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.