Five Things We Learned from Round 14

As you were, then

We always say it this time of year, but… rain.  It causes havoc.  The rain on Sunday was never all that heavy, but it didn’t relent until mid-afternoon, by which time it was too late to salvage a result in most First Grade games.  Fortunately, perhaps, no side in the top eight managed to get a result, so the shape of the top six remained unchanged.   It means that with only two rounds to go, no club is guaranteed a spot in the top six (although if Manly missed out there would be a steward’s inquiry), while mathematically there are 16 sides who could still take part in finals.  It’s tight.

Damien Mortimer has probably scored more runs than you have

At around 3.30 on Sunday afternoon, Damien Mortimer went down on one knee and blasted a ball from Param Uppal over straight mid-wicket for six.  Which is one way to bring up 10,000 Premier Cricket runs. 

Mortimer has been a fixture at Sydney University for so long now that it’s easy to forget that he has played for four clubs, having stints at Wests and Bankstown before breaking into Firsts at Campbelltown.  7268 of his runs have been made in First Grade, where he’s the 102nd highest run-scorer in the history of a competition that extends back 132 seasons to 1893-94.   Full records of lower grade scores are harder to come by, but it’s a safe bet that far fewer than 102 players have reached 10,000 runs in all grades.   Mortimer looked good on Saturday, defending watchfully and striking the ball cleanly, but maybe it was his dismissal that said most about him.  Called for a tight, not to say impossible, single, he trusted his partner’s call, hurled himself towards the crease, and was miserably unlucky to be run out.  But it was also whole-hearted, unselfish, team-focused cricket, which goes a long way to explaining why, over the course of his career, he has been at the heart of so many successful sides.

Nic Maddinson blocks, too

The match with the greatest potential to reshape the top six was at Old Kings: both sides had an incentive to play in imperfect conditions, since a win would have taken Easts back to the top of the table, and six points would have lifted Parramatta back into the top six.  Parramatta posted 275 on the first day, a total based on William Jarman’s first half-century in the top grade, which he carried on to 88 not out.  The rain sliced Easts’ batting time almost in half, but a side containing Daniel Hughes and Nic Maddinson can’t be ruled out of many chases.  As it happened, Isaac Earl sliced up the Easts top order, grabbing four early wickets as the Dolphins tumbled to 5 for 41.  Easts were saved by that rarest of cricketing events, a defensive partnership between Maddison and Marcus Attallah.  When Maddinson’s batting attracts attention in grade cricket these days, it’s usually for the number of sixes he hits; a typical Attallah innings includes a significant proportion of bashing.  But Maddinson played diligently for 68 from 102 balls, and Attallah restrained himself so completely that he faced 112 deliveries for his 34 runs.  Together they chewed up the time until Parramatta eventually conceded that a draw was inevitable.

Sutherland is improving

By round 14, most teams are either plotting their path to the semi-finals, or consoling themselves that there’s always next season.   Sutherland is probably in Category B, but the Sharks now have more reasons to be cheerful than seemed likely before Christmas.  The win over UTS North Sydney extended Sutherland’s unbeaten streak to four matches, and was a welcome way to celebrate the club’s renaming of the Glenn McGrath Oval scoreboard in honour of its long-time operator, Lee Prescott. Luke Ritchie (4-21) and Tharindu Kaushal (3-47) held the visitors to 222, after which Max Robinson (50), Cody Philipson (54) and Matthew Hopkins (42) methodically knocked off the runs.  Robinson has been consistently impressive, and impressively consistent, since he was promoted from Seconds in Round 5, and has racked up 887 runs in all grades for the Sharks this season.

Our old guy is better than your old guy

Regular readers will know that few things appeal to Five Things more than a clash of elderly lower grade players, and there was a classic of the genre at Grahame Thomas Oval on Saturday.  Bankstown’s Fifths, led by fifty-something Phil Melville, posted a competitive 8 for 226 against a Manly side steered around the field by fifty-something Simon Waddington.  The disappointingly youthful William Nasser led Manly’s chase with 75 from only 57 balls, but Aaditya Shivalkar bowled nicely to take four for 24 and, inevitably, Melville chimed in with a couple of wickets.  It turned into a shootout between Melville and Waddington, who inched his side towards the target until, with only five runs needed, he returned a catch to Melville.  Manly’s last pair held their nerve, and Zachary Buchanan poked the winning single with two and a half overs remaining.

Five things We Learned from Round 13

Manly and Parramatta had a game of Bat

Manly Oval in Round 13 was no country for old bowlers.  Parramatta batted well.  Manly batted better.  The bowlers did their best.  The highlight for Parramatta was a maiden First Grade century for Under-19 prospect Blake Noorbergen, whose 104 came from 149 balls and included 15 fours and two 6s – quite an achievement against an attack that included State bowlers Ryan Hadley and Charles Stobo.  Normally a team that scores 377 feels reasonably safe, but despite the early loss of Ahillen Beadle, Manly stormed home in less than 69 overs.  Matt Brewster (134) added 176 for the second wicket with Ollie Davies, who’s in brutal form – his 106 occupied only 75 balls and included nine 6s.  Jay Lenton then steered Manly home with an unbeaten 87.  Davies and Lenton did things to Ryan Gupta that aren’t fit for publication in a family blog such as this one – and Gupta can bowl.  Anyway, the result keeps Manly on top of the table, while Parramatta falls to seventh.

Brad Simpson revitalised Bankstown’s season

Approaching the end of the season, and with the top of the table looking crowded, outright wins are priceless.  Bankstown opening bowler Brad Simpson propelled his side to fifth place on the table by slicing through Gordon twice, taking 5-26 and 4-63 to set up a ten-point win at Blacktown International.  Twice in Gordon’s first innings, Simpson was on a hat-trick: he removed Mitchell Lole and Rory McLean with successive balls in his fifth over, and in his next over he accounted for Axel Cahlin and Jack Shelley – four wickets in the space of eleven balls.  In between, Riley Kingsell (88) and Tyran Liddiard (80) batted quickly enough to give their bowlers time to dismiss Gordon a second time.  Mathematically, Gordon can still reach the finals, but not without a whole lot of luck.

There was an upset at Mark Taylor Oval

The initial focus of attention at Mark Taylor Oval was Sam Konstas, opening the innings for Sutherland.  That lasted three overs, until Konstas edged an away-swinger from Charlie Anderson through to keeper Ryan Swain.  Even so, Sutherland built a substantial total: Max Robinson hit 90, Kobey Freer 89, Lachlan Ritchie 63 and Riley Keen 62.  Northern District looked dead and buried on 4 for 54, after good early bowling by Keen and Will Straker and sharp catching by Konstas at slip.  But Mitchell Crayn kept the match going with a fighting innings of 123, well supported by Spencer White (59).  Left-armer Keen came back to remove both batters, and Northern District ended up 44 runs short.  The loss puts the Rangers in 11th place, and needing something close to a miracle to make the finals.

Byron Whitbread had a big week

The start of the Fifth Grade match between Wests and St George was routine, almost dull.  Steven Wark, in his eight millionth season of grade cricket (approximately), opened the attack, bowed inswingers and was tight.  The Wests openers blocked him respectfully.  They put together a partnership of 37.  Nothing out of the ordinary there.  The fifth bowler St George tried was leg-spinner Byron Whitbread, who was in last season’s Green Shield side.  Wests had no response to his accuracy and turn: seven for 16 from 15 overs.  In the second innings, he added three more wickets for 22 runs, a match return of 10-38.  That’s easily his best performance in Premier Cricket, although he did pick up an 8-32 in Metropolitan Cup last season.  Wests crumbled twice for 101 and 85; St George completed a ten-point win after a straightforward second innings chase. 

The Green Shield final was tight

In recent seasons, Northern District and Parramatta have turned out a number of formidable Green Shield teams, so it was no surprise that they produced an epic final last week.  Both sides bowled a little better than they batted, but it was tight finals cricket, with every run conceded grudgingly.  Arjun Singh and Kirby Mulligan, in a fourth-wicket stand of 66, propelled Northern District to 3 for 132 with 18 overs remaining, which looked like a platform for a decent total, but Mulligan chipped a catch back to leg-spinner Ethan Natkunamanickam, and Parramatta’s bowlers (especially off-spinner Leon Cooray) applied the brakes so successfully that the last seven wickets fell for only 51 runs.  After 24 overs, Parramatta was one for 94 – cruising.  At which point, the Rangers turned to Arjun Singh’s leg spin.  Singh’s a decent bowler, but hadn’t been a very significant weapon for most of the season, taking only five wickets in the first nine Green Shield games.  But Juhith Rajesihiraju, on 40, miscued a leading edge to cover, and Parramatta’s middle order fell in a heap.  By the time Singh caught and bowled Benjamin Mani, from another leading edge, he had four for nine and four wickets had fallen for eight runs.  The rest was a struggle: Natkunamanickam, with 43 not out, kept Parramatta in the game, and when Oliver Makin started the final over, seven runs were needed with one wicket standing.  There was a scrambled leg-bye, a two through midwicket, and another leg-bye, which left Natkunamanickam on strike with two to tie and three to win from the final delivery.  Natkunamanickam missed with an attempted scoop, and although the batters ran through for a bye, Northern District won by a single run.

Five Things We Learned from Round 12

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain.  And Ollie Davies.

It makes no real sense that the first day of round 12 was cancelled because of extreme heat, while the second was all but wiped out by a massive southerly and soaking rain.  But that’s the climate the current generation of cricketers has inherited.  It’s not only the housing market we messed up for you.  You’re welcome.

The trouble with rounds like this one is that there’s always someone who manages to get a result when no one else does, and that distorts the competition table.  That’s no criticism of Manly, who did exactly what you’d expect them to do, and took full advantage of the fact that there was time to jam in 40-odd overs at Joe McAleer.  Set a DLS target of 170 in 20 overs, Manly cruised home thanks to a brutal 96 from 39 from Ollie Davies, who cleared the fence seven times.  The Blacktown innings, incidentally, had an unusual ending: Julian Osbourne wrapped it up by taking three wickets in three legal deliveries, but unfortunately interrupted what would have been his own hat-trick with a wide. 

Anyway, perhaps fortunately, the result doesn’t alter the composition of the top six, but it does change its order, with Manly now on top, three points clear of Easts and St George.

Joe Colgan’s average went up again

For a batter who was in Second Grade about twelve months ago, Joe Colgan has made an impressive impact at Mosman this season.  If you take out his six T20 matches (in which he scored a perfectly presentable 147 runs at 24.50), Colgan hasn’t been dismissed for less than fifty all season.  In his first nine innings in the Belvidere Cup competition, he tallied 741 runs at an average of 105.85, and before the rain hit Allan Border Oval, he had time to add 63 more runs to his total.  He now has 931 runs at an average north of 70 (or 804 at 114 if you exclude the T20s).

Mosman didn’t have an easy time of it against Wests: in overcast, windy conditions, Michael Dawson picked up three early wickets, including the big wicket of Ryan Hicks, bowled attempting a rather loose drive.  After ducking two bouncers from Dawson, Colgan got underway with a neat clip off his pads – he’s especially strong through the on side, and rocks onto the back foot when the ball’s even the slightest bit short in a way that triggers memories of that other Mosman left-hander, Allan Border.  He allowed Tom Brooks no margin for error, pulling a couple of meaty boundaries, and needed only 52 balls to reach his fifty.  In the last over before the rain came, he hoisted Jack Bermingham over square leg for four and six.  His off side play doesn’t have quite the same conviction – his weight sometimes seems to fall away in the opposite direction to his stroke – but when someone’s averaging 114, it’s a bit difficult to call that a weakness.  Anyway, some free advice to the bowlers from Campbelltown, University of NSW and Sydney who play him in the next few weeks: stay off his pads, and no half-trackers.

The Students are in the One Day semis

Play was possible in only one of the quarter-finals of the First Grade Limited Overs competition, and Sydney University pulled off something of an upset at Hurstville Oval.  Full credit to St George for getting the ground in shape for play when a washout would have carried them through to the semi-finals; St George finished on top of the ladder after winning five of their six games, while the Students squeaked into eighth place.  The game was reduced to 40 overs a side, and University posted a respectable 9 for 219, thanks largely to Yuvraj Sharma’s 58 from 79 balls.  That didn’t look like an obvious winning total against the formidable Saints batting lineup, especially when Blake Nikitaras and Kurtis Patterson took 27 runs from the first 26 balls of the innings.  Crucially, Patterson then hammered Kieran Tate straight to cover, where Patrick Xie held on.  The game was decided between the 12th and 17th overs, when St George lost five wickets for only 12 runs.  Nikitaras pulled Darcy Mooney to Sharma; Cameron Frendo spun one past Jack Haynes’ outside edge to take off stump and lured Luke Bartier into a loose drive to extra cover; Harry Scowen chipped Mooney to cover, and Mooney then put the icing on the collapse by jagging one back to clip the top of Peter Francis’ off stump.  The St George lower order fought hard but the eventual margin of 81 runs was conclusive.  Sydney University is joined in the semi finals by Fairfield, Easts and Manly, who all advanced after washouts.

