1st grade | 2nd grade | 3rd grade
Day 1
A warm, steamy day saw the students take on Penrith at the picturesque University No.1 Oval. A spot in the final was enough motivation for the uni boys who welcomed back the experience of Mo for this crucial fixture.
In Nash, Stewy Griffin was briefly loaned to the bowlers for an undisclosed fee while Sarf searched for some training shorts. Upon return, Sarf found his place in goal and stewy returned to the batsmen to help them claim victory in a dominant display.
Mail won the toss and elected to bowl on a deck which had enough in it early to support the bowlers. After an initial break through from Sarf, spin was introduced and the spin twins each grabbed a wicket before Mail came on and took 2. Confidence running high, Mo suggested that he’d retire on the spot if one of the Penrith middle order batsmen could hit him through the covers for four. Sarf, Cook and Hector then picked up the remainder to have the panthers all out for 133.
Mail and Hay fell before tea bringing Ed and Scotty together for a consolidating partnership that turned the match well in our favour. The tea provided was possibly the greatest this season, with the young scholars lucky the skin folds testing had been done a week earlier. After compiling a patient and classy 45, Ed was caught in the gully late in the day. Stewy and Scotty saw out the remaining overs and still stressing about being timed out, Marty ‘We’ll play when I’m ready’ Paskal went to sleep with his pads on. Students 20 runs behind with 7 wickets remaining for first innings victory.
In other news from the day, Hayza had changed into his 4th ‘clean’ tee shirt as the humidity got the better of him. Scud made an appearance to discuss the finer details of injuries, strength and conditioning, Aj warmed up on the hill for his 12th man duties the following day and Ed ‘everyone has fluffy hair today, yet I still look like a poodle’ Cowan gave a few fashion tips. The knowledgeable Mail also helped explain one of the stranger conversations at a cricket match between Mo and a member of the public regarding cruelty to animals.
Day 2
Scotty’s appreciation for acting 12th men/drink runners hit a new low before play on day 2.. arriving only to find his kit had soaked up the contents of an esky which had contained a few half empty beers and ice. What difference a day can make in Nash! In what was one of the more riveting clashes of the season, the bowlers prevailed thanks largely to the best on ground performance of Matt ‘the mens room at carmens is the new scubar’ Morgan.
Stewy failed to add to his overnight score as Milf joined Scotty to pass the penrith total and take 1st innings points. Playing with relative ease, Supercoach Moran showed the youngsters how to compose a smart innings before being caught in the deep for a much needed 77. The loss of Scotty triggered another lower order collapse and before long Mo and Chook were together again, scratching around the crease looking for any left over feed. Not without controversy, Mo’s request for a runner caused an uproar among the penrith players and Hector was sent to the sheds again. Unfortunately there was no more runs to be had and the students were dismissed for a disappointing 199, giving Penrith a sniff of an outright win.
The panthers were after quick runs and following a brief reminder from Sarf, the openers started having a go. A further confrontation at lunch was swiftly dealt with by Mail to ensure the match review committee (all six umpires who had turned up for the game) wouldn’t be called upon. After lunch, Stewy took a mark in the back pocket off sarf to kick things off for the students. The injection of AJ into the field helped Chook take another 3 and come tea time, a lone hand from the young penrith opener had given them a hundred run lead to bowl at.
After a few set backs, the uni boys saw out the day and claimed a comfortable first innings victory to book a place in the grand final. Look forward to seeing everyone at Hurstville next weekend to watch the Students take on St. George!
Day 1
Not one budding nashballer had either a Sherrin or a Gilbert in their custoday at Manly Oval on Saturday morning. The match was accordingly played with Milkers Toyer’s flat Lyrebird and a slow-paced game ensued. To be fair, this was not to the disadvantage of the team of batsmen comprising:
- Josh ”I do my kilometres on the bench press” Ryan;
- Nick Larkin (Captain of the Pencil Neck and Mud Gut Academy);
- Adam “the Big Ship” Theobald;
- Dave “the 60s were rockin’ “ Butchart;
- Mark “I love cakes so much I fell for the tea lady” Faraday; and
- Kevin “butter chicken is my staple” Desai.
Like a well-oiled machine, the top six deconstructed the waif-like bowlers and took the beers.
