SUCC Metro v Wests
City and Suburban v Nondos
1st grade | 2nd grade | 3rd grade | 4th grade | 5th grade | 6th grade| City & Suburban
1st Grade
SUCC 1st Grade v Sutherland 1st Grade
Day One
Seventy –four journalists and photographers turned up at half past eight on Saturday morning to watch Stuart Clark and ten other blokes play Phil Jaques and ten other blokes. I suspect the Economics and Business Faculty is producing a film “Sarfraz TV” based on the 1999 film, “ED Tv.”
The coin fell the way of the students and said photographers were forced to take photos of Sarf eating chicken burgers and drinking coke instead of bowling. The boys from North Wollongong toiled admirably on a flat pitch in 40 degree heat and the students struggled for ascendancy, reaching 3 for 80 at lunch.
The loss of Ian “3-for” Moran in the first over after lunch brought Dave “it’s the sun that makes my hair go lighter” Miller to the crease. The next two hours saw a fantastic blend of solid defence, busy running and powerful hitting as Funky compiled his maiden first grade century. (117 off 141 balls) Significantly he refrained from impersonating Will Hay and acknowledging empty sections of the ground upon reaching triple figures.
Mitch Cook provided great support compiling his maiden first grade half century, (57 from 107) and innings featuring some exquisite cover drives and clips through midwicket. Together Funky and Cougar took the score from a perilous 6-142 to the relative safety of 7-278.
Some lusty hitting allowed a declaration with eight overs remaining. Enter the older of the two offspinners. “I’m going to bowl the skidder, he’s going to try and work it across the line, LBW.” Enough said, PA Jaques Lbw GRJ Matthews 5.
Day Two.
In stark contrast to day one, the Sutherland top order found scoring easy early on Sunday and headed in for lunch with the score 1-170. Stuart Clark was able to remove the opposition captain just after lunch and with the assistance of some reverse swing, the Students were able to exert some pressure on the middle order. Mo picked up the century maker caught behind and it seemed the game was in our grasp. To their credit, Sutherland kept playing their shots (their number 5 accumulated 60 from 47 balls) but consistent bowling from “Santa Claus” Matthews and Stu “Economics and Business” Clark maintained the steady flow of wickets and the six points were in the bag soon after the scheduled tea time.
Six wins in a row has everyone excited, but there is much work to do against four quality sides between here and the semi finals.
GM (not Mo)
Wollongong… No, Sutherland was the destination of the second grade round 11 clash between the top two sides in the competition. An early wake up, for a big match on what turned out to be a plus 40-degree day.
Nash ball was contested between people with hair, and those unfortunate to not have any. It was a game of temper, fury and passion to win the warm up game that may or may not lead to paying for the opposing teammates drink. Personally I don’t know if everyone just hates buying a ‘brother’ a drink or if it’s the competitive passion that comes through in us all that leads us into yelling, swearing, threats, big hits and exuberant celebrations when someone gets one point up with minimal time left on ‘a’ watch. All a lot of fun in which our summer weekends couldn’t be without. The guys with hair eventually won in controversial circumstances, however deserved to win the match by superior ball movement and calmness under intense pressure.
We won the toss this week and we were told/ signalled that we were batting. Marty and myself (lazy) were given the same signal last week which resulted in us bowling, so we made sure… and double sure that we were batting.
Nick “check out my boob knee” larkin, Josh “heartbroken and leg infested” ryan and Adam “absolute pest” theo-bald were all out early nicking off. Much to our number 7’s disgust for having to pad up in the first hour of play when the plan was to just occupy the crease early.
Then farra’s and butch came together in a touchy situation and they dug thier way out of the whole with good shot selection and listening to Wardy’s plan of occupying the crease and picking the bad ball balls off when the times right. Faraday ended up with a well-compiled 87 that offered entertainment and serious danger for their leg slip. Butch finished with 66 runs of patience and maturity. In sweltering hot conditions no one could falter these two innings. Scottish chipped in with 38, but unfortunately there wasn’t any other sizable contribution. As a tail especially we have to score more runs to get scores like our 240 on the weekend, up over 300. This was a perfect opportunity, but no one came up with the goods.
We started bowling on the Saturday for 16 too many over’s. Marty broke through for an early one but Sutherland was already 40 runs towards 240(not enough).
Sunday showed we didn’t have enough through maidens not contributing to much pressure and combined with another below par fielding performance, we were never in the hunt. Marty finished with 2 poles and so did Tommy K.
Batting out the day, fielding as a whole and bowling to the plan are 3 areas of the game we need to improve from the weekend.
All in all, it’s a good wake up call going forward to go back to back in the second grade competition.
Tim Ley
The boys arrived at uni no. 2 with high hopes of keeping the undefeated season going. The warm up as always was one of the highlights of the day. Although nash wasn’t the fastest of games due to the heat Suda still managed to roll his ankle even though he was 30m from the ball.