Frankie Nicklin is in form

The most improved team in this season’s women’s competition is Sydney University, who owes its position at the top of the table in the Ruth Preddey Cup largely (though certainly not only) to the exceptional form of Frankie Nicklin.  After four rounds, Nicklin had the third-highest batting aggregate in the entre competition, and stood fourth on the list of leading wicket-takers.  Nicklin’s 100 (from only 112 balls) against Campbelltown-Camden was her second First Grade hundred, and included several well-timed thumps through the on side. Her third-wicket partnership of 124 with Grace Keating was the backbone of University’s innings, and she later picked up a wicket in her second over.  Nicklin isn’t, perhaps, the most extravagant spinner of the ball, but she’s remarkably accurate.  She has spent most of this season hovering on the fringes of representative cricket for the Breakers and Sixers, she was in the NSW squad of thirteen for this week’s WNCL match, and on current form she must be due for a decent opportunity soon.

It’s finals time in Green Shield

Northern District romped into the finals of the AW Green Shield competition by winning all seven of its matches.   Alish Hirani has been outstanding for the Rangers, passing fifty in four of his seven innings, for a total of 296 runs at 74, besides taking 7-25 against Western Suburbs with his leg-breaks.  The leading run-scorer in the competition so far is Mosman’s Jagbir Singh Malhi, whose 431 runs have been boosted by 160 from only 105 balls against Randwick-Petersham.  Eastern Suburbs’ highly consistent 14 year old leg-spinner, Tyson Jansz, leads the bowlers with 18 wickets.

The quarter-finals, you’ll be shocked to learn, were disrupted by rain.  In the two where play was possible, Campbelltown outplayed Sutherland and Mosman defeated Penrith.  Northern District and Parramatta also proceed to the semi-finals on Thursday.

Five Things We Learned from Round 11

Premier Cricket is a whole lot closer than the Ashes

Just before the Christmas break, two cricketing contests are slightly past the halfway mark.  One of them – the one you watch on TV – is done and dusted.  The other couldn’t be closer.  Sydney University was about nine inches away from leading the First Grade table at the break, but Darcy Mooney’s run out dropped the Students into fifth place.  Easts have surged from nowhere to grab the lead, but if they were to lose their next game (which we’re not necessarily predicting) they could easily drop out of the top six altogether.  The gap between first and tenth is only ten points.  Most seasons, 54 points (or nine first innings wins) is enough to get you into the finals.  Applying that rule of thumb, there are still fourteen teams who could make the playoffs – and that’s before we factor in the usual post-Christmas complications of rain and outrights.  It’s as tight a competition as we’ve had for years.  Who’ll get through?  Don’t ask us.  Predictions are for suckers and the Barmy Army.

Damien Mortimer bowls

About an hour into the match between Fairfield-Liverpool and Sydney University, the Students’ captain, Damien Mortimer, decided that the Rosedale pitch was so slow and unfriendly to the quicker bowlers that another option was needed – his own low-trajectory medium pace.  One of the stranger entries on his impressive cricketing CV is a spell of five for three in Bankstown’s Fifths a very, very long time ago, but in his first eight seasons with University he bowled only three overs, and in his ninth (last season) he took his one and only wicket for the club.  Anyway, the plan looked wobbly when his first two deliveries were hit for four, but then he settled into a nagging line and length and from his next 7.4 overs, he snared three for 28.  Nick Carruthers went to a leg-side strangle, Yash Deshmukh was bowled and Jaydyn Simmons was stumped by Tim Cummings.  As soon as Mortimer began to take wickets, the Livestream feed turned into the blue screen of death, as if in protest against something strange and unnatural.  More expected was Jaydyn Simmons’ continued excellent form – in the end his 100 from 126 balls was the difference between the sides, and Fairfield squeaked home by yet another of the one-run margins we’ve seen this season.

St George is surging

After a patchy start to the competition, St George is now one of three clubs (with Easts and Manly) sitting on top of the table with 44 points.  Sydney’s total of 6 for 200 at Hurstville wasn’t bad, exactly, but St George charged past it inside 30 overs.  Blake Nikitaras has struggled a bit for NSW this season, but is still a formidable proposition for First Grade bowlers: with Kurtis Patterson happy to play second fiddle, he cracked 106 from the first 17 overs before the first wicket went down.  Nikitaras smacked three consecutive boundaries in Louis Kimber’s first over, then cracked the off-spinner high over long-off for six.  Most of Nikitaras’ nine sixes went down the ground, although facing spinner Hunter Hall, he swapped his helmet for a white Greg Chappell hat, and pulled a short ball over midwicket.   Veteran St George watchers still talk about the opening partnerships of Warren Saunders and Billy Watson, but it’s no disrespect to a proud club tradition to say that Nikitaras and Patterson present bowlers with just as many headaches.

Hawkesbury won the matchup in the mountains

The Penrith and Hawkesbury clubs have one of those odd little brother-big brother relationships, in which they get along perfectly well but really enjoy beating each other.  Little brother got up on the weekend, on a day when temperatures reached unpleasant levels in the deep west.  Adrian Van den Nieuwboer struck twice in his second over, and when Janbaz Saddhar removed Jordan Watson, the first three Penrith batsmen had all been dismissed without scoring.  Usman Qadir suffocated the middle order with his leg-spin, taking 1-16 from his eight overs and in a match reduced to 40 overs a side, Penrith posted 9 for 124.  In his last two, limited over, matches the excellent Qadir has taken 4 for 49 from 18 overs.  Hawkesbury eased home with five wickets and six overs in hand.  It was a happy match for Hawkesbury captain Dale McKay, who went away with a win, a wicket and some handy runs to suggest that his recent run of bad form might be behind him.

The average IQ of the UTS North Sydney club probably rose a few points last week

There aren’t many things in Premier Cricket that you can state with any certainty have never happened before.  Here’s one: last Saturday, an Assistant Professor from the Philosophy Department of the University of North Carolina State University turned out for UTS North Sydney in Fifth Grade.  Travis McKenna has had a rather unusual cricketing career.   He played Green Shield for Sydney University maybe 16 years ago.  He was a unique University Green Shield player, being already enrolled as an undergraduate at the time.  He had accelerated his high school education to the point where he enrolled as an undergraduate when he was fourteen or so, studying Ancient History, although why anyone would be in such a hurry to study Ancient History remains a puzzle.  Then he took degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy and ended up at the University of Pittsburgh undertaking a PhD.  While studying, he played in the lower grades for North Sydney, bowling seamers with a windmillish action and batting usefully.  Anyway, on Saturday he turned out for UTS North Sydney in Fifths, presumably while on vacation, and picked up two for 22 and two catches in the Bees’ innings of 144.  He was then faced with the existential conundrum of what to do when your first two batsmen are dismissed without scoring, which he answered by whacking 30 to help his side to a close-fought, two-wicket victory.  In one of his recent papers, he criticises a fellow philosopher for “seeing minimal model explanations as relating special types of models to particular target systems rather than seeing minimal model explanations as looking to explain robust patterns of behavior that are exhibited by a variety of physically diverse systems.”  We hope that’s clear.  What it means, we think, is that if he’s still around for the next round, you should feel free to engage in robust patterns of behaviour and sledge him.  He’ll probably be philosophical about it.

Five Things We Learned from Round Ten

Sydney University got back on track

The battle of the nerds, at David Phillips Field, was pretty much settled inside the first hour, which was how long it took Sydney University’s Ollie Robinson and Kieran Tate to reduce University of NSW to 5 for 27.  Robinson, once again, had the ball on a string, nipping it around on a fourth stump line and mixing in an occasional, outrageous off-cutter.  Tate keeps bustling in and attacking off stump – already this season he has 37 wickets.  The big wicket was Tom Lammonby, who played dutifully for 16 balls before edging one from Robinson that jagged away.  Behind the stumps, Tim Cummins held five catches and completed a stumping – the second time this season he’s dismissed six batsmen in an innings.  Left-armer Bailey Lidgard strangled the middle order with a nine over spell of 3 for 18, and Sydney was left with a target of just 101.  John Rogers and Patrick Xie romped to a ten-wicket victory inside 17 overs, Xie clinching the result by slog-sweeping Ryan Meppem over mid-wicket for six.  Sydney University really needed the result after dropping two successive games, and the bonus point they picked up could be very handy with the table becoming tighter and tighter.

Matt Moran.  No, not that one.

It should be possible to write a piece about Matt Moran without making a chef joke.  Here goes.

Moran’s captain at Eastern Suburbs this season, and on Saturday he lost the toss at Bankstown, which is worth mentioning because it’s just about the only thing he got wrong all day.  In the first over, James Moore edged an expansive drive at Brad Simpson into his stumps, and when Moran went in Easts were in trouble at 3 for 55.  Moran began sedately, adding 40 for the fourth wicket with Nic Maddinson, who looked in good touch until he missed a sweep at Mitchell Constantinou and was adjudged lbw.   The rest of the innings was all Moran.  He slashed Constantinou behind point for 4 and hoicked the next ball, a full toss, over midwicket for six.  A tall man with long levers, Moran hooked a no-ball from Simpson over fine leg for 6 and launched one of Justin Felsch’s off breaks high over cow corner for 6 more.  When he was dismissed on the final ball of the 47th over, he’d hit 106 from 99 balls and, crucially, squeezed 91 runs from Easts’ last three wickets.  The key wicket in almost any Bankstown innings is Dan Solway: Moran slipped an off-cutter past his defence and won the lbw verdict.  Then he used his captain’s prerogative to knock over the tail, finishing up with 4-29 as Easts prevailed by the deceptively large margin of 93 runs.  It was a masterful all-round effort that set up an important win, which pushes the Dolphins up into sixth place.

Northern District likes to keep it interesting

Fresh from a one-wicket defeat at the hands of Gordon in Round 9, Northern District went down by one run in Round 10.  Joe Colgan continued his good form with 80, enabling Mosman to reach 6 for 268, which seems about par for Mark Taylor Oval.  In truth, the total should have been much smaller – the 21 wides NDs contributed would become highly significant.  Corey Miller, with 96, kept the Rangers in touch, but wickets fell often enough to keep Mosman in the contest too.  From Cooper Johnston’s final over, NDs needed only seven runs to win.  Ryan Swain bunted the first ball to long-on for a scrambled two, then nurdled a single to square leg.  The batsmen then convened for their third conference of the over, but whatever was said didn’t work, because Jordan Fullagar promptly sliced the next delivery to cover.  Four runs needed from three balls.  A leg side wide made it three from three.  Charlie Anderson missed a full ball outside off stump, survived a vigorous stumping appeal, and joined Swain for the fourth batters’ conference of the over.  A single to cover made the target two from the final ball, at which point Anderson and Swain met for another conference, as did most of the Mosman side.  The Mosman committee meeting resulted in Joe Colgan fielding at a very straight mid-off, and Swain’s mis-timed drive went straight to him, Colgan’s direct hit (from about four metres) beating Swain home as he tried for the tying run. Sometimes it’s a game of fine margins.  NDs are 11th on the table, but they were just two or three dot balls away from fourth place. 

Owen Simonsen is a useful second grader

Owen Simonsen’s left-arm spin is pretty unexciting to watch.  He shuffles up to the crease from about four steps – you can hardly call them paces – and generally sends the ball down with a fairly flat trajectory.  There’s not much by the way of loopy flight or dramatic turn.  But he’s accurate, spins it just enough and varies his flight, pace and spin just enough to keep the batters alert.  On Saturday, he tied up Hawkesbury’s Seconds with a spell of 4 for 24, meaning that since Parramatta decided to play him in Second Grade after Round Four, he has taken 20 wickets at an average of around 12, Parramatta has climbed to second place on the Second Grade ladder, and these facts are not unrelated.

PGs is still happening

This Sunday is the last of the preliminary rounds in the Poidevin-Gray competition, with quarter-final places still up for grabs.  By our count (which you absolutely should not trust) seven of the teams in Pool A could hypothetically reach the finals, as could seven teams in Pool B.  Sutherland has been setting the pace and put itself in a powerful position by thumping Fairfield, helped by Lachlan Ritchie’s 5 for 30.  Sutherland faces ninth-placed Penrith on Sunday, and would need an unexpectedly heavy defeat to miss out on a finals spot.  Player of the round was Manly’s Axel Karlsson-Lacy, who whacked 129 against Blacktown in only his second PGs game.  Karlsson-Lacy is having an odd season: he averages only 25.50 in Third Grade, but 104 everywhere else.

Five Things We Learned from Round Nine

Blacktown has a handy recruit

Because Australia hardly ever plays against Bangladesh, you could be forgiven for not having much of an idea who Mominul Haque is – even though he has played 75 Tests and scored almost 5000 runs.  He bats left-handed, bowls left arm spin with a curiously low action, and if you’re at all curious you can see him turning out for the Blacktown Mounties this season.  Mominul had a memorable first game at Joe McAleer.  After St George raced away to 1 for 82, he applied the brake with ten nagging overs in which he collected 3-34, and he hit five 4s in his brisk 27 after Blacktown lost two early wickets.  Despite Puru Gaur’s 82, Blacktown’s last pair (Smit Raval and Harjit Singh) still needed to score 16 runs from the last three overs, then ten from the last.  Needing two to win from the final delivery, Harjit banged the ball to the long-on fence to seal the game.  Incidentally, every member of the Blacktown side was of south Asian heritage, an interesting reflection of the demographics of western Sydney.

