SHCC Scoop - Div 4 into GF, 2 more Finals this weekend, Presentation Night May 1st
- Phil Tarbox
- 8 hours ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 58 minutes ago
It’s March, Finals are here and the stakes are high – we are playing for Premierships and also for SHCC’s Glenn Holdstock Player of the Finals trophy. Glenn is one of our Club Founders, and played in our inaugural Senior Premiership back in 1996/97. Each year the Award is decided by Glenn, and awarded for an outstanding Performance in any match during the Finals Series.
If you were following last week, Div 6 had a chance to be Minor Premiers if they won – read on to find out if they finished top of the Ladder.
Our Div 2 and 4 teams had wins last weekend, with Div 2 advancing directly to the Grand Final. Div 6 play their first final this week, but sadly Div 7 were hampered by wet weather on Sunday afternoon and played out a draw. As the lower qualifying team, they were eliminated.
If you are at a loose end this Saturday or Sunday, make your way to one of these 2 matches to support our Club. Matches start at 1:30pm on both days.
Div 2 vs Marrickville CC, Mackey Park, Marrickville
Div 6 vs Brighton Lakes CC, Kelso 2/3, Panania
Presentation Night
Presentation Night is confirmed for Friday May 1st
We are still very close to locking in this years guest speaker - fingers crossed we get confirmation this week. Get your tickets below - it will be a great night with team and individual awards, along with our perpetual awards!
Date: May 1st, 2026
Time: 6:30 arrival for 7pm start
Where: Magpies Sports - 42 Hampton St, Croydon Park
RSVP: Monday 27 April
Tickets: $20 - Available online here
It’s always great to come together, and to celebrate the season that has been, and acknowledge individual and team achievements during the season.
Here's a link to last years Presentation Night Wrap up - hope to see you there.
Winter Cricket
While our Summer season is coming to an end, Cricket doesn’t end with two Cricket options during the off season.
We usually field sides in the very popular SMCA Winter Competition – a 35 over 1 day match played every 2nd weekend on either Saturday or Sunday.
There are also two Last Man Stands (LMS) Competitions to be held every Sunday from at either Flockhart Park in Croydon Park, or Hammondville Oval in Moorebank.
Start dates have not yet been advised - but get ready - it won't be far away.
Thanks for everyone who has expressed their interest. Please email president@shcc.net.au if you are interested in either competition.
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.
7 March Dave Ward 55*
Well done to club stalwart Dave Ward with a well made 55* in Div 7’s draw. If you believe Pat Cullen, Dave was on his way to a ton before the rain came. Well done Dave – enjoy celebrating your "moral ton' at Miss Celie’s.
Batting and Bowling Highlights
Batting:
89* Pete Dawson Div 4
80* Hamza Malik Div 6
53 Madushan Bandara Div 2
55* Dave Ward Div 7
Bowling
3/15 Dan Jeffrey Div 4
Club Milestones
Matches
50 Pete Dawson Div 4
Runs
500 Amanjot Gill Div 6
Training
Every Thursday from 5:30pm - stay a for a short time, or a long time
When: Every Thursday afternoon / evening
Where: Lees Park - Harmony St, Ashbury (Park in Crieff St and walk down the alley)
When: From 5:00pm until dusk – and there may be a few there earlier too
Enjoy your Cricket!
Phil
Phil – President
m 0417 234 761
Last Rounds Results and Reports
2nd Division Match Report
Elimination Final: Summer Hill 138 drew with Revesby Workers Club 1-64
Summer Hill 2nds Got off to a decent start tracking along well at 2/75, with Madushan making a very nice 50. Things took a turn, losing 6/20 to have us in a spot of bother. Fortunately, our last wicket put on 35 valuable runs, with Aayan and Niloy getting us to a somewhat defendable total. With long grass, Sunday runs were going to be a premium.
Revesby were trundling along well behind our run rate, when they realised the rain was coming and picked things up. The heavens opened with the score 1/64 after 20 overs – not enough to constitute a match – and that was all the play we had on Sunday and the match was declared a draw. The rules being what they are and SHCC being the higher ranked team, we advance to the Preliminary Final.
Batting out the day on Saturday ended up being critical. We’ll learn from this, and look forward to facing off against Marrickville next weekend.
Best Batting
53 Madushan Bandara
27* Aayan Ameen
4th Division Match Report
Dan Jeffrey
Qualifying Final: Summer Hill 3/159 def Ashfield CC 89
With the threat of rain looming over the weekend, 4th division won the toss and chose to field, knowing a disrupted Sunday would likely benefit the team batting second.
As it happened, the game was all but over on Saturday.