Although it was tipping 40 degrees, Dave “Director” Jessop decided that with Gumby and the Josh “The Skater Boy” Toyer in the attack it would be prudent to bowl first. The two qiucks were way too good for the shire boys and picked up wickets at a regular pace to set the game up for the students. Suda’s ankle meant he would have to field in the slips for the day which he assured us was unfamiliar territory for him. He proceeded to take one of the “best catches you’ll ever see” (Lawry 08), as well as two more testing catches.
Another good job from the bowlers meant we were chasing a mediocre total and the batsmen set out to finish the job. Troy “Jayasaria” Stanley set out to cut everything for four which he did with ease to race to 80 odd and set up the chase. Suda battled hard on his ankle to see off the new ball but his injury was too much and had to retire. A few wickets fell before James “Slinky” Crowley steadied the ship and saw us home with the skater boy.
What happened from then on was one of the most village pieces of cricket seen on number 2 since yours truly bowled an 18 ball over. It finished with Slinky taking a wicket with his keeping pads on. None the less a good win for the students to solidify our place on the top.
SUCC V Sutherland 4th grade
SUCC 10/248 lost to Sutherland 9/269 dec
Sanjiv Khalko 61 no with the bat and 4/82 with the ball
Josh Lawrence 74
Ed Freeman 41
AJ Grant 2/21; Brendan Smith 2/32 and Sanjiv (see above)
A warm summer’s morning greeted this scribe as I travelled to Sutherland Oval, a trip interrupted only by a visit to the RBT unit, which necessitated a change of underwear for the driver, Ed “dicky knee” Freeman. As an aside, Chris “slower ball” Dan was also pulled over by members of the law enforcement community and was somehow able to get away with having no p plates on during a double demerits long weekend blitz, saving him some hundreds of dollars.
Arriving at the ground with just seconds to spare, cheers greeted the arrival of the next pair Brendan “honeymoon” Smith and the Sandman Khalko with cases resulting.
The warm up jog saw the usual talk by the usual suspects (AJ) about the usual recreational activities (guess). And this was followed by the nash. Teams were divided along the lines of singlets vs sleeves, with Jimmy “Lazerous” Kazaglis, turning a corner in his nashball career and deciding to stay on the one team for the duration of the game. The play itself was rubbish, and looked to be heading for the first ever known scoreless draw before some intervention for nature saw the shirts goals blown some twenty metres wide. Ash “freeballer” Cowan obliged and the game was won.
On to the game, Matt “bag of blue balls” Skinner lost the toss (one dollar) and the residents of the shire had no hesitation in turning tail and heading for the (relative) cool of the sheds.
What resulted was a tough struggle for wickets with the Sutherland batsmen stubbornly refusing to forfeit their wickets, knicking and nurdling their way along to a building total. The Sandman and Brendan “please, no more sex” Smith provided the pressure and the breakthroughs to keep us in the game until the much welcomed tea break. Special mention at this point should be made to Jimmy “the one man portable irrigation system” Kazaglis, who was notably dry during the entire session, indeed he seemed incapable of raising a sweat at all.
While wickets had been hard to come by, the dents had been successful in keeping the runs down, helped along by some enterprising batting from the Sutherland opener (30 off 55 overs). This ensured that we came out of tea with the hopes of turning around our day. And sure enough things turned. Wickets fell with increasing frequency, as the Sutherland batsmen had obviously decided to limit their exposure to the extreme temperatures.
Late in the day an enormously strong wind blew up that saw the Sanjiv “the burgular” Khalko bowling at approximately 20kmph while at the other the dramatically wind assisted Alistair “future Cougar?” Grant was sending down 140kmph thunderbolts. Both picked up wickets and bowled well, as did Josh “comb-over” Lawrence. Chris Dan was consistently unplayable. The day ended with the shire folk 9 down for 260 odd, the hobbits having caved into the university pressure.
Day 2
Day two dawned promising temperatures 15 degrees lower and the potential for a revival of the art of nash ball within the fourth grade side. Teams divided city vs west (Parramatta to armidale). The chai latte sippers were soon on the back foot, with the westie bogans stringing together some silky passing maneuvers to go 5 ahead.
This situation was dramatically helped by the inept play of one Brendan “ohhhh, ahhhhhrrgggg, ow!” Smith. Both he and Ashley “freeballer” Cowan having suffered what can only be assumed was astonishingly painful chafe, judging by the screams of pain when the offered “3B” chafe cream was applied to the affected southern regions. BJ, clearly a desperate man to preserve dignity in his nether regions, even resorted to the application of suncream. A sad day for all involved.
BJ’s immobility and unwillingness to stand in front of the goal line he was meant to be protecting, together with the outstanding goalkeeping of Sanjiv “the gatekeeper” Khalko saw an easy win for the simple western folk over the clearly misguided city slickers, who looked uncomfortable in the open spaces.
On to the cricket.