Nick Stapleton learned that it’s a silly game

It’s hard to expect that a player could have done more for his side in a 50-over match than Nick Stapleton did for Gordon last Saturday.  His opening spell reduced Northern District to 3 for 16.  He ended the innings with 5-38.  He ran out Corey Miller (for 83) with a composed pickup and throw from backward square.  Then he went in at 2 for 23 and batted positively for 65.  He very nearly didn’t win.  Chasing 226, Gordon collapsed to Scott Rodgie and Cameron Tunks, slumping to 9 for 162 in the 40th over.  That, you might have thought, was that, but Matthew Wright and Callum Bladen proceeded to bat their side back into contention until they needed seven to win from Rodgie’s final over.  Wright miscued the first ball to backward point (no run) and sliced the second away through the off side for 3.  Bladen connected with a meaty drive for 2 and nicked a single to third man to level the scores.  Wright failed to beat short cover with a drive – one to win from the final ball, which Wright clipped to mid-on and raced through for the single.

Archie Vaughan had the last laugh

There was a game of Bat at Allan Border Oval, where Mosman enjoyed the flat pitch and short boundaries to run up 8 for 378 (18 sixes) and Manly (17 sixes) fell 59 runs short.  Brock Fitton (109 from 102) and Joe Colgan (90 from 66) set up the winning total, but the highlight of the day was Ollie Davies’ assault on Archie Vaughan’s off-spin.  Two singles were milked from the first two balls of Vaughan’s third over, and then Davies went nuts.  He whacked a flatter ball over midwicket for 6, went slightly straighter for the next 6, smacked a full toss to cow corner for 4 and then went over midwicket for 6 more, prompting memories of Crash Davis’ observation that anything that travels that far ought to have a stewardess on it.  Davies raced to 83 from 40 balls but he then skied Cooper Johnston to long-off.  Vaughan, whose first three overs cost 37, bounced back to take 4-25 in his last seven overs.

William Fort is on a roll

According to The Grade Cricketer, the perfect match is the one in which your team loses, but you score a century.  Sydney’s William Fort, by that measure, is having a blinder.  Fresh from hitting 123 against Northern District (lost by 24 runs), Fort opened for Sydney against Parramatta and hit 106 from 130 balls, on the way to losing by four wickets.  Parramatta made the mistake of bowling a full length at his pads, and Fort kept clipping the ball away through the on side.  He also cleared the boundary three times, sweeping Andrew Calvert, launching Michael Sullivan high over long-on and thrashing Isaac Earl onto the hill at cow corner.  Sydney stayed in the game for most of the day, but Hayden Goulstone (60 not out) steered Parramatta home with eight balls to spare.

Alexander Gomez held his nerve

There was an arm wrestle at Don Dawson Oval, where Brett Newman’s 109 enabled Fairfield to set North Sydney’s Fourths a target of 202.  The Bears were always in touch with the target, without ever taking control of the game, and when Alexander Gomez took the ball for the last over, four were needed to win with two wickets standing.  From the first four balls, Gomez allowed three singles, so that scores were level: he then bowled Chris Halloran and the last man, Scott Daniels, was run out attempting the winning run.  When the excitement of the tie subsided, North Sydney might have reflected that the result may not have been so close had they not gifted their opponents 16 wides and five no-balls.

Five Things We Learned from Round Eight

It’s no fun bowling at Coogee

Spare a thought for the poor unfortunate individuals who were given the task of bowling at Coogee Oval last Saturday.  It was misery.  In 100 overs, 13 wickets fell for 801 runs.  28 sixes were hit, 73 fours – in other words, one ball in every six went to or over the boundary.  Wests’ Josh Philippe hit Daya Singh’s second ball of the day for 4, then walloped Angus McTaggart’s first two deliveries for 4 and 6.  McTaggart and Singh actually bowled successive maidens in the sixth and seventh overs, but even so, Philippe and Josh Clarke compiled an opening stand of 256 in 33 overs before Philippe holed out for 197 from a ridiculous 115 balls (23 balls, 11 sixes).  In any other season this would be some kind of record, but Randwick-Petersham was then confronted with Harjas Singh, who may not have had the time to hit 300, but did smash 44 from 28 balls.  Clarke batted through to the 47th over, when he had the cruel luck to be run out turning for the second run that would have brought up his century, only to see James Psarakis standing stock still at the other end.  Anyway, you shouldn’t lose when you hit 6 for 401 in 50 overs, and Wests didn’t – but it was absurdly close.  Randwick-Petersham chased hard from the start: in the first eight overs, they raced to 60, but lost three wickets in the process.  They stayed in the game through a furious fifth wicket stand between Alex Lee-Young (107 from 95) and Riley Ayre (125 not out from 91) and when the last over began, the home side needed 20 to win.  Ayre ramped the first ball for 4, pulled the second to the midwicket fence, and then ramped a third boundary.  Two scrambled leg-byes reduced the target to six from two balls – except that the next delivery, a slower ball gone wrong, struck Ayre above the waist and was called a no-ball.  A miscued single left Tom Coady needing four to win from the final ball.  He hit it cleanly enough, but straight to the sweeper on the off side, and Wests squeaked home by one run.

Mosman found a new way to lose

Gordon would have been disappointed with its total of 243 at Allan Border Oval – they didn’t take full advantage of the short boundaries, didn’t bat out their 50 overs and nobody offered much support to Joe Pocklington (59) and Jack Shelley (58 from 49).  And they looked dead and buried when Brock Fitton (61) and Joe Colgan (127 not out from 126 balls) carried Mosman to 2 for 161 in the 37th over.  But Pocklington, left-arm orthodox, struck twice in an over, bowling Fitton on the sweep and then winning the lbw decision against James Greenslade, another unsuccessful sweeper.  Nick Stapleton bowled a mean spell and picked up two important wickets, and in the end Archie Vaughan need two runs from the final ball for the win.  After taking forever to set his field, Stapleton bowled full and straight at off stump, and Vaughan, aiming somewhere over midwicket, missed.  It’s very rare indeed for two First Grade games to be decided by one run on the same day.

The Bees sprung an upset

Not many teams get on top of Parramatta’s attack at Old Kings Oval, but University of NSW managed it last weekend.  Parramatta probably expected a hard time from Matt Gilkes, who hit a typically robust 121 from 106 balls, but may have been surprised by young opener Neel Patel.  Patel, the standout player in the Bees’ Green Shield side last year, played beautifully for his maiden First Grade hundred, driving cleanly and using his feet fearlessly to attack Ryan Gupta’s leg-breaks.  The openers added 215, out of a total of 4 for 305.  Tom Lammonby missed out with the bat this time, but made a vital contribution with the ball when Parramatta batted, taking 3-44.  Nick Bertus (77) did what he does, and Parramatta was in the hunt while he was at the crease, but he attempted to dab a ball from Krishna Padmanabhan behind point, and bottom-edged it into the stumps.  University of NSW held on to win by 18 runs.  We were pleased to see that there were a couple of wickets for the tall off-spinner Blayde Burke who, we assume from his name, fits in his cricket around his work commitments in the adult film industry.

I think I’ve seen their spinner somewhere before

In his now legendary Mastermind appearance, former England spinner Monty Panesar suggested that Changi airport is in Shanghai, Athens is in Germany and America is a city.  So it was an impressive geographical accomplishment for him to find his way to Raby No2 to turn out for Campbelltown against Hawkesbury last weekend.  In Fourths.  Campbelltown’s batsmen, led by Lachlan Campbell (62) gave him a nice total to defend, and he wheeled through his ten overs to take 5-30.  Panesar may be 43 now, and his last Test was played 12 years ago, but he gave a bunch of lower-grade players a memorable experience, and we think he might be worth a go in Thirds.

Cam Merchant came back, too

While we’re on the subject of older gentlemen making comebacks in Fourth Grade, we should point out that Cam Merchant, who’s now 41, turned out for Manly against Sutherland.  Five Things’ second-favourite Manly cricketer-slash-reality TV performer hit five boundaries in a crisp 53.  He won’t have minded being overshadowed by former Victorian Axel Karlsson-Lacy, whose response to being dropped from Third Grade was to belt six 6s on his way to 155 from 147 balls.  In reply, Sutherland’s openers added 47 before Liam Dinan (5-25) and Lachlan Kerr (5-16) took all ten wickets for the addition of only 42 runs.

Five Things We Learned from Round Seven

The Students have taken the lead

No Cummins, no Robinson, no problem.  Sydney University was missing two of its more prominent players when it took on Campbelltown-Camden, yet still left Raby on Sunday with ten points and the lead on the First Grade table.  Campbelltown, it should be said, was without Jake Scott (playing for the CA XI against the Lions), but the home side’s batting had no answer to Kieran Tate, who reduced them to 7 for 63 on the first morning.  Attacking the stumps, Tate hit them three times and won two lbw decisions on his way to career-best figures of 6-48.  In reply, University lost early wickets to Jeremy Nunan and Henry Railz, but Jack Attenborough and Damien Mortimer gave the Students a handy lead by the end of the first day.  Mortimer’s declaration set Tate loose again on the Sunday morning, and although Bailey Abela played well to steer his side to 3 for 75, Darcy Mooney (5-31) and Tate grabbed the last seven wickets for only 55 runs, leaving University with a straightforward target.  Tate finished with ten wickets for the match, and makeshift keeper Jack Attenborough collected six catches.  The result leaves Sydney University on 35 points – 16 clear of Easts, who are in seventh place, and who they meet this week.

Reverse outrights are a trend

It was almost as though two different games were played at Manly Oval on the weekend.  Saturday was one for the bowlers: Manly scraped its way to 122 against some hostile seam bowling by Jordan Fullagar and William Byrom, ably supported by Jonty Webb’s left-arm spin.  122 actually looked like quite a decent total when Northern District collapsed to 6 for 50.  Lewis Evans made a serious impact: he ran out David Lowery with a clean pickup and direct hit from midwicket, had Mitchell Crayn caught at slip, trapped Addison Sherrif in front and bowled Toby Gray.  Spencer White batted well for 36 and at 7 for 117, the Rangers seemed certain of first innings points.  Then another direct hit – this one by Matt Brewster – removed Fullagar, and George Furrer was bowled by Evans with five runs still required.  A few tense overs followed before Byrom cracked Joel Davies over long-on for the first innings lead.  Manly began its second innings 47 runs behind and carved 294 runs from only 52 overs – the pace set by veteran Ahillen Beadle, who needed only 50 balls for his 62 runs.  The left-hander slapped three boundaries in George Furrer’s second over – a slash over gully, and two imperious drives down the ground – and he followed that by smearing Addison Sherrif over midwicket for six.  The declaration set Northern District 248 for full points, at more than a run a ball.  They were in the hunt for a while – Crayn whacked 62 from 49 and Gray hammered 70 from 55 – but Joel Foster undermined the middle order and Roop Dhillon picked up two late wickets to earn Manly six points.

Jack Haynes started well

Some time back in the last century, Five Things played some Birmingham League cricket alongside a baby-faced teenaged all-rounder named Gavin Haynes.  He was a polished middle-order strokeplayer who could send down a tricky inswinger, and he went on to have a successful career with Worcestershire.  As if to prove that none of us is getting any younger, his son, Jack Haynes, has now turned up at St George.  Jack has inherited none of his father’s bowling prowess but is, perhaps, a little better with the bat, having scored 3785 first-class runs at 36 so far, initially for Worcestershire although he’s now with Nottinghamshire.  An upright right-hander, Haynes made a confident start to his stint with the Saints, hooking Bankstown’s Brad Simpson for an early boundary, cracking some clean drives, and reaching 50 from only 60 balls.  Haynes looked to be heading for a hundred on his first Sydney appearance until he aimed an over-confident pull at a ball from Simpson that wasn’t quite short enough for the stroke, and skied it to Justin Felsch.  His 78 helped St George to 374, a target that Bankstown was never likely to reach after William Taylor’s first over of the innings.  His first two balls were rapid inswingers that crashed into Rehab Afzaal’s pads, the second winning an lbw verdict; ball three hooped into to Daniel Solway’s pads, and the umpire raised his finger again; and Tyran Liddiard nicked the next ball to slip, where Luke Bartier completed the catch and the hat-trick.  Bankstown had no way back from there.

We have a top six

For the first time this season, there’s a clear-cut top six in the First Grade table.  Sydney University leads on 35, followed by Manly on 31.  Randwick-Petersham are third on 30, followed by the premiers, Parramatta, who jumped into the top group with an outright demolition job on Sutherland.  Perennial finalists St George (24) and Northern District (22) make up the six.  After that, it’s extremely tight – only a single point separates seventh-placed Easts (19) from Bankstown in 12th.  Most seasons, teams need about 54 points to reach the finals, which means that everyone’s still in contention, though some teams have a lot more margin for error than others.