A stellar bowling effort, combined with ankle-high grass, kept ACC's scoring rate below two an over for most of their innings. And while we dropped a good six or seven catches, the rest of the performance was nigh-on flawless.
A direct-hit run-out from Connor started the rot, before first-change bowlers Andy and Matt picked up two wickets apiece, capitalising on the miserly opening spells from Tom (1-8 off 11) and Hera (0-6 off 6).
From there, Blake (1-12 off 4), Tom and Dan tore through the tail to restrict ACC to just 89 off 40 overs.
Pete and Amin (20) once again got us off to a solid start, but three wickets in relatively short time left us three runs shy of our required 90 runs at stumps.
It only took a few balls on Sunday to reach the target, which then left Pete and Kunal with an hour of valuable time in the middle, in which they put on an unbeaten 73-run partnership before the rain came and the game was called.
Best Batting
89* Pete Dawson
26 Kunal Chape
20 S M Al-Amin
Best Bowling
3/15 Dan Jeffrey
2/17 Andy Manchester
2/29 Matthew Sellas
5th Division Match Report
Phil Tarbox
Round 14: Summer Hill 143 def Marrickville CC 101
With finals out of the question, 5th Div approached their match against the winless Marrickville as end of season celebration. Marrickville had only 5 players at 1:20 so 5ths claimed the toss and decided to bat – we were determined to get everyone who wanted one a bat today. To get the game going we loaned MCC two fielders until they could field close to a full team.
Regular opener Jud teamed up with last weeks night watchman Lachie to open the batting – and in hot and steamy conditions they made a solid start on slow outfield. 2’s and 4’s would be hard to come by. Jud ran his heart out, trying to keep pace with the speed of Lachie – no mean feat! Lachie didn’t quite match his heroics of last week, but Jud ran his heart out for a well sweated 27.
Leo Tarbox saved his best performance for the last match with a well made 43, including four very well hit boundaries. Sid got the run rate moving with a well made 15, and Owen finally batted this season, with 3 not out – ensuring he still does not have a batting average for this season. 144 would be the target, and the team was excited to get into the field for the last time.
Marrickville’s openers showed some solid technique and resistance. We didn’t seem to have brought our catching hands with us, so we would have to bowl them – and we did that 7 times. Sid striking first, and then Asher with 2 of the best balls you will see, taking the top of off, and the bottom of leg with 2 unplayable outswinging balls.
Leo followed things up, bowling a wonderful plan of 2 short balls followed by two blistering Yorkers and he was on a hattrick. It wasn’t to be, but the 3rd ball wasn’t far away from taking an edge.
Our only catch of the day went to Simon off the bowling of Owen, who caught the batter by surprise with his bounce. The only time Owen has scored more runs than wickets taken.
Finally, Luca Agius, with a sore leg, sent down some off spin and claimed 2 wickets of his own – but it was not to be for dad Jud, who convinced Luca to give him one over. Hopefully there are some pies left over for our end of season team dinner this coming weekend.
Best Batting
43 Leo Tarbox
27 Jud Agius
Best Bowling
2/2 Luca Agius
2/8 Leo Tarbox
2/16 Asher Tarbox
6th Division Match Report
Dharmin Thakkar
Round 14: Summer Hill 3/123 def Panania East Hills RSL 9/116
In our final regular season match, the goal was clear — finish strong and maintain our position at the top of the ladder heading into the semi-finals.
After winning the toss, we chose to field first. Dharmin struck early, claiming the first wicket in the 5th over. The opposition showed some resistance through their middle order, but disciplined bowling kept the pressure on. Prabhu, Hamza, Tej, and Loki worked together to dismantle the middle order before Aman cleaned up the lower order. Outstanding fielding and sharp wicketkeeping from Tarun played a big role, with several excellent catches helping us restrict them to a modest total of 116 runs.
Chasing 116, we had an unexpected start as our recently successful opening pair, Aman and Umer — who had built strong partnerships in recent games — both fell early with the score under 5. Facing some quality bowling with sharp inswing, Hamza and Dharmin showed great composure and resilience. The pair built a crucial 83-run partnership before Dharmin departed.
Hamza continued the momentum alongside Tarun, bringing up a well-deserved half-century and finishing unbeaten on 80 runs, guiding the team comfortably to victory.
This win not only secured our position at the top of the ladder heading into the semi-finals, but also gave us a satisfying response after the heavy loss we suffered against the same team earlier in the season.
The boys are excited and confident as we head into the semi-finals with great momentum.
