1st Grade:
Hawkesbury 8/404 (Clarke 162, Jamal 73 & McKay 56, Malone 4/130, May 2/42)
With Nick Larkin being called into the NSW Blues side for the Matador Cup Final against Queensland on Sunday, Greg Mail stepped up to lead Uni in the round four clash with Hawkesbury at Owen Earle Oval.
Winning the toss and asking Hawkesbury to bat turned out to be a less than successful strategy, with early cloud cover quickly disappearing and the pitch flattening out rapidly. In form batsman Josh Clarke made the students rue missed chances, scoring his third successive century, his highest first grade score of 162, before Ashton May claimed him in final over of the day.
It was a tough day at the office for the Uni bowlers, with Devlin Malone again the standout, taking 4/130 off his 28 overs. Ben Joy and May were the only other bowlers to make inroads into the Hawkesbury batting line up, taking 2/45 and 2/42 respectfully.
The Uni boys will be hoping to wrap up the tail quickly before beginning the difficult chase of 400+.
2nd Grade:
Sydney Uni 273 (Miller 143, Crowley 56, Ridgewell 4/51, Brown 3/40) Hawkesbury 2/29 (J Holloway 1/0, Craig-Dobson 1/7)
After a relatively slow start to the year, 2nd grade returned home hoping to emulate 1st grades efforts last round. Dave Miller wasted no time in winning the toss and batting on what looked like an absolute belter.
After losing an early wicket, the Skipper and housemate James Crowley set about rebuilding the Uni innings with a 113-run second wicket stand. Crowley looked in sublime touch, working his way to a solid 56. After losing Crowley, and what became a commonly occurring event throughout the innings, we lost our third soon after, before Ben Larkin joined Miller at the crease.
In typical fashion, Ben (17 off 78) was circumspect throughout his dig, allowing Miller to be the aggressor. These two enjoyed an 80-run partnership before Larkin departed with the score at 4- 233.
When Miller followed soon after for an outstanding 143 off 174, our lower order capitulated, losing 6/21including a hat-trick to Harrison Ridgewell.
Despite the strong start, the Uni boys concluded their innings disappointed knowing they had left runs out in the middle. With 14 overs left in the days play, a few wickets could win the day for Uni and a disciplined spell of bowling from all made it a difficult task for the Hawkesbury top order. Holloway and Craig-Dobson the lucky two who collected a wicket each to have Hawkesbury 2/29 at the close of play.
3rd Grade:
Sydney Uni: 200 (Kerr 62, Arnott 52, Litchfield 25, S Mott 7/61) Hawkesbury 2/49 (L McMahon 1/10, X Frawley 1/15)
Similar to 2nd grade, 3s have had a slow start to the year and headed out west determined to correct this. Ash Cowan once again lost the toss and was sent into bat.
Losing both openers for 2 and 0 wasn’t the ideal start, Litchfield and Kerr were tasked with rebuilding the innings against experienced first grade bowler Shane Mott. Litchfield continued his reasonable start to the year looking solid for 25 before playing around a good delivery from Mott. Ed Arnott joined Kerr at the crease and these two put on a much needed 100-run partnership, with Kerr (62) continuing his hot form. Arnott eventually chipped one to short cover for 52, soon followed by Kerr, which began another mass exodus, before Gibson (27) and McMahon pushed the score up to 200.
With 29 overs still to play, a huge bowling effort was needed. Again similar to second grade, all bowlers toiled hard and applied enormous pressure to the Hawkesbury batsman. Tom Kierath bowled frugally going for only 5 runs off his 9 overs, before Lewis McMahon and Xavier Frawley took a wicket each to have Hawkesbury 2/47 at the end of the day.
4th Grade:
Hawkesbury 204 (Fogg 64, Myers 39, AJ Grant 4/27)
After missing the last two matches, skipper AJ Grant was a welcome inclusion for the round 4 clash. Again looking to correct a slow start, fourth grade were determined to come out strongly, AJ lost the toss and was asked to bowl on a rock hard St Pauls wicket.
A fairly consistent and relentless bowling effort had Hawkesbury at 7/122 before the tail wagged with a 50-run 8th wicket stand pushed the total up around 200 before Grant grant claimed the final wicket.
Grant was the stand out on his return taking 4/27 from ten overs, well supported by Aiden Peek and Ryan Danne, 2/27 and 2/28 respectively.
5th Grade:
Hawkesbury 38 (R Holcroft 4/14, A Wilkinson 2/6) Sydney Uni 7/203 (A Bell 30, J Morley 53)
Uni’s 5th grade had an outstanding day at Benson’s Lane. Similarly to 4s, they welcomed back regular skipper Mike Harris after he missed the first three rounds on wedding duties (Congratulations Mike).
Uni’s bowlers decided to give Mike the best wedding present of all, dismissing Hawkesbury for 38. Ryan Holcroft was the chief destroyer, taking 4/14 off 10 and was ably supported by Andrew Wilkinson (2/6) and Natesh Yoganand (1/7).
Despite losing an early wicket, the Uni boys passed the Hawkesbury total and proceeded to post a commanding 7/203 leading into day two. Alex Bell (30) and Jarrod Morley (53) were the stand outs with the bat.
With a massive 165-run leading into day 2, the boys will be pushing hard for the ten points.
Metro Cup: Sydney University 334 (Gillespie 79, Frost 67 & Hughes 61, J Coutts 4/42)
After a tough few weeks, Metro similarly welcomed back regular skip, Andrew Wilkinson, and the boys responded well.
Debutant Liam Hughes (61) made the most of his chance at the top of the order, combining with James Gillespie (79) in a 143-run opening stand. The middle order saw a few starts without any notable performances until Brodie Frost walked to the crease. Brodie, unable to bowl due to injury took his frustration out on the ball smoking 67 from 46 balls to help move the students total past 300 at the close of the day.
The boys will be looking to continue this dominance next week and get back into the winners circle