It was pretty tight in Fourth Grade

The number of close finishes in Fourth Grade was ridiculous.  Fairfield had no right to be in the game after losing 8 for 70 against Blacktown before Peter Pigadas (91) and Brendon Orr (30) dragged them to 177.  Orr (4-22) then backed up with the ball as Fairfield squeaked home by seven runs.  Sydney University made heavy weather of chasing Campbelltown’s 165 and needed a last-wicket stand of 28 between Will Elliott and Hugo Cooper-Fogarty to get there.  In a game reduced to 32 overs, Gordon posted 8 for 149; Easts, eight wickets down, needed five runs from the final over.  Japan T20 international Ryan Drake allowed only a single from his first five balls, and from the final delivery the batsmen ran two before Thomas Pitts was run out attempting what would have been the tying third run.  And Penrith, chasing 140, scrambled home against Wests with only two wickets in hand.

Five Things We Learned From Round 6

Ollie Robinson is in the right place at the right time

In theory, the backup fast bowlers for the touring English side are the ones travelling round the country as members of the Lions.  In practice, however, it could be useful to have on hand an opening bowler who has taken 76 Test wickets at an average of 22, who also happens to be playing competitive cricket. 

Welcome to Sydney, Ollie Robinson.

Robinson’s falling out with the England setup, early in 2024, was so abrupt that it’s easy to forget that, shortly before it occurred, he was ranked among the four best Test bowlers in the world.  In his most recent first-class match for Sussex, he collected eleven wickets, and at the age of 31 he should be in the prime of his career.  He showed glimpses of his quality in his first appearance for Sydney University, against Western Suburbs.  It’s true that he picked up only two wickets, but he bowled a mean length and passed the outside edge repeatedly.  His duel with Harjas Singh was a highlight: he teased the left-hander (who made a typically robust 55) around off stump, beating Singh’s forward lunge before spearing one in to the pads and winning the lbw verdict.

The pressure Robinson created certainly helped his new-ball partner, Kieran Tate, who was aggressive, moving the ball away from the bat and finding impressive pace and bounce.  He wasn’t flattered by his figures for 5 for 34.  The Students had few alarms chasing down their target, Patrick Xie playing beautifully for 97 in an innings anchored by veteran Jack Hill who, promoted to First Grade for the first time this season, was unbeaten on 87 when the declaration was made.

Cricket is not a fair game

The storm that swept across Sydney late on Saturday cut short a number of games, leaving four First Grade matches drawn, which was particularly cruel at Waverley Oval, where a hard-fought contest was denied a proper finish.  On the first day, Easts battled their way to 268, an innings built around 96 from Old Harrovian Johnny Connell.  Connell looked good: he used his feet well to Tanveer Sangha, and picked up a ball from Raheem Abdul that was only a little short, launching it over midwicket for six.  Unfortunately, he tried to repeat that stroke against Jake Scott when he needed four for his hundred, and top-edged a catch to Anthony Mosca.  Trystan Kennedy continued his good form with 62, and when Campbelltown lost its first three wickets for only 39 runs, the home side looked well on top.  Anthony Mosca and Jake Scott resisted for a time, and then some late runs from Henry Railz and Thomas Patterson kept the Ghosts in the fight.  When Harry Conway, steaming in through the gathering gloom, removed Sangha, Campbelltown still needed 37 runs with two wickets standing.  Patterson and Abdul knocked off 18 of them, but at 8 for 250 the covers came out.  Matt Moran hit Patterson’s leg stump soon after play resumed, setting up a tense final over.  Jermey Nunan aimed several ambitious but totally unsuccessful swishes at Conway, who somehow managed to hit neither the stumps nor the edge.  In the end, Easts needed just one wicket, Campbelltown nine runs.  It was a tight, entertaining game that deserved, but didn’t get, a winner.

Tom Lammonby is back

You may remember Tom Lammonby as the English left-hander who played several bright, though not very long, innings for Manly about five years ago.  He’s now back in Sydney, this time with University of NSW, and he marked his first game for the Bees by smashing an unbeaten 176 against Fairfield at Rosedale.  Lammonby belted six 6s and 17 fours, adding 158 for the third wicket with Annay Chauhan.  For good measure, he picked up the key wicket of Arjun Nair on the second day.  The game was poised in an intriguing position when the weather intervened – Fairfield, thanks to Brent Williams’ unbeaten hundred, needed 83 runs in the last hour with six wickets still standing.  Anyway, if Lammonby plays too many more games with Matt Gilkes, the University of NSW bowlers should have plenty of runs to play with.

Two hundreds are better than one

Here are three reasons we can think of why there aren’t many double-hundreds scored in Fifth Grade.  First, you usually don’t have enough time to score that many runs; secondly, the pitches are often less than perfect, and finally, if you’re good enough to do that, you’ve probably been promoted already.  Anyway, no one explained any of this to Manly’s Alfie Gatehouse, who dominated the match against Sydney at Ryde Oval by hitting 202 not out.  The signs were there from the start: opening the innings, Gatehouse hit the first two deliveries for four, and he found the boundary 25 times, scoring his runs from only 190 deliveries.  A local product, by way of the Warringah club and St Augustine’s College, Gatehouse is in his first season with Manly. 

It wasn’t, however, the highest innings of the round because Sydney University’s Evie Fisher set about rewriting the record books in Brewer Shield.  Playing against Northern District at Asquith, Fisher lashed 205 from only 148 balls, an innings decorated with 35 fours and a six.  Fisher, who’s still at Kirrawee High School, erased the Brewer Shield record of 202 set by Caoimhe Bray (who, it’s terrifying to realise, is still eligible to play in the competition for two more years).  The highlight was the 42nd over, during which Fisher hit every delivery for four.  She scored all around the ground, but was especially clinical in dispatching anything short.  Fisher has represented CHS East in the last three State championships, and looks an exceptional prospect.

Odd things happen in Fifth Grade

Batting first at Snape Park, Campbelltown’s Fifth Grade began solidly enough against Easts, reaching 2 for 38, before falling in a heap and losing their last eight wickets for only 31 runs.  The agent of destruction was Tyson Jansz, a 14 year old leg-spinner.  Jansz is interesting to watch: he’s still pretty short, and he races towards the bowling crease before launching the ball high into the air and giving it a mighty tweak.  From 13 overs, he collected seven for 27.  A common pitfall for young leg-spinners is the challenge of adjusting their trajectory as they grow taller; if Jansz can handle that, his progress will be worth watching.  Jansz wasn’t the only young player to excel in Fifths: at Camperdown, Wests followed on 291 runs behind Sydney University, and slumped to 4 for 55 before 16 year old Krish Sharma salvaged some pride for his side by hitting an unbeaten 101 in a total of 5 for 133.  As if to prove that old men can play too, Sydney University’s Ash Cowan (who first played in Fifth Grade in 2002) hammered his way to 99 from 84 balls before – somehow, with all that experience – deciding that a quick single was the best way to bring up his hundred.  You can guess the rest.

Five Things We Learned from Round 5

Canada, you missed out

Last Sunday, Game Seven of the World Series became the most-watched baseball game of all time.  It led the TV ratings in the United States, recorded colossal figures in Japan and, apparently, was watched at least in part by 45% of the population of Canada (owing to the involvement of the Toronto Blue Jays).  Why these people were watching baseball when they could have been following the livestream from Old Kings Oval is anyone’s guess.

Because our weird game of the week featured more action, excitement, twists and turns than a baseball game in which the lead changed once and a pitcher was praised for his extraordinary endurance because he sent down the equivalent of twenty overs in two days. 

It started conventionally enough: Parramatta batted, and Ben Abbott and NSW Under-19 representative Nitesh Samuel put together a partnership of 40 in 15 overs.  Then Abbott chipped Fletcher May to mid-on, after which all ten Parramatta wickets went down for just 72 runs.  The pitch was invitingly green, May and Kieran Tate (playing his 100th First Grade game) bowled a fourth-stump line, the ball nibbled around and Tim Cummins kept taking catches – he finished up with six (and has not, as far as we know, announced that he’s unavailable for the first Test).  May ended up with 5-35 and the Students were faced with a very gettable target of 112.  At one for 22, with Yuvraj Sharma looking ominously good, that seemed like a straightforward task.  But Michael Sullivan and Isaac Earl know all there is to know about bowling at Old Kings, and by stumps University had crashed to 9 for 49 – at one stage losing five wickets for five runs.  Early on the second day, Parramatta took an improbable lead of 55 on the first innings.  Samuel and Abbott increased that lead by 62, and when Parramatta declared at 4 for 144, University needed 200 in 33 overs.  That seemed well beyond a team that had scored 57 in its first attempt, especially when Michael Sullivan broke through with the second ball of the innings.  But Jack Attenborough gave himself room to drive cleanly through the off side, Sharma played a handy innings and Patrick Xie applied the accelerator against his old club, cracking 60 from only 50 balls.  In the 26th over, Xie slog-swept Hayden Goulstone for six over midwicket, blocked a quicker ball, and then sent the next one even further in the same direction.  Xie and Attenborough added 104 before the excellent Sullivan removed them both, leaving it to the veterans Cummins and Mortimer to see University home.  The shared points kept both University and Parramatta in the top six.  And at least 45% of Canadians missed it.

The number of the week is 35

It's early days, but the First Grade competition looks pleasingly even this season, with every club having recorded at least one win in its first four games.  Not only that, but there were some excruciatingly close finishes on Sunday.  Campbelltown-Camden was winning its game against Fairfield-Liverpool right up until it didn’t.  The Ghosts ran up 356, mostly through Bailey Abela (85), Henry Railz (71) and Imrul Kayes (56), and then Railz and Jeremy Nunan reduced Fairfield to three for 49.  For the second week running, Jaydyn Simmons carried his side’s batting almost alone, until Yuva Nishchay hung in to help add 153 for the sixth wicket.  Still, when Simmons missed a drive at Railz with his score on 143, Fairfield’s last two batsmen still needed 35 runs.  Spoiler: they got them.  Jaiveer Singh Dhanoa levelled the scores by whacking Railz through cover for four, survived a furious lbw appeal from the next delivery, and heaved the next ball past square leg to end the game.  It went the other way at Sutherland Oval, where Seamus Meaker’s 101 and 59 from Matt Rodgers allowed Sydney to set the hosts a target of 297.  Ben Roughnan and Charlie Howard took early wickets as Sutherland stumbled to 3 for 31, but Callum Barton (73) and Luke Ritchie (58) hauled Sutherland back into the game.  Last pair Flynn Parker and Will Straker were left with 35 runs to win – the same task that faced the last Fairfield pair – and had made 29 of them when Roughnan found some extra bounce to catch Parker’s outside edge.

Connor Cook went OK

Player of the Match is, usually, a deeply flawed concept: in most matches involving 22 players, any number of contributions play an important part in the outcome.  Sometimes, though, one player really does stand out.  Gordon, at sea against Usman Qadir’s leg spin, collapsed to 8 for 120 against Hawkesbury before Connor Cook turned the game on its head by belting 75 from 64 balls.  He got underway by pulling two short balls from Aarush Soni for four each, and then heaving the over-compensating full toss over wide mid-on for six.  Ryan Fletcher bowled his first six overs for just seven runs: from his next two, Cook drove and swiped five boundaries.  Even so, at 1 for 54 chasing 201, Hawkesbury looked well-placed.  But Joe Pocklington broke through, and Cook chipped in with his off-breaks, taking 3-40.  Pocklington ended up with 5-30, which in any other game might have been the standout performance.  Not this time.

Param Uppal is in form

Param Uppal belongs to that small, select group of cricketers who you have forgotten played for New South Wales.  Uppal was only 19 when he played two Sheffield Shield matches towards the back end of the 2017-18 season, at that time when selectors got excited about the idea of picking players on the basis of how good they might be four years later.  Uppal didn’t fail, exactly – he reached twenty three times, and bowled tightly – but nor did he do quite enough to demand another chance.  He might be worth another look now.  So far this season, for Randwick-Petersham, he has 533 runs at 106.60, with three centuries.  He still bowls: 14 wickets at 18.57.  On the weekend, he set up a big win over St George with a polished 164 not out.  It’s just possible that Uppal has actually turned out to be as good as the selectors thought he would be.  If only he were still 19.

Sometimes, cricket makes no obvious sense

If you ever have to explain cricket to someone, you might start by telling them what a run is, and then point out that the team that scores the most runs wins.  At that point, probably, you’d get diverted into explaining draws, but you get the drift.  Anyway, at Trumper Park on Saturday, Easts scored 9 for 201 from 36 overs (Nick Taylor hitting 79), and Northern District lost its last wicket from the last ball of the 36th over, when Mitchell Brooks was run out with the score on 200.  So the result, of course, was a tie.  That happened because rain shortened the Easts innings, and the application of the DLS formula adjusted the winning target by one run.  Try explaining that to 45% of Canadians.

