SHCC Scoop - Cricket is back!
Updated: 1 day ago
And sure as night follows day, Spring comes around again, and with it, comes cricket. The Aussie men are playing One Day Cricket in Zimbabwe, and Saturday afternoons around the Inner West of Sydney are once again filled with cries of “Howzat!”
For some of our players, it was a busy off season with 3 SHCC teams playing Winter Cricket. In what was one of the driest winters for years, there was plenty of cricket to be had.
There have been quite a few milestones over the Winter Season, and even in Round 1 – read on for a full list.
While we have said “goodbye for now” to a majority of 1st Division players, but we have welcomed quite a few new players to SHCC and will once again field 7 teams. Welcome to all the new players to SHCC – we hope you have a wonderful season, and enjoy your time with us.
The Morning Competition starts on Saturday October 10, and we have spots for a couple more players. If you know anyone interested in playing cricket this season, we will be able to find a place for them.
Training
Regular Training will start on Thursdays in October once daylight savings starts, but there are a few players training on Thursday and Friday from 4pm. If you can, try and make it down at one of these times to Lees Park.
When: Thursdays and Fridays
Where: Lees Park - Harmony St, Ashbury (Park in Crieff St and walk down the alley)
When: From 4:00pm until dusk
Miss Celie's Player of the Week
Player of the Week sponsored by Miss Celie’s Jazz and Blues Bar in Ashfield. If you haven't been, get there and check it out. Owned by a former SHCC Junior Parent, Paul Blasi.
Round 1 Gordon Barlow 64*
Not only did Gordon top score for us on the opening weekend, he also Captained Div 3 in the absence of regular Captain, Dan Jeffrey. Nice work Gordon!
Batting and Bowling Highlights
Batting:
64* Gordon Barlow Div 3
50 Arup Saha Div 2
55 Hamza Malik Div 5 Gold
Bowling
4/9 Tom Dawson Div 3
4/22 Dharmin Thakkar Div 5 Gold
3/12 Ali Hera Div 3
3/20 Asher Tarbox Div 5 blue
Club Milestones
Matches
250 Neil Gordon
200 Dharmin Thakkar
100 Rafael Bruzzese
50 Hamza Malik
50 Leo Tarbox
First match for Summer Hill CC
Michael Anderson 7th
Ammar Ansar 3rd
Sergio Barbosa 5th Blue
Oscar Bryant 7th
Dawood Dawra 5th Gold
Fahim Hossain 3rd
Alex Johnson 6th
Connor Jones 6th
Abhishek Manoharan 5th Gold
Matthew Potter 6th
Runs
1,500 Hamza Malik
Wickets
250 Dharmin Thakkar
50 Blake Stevenson
50 Umer Altaf
Enjoy your Cricket!
Phil
Phil – President
m 0417 234 761
Last Rounds Results and Reports
2nd Division
Round 1 Summer Hill 8/164 def by Summer Hill Suns 6/172
Best Batting
50 Arup Saha
45 Abdul Ahsan
Best Bowling
2/31 Niloy Mahmood
2/34 Wassi Hossain
3rd Division Match Report
Gordon Barlow
Round 1: Summer Hill 3-193 def RWCC Sydney Smashers 9-123
Last season's Div 4 premiers kicked off the season with a bang, with a convincing win in their first match in Div 3. Playing without fearless leader Dan, the team quickly dusted off any cobwebs and got to work.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Pete and Amin got the team off to a strong start, with the first wicket falling at 1-72. Gordon and Samarth kept the momentum going, with Ammar pitching in at the end of the innings. SHCC ended 3-193 after 29 overs, the innings cut short by slow over rates.
The bowlers backed it up right away, with Tom and Hera ripping through the top order without conceding many runs. Debutant Fahim had an excellent spell bowling first change, and Khurram kept the scorers on their toes making sure they knew which symbols to use for wides and no balls. The team were sharp in the field taking all of our catches and keeping the opposition to 123 runs despite us only having 10 men in the field.
In classic park cricket style the match ended with an opposition internal blow up, putting a bow on a great win by 73 runs.
Best Batting
64* Gordon Barlow
49 SM Al-Amin
37 Peter Dawson
Best Bowling
4/9 Tom Dawson
3/12 Ali Hera
5th Division Blue Match Report
Phil Tarbox
Round 1: Summer Hill 7/86 def by Rangers 6/139
5th Div this year looks very different to last year - just 6 teams, and 3 new sides - although a number of the Rangers players looked like some of the better players from last years Lakemba Stars - regardless we were up for a challenge.
