1ST GRADE
Sydney Uni 238: H Kerr 82, D Mortimer 46, L Robertson 41
Parramatta 313: L Robertson 3-12, T Ley 3-73, B Joy 2-49, J Kershaw 2-68
The SUCC boys arrived week 1 to a nicely grassed surface at Old Kings Oval. Parramatta won the toss and elected to bat. Good early bowling saw Ley pick up 2 early wickets. When Joy was introduced he bowled his fastest spell of the season and Parra quickly slumped to 4/69.
A partnership began as the batting side adjusted to the wicket and at 4/167 the home side had the box seat. Liam Robertson was introduced and found the conditions to his liking, producing an incredible spell that yielded 3/12 and reduced Parra to 8/200. Dropped chances then hurt the students as the Parra tail hunted quick runs and chances their arm. They were eventually dismissed for 313, leaving the good guys with 6 overs before stumps. Trevor-Jones feathered one late in the day and SUCC went into day 2 at 1/12.
Larkin fell early as play got back underway. Parra bowled well with the new ball and a fantastic contest developed between bat and ball. Cowan fell for 17, caught in the deep hooking. At 3/63 victory seemed a long way off. Mortimer and Robertson combined nicely, before Mortimer fell for a well compiled 46. Kerr joined Robertson and began a full scale assault on the tiring Parra bowlers. The two swung the momentum of the game and put SUCC in the box seat before a poor LBW decision cost Robertson his wicket on 41. Kerr continued the assault and at 5/223 with 2 overs until tea, the game was tilted nicely to a victory for the away team.
Sean Abbott then took the ball, found some reverse swing and opened up the University tail. Four wickets fell for zero runs and suddenly the game was all but over. Kerr’s stunning 82 off 65 was as good as any innings played this season.
Loss by 75 runs didn’t reflect the closeness of the fixture. No doubt we will see the Parramatta side again come finals time.
1ST GRADE LIMITED OVERS QF
Sydney Uni 282: D Mortimer 64, L Robertson 56, N Larkin 47, H Kerr 32, S Hobson 30
Sydney 170: D Malone 4-46, T Ley 3-32, B Joey 2-31
Larkin won the toss and elected to bat on a gorgeous looking cricket wicket at Drummoyne Oval. Kerr and Hobson got the visitors off to the best start in living memory, lofting and crunching anything and everything to the fence and over it. 0/61 after six overs made for good reading, but Hobson nicked the first ball of the 7th and Kerr followed soon after leaving Larkin and Mortimer to rebuild.
The spinners slowed the run rate and Larkin fell looking to pick up the pace, bowled for 47. Robertson and Mortimer took the good guys forward, both making crucial half centuries.
282 was the eventual total, potentially 40 runs short of what was on the cards.
The bowling effort got off to a dream start, Ley taking wickets with the first two balls of the innings. The dangerous Dan Smith was removed by the ball of the season, his off stump demolished. Sydney kept coming hard in pursuit of the large total, and chances were always going to present. By continued his strong form and bowled fast on a surface that gave him plenty on return for his effort.
Malone found his rhythm and got amongst the wickets, finding a breakthrough whenever the visitors needed it most. Robertson’s useful medium pace grabbed a wicket and suddenly the game looked beyond Sydney at 6/128.
Sensing a chance to finish the game, Ley was reintroduced and found the edge through to Cummins. His 7 overs yielded 3/32, and along with Joy’s 2/31 off 10, proved the real difference between the two sides. Malone demolished the tail to take 4/46, bowling skilfully to his field and varying his flight to disrupt the batsmen.
112 was the final margin, a comfortable win against a good side. Bankstown await in the semi final.
2ND GRADE
Sydney Uni 9-361: N Craze 110, J Crowley 75*, S Hobson 70, T Kierath 32
Parramatta 205
3RD GRADE
Sydney Uni 261: C Litchfield 70, M Powys 66, A Cowan 46, E Arnott 38
Parramatta 161: R Danne 2-5, S wood 2-37, J Craig-Dobson 2-43
Day 2 and it was same bat time etc and so on, with the Units well poised to take the 6 points after a solid display the week before. Your scribe, after lording it over the tardy members previously was found wanting, and the razor thin margins meant that Clubman’s Merv Danne took delight in informing all and sundry that my arrival time was 11.18 which was equal to a case. As the Army had already planned an event the following day, this timing couldn’t have been better really, however it did sting at the time.
