnell won the toss and decided to bat first. Our uni team was bolstered by the presence of 8 grade or green shield players. Opening with Will Kemp and Alex Logan, we got to 24 before Alex was bowled by a ripper delivery from the Beavers opener. Will and Will Shirvington then started promisingly, taking the total to 54 before a collpase ensued before the steadying influence of Paul Moorhouse and Max Bonnell allowed Will Kemp to reach his 50 before being caught on 61. A fine innings, well done! The final total, all out for 142. Thanks to greg Aird for sitting out the batting when we had 12 players.
The bowling half of equation started well, getting the early wicket of the Beavers opener (falling to Travis McKenna) before the Beavers skip, Hamilton Becher clubbed an impressive 49 to set up the Beavers win. Final score 6-144 in the 33rd over.
Wickets were shared equally around the bowlers with Sam Al-Maliki, Travis McKenna, Greg Aird, Max Bonnell and Alex Logan all getting into the action.