Five Things We Learned from Round 4

It’s swooping season

The feelgood story of the week came from Coogee Oval on Sunday, where Western Suburbs upset the home side to take out the Kingsgrove Sports T20 title.  Feelgood because it’s the Magpies’ first premiership at First Grade level since they won the Rothman’s Cup (a limited-overs knockout competition) all the way back in 1974-75. 

For about half the game, things seemed to be going to script.  Jack Bermingham and Tom Brooks bowled well, Randwick-Petersham never quite broke loose, and no-one scored more than Param Uppal’s 41, but a late flurry from Uppal and Riley Ayre peeled 44 runs from the last three overs of the innings, and 7 for 181 looked like a healthy score.  It looked even better when Harjas Singh swatted the third ball of Wests’ innings cleanly, but straight to Eknoor Singh at fine leg.  That brought Jim Psarakis in to join Josh Philippe for the decisive partnership of the match – 136 in 13 overs.  Philippe is a high-class player; he stands still and tall, seems to have a bit of extra time, and got the chase rolling with a couple of sweetly-timed boundaries from Daya Singh’s bowling.  His 64 from 37 balls was a key innings.  But he was outlasted, and upstaged, by Psarakis, who needed only 53 balls for his 83 not out (against his former club).  Perhaps the crucial part of the game came when Philippe and Psarakis took to Riley Ayre, who often seemed unhittable in earlier matches.  Philippe launched him over the fence twice in his first over, and Ayre never settled into his rhythm after that.  In the end, it wasn’t even close: Wests romped home with seven wickets and nine balls to spare.

Fun fact: back in 1974-75, Western Suburbs awarded only one trophy at its annual presentation night, the AK Davidson Award.  Five Things attended a Wests presentation night a few years ago, and watching one player after another walk up to collect a trophy, we remarked to the Wests president that there seemed to be a lot more trophies these days.  “Yeah”, was the reply, “imagine what we’ll do if we ever win anything.” 

They don’t have to imagine now.

Jaydyn Simmons got in the way of a record

There seemed to be two games going on at Rosedale Oval, the one in which Jaydyn Simmons was batting, and the other one.  Ross Pawson and Charlie Anderson both extracted tennis-ball bounce from the pitch, bowled a disciplined fourth-stump line, and watched the wickets tumble.  The first seven Fairfield batsmen dismissed managed three runs between them – Brent Williams’ three, and six ducks.  Maybe Dhanvi Vemulapalli was unlucky – he got one from Addison Sherriff that seemed to skid through low.  Anyway, after 15.3 overs, Fairfield was 7 for 19, of which Simmons had scored 14.  He got to fifty in the 25th over, clubbing Charlie Anderson high over square leg for 6, and when he chipped a slower ball to mid on in the same over, he’d made 51 of his team’s total of 69.  It’s impossible (but fun) to imagine what the score would have been if he’d been dismissed early.  Northern District cantered to a comfortable victory, but it’s impossible to fault Simmons, who added another fifty in the second innings.

That one’s for Gary Pratt…

It’s hard not to imagine the Mosman selection process as some kind of elaborate revenge for the 2005 Ashes series, which gets replayed endlessly on English TV as if it were the only series played since 1877 that actually counts.  Anyway, the son of former England captain Michael Vaughan – all-rounder Archie – has turned up at Mosman this season.  Archie Vaughan: opens the batting for England Under-19s; plays first-class cricket for Somerset.  In the county championship last season, he hit 80 against Sussex and took 6-96 bowling his off-spin against Hampshire.  And that, apparently, is enough to get you a game in Mosman’s seconds.

Actually, Mosman’s selectors could argue they got it right: First Grade chased down 400 to beat Randwick-Petersham, and Vaughan didn’t set things on fire in Seconds, taking 1 for 44 and scoring seven.  It’s probably a good thing he knocked out 51 not out in the second innings: it might have saved him from finding out that Brett Elliott captains Mosman’s thirds.

Jack Feilen plays First Grade now

The highlight of UTS North Sydney’s win over Campbelltown was a debut 86 by opener Jack Feilen, who has spent three seasons hauling his way up from Fifth Grade.  Feilen started 2023-24 in Fifths, was promoted after the first game, and reached Thirds with about a third of the season remaining.  He spent all of last season opening in Seconds, where he consistently reached twenty or thirty without building on his starts.  This season, though, he earned promotion with 64 against Parramatta and 90 against Manly.  If you could pick a place to make your First Grade debut as a batsman, Bon Andrews Oval (flat pitch, small boundaries) would be high on the list.  But Campbelltown’s batters failed to cash in, posting only 202 and leaving the North Sydney openers with a tricky period to navigate before stumps.  Finn Nixon-Tomko got things moving by carving Henry Railz to the fence at point, and the left-handed Feilen hit his first ball in the top grade – a loosener from Jake Scott – behind square for two runs.  The second delivery, also on a full length, was punched through mid off for four.  Feilen looked composed and well-organised, and he reached fifty from only 62 balls, cutting Harjapan Singh to deep point for a single.  His partnership with Nixon-Tomko was worth 93, and when he was second man out for 86, Feilen had faced 117 balls and hit 13 fours.

It’s not over til it’s over

Weird game of the week was at Marrickville Oval where, in the first two innings, 18 wickets fell for 401 runs, 107 of which were scored by Sydney University’s newly-promoted Ed Shand, who was making his debut in Third Grade.  Manly crashed to 6 for 128 before Jack Melchiore (81) and George Cumming (56) dragged their side up to 200, when Sam Webber declared nine down.  That looked like an optimistic declaration when Ollie Meadows and Shand compiled a rapid opening stand of 81.  Webber himself grabbed three wickets to turn the game into a contest, but at 3 for 180, there looked to be only one possible result.  But then Cumming had Shand caught by Brodie McDowell, and from 4 for 193, the Students lost five wickets for five runs in a chaotic collapse.  It was left to last batsman Darcy Manners to knock off the three runs needed for a one-wicket victory, in a game that had more momentum shifts than anyone had a right to expect.

Five Things We Learned from Round 3

And then there were four

The four teams still standing in the Kingsgrove Sports T20 are Western Suburbs, Randwick-Petersham, Manly and Bankstown.  Unluckiest man of the quarter-finals was Northern Districts’ Lachlan Shaw, who exploded out of the blocks with 75 from only 32 balls, steering his side to a very competitive 7-193.  Bad weather then reduced Bankstown’s target to 64 off 7, which was reached thanks to Angus Campbell’s 29 from 13.  Manly bowled immaculately to defend a par score against Sydney University.  Wests befuddled Fairfield with leg-spin, Tom Brooks and Ethan Jamieson each claiming three wickets, and then Harjased them into submission (22 balls, seven sixes and 61 runs).  Harjas Singh celebrated his selection in the NSW Second XI by lashing Luke Hodges for three successive sixes, and Wests had more than 8 overs to spare in the chase.  Randwick-Petersham contained Mosman to 8-159, and had reached 75 without loss from 32 balls when play ended – almost double the par score on DLS.  Finals day is next Sunday.

Jordan Watson is seeing them well

Penrith has had a mixed start to the season, but the undoubted high point has been the form of Jordan Watson.  Watson has scored runs consistently in First Grade over the last three seasons, but without quite reaching his potential and without posting a century.  Now, though, his last four innings have been 37 not out, 85, 85 and 108 not out – 315 runs for twice out.  His breakthrough hundred steered Penrith to a tight win over Sydney, who posted a competitive 247 batting first, and then claimed two early wickets.  First with Ryan Gibson, and then with support from Adam Bayliss, Watson carried Penrith to victory with eight balls to spare.  Watson, a tall right-hander, is playing this season with admirable simplicity.  If the ball’s up, he drives; the short ones, he cuts and pulls; anything on a length is blocked or worked away.  With Ryan Gibson running into form, Penrith’s bowlers should have plenty of runs to work with.

Sometimes old school works

Sydney University’s chase against Blacktown on Saturday reminded older observers of the early days of 50-over cricket when, instead of frantic bashing in the powerplay, teams began their innings steadily, built partnerships and kept wickets in hand for a late charge.  Blacktown’s 6 for 270, built around Arthav Deshpande’s second century of the season, looked around par.  Jack Attenborough (right-handed, tall) and John Rogers (left-handed, stocky) gave University a solid platform with an opening stand of 106, after which Yuvraj Sharma played busily for 44, but the Students were always slightly behind the required rate.  Tim Cummins (40 from31) applied the accelerator, but University still needed more than eight an over before Cameron Frendo cracked Mandar Mariguddi straight down the ground for six.  Frendo wrapped up the chase by smashing Kunj Changela for 4 and 6 in the final over.

Pick your cliché: was it scoreboard pressure, or not over til it’s over?

Illogical game of the week was at Mark Taylor Oval, where Northern Districts Seconds were down and out three times, yet somehow won.  Hawkesbury’s Lachlan Boyd broke through in the third over, and when off-spinner Riley Wilson grabbed two wickets in as many overs, the home side had slumped to 8 for 107 in the 32nd over.  But George Furrer dug in, while the left-handed Campbell Smith chanced his arm, and the ninth wicket boosted the score by 51 runs.  Still, 158 is no sort of a target at MTO and, even though Jack Cincotta took three early wickets, Lovish Sethi and Udey Gill took the Hawks to 3 for 94: 65 needed, seven wickets in hand, almost 25 overs to go.  Then Smith, whose left-arm spin had been punished early on, got one to scurry through and beat Gill’s pull shot, and won another lbw decision with his next delivery when he beat Jayden Wheeler in flight.  Furrer, a tall left-arm seamer with plenty of First Grade experience, then crashed a full ball into Riley Wilson’s pads and Hawkesbury had lost three for one in four balls.  Even so, they recovered well enough to reach 6 for 144, needing only 15 to win, before another dramatic collapse, as the last four wickets tumbled for only five runs.  It’s not every game when you get to use your get-out-of-jail-free card three times.

Frankie Nicklin looks ready to step up

Frankie Nicklin has spent the first part of the WNCL season travelling around as an unused squad member for NSW, but marked her first club appearance of the season with a dominant display for Sydney University against Gordon.  After Gordon made a lively start, Nicklin pegged things back by darting a quicker ball past Ami Campbell’s reverse sweep.  Nicklin bowls her off-breaks from a short run with an economical action, but she’s very accurate and varies her flight cleverly.  She lured Elsa Hunter into an indiscreet swipe, and wrapped up the tail in her second spell to finish with 4 for 18 – as well as taking two catches.  She then made sure of the DLS-reduced run chase with a calm 45 from 32 balls, driving strongly off both the front and back foot. 

Five Things We Learned from Round Two

There’s a backyard somewhere in Ashfield that’s full of white cricket balls

One moment, among so many spectacular highlights, really stands out from Harjas Singh’s phenomenal innings against Sydney.  It came in the 35th over.  Singh had just reached his hundred, from 74 balls, by swinging left-armer Joe Davies over midwicket for six, then celebrated by pulling the next ball for another six.  Davies responded with a pretty decent delivery, just short of a length, just outside off stump, angling in.  Singh leaned back, waited for the ball, and played the most delicate dab to third man for two.  It was a stroke that said, you’re watching a batter here, not just someone who stands tall and whacks the ball.

Of course, there was also quite a lot of standing tall and whacking the ball.  Singh’s innings has gone viral: if you have access to the internet, we are telling you things you already know.  There are people in Honduras who already know that it’s the third-highest innings ever played in Sydney Premier cricket (behind Victor Trumper’s 335 and Phil Jaques’ 321).  Singh’s 314 is the highest individual score ever recorded in a Premier Cricket 50-over match in Australia.  His 35 sixes also set a record: several balls disappeared over that redbrick wall at Pratten Park and now nestle in backyard shrubbery.  One estimate is that ten balls were lost – we gave up counting after six.

A few things might have escaped you, though.  High scores in 50-over games are usually made by openers, who have more time.  Singh didn’t go in until the tenth over of the innings: he had, in effect, only forty overs to bat.  And he started slowly.  Even though he hit the seventh ball he faced over the fence, he made only 8 runs from his first 13 balls.  His fifty came from 32 balls, which is fast, but not extraordinary.  The remarkable acceleration came late in the innings.  He hit three 6s in the 35th over, three more in the 36th, and five in the 37th.  With three overs remaining, his score was 239, but in the last three overs of the innings, he hit twelve more sixes.  Towards the end of the innings, he turned down several easy singles so that he could stay at the striker’s end and keep clearing the fence.

Joe Davies, incidentally, was making his First Grade debut.  Normally, you’d be pretty happy with your debut if you got through your ten overs and picked up two wickets.  It’s a safe bet that, no matter how long his First Grade career lasts, the worst part is already over. 

You might have read that Singh’s 35 sixes were a record for New South Wales Premier Cricket – remember what the previous record was?  It happened only last season, when Brynmor Mendel cleared the fence 23 times playing Second Grade for Manly against… Sydney.  It’s slightly curious that not one Sydney player appeared in both those matches.