The first session of cricket went entirely to plan for the SUCCers. The score was 0 for 120 at lunch and not only that, the ever-excitable Manly lads had been subdued by a potent combo of Nick Larkin’s stroke play, Rig’s determination and a spate of dropped catches and unsuccessful LBW shouts. The Mayor of Manly Oval was not impressed. After such a successful start, there was little doubt that Wardy had inspired his troops with his rousing pre-game words. There had been some early concern amongst the camp that Rig would not respond well to Wardy calling upon each player to not “relax on his morals” (sic). However, all fears were allayed by lunch time with the Boar sitting pretty on 40 not out. Nick Larkin, clearly pleased at having scored some runs after earlier displaying what was described by discerning onlookers as “the worst nashball performance by a player in a winning team ever”, called his Mummy said “please tell Daddy that I am 76 not out at lunch and hitting them pretty well”. It must be a frightening prospect for bowlers to think about how good at batting Nick might be on the northern side of puberty.
No doubt the SUCCers were satisfied with their efforts at lunch time but by tea the mood had escalated to a state of genuine pleasure. At 1 for 300, just about any fears of losing the game had been detonated and the focus had turned to setting an insurmountable target whilst leaving enough to time to bowl the Manly boys out. The only wicket to fall between the lunch and tea adjournments was that of Nick Larkin who was eventually dismissed for a glorious 162. Meanwhile, the Boar also coasted his way to a magnificent century before tea by feeding the strike back to the ever-hungry Larko and playing the odd swipe across the line to assert some authority. Rig was admittedly glad that there weren’t any wily finger-spinning pensioners in the Manly outfit.
After tea, the SUCCers hit the accelerator hard, except for Rig, who, true to form, was sniffing out a red-stinker. Luck did not befall the Pig on this occasion as he eventually fell for a well-complied 133. At the other end, Butch exerted some muscle in making 60 off about 40 balls. Theo, by contrast, had really looked to use his head in approaching his innings. Unfortunately that tactic resulted in less than the usual amount of runs and a CT scan. Funnily enough, the doctor was not satisfied with a superficial observation of Theo’s scalp to assess the impact of the blow. Obviously the thick thatch of hair on Adam Theo(bald)’s head prevented the doctor from conducting any useful analysis in that manner.
Smooth-talking captain, D. Ward (Black Prince of Dural), declared the SUCCers’ innings closed at 6 for 413 after 79 overs – an imposing total on any scale. Not to be deterred though, the Manly opening batsmen put on their best period of play for the match during the remainder of the day to be 0 for 50 at the close of play. The only real opportunity for a wicket was a near run out attempted by 12th man, Ash Cowan. After pouncing on the ball at cover, Ash shied it at the stumps, only to miss by the width of a shot glass. Unsurprisingly, Butch acquainted himself with Manly’s two opening batsmen during that brief period of play and before the day was out, one of them was threatening to fight him. It was suggested to the Manly player in question, by Butch and others, that to fight the Methuselah would be a mistake on many levels. The said Manly player duly moved on to his dressing room without further incident.
Day 2.
With the return of the Sherrin, the balance of nashball power was restored to the lithe outfit of bowlers. After incurring a two-point goal from the boot of the top six’s striker, the bowlers strung together a series of sophisticated manoeuvres and laid on plenty of points to take the win. Despite the victory, the bowlers’ winger Ash “Luke Capewell is my favourite Rabbitoh because of his defensive prowess” Cowan whinged and whined about rough play by the batsman and more than once bandied around the term: “cheats”. Ash should bear in mind that wingers are generally given a position on the flank because they are averse to physical contact.
The bowlers’ momentum was obviously carried onto the cricket field. The first three poles went to Stink Bumford, one of which involved a sharp snare at second slip by Tom “let’s do lunch in Balmoral (w@^ker)” Kierath. King of the Hill, Timmy Ley, then claimed the big scalps of King and Hill. Following that, Milkers Toyer, who is notorious for nestling into a nice cushy situation, took five of the biggest freebies ever seen. Ian Moran, of SUCC freebies fame, would have been busting with pride at the work of his protégé. Each wicket was greeted with a mixture of glee and astonishment by the SUCCers as the Manly lads hit dollies up, one after the other, until the game was done. In all seriousness, and as any freebies exponent will testify, one cannot capitalise on poor batting without bowling enough balls on a good line and length. In any event, congratulations were certainly in order for the bowlers who took ten wickets for 59 runs in 90 minutes on a benign pitch on Sunday morning. Manly finished to be all out for 125.
