First Grade
Toss
Fairfield Liverpool won the toss and batted first
Result
In progress
Game scores
Fairfield Liverpool 173, Sydney University 6/88
Notables
Tim Ley 3/22, Greg Mail 27 n.o.
Report
Friday afternoon saw the perfect storm develop in “Pepsi Challenge” parlance, with the team of the 21st century (to date) announced at a well-watered Blue and Gold lunch that drew together club-mates, past and present, on an aqueous Friday afternoon. As your scribe waited for a bus in the rain at 6:00 PM outside Circular Quay’s aptly-named after party venue, the Ship Inn (Adam, ‘the Ship’ Theobald was holding up the bar), the hurling rain was accompanied by hurled abuse from the Club’s esteemed second grade captain, Tommy Kierath. Tommy felt the need to communicate the unlikelihood of play the next day in no uncertain terms to the early piker, who would be missing out on a unique opportunity for guilt-free summertime Friday beers.
Predictably, it was a steamy Sydney University No. 1 Oval that met the first grade side on Saturday morning, with the overnight rain followed up by temperatures in the high twenties for the early part of proceedings. Those function attendees who caught the 6:00 PM bus home were certainly patting themselves on the back.
This was the first home game for first grade for the summer. As Greg Mail unpacked his gear in the increasingly roomy ‘Vaucluse’ corner of the dressing room, Greg remarked to those in earshot (just) that it might be time to get Sydney University’s resident architect, Daniel Ward, to draw up some plans for an ensuite. Greg, naturally, justifies his dressing room expansion on the ‘runs to space ratio’.
Having made himself at home by unpacking a supply of batting gear that could only be owned by the maker of 40 first grade centuries, Mail promptly lost the toss and Sydney University were sent into the field. The pitch was surprisingly dry and hard. However, such is Mail’s command of home conditions that after 30 minutes of play he manouvered some remote-controlled clouds over the top of Uni No. 1 Oval and what were excellent batting conditions soon became much better for swing bowling.
Never blokes to miss a trick, the ‘rat pack’ of bowlers all did a fantastic job, sharing regular wickets around and Fairfield were dismissed for 173 just before the tea break. Tim Ley's effort delivered the best return of 3 for 22 off 15 overs and his second spell was particularly hostile.
Being a side that is rarely beaten with ease, Fairfield clawed back into the contest with six wickets of their own at the cost of only 88 Sydney University runs in the last session. The Students will need to score 86 runs with only four wickets in hand to stretch out their winning streak to five games.
Captain Mail is still at the crease on 27 not out and looking in imperious touch, which is reassuring.
Special mention must go to the coolest 17 year old cricketer in Sydney, Jonte Pattison, for seeing off the last over bowled by Sheffield Shield fast bowler, Gurinder Sandhu. Jonte was required to go into face Gurinder, who must be twice Jonte's size, following a wicket early in the last over.
An intriguing battle lies ahead on day 2, with second innings points potentially on offer as well as first innings points.
Second Grade
Toss
Fairfield Liverpool won the toss and elected to bat first
Result
In Progress
Game scores
Notables
Report
Third Grade
Toss
Fairfield-Liverpool won the toss and elected to field
Result
In progress
Game scores
Sydney University 108, Fairfield-Liverpool 5/28
Notables
Henry Clark 30, Ash Cowan 2/2, Lewis McMahon 2/15
Report
The day began with what can only be described as an incomprehensible victory for the rare units over the regulars in a new Nash format. The frankly unexciting contest was headlined by a typically enthusiastic yet underwhelming showing from the rare skipper, Charlie "Bean" Cull, only to be pipped at the post later in the day to the title of 'Rarest Unit' by new boy Steve "looks nothing like Ryan Gosling" Birch.
After a short delay for rain and an Ashes resurgence enjoyed in the comfort of Ralph's, Uni set about our work on a typically lively first session University No. 2. In what was the sides first real test on a surface offering assistance to the quicker men, wickets fell regularly as the top order failed to reign in the stroke play. At 6-37 Henry Clark played a mature innings in the middle order to somewhat resurrect things, ably assisted by Kerrod "The Enigma" McPerson who produced the shots of the day, with a trio of boundaries back past the bowler.
The modest total demanded a disciplined effort in the field and in what is becoming typical fashion for this team, a strong fight back ensued. Led by our talismanic leader Ash "still can't believe you payed for that haircut" Cowan the students left Fairfield-Liverpool reeling to the tune of 5-28 to reclaim the ascendancy in the match.
Fourth Grade
Toss
Result
Game scores
Notables
Report
Fifth Grade
Toss
Sydney University won the toss and elected to bowl
Result
In progress
Game scores
Fairfield Liverpool 115, Sydney University 0/9
Notables
Kariyawasam 4/38, Mihalyka 3/13, Waterlow 3/35
Report
Another day and another failed Pepsi with the fifth grade boys arriving to an uncovered pitch with a high chance of play getting underway on time. However "on time" seems to be a very loose term within the fifth grade playing group with the arrival of several after the 11:15 cut-off as well as a complete non-arrival. This resulted in a young Liam Whitaker being called in for his fifth grade debut, resembling Luke Pomersbach's T20 international debut at the WACA in 2007 as a matter of circumstance! Nash was again a clinical performance by the batsmen even after a shock early 1-0 deficit to prevail 3-1 and can only be described as a textbook wet weather performance. The toss was won by the Students and all was in readiness for a strong bowling performance and a 12:15 start. Cue the thunder and lightning, the covers going on and a 90 minute delay.
Finally play was underway, after a display of poor general knowledge during the quiz and dangerous dressing sheds cricket, with "Kase" Kariyawasam and "Shakes" Wheeler fired up on what was a very juicy deck for the quick men however it wasn't until the eleventh over when Kariyawasam trapped the batsman in front for the Students to get the first breakthrough. This was followed by another ten overs until the second, however the gap between wickets was only due to the batsmen being incapable of edging the very good pace bowling. The wickets started falling consistently after the remaining opener dubiously left a ball to hit him, out LBW off a very surprised Waterlow. Mihalyka and Waterlow then continued to get through their overs quickly, drying up the few runs being scored and applying the pressure with the opposition five wickets down for not many runs at tea and Uni well on top. After tea the remaining wickets were cleaned up efficiently with balls hitting the stumps and full tosses misjudged for Fairfield-L'pool a target of 116 to win and setting up a dicey half hour period for the openers to negotiate before stumps.
Schultz and Watt strode to the centre, two keeper-batsmen with an opportunity to stake their claim in the team by playing a tough innings in difficult conditions. They both effectively negotiated some erratic but dangerous bowling to leave the Students 0/9 at stumps and the opportunity to stage a strong chase next week.