One last thing: oddly, Sydney didn’t bowl all that badly.  We can’t recall Singh playing a single orthodox drive: he wasn’t offered up half-volleys.  There were a few full tosses, and 26 wides is way too many, but if there’s a criticism to be made of the bowling, it’s that it was a bit predictable: Sydney’s bowlers kept sending down straight, good-length deliveries which fell into the arc of Singh’s hitting swing.  They might have mixed things up a bit more.  Although, the way Singh played, it may not have mattered.

The Students have momentum

Sydney University has started the season in excellent white-ball form: after sweeping its four T20 matches, it began the 50-over competition with a convincing win over Penrith.  Tim Cummins was at the centre of it: he began the day as the tenth-highest run-scorer for the Students in First Grade, and leap-frogged Alan Crompton, Shane Stanton and Ian Fisher to move up to seventh.  He did it by thumping 93 from only 85 balls, including four 6s – a performance that would have been eye-catching on any other day.  Yuvraj Sharma contributed a brisk 52, Bailey Lidgard landed some clean blows, and a target of 291 always looked beyond Penrith after Darcy Mooney struck three times in his first four overs and Kieran Tate removed the dangerous Ryan Gibson.  Cummins enjoyed a big day out against his former club, completing five dismissals behind the stumps – the last of which was his 600th in all grades of Premier Cricket.

Today’s lesson is, it’s not over til it’s over

It was a busy day for Sutherland’s Lucas Sheehy, who began by playing Thirds at Sutherland Oval, drove north to watch his two brothers play Fourths at Beauchamp, and ended up fielding as a substitute in Firsts after Andrew Deitz injured his knee.  That meant that he played a part in the illogical game of the week, played at the Shore school ground at Northbridge, where Sutherland scraped together only 164 against Gordon.  When a drinks break was taken after 18 overs, Gordon was 1-86 in reply: 79 runs needed from 192 balls with nine wickets in hand.  Three balls after the break, Mich Lole (who had looked good for his 47) played around a straight ball from Luke Ritchie and was hit in front.  Hardly a crisis, though: Axel Cahlin and Nick Stapleton took the score to 97 – 68 needed with eight wickets standing.  Spinner Ryan Cattle turned things interesting in the 22nd over, when he bowled Nick Stapleton and had Jack Shelley lbw on the sweep.  Tharindu Kaushal then removed Cahlin, and Gordon fell in a heap: the ninth wicket fell at 136.  At that point, the odds favoured Sutherland, but last man Bryce Cook dug in to support Matthew Wright, and Gordon closed in on its target.  Gordon started to believe when eight runs came from the 42nd over: one to tie, two to win.  With the field in to save one, Wright tried to hit Oscar Oborn-Corby through the on side, and the leading edge ballooned wide of mid-off, where Adam Whatley made good ground to match the catch.  Sutherland, by the narrowest margin.

Upsets happen

It’s a sign of a healthy competition that not every match turned out quite as you’d expect.  A revamped Eastern Suburbs looked too strong for Blacktown, and posted a healthy 7 for 258; but Atharv Despande’s 146 not out guided Blacktown home in the final over.  An outstanding spell by Jake Scott helped Campbelltown to a win over the premiers, Parramatta.  It’s unlikely that many people were backing Hawkesbury when they were 3 for 17 chasing 308 against North Sydney, but Jack James blasted a hundred against his old club and the Hawks waltzed home with almost ten overs to spare.

No country for young men

Jarrad Burke, helping out Fairfield-Liverpool as Fifth Grade captain, probably wasn’t expecting to come across many other players his age (he’s 44) this season.  He looks positively juvenile, though, next to his Bankstown counterpart, Phil Melville, who plays in the Australian Over-55 team and first appeared in Premier Cricket (for Mosman) in 1989.  Experience clearly has a value: Melville’s three overs for nine runs was a pretty good return in a T20 match, though not quite as impressive, or decisive, as Burke’s 3-13.  There was a similar match-up at Cahill Park, where Simon Waddington’s Manly accounted for a University of NSW team including the ageless (but nonetheless quite old) Danny Bhandari.

Five Things We Learned from Round One. Or Five? It's complicated.

We’ve been playing for five minutes, and we have our first finalists

Cricket seasons follow a different rhythm these days.  For more than a century, cricket began in Sydney on the last Saturday in September, at which point the teams would find themselves poised halfway through their opening two-day game.  But now, after the last weekend in September, we already know the first batch of clubs who’ll be playing finals cricket this season.

When the final preliminary round began in the Kingsgrove Sports T20 competition on Sunday, there were already four certain finalists: Randwick-Petersham in Pool A, Sydney University in Pool B, Western Suburbs in Pool C and Bankstown in Pool D.  The other places looked like this.  In Pool A, Fairfield had the protection of a ridiculously high net run rate, which would have kept them above St George even if they lost to Hawkesbury.  As it was, they tied, at which point we learned that the preliminary rounds of this competition turn out to be just about the only T20 tournament in the world not to use a super over.  In Pool B, Northern District advanced by beating Campbelltown.  In Pool C, there was a straight shoot-out between Easts and Parramatta for second place, which Parramatta won through a Nick Bertus masterclass and a late onslaught from Owen Simonsen.  Pool D was tight.  Three teams finished on two wins each, but Manly won through on net run rate, which was high mostly because Charlie Stobo thrashed 82 from 29 balls against North Sydney on Saturday.  How will any of this work out?  Don’t ask us: predictions are for mugs.

You know, we used to have to wait until March for this kind of fun.

The Students are finding ways to win

Sydney University is back in the Kingsgrove T20 finals after winning all of its four preliminary matches.  They followed more or less the same formula in every game: bat first, post a total, defend.  That defence relies strongly on Kieran Tate’s white-ball skills, as well as canny left-arm spin from Cameron Frendo and Bailey Lidgard, and the handy addition of Henry Snyman’s deceptively nude-looking off-spin.  They’re also showing signs of winning matches they probably shouldn’t.  On Sunday, Will Salzmann miscued a pull shot to mid-on from the first ball of the match against Penrith.  After 13 balls had been bowled, University had lost three for 14.  Tim Cummins and Damien Mortimer put together the best partnership of the innings, but it still took a last wicket stand of 22 to haul the Students up to 154, which seemed well under par.  Nick Adams made a statement of intent by driving the first ball of Penrith’s innings down the ground for 4, but another drive three balls later deflected from Kieran Tate’s hand and into the stumps, catching Ryan Gibson (who hadn’t faced a ball) out of his ground.  That didn’t seem to matter when Adams and Jordan Watson peeled 54 runs from the next five overs.  Watson played an excellent innings, and after 12 overs, Penrith needed 55 runs from 48 balls with eight wickets in hand.  Traditional wisdom says: Penrith can’t lose from there, and University could win only by taking wickets.  But even though wickets didn’t fall, University persisted.  Lidgard bowled Charlie Griffith in an over that allowed only four singles.  Snyman sent down an over that yielded only a four and a single.  Yuvraj Sharma came on to bowl leg-breaks and induced Adam Bayliss to hole out to long-on.  Only eight runs came from overs 17 and 18, bowled by Sharma and Frendo.  Suddenly, Penrith needed 24 runs from the last two overs.  Watson and Liam Doddrell each whacked a 6 in the 19th over, which left Penrith needing 11 to win from the last set of six.  Tate produced a nerveless final over, and when Watson was run out attempting a second run, Chris De Krester needed to hit the last ball of the innings over the fence to win the game.  His hefty swing produced only a single, giving University the win by only four runs – even though the Students didn’t even bat out their 20 overs, and Penrith lost only four wickets. 

We’re screwed, but the cricket goes on

Anyway, last week, the atmospheric temperature above the South Pole jumped by 30 degrees.  If that sounds uninteresting, pause for a moment and consider how great the difference is between freezing point and 30 degrees.  This is a phenomenon known as Sudden Stratospheric Warming, and it’s why temperatures in Sydney were so high last week.  It’s why, in the last week of September, cricket matches started in western Sydney early in the morning with temperatures already climbing towards the high twenties.  SSW tends to produce hot westerly winds, which bring hot and dry weather.  It’s sometimes associated, over a longer period, with drought.

If you’re aged, say, twenty-five or less, this is pretty bad news.  You’re inheriting a warming planet, governed by people without the will to do much about it (that distant, flatulent sound you hear is President Trump denouncing all this as fake news).  Silver lining, though! – fewer washouts in the cricket this season.  You’re welcome.

He’s an answer to a good trivia question, but also more

Today’s fun fact: since the first one-day international was played in Melbourne in 1970-71, 249 players have appeared in ODIs for Australia.  Of those, only twenty players have been given just one cap.  Eleven of them played in or before 1980, when ODIs were fairly rare: players like Bill Lawry appeared in Australia’s first ODI but retired before another was staged.  And Riley Meredith and Ben Dwarshuis might yet be given another opportunity.  Between 2009 and 2021, only one player was chosen for Australia in ODI cricket and dropped after just one opportunity.

That player, of course, was Queensland’s left-hander Sam Heazlett (against New Zealand at Auckland in 2017), and if you’d been at Hurstville Oval on Saturday, you’d have a fair idea of why he was chosen in the first place.  Opening for St George against Sydney in the morning, he smashed 91 from 50 balls.  He actually sort-of-defended his first two balls, before flicking the third behind square leg to the boundary.  But 18 runs came from the second over, bowled by leg spinner Aryan Malik, including three 4s and a back foot slash-drive-cut in front of point that cleared the boundary.  Heazlett and Blake Nikitaras peeled 142 runs from the first 11.5 overs, effectively ending the contest, and Heazlett was out to the last ball of the 18th over, when he miscued a drive to long off.  In the afternoon, against Hawkesbury, he was even faster, blazing 45 from 19 balls.  St George – with Nikitaras, Heazlett and Moises Henriques, looks formidable with the bat, but oddly a poor opening day cost it a place in the T20 finals.  There are plenty of bowlers who will not be unhappy with that outcome.

Someone needs to buy his captain the occasional beer

On the subject of St George, spare a thought for Alex Parthenis.  On Sunday, the part-time tweaker took 3 for 10 in the Poidevin-Gray match against Sutherland.  As a result, his bowling average went up, because in the previous PGs match, he had taken five for nine against Hawkesbury.  So in the season so far, he has eight wickets at an average of 2.38.  Does that get him a bowl in Second Grade?  It does not.  On Saturday, University of NSW ran up 4 for 165 from its 20 overs while Parthenis’ spinning finger sat buy, twitching idly.  Which, in one way, is to be expected, since in his whole season in Second Grade last year, Parthenis was allowed just one over (even though, in his one spell in PGs, he took four for 28).  It will be interesting to see what he needs to do to get a bowl in Seconds: the traditional method involves buying several post-match beers for the captain.

Five Things We Learned from Opening Day

Jack Wood is seeing them OK

Hawkesbury bowled 120 balls to Randwick-Petersham on Saturday, and eleven of them – just one shy of 10% - went over the boundary for six.  Chief executioner was Jack Wood, whose batting at the top of the order creates a fairly simple equation: generally, if he faces close to 60 balls, Randwick-Petersham wins.  On Saturday, Wood reached his century with a hard-run two from the final delivery of the innings, and his 101 not out was studded with 8 fours and 6 sixes.  The bowlers struggled with the incredibly windy conditions, but that didn’t detract from a perfectly-paced innings.  Wood’s aggression at the top of the order was critical to Randwick-Petersham’s white ball strategy last season, and with two wins from the opening day of the season, the club looks well set to reach the T20 playoffs yet again.

Herft’s here

He’s 22 years old, Melbourne-born.  He’s opened the batting with David Warner and Jason Roy, shared the middle order with Chris Lynn, Beau Webster and Rassie van der Dussen.  He’s played professionally in more than half a dozen countries.  He’s the international cricketer you’ve never heard of.  Welcome to the distinctly 21st-century cricket career of Kobe Herft.  Over the last few years, Herft has played for the Cayman Bay Stingrays in the Max60 Caribbean tournament, for the Chennai Braves in the Abu Dhabi T10, for the Bulawayo Braves in the Zimbabwe T10 and for the Brampton Wolves in the Global T20 Canada.  Anywhere where people bash a white ball around for abbreviated periods, Herft is likely to turn up.  If there’s an Albanian Super Gjashtë six-over competition next year, expect Herft to be there.  More conventionally, he has appeared in Victorian Premier Cricket, in the Birmingham League, for the Warwickshire and Sussex 2nd XIs and even for the Gentlemen of Essex.  On Saturday, Herft made his first appearance in NSW Premier Cricket, for Sydney University against Northern District.  He didn’t get much to do, but could yet make an important contribution to the Students’ white ball campaign.

