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.