Things began poorly for the uni folk with wickets disturbingly regularly. Batsmen came and went with only Ed “hobbles” Freeman showing the application required as he ground out 41. Meanwhile on the sidelines Chris “tanning is skin cells in trauma” Dan was moisturising his sun ravaged back. Its amazing, really. It will still be there on Wednesday, just ask him to show you. Ignoring the obvious perils displayed by Dan’s back, AJ decided to have a bit of a lie down in the sun, right in front of a team full of nervous energy and childish maturity. BJ began the trouble by throwing a perfectly good cookie at the tanning AJ before Dougal “Symbols” Robinson took things waaaay too far and hit AJ in the back of the head with a sharp piece of bitumen. Blood. One dollar.
Anyway, while this was happening Josh Lawrence and Sanjiv had been slowly building the recovery, first passing the follow on, then putting us in a position where we were a sniff of victory. Joshie perished for a very very well made 74 that was all class. Sanjiv remained not out on 60 odd at the end of the game, which saw uni lose by a mere 16 runs. An agonizing loss. Lessons will be leaned. We will be back.
Charlie Cull.
5th Grade Match Report (v Sutherland)
SUCC 269 (Hammond 96, Crawford 44, Burke 42, Matthews 35) did
Sutherland 140 (Truashiem 3-26, Crawford 3-17, Balasuriya 2-23)
Before I start, I would like to apologise on behalf of Nick Burke for scratching a previously untarnished record of reliability, thereby fulfilling the grand slam of dodging out of all match report duties for the fourth year running…
On an absolute Sally Tinker of a day, the gods smiled upon the SUCCers at the coin toss, with Mr Rogers opting to seek shelter in the Pauls sheds. That let relative newcomer Jack Hammond set about demolishing a hapless Hobbits attack. With a good combination of patience and attacking strokeplay, Jack endured the heat and put together 96 big ones before lapping a sitter to square leg. His innings was supported by a Doug Walters-esque (read: deadly boring) 42 from Nick Burke, although his approach would appear to be the better one, with those of us who didn’t show the same patience reaping about 41 runs less. Dave Crawford (who, for want of a witty nickname, is challenging anyone to have the most punishing on-field banter in grade cricket…yep, even Campbelltown 5th grade) provided good support, and Greg Matthews’ kid clearly showed who taught him how to bat, scoring 30-odd between backward point and cover point.
The next day, having stopped briefly in Kirribilli, I arrived at the ground with 3 kits and two players. Something was missing. I guess being a big corporate finance guy these days, Nick ‘I move markets’ Burke is too focussed on the big picture to worry about micro issues like – the timing of the match, what he is going to wear on the field, whether his lift would be interested that he was in fact in Bondi, rather than Kirribilli. In terms of the match, Luke Truashiem extracted good pace and bounce from the Paul’s wicket, grabbing three and perhaps deserving a couple more. Nolan bowled well without luck, getting a few to fizz and drop (best I’ve seen you bowl mate), and Dr Harry utilised both the variable bounce and mindless Southies batting to grab twofa. Crawford should’ve been wearing a black jumpsuit and balaclava. With a solid total on the board and the early advantage, the win became an inevitability, despite some resistance from the tail. End result: Nerds 6, Hobbits sent back to the shire with a ring, but not the good kind.
Captain Paul Moorhouse had the major win of the day electing heads over tails at 1.20pm as the mercury bubbled to 41.5C and chose to bat. Souter and LeCouter provided a mature and steady start lasting the first seven overs before the ball brushed this correspondent's pad somewhere in the vicinity of the wicket and he elected to walk to the shade of the sidelines. The next 10 overs gave the impression the Veterans were suffering from muscle meltdown as the score disintegrated to 7-73 after 22 - albeit with a controversial bump-ball dismissal of a threatening Rob Manning on 20 which saw Umpire Bryant searching desperately for support in the form of a third umpire, but finding only a scorching sun and reacted with a raised finger sending the atmosphere into spasms not seen since 'primate' taunts filled the SCG last year.
Reaching the ton looked an impossible prospect until "intense" Sam Al Maliki steadied the ship coming in at 7 (sans any form of headwear) and as other partners came and went, precocious academic child prodigy Travis Mc Kenna (15yo studying at USyd) came in at number 10 and blasted 41, which along with Sam's Gibraltar-style 15 and helpful sundries drew us towards a most unlikely 152 and surviving the full 35 overs.
The Vets' collective muscle fibers seemed to re-fuse as an ebullient feeling saw the group spring onto the field just as the sun reached it's apex. Souter had largely sweated out the effects of the previous night's festivities and produced a steady 1-21 off 5 while McKenna got somewhat caught up in his willow escapades and amassed a similar total from two overs before a combination of poor fielding, the requisite dropped catches, and sporadic accuracy saw the prospect of victory evaporate like a droplet of sweat on the pavement.
Captain Morehouse brought on secret weapon Ned Manning to stem the flow, but unfortunately the result simply threatened to undermine the adjacent bowling club's public liability insurance which is based on the premise all potential ball related injuries would be in the form of large, black carpet-bound balls, not hard, red leather rocks descending from the sky. The 19 runs off Ned's last over assisted Non-Descripts to victory in the 19th over with the loss of only 2 wickets, but the premature skewering of the Vets was a mercy killing enabling some participants to reach the Spencefest in time for Iva Davies, but sadly too late for Dorothy the Dinosaur.