SUCC Events: T20 Community Day

Sydney University Cricket Club is set to host its inaugural T20 Community Day on Sunday 11th October 2015 from 10:00am.

The event, being partnered by the Sydney Thunder and Kingsgrove Sports, will coincide with the Club's home round of the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup scheduled for that day.

The T20 Cup will see Sydney Uni clash with fierce rivals Parramatta (10:00am) and Fairfield-Liverpool (2:30pm), both powerhouses in the Thunder conference of the tournament. With a victory over fellow heavyweight, Bankstown, in the opening round, these matches will be crucial to setting up a home semi-final berth and the opportunity to contest the finals series at the SCG in early November.

Sydney Uni Cricket's Operations Manager, Dale Bryant, said "this round of T20 cricket will be a true test, up against two of the better teams in the competition, one loss could see you knocked out of the race."

Led by the classy CNSW-contracted bat, Nick Larkin, the Sydney Uni T20 side has lost only one match in the last 12 months, being the 2014/15 grand final, and have been one of the most feared sides in the competition.

Larkin leads a squad full of talented and enthusiastic youngsters including powerful all-rounder, Tim Ley, lanky quicks, Nigel Cowell and Dugald Holloway, Australian U/19 representative, Jonte Pattison, and wily all-rounder, Liam Robertson.

Aside from some of the best T20 cricket action to be seen on local grounds, the Sydney Thunder will join us to run fun activities for the kids throughout the day. The Thunder Bus will be on-site with interactive activities such as cricket skills sessions and tv screens with various action taking place. There will be plenty of giveaways for kids participating.

There will also be a come'n'try session for Sydney Uni's brand new Milo in2CRICKET program  which is set to commence in late October. Kids, both boys and girls, aged 5 - 8, are invited to try out Australia's favourite summer sport in a friendly and relaxed environment.

"As one of the oldest cricket club's in Australia, we are dedicated to giving back to the community in any way we can, this is a wonderful opportunity to bring the community into the campus and show them what Sydney Uni Cricket is all about" Bryant said.

The day is free for all to attend, and anyone interested should visit http://bit.ly/1QM3jDw  to register (coaching and catering purposes only).

Road to AUGs glory rolls on

U-Syd's goal of claiming the Red Bull T20 Campus Cricket Tournament at the Australian University Games is one step closer to reality after accounting for arch rival UNSW in today's final preliminary round match.

Yet again batting first, U-Syd was uncharacteristically in trouble early, falling to 3-30 from 6 overs. This was before Dugald "The Chaz" Holloway, borrowed some of his older brother's form from early in the week to top-score with 62 from 52 balls. His display of power-hitting was well supported by both Joe Kershaw (26 from 11) and Jack Remond (22 from 20) to post a highly competitive 7-144 from their 20 overs.

Kershaw and fellow quick Jim Ryan applied the brakes early but were unable to land the killer blow with UNSW pushing to 0-30 from 6 overs. That blow came soon though as Brodie Frost, widely regarded as having the worst haircut on the Gold Coast (which is a big achievement given the 9,000 students currently there), entered the fray. Whether the haircut made any impact or not, he finished his spell of 4 overs with 3-12 next to his name. Some lower order hitting from UNSW gave the scoreline some respectability but were never near enough to trouble, eventually falling 11 runs shy.

The win means U-Syd finishes top of their pool with UNSW the other team to progress to the semi-finals. UNSW will take on fellow powerhouse UTS whilst U-Syd will need to be on their game up against the only non-Sydney team left, QUT. The winner of these matches will face off in the final at 2pm on Friday.

In the sheds... Round Two

Round One is always met with so much optimism, especially by the fast bowlers (more later). Optimism that is swifty taken away on Sunday morning when one wakes up to stiffness (not that kind...) and a sinking feeling that it will occur every Sunday until April. Seriously though, it is good to get out there after months of running, catching, bowling and evading (more later).
 
The transition from the SCG nets to lifeless actual turf wickets is an interesting one. Fast bowlers wonder why those “bouncers” bowled on the astroturf are now being dispatched to all parts.  And they are forced to bowl 7, 8 and 9 (sometimes more) ball overs as the umpire yells out no-ball: that certainly didn’t happen in the 18 yard preseason nets. Spin bowlers move from being fodder and something to hit in between the bouncers, to more difficult to play. They now have fielders and a wicketkeeper that keeps the batsman anchored to the crease. Batsmen start to play defensive shots and look for singles and the only time they fear being hit is by falling to a marlin.