Amidst the carnage, one Manly player at least mustered his sense of humour. In response to a sledge by Adam Theo(bald) about not playing a bouncer very well, the Manly player simply enquired as to the well being of the Big Ship’s cranium after being “filled in” the day before. That was by far the best shot played by a Manly batsman on Sunday.
The form of all players in the SUCC second grade team bodes well for a second consecutive premiership.
Sydney Uni 269 all out (Batting) Stu Mclean 52, Nigel Cowell 47, Tim Harrington 43 James Crowley 39
BEAT Manly 238 all out (Bowling) Michael Culkoff 5/46, Stu Mclean 2/19, Shashi Keshar 2/69 and Nigel Cowell 1/54
Day 1
Nash was fantastic. The Good Guys beat the young pups! Enough said.
The Director lost the toss and the students were sent in on a track that looked like it would do a little in the first session then flatten out to resemble Parramatta Rd. Suda and Hack looked to see off the new cherry and were doing a great job until the left arm 1st change bowler forgot to tell hack that he has a dirty big inswinger...subsequently no shot offered....middle stump a little rattled. Manly seagulls continued to shape the ball in good areas on what was becoming a sensational deck to bat on as the day progressed. Troy played a shot he would put over the fence nine times out of ten on a Uni short-side boundary, but decided to nick off for fun! Harro looked a million bucks with some waughish flicks off the pads and the DJ was licking his lips after the last over was bowled before lunch by their left arm off-spinner! SUCC 3/90 at Lunch.
Harro nicked off after lunch, culks got bowled around the legs and DJ snicked one to second slip. James 'slinky penguin' Crowley batted well and surely would have made few more if he hadn’t of murdered 10 square drives straight to forward/backward point. Slink and BJ 'I leave my best chat for number 11's 'steady the big ship before Stu 'water balloon' Mc Lean and Nigel 'Glow-worm' Cowell combined for what I believe to be the match winning partnership, they took the score from 166 to 254. This combination seems to always produce when they come together at the crease...Stu played straight and worked the ball around nicely and Nigel batted like the good old days when he was a number 3 in school boy cricket. The boys would have loved a few more runs but we knew with our attack, 269 was defendable. End of the day Manly were 0/20 and the game was in the balance.
Day 2
The first sessions belonged to the boys north of the Harbour Bridge, and were still no wickets down at Lunch. Apart from 2 over’s, the good guys bowled well enough on a flat track with the only criticism being a '4 ball' every couple of over’s. Troy 'crofty' Stanley provided a good pump-me-up chat session at the interval and some motivation and enthusiasm was picked up considerably after hearing from Les that 2's had rolled Manly for 125. Nigel bumped their opener and Suda took the catch on the fence. With the score 1/149 the NRMA tent was still chirping away but we were up for it and kept plugging away and drying the runs up. The Shiny dome...aka Troy 'Quiz master' Stanley worked hard to get the rock reversing so it could just do enough for the outswinger, meanwhile stu bags was bowling tight lines and not giving anything away....he bowled 13 over’s for 19 runs and took 2 wickets...sensational effort from bubbles on a flat track! Tea Break arrived with the crowd of SUCC supporters growing and becoming more and more vocal with the score now on 8/215....WOW what a difference a session can make! Shashi 'base camp' Keshar took his second wicket with Stu bags taking a nice catch at long on with the score on 238. Last wicket fell with slinky 'I look like I'm peaking with a les lollipop in my mouth' taking the catch behind the stumps which your scribe heard loud and clear even with 1 ear operational and the celebrations began.....cant wait to see pics if DS was around! Great team song was belted in style with all the good guys from SUCC involved in it (not just 3rd grade)
Tremendous effort from all the boys, we all kept at it and produced the goods! The journey continues on the road to the holly grail! Pump up and lets bring home the titles for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade to polish off a fine SUCC season in 2008/09...What a circuit this will be!
I would like to thank Geoff, Sarah, Stu bags & Morgs parents for the effort with the canteen and ensuring that we now have the finest afternoon teas in grade cricket....its sure is a winner mixing pineapple and super doopers with the odd Cadbury chocolate Easter eggs! Well that’s my mix anyhow. Our legendary chicken burgers are still doing the job as you can obviously see with the results. NRMA for providing the tents – we love you guys and Ray and the Boys putting it up and providing 2 great wicket/ovals to play cricket on.