Winning the toss and bowling first seemed like a great option, as Asher and new player and Jud's 2nd cousin, Sergio, strangled Rangers for runs, while both picked up 2 wickets each - Asher being on a hat trick after 2 unplayable deliveries, taking out an off stuff, and picking up an edge to give Simon Davies his 50th Wicket Keeping catch of his SHCC career - and probably his dodgiest, and was thanks to some extra padding on his chest.
Sergio deligted with some swinging tempters, taking the edge with several falling short, bringing the slips ever closer. Eventually one stuck, but that was no match for the spectacularly nonchalant caught and bowled for his first SHCC wicket. Great recruiting Jud!
After the excitement of having Rangers at 4/28 after 10 overs, it was slim pickings as we could not get the next break through. Owen and Luca tried, but eventually Lachie did, with Asher picking up another at the death. Leo did a tidy job, bowling with maturity and providing some economical overs against some agressive hitters. His left armers frustratingly difficult to put away. We'd be chasing 140 for a win from 26 overs. Doable.
Our chase started brightly with father and son Luca and Jud confident of a good start. Luca made the most of his opportunites, and when he was dismissed he was 30 of our 34 runs. 2/34, and we ground to a halt. Some good bowling, and perhaps lack of intent during the first innings back created pressure, and mistakes came.
Rayhan and Simon added some respectability to our score, with a productive partnership made up of singles, and a well run 3. Leo looked as stylish as ever, but the run rate required risk taking, and the rest is history.
We'll be better for the run - with some work to do on our fielding, and batting intensity.
Best Batting
30 Luca Agius
Best Bowling
3/20 Asher Tarbox
2/20 Sergio Barbosa
5th Division Gold Match Report
Dharmin Thakkar
Round 1: Summer Hill 7/145 def by Panania East Hills RSL 7/182
We were asked to bowl first and made an excellent start, taking the first wicket very early through some outstanding teamwork.
The first breakthrough came from a brilliant piece of fielding. Umer stopped the ball beautifully at point and Prabhu quickly collected it and threw back towards the bowling end and Gourav executed run-out brilliantly.
The second wicket came soon after, with Gourav using his knowledge of the batter to his advantage. He bowled around the off-to-middle stump, tempting the batter to play with some width, resulting in a straightforward catch to our new wicketkeeper Abhishek, who opened his tally with his first catch for the team.
The third wicket required a lot more patience. Their batters built a significant partnership and put us under pressure. CK finally broke the stand with a beautifully flighted off-spin delivery, with the batter hitting straight to Hanzla with one handed at long-on which was the highlight of the day.
Dharmin cleaned up their tailenders and restricting their set batsman from getting much of the strike in the final over and restricted opponent to 182 runs.
Chasing 183 in just 27 overs was always going to be a big challenge.
We lost Dharmin and Umer early, putting pressure on the middle order. But Hamza and Shaik responded brilliantly, building an excellent 94-run partnership and keeping us within reach of the required run rate.
Both showed great determination and gave us our best batting platform of the innings.
Unfortunately, once we lost Hamza, followed shortly by Shaik, the required run rate started climbing beyond our reach.
Jeet provided a quick cameo of 19 runs, but in the end we finished 38 runs short.
Best Batting
55 Hamza Malik
37 Shaikh Abdullah
Best Bowling
4/22 Dharmin Thakkar
6th Division Match Report
Rob Sanderson
Round 1: Summer Hill 6/112 def by Rangers 7/134
A new season and, effectively, a new Summer Hill Sixers — born from an influx of talented young men combined with a handful of old fuddy-duddies. It’s an intriguing blend of raw young talent, enthusiasm and athleticism, balanced by decades of accumulated cricketing wisdom, guile and the odd arthritic joint.
We won the toss and, because Jim Bandas was there, naturally we bowled first.
Patrick Hargreaves took the new ball and was outstanding. Pat was cutting the ball away, getting bounce and generally terrorising the batsmen — but the really alarming development was his newfound accuracy. He somehow finished wicketless, but 6 overs for 17 tells the story. At the other end Bandas performed his traditional role: applying the veteran strangle through ancient wisdom, guile and the ability to make absolutely nothing happen for extended periods. He also picked up 2 wickets.
Then came one of the discoveries of the day. Asked what he did, new boy Alex Johnson had modestly replied that he “bowled a bit.” Apparently this translates to fast and hard. There was more than a touch of his namesake Mitch about it as he charged in and collected 2/29 from six. Shaun Hardy floated a bit of spin into the equation and promptly picked up a wicket as well.