There’s another McLean at Gordon

Readers of a certain age may recall a young batsman from Lismore bashing Grade bowlers around for Gordon in the early 1990s.  No, not the left-hander who went off to play in Perth, the other one – Paul McLean.  Five Things still shudders at the memory of McLean smacking the ball around to all parts of Killara Oval, so it’s some consolation that now a new generation of bowlers gets to enjoy the feeling of being smashed around by a McLean from Lismore.  Rory McLean, son of Paul, has been involved with Gordon for a couple of seasons, and made his First Grade debut in the T20 double-header on Saturday, announcing his arrival by carving 53 not out from only 25 balls against Western Suburbs.  Showing no sign of nerves, McLean played a neat square drive (a shot he seems to like) to get off the mark first ball.  He produced a nice slog-sweep for four from Josh Clarke, used his feet well to alter the length, and whacked anything short, including a bizarre slower-ball-bouncer-gone-wrong from Michael Dawson, which disappeared over the mid-wicket boundary.  He looks like a player to watch.

There’s no place like home

Despite McLean’s impressive debut, Wests outplayed Gordon on Saturday, largely because leg-spinner Tom Brooks took two for 16 in his four overs.  Brooks (back from a stint in Melbourne) is part of an interesting trend this season, of players returning to the clubs they recently left.  Also back from Melbourne is Arjun Nair, who was excellent for Fairfield-Liverpool with both bat and ball.  Justin Avendano, a Bear once more, steered North Sydney to victory over Bankstown by thumping 99 not out from 70 balls, six of which he hit over the fence.  Matt Rodgers, back at Sydney, didn’t get to bat, but was happy to bank the win over Hawkesbury.  And Harry Conway, returning from Adelaide, was back at Eastern Suburbs.  One exception to the rule is Charlie Stobo, now with Manly after his time in Perth: it will take quite a while to adjust to a Stobo playing for someone other than Gordon.

The Bees don’t give up

University of NSW has endured any number of setbacks on and off the field over the last few years, yet somehow the Bees find ways to remain competitive.  On Saturday, their pursuit of 166 against Mosman appeared doomed when the eighth wicket fell to a run out with 12 runs still needed from nine balls – three of them to be bowled by Shield player Jake Nisbet.  Declan White hit his first ball for four and then two singles were scrambled: six needed from Jake Turner’s final over.  Turner’s first ball dismissed Jack Hardwick-Owen, but Nikhil Thokola squeezed the second away for a single, and White smashed the third over the boundary to seal the points.  Special mention to Tasmania’s own Nivethan Radakrishnan, who took two cheap wickets for the Bees, and in the process appeared for his fifth club in NSW Premier Cricket.

Five Things We Learned from Round 16

It's St George against the west

It was a weird final round, with four of the five leading sides failing to win.  A draw against Mosman was enough for Parramatta to clinch the minor premiership after St George tumbled to a loss in the local derby against Sutherland, even though Kurtis Patterson weighed in with 93.  Wests went down to Hawkesbury, but had enough of a cushion to remain in the top six, while Hawkesbury grabbed sixth place after Randwick-Petersham were held to a draw by Gordon.  All of which means that the final six consists of St George and five clubs from western Sydney – Parramatta, Fairfield-Liverpool, Western Suburbs Hawkesbury and Penrith.  Fun fact: apart from St George, the most easterly club in the First Grade finals is the one called Western Suburbs.

Tym Crawford has our favourite stat of the season

Gordon captain Tym Crawford ended the season with 607 runs at an average of 30.35, which is nothing like his spectacular season of 2023-24, but… perfectly respectable.  Plenty of First Grade batsmen would happily settle for those numbers.  But that’s not what’s interesting.  For one thing, over the course of the season, Crawford scored his runs at better than a run a ball – even though his overall strike rate dropped to 104 after he lingered for 72 balls while scoring 42 against Randwick-Petersham in the final round.  Even better – he reached six hundred runs in the season without ever once scoring fifty.  His highest score was 49 against Easts, and he also managed two 48s, two 47s, a 46 and a 42.  We can’t find any previous occasion on which a batsman has failed to reach 50 in a Sydney First Grade season, but still made 600 runs.  Add that to his strike rate and it’s possible that no one has ever played so many fast but shortish innings over the course of a season.

Tim Cummins hit a milestone or two

Sydney University’s finals campaign stumbled at the last hurdle, but in what felt like a rebuilding year for the club, it was an achievement to remain in contention as long as they did.  Despite that disappointment, there was plenty for the Students to celebrate at Mark Taylor Oval: Kieran Tate collected his 150th First-Grade wicket, Jack Hill added another fifty to his solid season’s work, Cameron Frendo continued his steady improvement and Max Hope signed off, in his last innings before retirement, by blasting 38 from only 14 balls.  But the game was also memorable for Tim Cummins, who caught David Lowery from Hayden Kerr’s bowling to complete his 300th dismissal behind the stumps for Sydney University.  Only the late Alan Crompton has previously reached that milestone for University.  A short while later, Cummins was in the game again, catching Corey Miller to record his 500th dismissal in First Grade – he executed 199 for Penrith between 2009 and 2017.  As well as which, he also notched his 6500th First Grade run.  For the past decade, Cummins has been one of the two or three most consistent keeper-batsmen in Sydney, and he’s now joined the very small group of players to record 500 dismissals in a Sydney career.

Cam Merchant came back

Five Things’ favourite left-handed reality TV veteran, Cam Merchant, is, his website says, a speaker, presenter, coach and mentor.  Which sounds like a lot, even before you add – number ten batsman.  We’re not sure that Merchant has ever filled that spot before, but he’s come back to help out Manly in the last couple of games of the season and somehow found himself, against Campbelltown-Camden, going in at the fall of the eighth wicket.  It was a strange game: at one end, wickets had fallen quickly, while at the other, Joel Davies was blasting the ball to all parts of the park.  Manly lost its first three wickets for only five runs; then Davies and Ahillen Beadle added 204; then six wickets fell for 43 runs.  When Davies was out for 155, Merchant was left with the dubiously reliable company of Ryan Hadley, but they both played positively and the last wicket added 72 before Merchant fell for 41 (which is also, cutely, his age).  Merchant also held onto a sharp catch at slip as Manly completed a comfortable win on the second day.

Weird game of the round was at Snape

Snape Park used to have a reputation for being one of the less reliable pitches in Sydney.  It has been a lot better in recent years, but rain had an impact on the final-round match between Easts and Bankstown.  Easts were lodged inside the top six, and Bankstown were running last, but Bankstown looked set for an upset when Easts were dismissed for only 84.  Bankstown captain, Jehan Bilimoria, did most of the damage, grabbing four wickets for only three runs.  Bankstown had a relatively straightforward task to complete the upset, but the side had reached 200 only once this season, and its batters were not high on confidence.  Three wickets went down for five runs, all to Vincent Daly; the eighth wicket went down at 38.  Amazingly, though, the innings occupied 73.4 overs.  It shouldn’t be possible for a team to bat for 73.4 overs and not chase 84, but Bankstown pulled it off.  Praneel Kavuri and Talha Khalid doggedly added 35 runs for the ninth wicket, but Steven Lewis removed Kavuri, and ten runs were still needed when Daly accounted for Khalid.  Daly finished with the absurd figures of five for 18 from 27.5 overs, while Lewis had three for 10 from 21.

Five Things e Learned from Round 15

Win and you’re in

So it’s the time of year when we get out the slide-rule and calculator and work out who needs to do what to get in to the finals.  This season, though, at least in First Grade, we could just about work it out on our fingers.  Unusually, in the final round, every team in the top six plays a team below it on the table and outside the top six – so, basically, win and you’re in.  There’s still a contest for the minor premiership: Parramatta, on 69, has the edge, but if they were to slip up against Mosman, St George (64) could pass them by beating Sutherland.  By beating Northern District last weekend, Western Suburbs (55) more or less ensured themselves of a place in the finals, although if they were to lose to Hawkesbury, you could come up with scenarios involving outrights that would have them missing out.  It’s after that, that things get interesting.  Fairfield (59) should beat North Sydney to secure its spot, but if they were to lose, and three of the five teams behind them win, they could yet miss out (which might turn on quotients).  Randwick-Petersham (51) needs to beat Gordon (47), while Gordon needs a big win and a heap of other results to fall its way.  Penrith (48) needs a win over Blacktown to hold on to sixth spot; Sydney University (also 48) needs to beat Northern District and hope that either it somehow gets its quotient above Penrith’s or that one of Randwick or Penrith loses.  Gordon and Hawkesbury (47) have legitimate hopes, but need other results to go their way – or outrights, or ties, or draws, but let’s not go there.

The top six is pretty much set in Seconds

It’s not mathematically impossible that seventh-placed Easts (50 points) could pull off an outright win over fifth-placed Bankstown (61) -but unless that happens, the top six will remain as it is, though the order could change a little.  The winner of Sydney University (72) and Northern District (67) will finish first unless Campbelltown-Camden (65) can beat sixth-placed Manly (58) outright.

Third Grade is complicated

Once you allow that outright points are possible, twelve teams still have a chance of reaching the Third Grade finals.  Parramatta (64) should clinch first place by beating Mosman, who are running 15th.  University of NSW (59) will be in the finals, and it would take a series of freak results for St George (55) to miss out.  But Hawkesbury (53), Northern District (51) and Manly (51) could all drop out if they lose.  The chasing pack includes UTS North Sydney (50), Sydney University (49), Bankstown (49) ad Gordon (48), who can all get in with a first-innings win and lucky results elsewhere, while Wests (44) and Easts (42) both need ten points and lots of luck.

Fourth Grade is close

With two days left before the finals, four teams are still in with a chance of taking first place in Fourth Grade.  Manly, Sydney University and St George are all on 67, with Parramatta six points behind.  Northern District (54) needs a win over Sydney University, or it could be overtaken by Sutherland (50), who would need to upset St George, or Mosman (49), who would need to surprise Parramatta.  University of NSW is currently sixth on 53, and would expect to see off 15th-placed Sydney to clinch a spot in the finals.

Manly is pretty good in Fifth Grade

Manly’s Fifths (76) have scored the most points of any team in the five grades, but are not yet sure of the minor premiership – if they were to slip up against Campbelltown-Camden (seventh, on 52), they could be passed by Parramatta (72), who have what looks like a less demanding game against Mosman (currently 15th).  St George (65) will be there, and Easts (55) are pretty safe, especially since they’re facing bottom-of-the-table Bankstown.  If Penrith (53) or Northern District (52) drop points, they could be passed by Fairfield (47) or even, with outright points, by University of NSW (45) or Sutherland (44).

Five Things We Learned From Round 14

Life moves pretty fast sometimes

It doesn’t seem so very long ago that Sydney University was stuck at the foot of the First Grade ladder, struggling to win a game and unable to bowl out their opponents.  In the first three rounds of the competition, the Students took only 13 wickets while leaking 842 runs.  Darcy Mooney’s bowling figures were so gruesome that, in some States, you needed to be over 18 to view them online.  Now, though, University sits in equal sixth place, out of the top six only on quotient, and its last two wins have come through defending small targets.  Mooney, with 5-28, was mainly responsible for shooting out Randwick-Petersham for just 134, as the Students defended a sub-par total of 192 at Coogee.  Mooney bowls from a fair height, and hits the seam on an awkward length around the off stump.  He made a key breakthrough early on Sunday when Ben Monetdoro closed the bat face and lobbed a leading edge into the gully, and he found a perfect line to draw an outside edge from Anthony Sams.  Kieran Tate squeezed the ball through Riley Ayre’s front-foot prod, and there was no way back from 4 for 17, Mooney cleaning up the tail after lunch.  University’s modest score owed most to Jack Hill, batting time, and some lower order defiance from Cameron Frendo, who also chipped in with two wickets.  University has perhaps the hardest run home of any team in finals contention, but at least it has momentum on its side.

We don’t do predictions.  But…

As there are already enough ways to look foolish, we don’t attempt predictions here at Five Things.  However, as a general rule of thumb we always think that teams need about 60 points to be sure of reaching the First Grade finals.  The way this year’s table looks, the magic number could be as high as 59 or as low as 54.  St George (58) beating Parramatta (59) means that the race for first place is still live, and players from both clubs should cancel any holiday plans they had for late March.  Fairfield is third on 52, but if it lost to Sydney University next round, would need to beat UTS North Sydney to secure a finals place.  Similarly, if Randwick-Petersham loses to St George in Round 15, it will need a big win over Gordon.  Wests (49) can kill off Northern District’s (43) hopes next week, although a win for the Rangers could leave the Magpies needing a big win over Hawkesbury (42) – who can stay in the hunt by beating Campbelltown next week.  Even ninth-placed Penrith (42) has a chance of reaching the finals if other results fall its way.  And, as we always say, this is the time of year when rain and outrights throw everything into chaos.

Riley Kingsell looks interesting

Bowling first at Bankstown Oval, Northern District had the better of the early exchanges: Kake Cincotta had the dangerous Ryan Felsch caught at slip from a loose drive, and left-arm dart-thrower Jonty Webb had Daniel Solway caught behind from a slower delivery.  Four wickets fell for 90 runs – but NSW Under-19 opener Riley Kingsell was still there.  Kingsell played cautiously early on; leaving anything he didn’t need to play, and scoring only ten runs from his first 35 balls.  But then he accelerated, playing some powerful strokes through the off side and bringing up his fifty (from 69 balls) with a sweetly timed drive over long on from Toby Gray.  He pulled Jon Fullagar to the midwicket fence, then drove and hooked two more boundaries in the over.  He brought up his hundred from 138 balls, plonking Gray over midwicket for another 6.  Altogether, his 149 occupied 195 deliveries, and set up Bankstown’s winning total.  Kingsell looks calm, well-organised and powerful: it will be interesting to watch his progress.