So to Round 2 against an opponent that left us nude after Round 1 last year and managed to pick up a couple of flags and the club championship. Now that is something to get optimistic about. Go well on Saturday boys and see you at the Nags for a celebratory beer afterwards.

Students dominate on Day 2 of AUGs

Today saw a truly dominant performance by U-Syd against minnows, Griffith University.

The U-Syd team boasting four players with First Grade experience with SUCC, posted an extraordinary 205 runs from their 20 overs. In a rich vein of form, Jack Holloway led scorers with 60 from 42 balls, compiling the runs in a busy fashion and uniquely not hitting a single boundary. His sublime timing and determined running between wickets was offset with power hitting by Joe Kershaw (50) who plundered three towering sixes, and the unorthodox swipes of Max Hope (30 from 13 balls).

Skipper Ben Trevor-Jones took the opportunity to release the wicket-keeping shackles and claimed a sensational 2-7 from his 3 overs. He will be watching his back for 1st Grade keeping duties, as up-and-coming (Ed - these were Henry Clark's words) keeper, Max Hope performed well behind the stumps. Instead of releasing it through his batting, Holloway released his aggression through a barrage of short-pitched bowling to claim two wickets and gain a rare opportunity to claim a hat-trick (a wide inevitably followed). Griffith were restricted to 95 runs from their allotted 20 overs.

This puts U-Syd well on top of the pool of death, with the big grudge match against UNSW tomorrow. Guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals, U-Syd will look to gain a psychological advantage over their fellow heavyweights going into the finals matches.

U-Syd team dominant early at Australian Uni Games

The University of Sydney cricket team, coached by SUCC Director of Cricket, Gary Whitaker, and filled with predominately SUCC cricketers, has made a flying start to the Redbull T20 Cricket Tournament at the Australian University Games on the Gold Coast today.

The U-Syd XI took on Bond University in their opening clash this afternoon, with captain Ben Trevor-Jones continuing his T20 form from the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup in the U-Syd innings, belting a composed yet dashing 60 from 46 balls. He was well supported Jack Holloway with 28 from 32 balls. U-Syd set the daunting total of 147 from their 20 overs.

Bond were never really in the hunt against a strong pace attack including Dugald Holloway, Joe Kershaw and Jim Ryan, and were kept to a paltry 76 runs in reply.

U-Syd's campaign continues tomorrow against Griffith University from 9am, with the big clash against arch rivals UNSW scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Semi-finals will take place on Thursday with the Grand Final on Friday.

The winner of the T20 tournament will be invited to participate in the World Campus Cricket Finals to be held in Sri Lanka in October 2016, and will meet teams from South Africa, Sri Lanka, UAE, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and England.

Milestone Monday: Congrats Tim Ley!

Welcome to Milestone Monday, where each week we will post any relevant milestones reached over the weekend's play.

Our opening milestone goes to explosive all-rounder and multiple SCA Team of the Year member, Tim Ley, who has reached 1,000 First Grade runs for SUCC with his cameo innings of 21 runs against North Sydney at Tunks Park on Saturday.

Congratulations on this achievement Tim and may there be many more runs to come!

The Students start to the season gets better

Sydney University Cricket Club's Students brilliant start to the season continued today as they claimed a heart-stopping victory over Bankstown DCC's Bulldogs in the opening match of the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup at Bankstown Oval.

With a side brimming with all-round talent, it was the youngsters that stood up to be counted. Batting first, the Students lost skipper Nick Larkin (2) and explosive all-rounder Tim Ley (3) to be floundering at 2-8. Up stepped Liam Robertson (49) and Jonte Pattison (42no) who put on a crucial 71 run partnership, before Ben Trevor-Jones contributed a better than run-a-ball 26 runs to post 3-131.

Larkin proceeded to expertly juggle his strong bowling attack to keep the experienced Bulldogs batting line-up guessing. Led by Ley who went for only 4.25 runs an over, Ben Joy and man-of-the-match Robertson who both claimed two crucial wickets, the Students maintained enough pressure and took wickets at regular intervals.

Holding their nerve through the hectic final few overs, the Students kept Bankstown to 7-129 runs and an important 2-run win over their Thunder conference finals opponent from last season.

The next rounds of the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup will take place at Sydney University on Sunday 11th October from 10am with Parramatta and Fairfield-Liverpool joining us at SUCCs T20 Community Day. We invite all our family, friends, supporters and local community to come down for a wonderful day out at the picturesque No. 1 Oval. See the promotional material here.