The fielding was excellent, with Michael Metry sharp behind the stumps and a couple of razzle-dazzle run-outs helping finish things off. Rangers closed at 7/134 from their 25 overs. A target of 135 at 5.4 an over looked very gettable.
Our chase, however, began slowly. Then slowly. Then a little more slowly.
Rob departed for 5 before Jim Bandas and David Ritchil set about rebuilding the innings. They put together the partnership of the day, Jim making 33 and David anchoring things beautifully with 37. The problem was that while we were preserving wickets, the required rate was quietly disappearing over the horizon.
By the time the younger legs arrived, there was little option but to hit. Connor Jones showed a glimpse of what he can do, smacking his way to 8, but the task had become too steep. We eventually finished 6/112 from 25 overs, 22 runs short.
So, not the result — but a very encouraging first outing for a team that barely existed a few weeks ago.
There were discoveries everywhere: Young Matty’s keeping, Alex J’s serious pace, Pat H suddenly locating the pitch with disturbing regularity, Connor looking capable of giving the ball a proper whack, and plenty more young talent still to be unleashed.
And as for the old blokes?
We can provide the wisdom, tell everyone where to stand, occasionally contribute a few runs and generally sit back and watch the young fellas do all the running.
The New Sixers have arrived. There might just be something in this mob.
7th Division Match Report
PJ "Shuffles" Rosenberger III
Round 1: Summer Hill 7/118 def by Marrickville 6/167
From IR’s Nosy Parker Files. This week’s episode, “There’s a bear out there”.
Nosy Parker was off driving Lady Penelope in Fab 1 when he received a report from Agents Jemima, Big Ted and Henny Penny that a group of the rare species, Marrickville Bears, was in need of a day’s escape to relax. However, The Hood was seeking to foil their relaxation efforts, with his minions sabotaging efforts to have Lees Park ready for a day’s cricket for the Bears, with local support provided by SHCC’s Lucky 7s. Undeterred by The Hood’s efforts, the Lucky 7s sprang into action under their new guv (Donny the Don) and organised an alternative location in the wilds of Milperra.
With navigation support from Thunderbird 5, 7s ensured all reached the new location, the aptly named “Nosy (Gordon) Parker Reserve”, and were warmly welcomed by the local ponies and Little Wattle Birds. Parker’s advice was that cricket was a game of give and take, but it’s better when they give and you take.
Working with The Commish and the ISO (Ibis Special Ops) team, 7s HQ came up with a plan to sort the wheat from the chaff (the new members of the crew) in the bowling department - 2 overs each then focus. Winning the toss they put it in action.
Shuffles opened with Tommy Gun at the other end – keeping the openers quiet. Oscar the Grouch got the first break through and Running Benny the second. The Commish used his Times Square card game to pilfer the next two. 4-43 after 12 was good, but the good times did not last. Beady Reedsy got the 5th in the 19th, then it was radio silence on the wicket front from there on.
Our catching was a tale of two parts, taking four in the first 19 overs (and one missed chance), including Tommy Gun’s Dan Lawrence-like one-handed screamer, Running Benny’s snare and Special K’s two. However, putting down three chances (two off Shuffles) in the last 11 overs (and none taken) was giving the mark back their cash. We finished with a runout in the last over.
Needing 168 to win, The Don (45*) and Special K (13) opened with a 47-run stand. Angry (3) and Oscar the Grouch (1) came and went, with Curly Josh (10) offering the Bears a hit-wicket bonus. Jumping Jack (9) was a flash between the wickets, a good partner for Running Benny (8). The Commish (10) and Beady (5*) saw out the overs, with 7s finishing on 118.
Overall, a good day’s cricket ensued, with the only hiccup being an attempt by The Hood’s minions to use their dastardly Cramping Ray to disrupt the day. Firing from the grassy knoll, they struck down The Don, who was in full flight with the bat and smashed a 4 as the Cramping Ray struck, leaving him flat on his back. He is expected to make a full recovery.
As the (happy) Bears returned back to their Inner West burrow, reports were sent back to Parker and Agents Jemima, Big Ted and Henny Penny that the mission was a success. The ISO team will now run the numbers at 7s HQ on how to improve wicket heisting and ball smashing for next week. Lucky 7s Are Go …F-A-B!
Best Batting
45 Don Stewart
Best Bowling
2/20 Neil Gordon