With humidity levels at 99% in blazing sunshine, another high-quality game of Nash was entered into and no quarter was asked or given. Similar to Round 5 v Penrith in the pouring rain, no doubt our opponents were extremely puzzled at the level of intensity being doled out given the atmospheric conditions. Notably this included a controversial piece of play from Galvin, who executed a diving ankle-tap on an unsuspecting Dibbly-Dobson, who then executed an hilarious blow-up on an unsuspecting Galvin. Nude-all a fair if exceptionally underwhelming result, however muscle-meltdown would have started to set in had we continued playing much longer in the hope of someone scoring a point. Old claimed the chocolates once again on the under-manned tie-break system, and your scribe happy with an improved performance after being allowed to play despite being late, mainly on the basis that I brought the ball and pump.
And now on to the actual cricket. After not really thinking things through for the 3 overs late day 1, I had inadvertently shanghai-d the fast bowlers and therefore needed an end-changer in the form of Ryan Danne. Danno, not being deterred by pushing that sizeable chest into the stiff breeze, started in excellent form and was therefore obliged to continue, producing swing and seam to take an early wicket. Dibbly-Dobson also started strongly, and the Parramatta top-order found itself in substantial trouble, with a couple of quick wickets leaving the hosts 3/15 and well behind the 8-ball on a pitch that was hard but offering the quicks a bit of assistance.
A partnership began, aided by some profligacy from the students in the field and at the popping-crease. However, this was soon broken by Leggie and Wood respectively, and at 5/42 we were well on top and looking to push home our advantage. The dangerous Verma and Brown got together, and it took some spectacular fielding from Powys, Danne and Arnott to affect a brilliant run-out which got us into the tail and dreaming of a second innings. Parramatta to their credit refused to give up their wickets easily, and the after-tea session was more of a grind as the last few wickets were hard to come by.
Eventually the good guys took the 10 wickets and the 6 points, and this was a really pleasing if imperfect 2 days of cricket against the previously unbeaten eels. No doubt something to draw on for the remainder of the season, we are hitting our straps at the business end and we will be there when the whips are cracking and (insert laboured cliché here).
A lovely postscript was the delightful Sunday spent watching the 1s boys take care of business at Drummoyne, and testing out the updated Army songsheet. As always I will leave others to judge on the success of the Uni Army vocals and suffice to say that the particulars of the day/night are not suitable for publication. In any forum.
Back to fortress Camperdown next week to take on the bears, and after 4 wins on the bounce we will be looking to continue our climb up the table and take the points.
4TH GRADE
Sydney Uni 79 & 2-52
Parramatta 213: T Fullerton 4-30, J Rinka 2-31, O Thompson 2-51
5TH GRADE
Sydney Uni 265: N Mortimer 127, A Wilkinson 37, C Lorenzato 28
Parramatta 213: N Barnet 5-47, A Wilkinson 3-34
METRO CUP
Sydney Uni 235: M Veltro 74, Z Islam 64, A Kirubanandan 28
Blacktown 145 & 6-107: M Ghumman 4-30, A Kirubanandan 3-46, P Adikarige 3-62
It's rare that you can leave a ground having claimed 1st Innings points feeling so empty but that was the case today as Metro lost outright to Blacktown at St Pauls.
We are starting to pay the piper with some of the circumstances we are finding ourselves in within the team and around the club. We have used 32 players so far in Metro this year making finding consistancy difficult particularly with our batting lineup / order and each player locking down a role in the team. We are paying for previous games where we have relied on a couple of batsmen to get runs to get us the wins. If those players fail or are out of form on a particular day we are in trouble. The writing has been on the wall for sometime and hopefully this humilliating result will be a wake up call to the team. Our attitude to staying in and valuing our wicket(s) needs to improve. We are not playing T20 matches and need to respect that.
We have the two top teams coming up in successive rounds and the 3 teams below us all won outright today so we are in a very precarious position with only 4 rounds to go. Semi final cricket is not guaranteed at this point and as far as the leadership is concerned, each week is a semi final type match for us, as the 3 previously mentioned teams below us have relatively easy runs home. That's the reality and time will tell how much we really want to be playing in the post season.
The positives for us at the moment are our bowling and fielding. We have had some low scores to defend at home which combined with the 45 metre boundary on one side of St Paul's, has seen our bowlers really have to dig in and work hard to keep the scoring tight and still pick up wickets. The attitude and energy in the field has been pleasing.
Congrats to Greenie's player Bryan Handunneththi who picked up a wicket on debut for the senior club!
We know Metro is a development team and with each match we are learning about the game and ourselves. Long term we will be better players for the experience whether we win, lose or draw...