This may not be the best century in which to play a summer game
This was the week in which European Union scientists declared that 2023 has been the hottest year on record. Apparently, this assessment was made after measuring atmospheric temperature readings and ocean temperature charts, and consulting with Premier Cricket umpires standing west of Parramatta. On Saturday, two First Grade matches were abandoned when the heat reached unsafe levels, as well as several games in the lower grades. Easts will feel a touch unlucky, having put in a good stint to limit Blacktown to 7 for 189 and reached 42 without loss in reply. In the other abandoned game, George Bell, Bankstown’s diminutive import from Lancashire, who usually keeps wicket, had his first experience of bowling in a heatwave and nabbed two Hawkesbury wickets with his off-breaks before the heat became too intense. Bankstown had the most frustrating round imaginable, with four of its five matches called off early.
And the long term forecast is that January will be hotter…
Tym Crawford likes batting at Chatswood
Liam Doddrell celebrated pretty hard when, in the fourth over of the game between Gordon and Penrith, Louis Bhabra aimed a pull shot at him and looped an easy catch to mid-on. If he’d known what was coming, he might not have bothered, because then Tym Crawford came in to hit only the third double-century in the history of the First Grade Limited Overs competition. He actually started off pretty sedately, pushing only three singles from the first six balls he faced. Then he pulled a shortish ball from Sam Grant away for 4, and he was away. Any time Penrith dropped short, he rocked onto the back foot to pull, he drove strongly down the ground, and showed unexpectedly deft touch to work the ball through the field. He reached his fifty, from 47 balls, by lifting left arm spinner Luke Hodges off his pads over square leg from the last ball of the 20th over. Chatswood, we’re happy to report, is back to being a road again, and Crawford cashed in. It took him only 38 balls more to reach his hundred, by driving Angus Bayliss to the fence beyond mid-on. In the 36th over of the innings, Crawford took Hodges apart. He started with two effortless slog-sweeps for six, then dragged the ball through wide mid-on for 4, and played a neatly-timed clip off his hip for 4 more more. It’s fair to record that there were no really bad balls in there, and that the last ball of the over beat Crawford outside off stump. Probably Crawford’s most outrageous stroke was the slash for six over point, from fast left-armer Ryan Fletcher, that took him from 188 to 194. After a short break while the ball was retrieved, Crawford backed away to give himself room, and smeared the next delivery over cover for another 6, to bring up his double century from 133 balls. Crawford remained unbeaten on 205, and Gordon won comfortably, by which time most people had forgotten that Jayllen Naganayagam got the whole thing started by smashing 72 inside the first twelve overs.
St George looks ominously strong
St George swept Parramatta aside to win its seventh match from as many starts, and giving notice that they’ll be very, very hard to beat this season. It’s the strength of their batting that has been intimidating this season – on Saturday, Blake Nikitaras and Blake Macdonald were dismissed fairly cheaply, only for Englishman Ed Pollock to belt four sixes in his unbeaten 82. Sometimes, it seems as though the attack relies too much on the penetration supplied by Peter Francis, but on Saturday it was the less obviously threatening medium pace of Jono Craig-Dobson that did the damage. Parramatta began well, with Ryan Hackney and Ben Abbott taking 52 runs from the first eight overs. But Luke Bartier strangled Hackney down the leg side, and then Craig-Dobson took hold of the match. In his first three overs, he removed Abbott and Nick Bertus, and he ended the innings with 4-18 from nine miserly overs. He was well supported by Bartier and the rapidly improving Raf Macmillan.
We have some finalists
The last pool round of Poidevin-Gray was played on Sunday, and Western Suburbs completed its unbeaten streak, defeating Hawkesbury to top its pool. Captain Harjas Singh, who has been a key part of Wests run, helped his side to navigate a tricky chase with a stylish 56. While Wests has relied on its steady attack, Northern District has powered its way through the competition with an immensely strong batting lineup, and after slumping to 2 for 15 against Penrith, it recovered to 4 for 349 after Cameron Tunks (102) and Mitchell Crayn (186 not out) shared a third wicket stand of 235. Wests now play Campbelltown-Campbell in one Thunder Conference semi-final, while Northern District plays Parramatta in the other. In the Sixers Conference, Gordon plays North Sydney and Manly plays Randwick-Petersham.
Shoot straight, you bastards
Probably no one much will remember the Fifth Grade match between Sydney University and Mosman at Camperdown. It was a tight finish, exciting in its way: Sydney University sneaked home by five runs, snatching the last wicket on the fifth ball of the final over. But that’s not important right now, because the most noteworthy feature of the match was that Mosman’s bowlers sent down no fewer than 48 wides in 45.2 overs – contributing about 22% of the University total of 221, besides donating eight extra overs to the batting side. If this happened in the BBL, the integrity unit would be working overtime.
While we’re in Fifths, Wests made the unorthodox move of appointing 17 year old Jack Clark as captain for the match against North Sydney. Clark’s inexperience was obvious at times (he gave himself only five overs, in defiance of the unwritten law that Fifth Grade captains must bowl as many overs as legally possible), but he saw his side to victory with an unbeaten 47 not out from 39 balls. Interestingly, in the same round, Wests also fielded the oldest captain in Premier Cricket, Paul Ryan in Thirds, whose age is a closely guarded secret but who is approximately forty years older than Clark. Has there ever been a greater age gap between two captains on the same day of grade cricket? Answers by email to Roy Formica.