Brock Fitton is on a roll

Last season, Mosman’s opening batsman Brock Fitton averaged 11 in First Grade.  This year, he’s getting the hang of it.  His 92 against Penrith back in Round 10 was notable for containing twice as many 6s (four) as 4s, and then he broke through with a maiden First Grade hundred – 164 against St George in Round 13.  And, sure, these were second-innings runs, but they were second innings runs against a strong attack pressing for an outright, so not to be sniffed at.  Anyway, no sooner had Fitton broken through with his first hundred than he added another, as Mosman chased 338 to beat Campbelltown.  Fitton set us the chase with an excellent 121: he has certainly learned how to make the most of the short boundaries at Allan Border Oval, which he cleared six times.  He drives cleanly, and whacks anything short through the on side.  His second successive hundred helped Mosman to squeak home with the last pair at the crease, a rare bright moment for the Whales, who dragged themselves out of last place on the ladder.

Weird game of the week was at Don Dawson

Fairfield-Liverpool’s Third Grade opener, Raghavan Selvaratnam, made a pretty good start to the game against Penrith.  He whacked four boundaries, racing to 20 from 20 balls.  Then he got out, and about an hour later, the game was over.  Fairfield lost eight wickets for 13 runs to Riley Brandl (four for 6) and the vastly experienced Pete Gregersen (four for 8).  It then took Penrith only a ball more than ten overs to knock off the runs, without losing a wicket.  Wides were the second highest scorer in each innings.  And, which could well be a record, even though Fairfield sent down only 10.1 overs, they managed to use seven bowlers to do it.  Plus, for added weirdness, even after that result, Fairfield remains two places above Penrith on the competition ladder.

Five Things We Learned from Round 13

The Students stayed in the picture

The race for finals places has reached an intriguing stage, with only two points separating four teams in the battle for the sixth spot.  Sydney University kept in touch with a tight win that leap-frogged the Students over their opponents, Campbelltown-Camden, on the table.  University is in a rebuilding stage, but this win was secured by its old hands.  Damien Mortimer played a sensational innings of 80, full of crisp drives and clean pulls, going past 7000 First Grade runs in the process.  Tim Cummins was as efficient as ever behind the stumps, and in front of them scored another vital half-century, while Kieran Tate regularly picked up crucial wickets by attacking the stumps.  But perhaps the best and strangest performance of the match came from Campbelltown’s Jake Scott, who began by bowling tidy but unspectacular leg-breaks before lengthening his run and bowling with unsettling pace and bounce.  He ended up with 6-28, and didn’t really deserve to be on the losing side. 

Anthony Sams has a record

It took him 16 years to do it, but last weekend Randwick-Petersham’s Anthony Sams created a piece of history when (by catching Gordon’s Joey Gillard during the Limited Overs semi-final) he collected his 543rd First Grade victim behind the stumps.  That made him the most successful wicket-keeper in the history of the competition, passing the record set by St George’s immaculate Ernie Laidler.  If 16 years sounds like a long time to wait for a record, spare a thought for Laidler, whose career for St George spanned the 30 years from 1928-29 to 1957-58.  Laidler, who had the benefit of keeping wicket to Bill O’Reilly and Ray Lindwall, was considered good enough to play for New South Wales, but was chosen only twice – in a wartime fixture against Australian Services, and in a one-day match against Fiji, seventeen years later.  Perhaps his batting held him back: although he scored a First Grade century, his lengthy career produced only 2859 runs at an average just below 13.  No-one could say that of Sams, who has recently passed 9000 First Grade runs.  His reward for all that has been a single Futures League match, which feels a touch insufficient.

Parramatta and Randwick-Petersham are in a final

It’s Anthony Sams Week here on Five Things, because it’s impossible to ignore his 78 from 80 balls in the Limited Overs semi-final against Gordon.  Four overs into the game, Randwick-Petersham was two for 13 and Gordon probably felt they had a decent chance – but that was snuffed out by a third wicket stand of 151 between Sams and Austin Waugh.  Waugh produced his best innings of the season, accelerating towards the end to reach 139 from 147 balls.  He brought up his century by launching Jack Shelley over wide mid-on for one of his five 6s.  Gordon chased hard, but after Tym Crawford fell to Riley Ayre in the thirteenth over, the innings subsided.  Luke Callanan wrapped things up with a hat-trick.  There was a closer contest at Old Kings, where Parramatta scraped home against St George.  Once again, Parramatta’s seam attack controlled the game: Michael Sullivan found Blake Nikitaras’ outside edge with the fifth ball of the game, drew Ed Pollock into a skied slog-sweep and won an lbw decision against Nick Stapleton.  At that stage St George was 3 for 13.  Matt Rodgers battled hard for 65, and after 36 overs, St George had reached 4 for 120, with the prospect of posting a decent target.  But Ryan Gupta’s direct hit from midwicket ran out Rodgers as he attempted a second run, and Kyle Thornley removed Tom Vane-Tempest and Adam Singleton with his next two deliveries.  Chasing 132, Parramatta looked comfortable at 2 for 72, but Peter Francis and Connor O’Riordan bowled so well that when the ninth wicket fell, 17 runs were still required.  Ryan Gupta swished unsuccessfully at Luke Bartier, then nurdled a ball behind square for two; Isaac Earl missed a cut at Stapleton, then chipped past midwicket for two; and, critically, five leg-side wides brought the target within reach.  Gupta survived a huge appeal for lbw, and then in the 48th over, Earl clipped the winning run through the on side.  It may not be the last time these two sides see each other in a final this season.

NDs had a big win in Green Shield

There was less joy for Parramatta in the Green Shield final, which was one-way traffic from the moment when Northern District won the toss and chose to bat.  Lachlan Bartlett and Zach Haddin dominated from the outset, sharing an opening stand of 150 in 28.1 overs.  The first over of the match was a 12-baller, featuring five wides, a no-ball and Bartlett’s slogged 4 from the free hit.  Altogether, Parramatta sent down 21 wides and 7 no-balls – far too much generosity for a final.  Bartlett and Haddin have been the basis for ND’s success in the tournament, and although Bartlett fell for 84, Haddin was still there at the end of the 50 overs, unbeaten on 112 from 137 balls.  Parramatta chased gamely, but never looked in the hunt, and Bartlett added three wickets to his impressive innings.

Brynmor Mendel hits it a fair way

You are, let’s say, Sydney’s Second Grade team.  You’re playing Manly, you bowl first, and the pitch is a lively green.  Three balls into the innings, Ellis Sherriff has Lachlan Coyte caught behind.  Then Sherriff catches Matt Brewster’s slash at James Caparelli, and traps Jordan Daly in front of his stumps.  It’s 3 for 18.  The new batsman has a name – Brynmor Mendel – that sounds like a minor character in Lord of the Rings.  He’s a chunky left-hander who  hasn’t scored a fifty in his last nine matches. Are you worried?  You are not.  You’re on top.  You’re still on top, actually, when Mendel has faced six balls and has only a single to show for it.  At which point, the game takes an irrational turn.  Mendel picks up a ball from Sherriff that’s outside off stump and not all that short, and pumps it over midwicket for 6.  In Sherriff’s next over, Mendel cuts a 4, misses with a wild swish, and clips a leg-stump half-volley for 6 with little more than a flick of his wrists.  And it doesn’t stop.  Oscar Kirk drops just a fraction short, and disappears over square leg for 6 more; in his next over, he’s cut, slogged and sort-of-driven for 4, 4 and 6.  Mendel now has 54 from 32 balls.  And now you’re worried.  You’re so worried that you don’t really notice that Mendel’s method is to stay deep in the crease and favour the back foot, so maybe bowling a very full length might be an idea?  But he’s hitting them so well it probably wouldn’t make a difference.  In the 79th over of the innings, he swipes Carter Margetson into the leg side for two massive 6s – the 20th and 21st of his innings – only to sky the next ball to Kirk.  He walks off with 231 from 177, and more sixes than anyone has ever hit in a grade innings.  When Manly declares a few overs later, you stagger off the field, trying to understand what just happened and slightly grateful that Mendel didn’t break a few more records.

Five Things We Learned from Round 12

Rain complicates things

Another January, another competition distorted by rain.  There’s no answer to this: it’s built in to a game played outdoors at the mercy of the weather.  But the fact that it’s unavoidable doesn’t make it fair.  Last weekend, Penrith, UTS North Sydney, Campbelltown-Camden and St George each collected wins in First Grade, but there was no time for a result in the other six games.  Sutherland and Eastern Suburbs never even made it onto the field.  By no coincidence, Penrith and St George sit in the top six, with Campbelltown seventh: winning counts double when other teams don’t get on.  With four rounds to go, there are probably still ten clubs with realistic aspirations of playing in the finals – and at least some of those are likely to be disrupted by the weather as well. 

We have semi-finalists in the Limited Overs competitions

The quarter-finals of the First Grade Limited Overs competition were held last Sunday, and turned out to be pretty lop-sided: there were no close games, and in three of the four matches, the side batting first was rolled quickly, suggesting that the persistent rain left plenty of juice in the pitches.  Conor O’Riordan and Peter Francis reduced Hawkesbury to 5 for 17, after which there was only going to be one result: at Pratten Park, Gordon’s Ash Premkumar and Callum Bladen were even more destructive, as Wests crashed to 7 for 29.  At Coogee, Randwick-Petersham stumbled to 3 for 33 before recovering to reach 9 for 203, English import George Bell contributing 39.  But Eastern Suburbs’ response never got out of first gear, and Austin Waugh polished off the innings with a spell of 4-11.  In the semi-finals, Parramatta meets St George while Randwick-Petersham plays Gordon.

The Green Shield finals are happening, too

There was more excitement in the Green Shield quarter finals, also played on Sunday.  In a match reduced to 24 overs a side, Northern District edged out Mosman by 19 runs, mostly because Lachlan Bartlett blasted 108 from 83 balls.  Bartlett has had an interesting series – his scores (65, 85, 0, 57. 0 and 108) suggest that it’s a good idea to get him out before he scores.  Wests eased past University of NSW, largely because of Martis Johri’s 5-28.  Sydney University recovered from an early collapse to squeeze past St George, thanks to Xavier Quoyle’s polished 62 and another fine spell of leg-spin from captain Arnav Yadav (4-34), who set a new record for University in the competition when he took his 22nd wicket.  At Merrylands, Gordon’s Archie Hetherington wrapped up the Parramatta innings with a hat-trick, but Gordon’s pursuit of 195 appeared doomed when the first five wickets fell for only 68.  Sam David and Sam Dillon repaired the innings with a seventh-wicket stand of 57, and when Arhan Shah took the ball for the final over, Gordon’s last pair needed six runs to win.  Shah produced a nerveless performance to hold Gordon to three singles, and Parramatta held on by just two runs. 

Jeremy Nunan is in form

Campbelltown-Camden’s solid showing in First Grade this season owes a great deal to Jeremy Nunan, who has picked up 38 wickets with some consistently hostile new-ball bowling.  University of NSW actually dominated large parts of the match at Raby, dismissing the hosts for only 200 after good work by Declan White (5-42) and Irishman Gavin Hoey (3-46).  Jack Harwicke-Owen scored an impressive fifty in the Bees’ reply.  But the decisive period in the game was the top of the University of NSW innings, when Nunan and Raheem Abdul grabbed five wickets for 43 runs.  Nunan drew Mahsen Narvel into a poorly-judged hook, which was well held by Abdul at fine leg, nicked off Nihal Desai, and forced Suffan Hassan to retire hurt after striking him with a short delivery.  He ended the innings with 4-61.  Another important contribution came from Ryan Clark, who swung hard for 38 late in the order, and picked up two vital wickets. 

Mosman’s lower graders could use some practice against finger spin

Not that we’re a qualified coach, exactly, but it strikes us that this week at training, Mosman’s lower graders might do a bit of work on how to play finger-spinners who turn the ball a bit, but not that much.  In Fifth Grade, Mosman succumbed for only 73 in 36 overs, with the highly experienced left-arm tweaker, Patrick Lindsay, picking up four for seven in 12 overs.  Lindsay sent down 72 balls, and runs were scored from only five of them.  That was a better effort, though, than Mosman’s Third Grade, who lasted only 33.2 overs and scored just 38.  The destroyer was off-spinner Liam Whitaker, who did the hat trick in his first over by dismissing Jamie Dunk, Thomas Elliott and Flynn Farquharson (who, with that name, should never, ever play for anyone but Mosman).  Mosman lost five wickets with the total on 12, and Whitaker ended up with 7 for 8 from 13 overs.  Meanwhile, in Seconds, off-spinner Harry Gardner picked up six Mosman wickets, admittedly at slightly greater expense.  Anyway, there it is – finger spin, guys, it’s an issue for you.  There will be no charge for this advice.