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.