Best Batting
80* Hamza Malik
23 Dharmin Thakkar
Best Bowling – 1st Innings
2/5 Amanjot Gill
2/12 Tej Singh
2/11 Loki Nirwan
7th Division Match Report
Pat Cullen
Elimination Final: Summer Hill 2/88 drew with St Christophers Maroon 5/317
In the immortal words of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as he sits arm and legless, bleeding to death… ‘We’ll call it a draw’. One of the most brutal days in the field any of our very experienced team has had was followed by some promising batting and an absolute deluge of rain, meaning, on paper, the mighty 7’s had an undefeated finals campaign and actually haven’t lost a game since November. And in another way, we spent Saturday being ground into the dirt by excellent opposition in brutal weather conditions. Truly a mixed bag, but if we are being honest, probably the right result all around in the end.
Let me take you back to Saturday. Rob won the toss and, in spite of the 32 degrees and 85% humidity, elected to field. Now the thinking here was simple, Sunday it was going to rain down like Toto’s Africa. If the game was a draw, St X would go through on table position, so the only way we could win it was to bowl first, get them out cheaply and chase it down before the rain hit on Sunday. That was the theory. Let me tell you about in practice…
Jimmy Bandas and Paddy Cullen opened the bowling, with two left-handers opening up. While they didn't belt us particularly, we didn't make many inroads, both opening bowlers beating the bat without any chances created. After 15 near chanceless overs at drinks, they were 0-57. Now, Kelso is an interesting ground; it is freaking massive. 60 square meter square boundaries, tall dark trees at either end, and a seeming paddock of grass to defend. After drinks, a bowling change worked beautifully, and PJ cracked the game open thanks to a sharp catch at midwicket to Micah. From there, to misquote Emperor Hirohito ‘The game situation has developed not necessarily to the 7’s advantage’.
We didn't take a wicket for the next 27 overs. In that time, they scored 180 runs. We even took a new ball after they got 200. Which they then promptly put on another 117 runs. The temperatures sat in the 30s, and the humidity soared. Don had a smart watch on. As we came off at the end of the day, he had done 14ks in the field. That’s the entire City to Surf. Not only that, but the wheels came off, the toys were out of the cot, and at least 7 catches went down. Balls dropped behind fielders, who moved back, then balls fell in front of them. Catches went through fingertips, wide of fielders and over the boundary. Fielders started mincing Brown’s cows, mozeying about in the outfield, trying to find shade. The bowlers couldn’t get the ball to move off the straight. The batsmen clubbed, finessed, slapped and tapped their way to multiple hundreds.
It was, without sugar coating it, one of the single worst days of cricket any of us have endured. St Christophers relentlessly ground us into the dirt, as our bowl them out quick and chase ‘em down plans were replaced with survival, and a longing for the sweet release of 5:30 pm.
Amidst the carnage, there were a few highlights. PJ and Dave Ritchil both got two wickets, Dave Ward bowled absolutely beautifully and was unlucky not to get a wicket (especially when your writer dropped a bloke who made 120 off Wardy’s bowling) and Michael Metry was brilliant behind the stumps. But at the end of the day, it was 5-317 in 53 overs at 6 an over. It was diabolical stuff.
Now, overnight, as you can imagine, spirits were low. But I did take a second to remind the fellas that we have beaten these blokes before chasing big totals off the last ball of the match before, and cricket as we know, is a funny game…
Rob and Jimmy opened the batting, and we quickly realised that outside of their openers, St Christophers were definitely light in the bowling department. Rob looked great for 21, before getting a ridiculous LBW, the ball nearly hit him in, shall we say, a sensitive area? Jimmy copped a beauty to be bowled by one of their openers (one of 6 bloody left-handers in their team, what is in the water in Milperra?!)
But I want to take some time here to really give Dave Ward his flowers. Wardy, batted beautifully for 55*. He drove with absolute class and control through the on and off side, he punished the short stuff, taking the long handle to some absolute pies, he defended with confidence against the good ball. He looked like Steve Waugh out there, front foot, back foot, whatever they served up he had an answer for. We didn't applaud his 50 as we should because the rain was starting, but here in perpetuity, let me say, Wardy was on for a 100 at least!
At 25 overs and two down, the rain arrived and the captains shook hands. In the club by 4pm with a burger and a Guiness we lamented Wardy’s lost hundred, and licked wounds from a Saturday that will have most of the squad at the physio within the week. But outside of the brutality, there was a genuine pride in the group.
We really did turn this season around, Undefeated since November, Jimmy Bandas the champion player in the comp, 2-day minor premiers and the arrival of great new players like Pat Hargreaves, Dave Ritchil, Micah Edwards, Ben Kimble and Gil Southwood. Kaustav Gupta smashing into form, PJ, Neil and Paddy Cullen all contributing with the ball, Metry behind the stumps, Nic in the field, Rob, Leo, Don and especially Wardy with the bat, it was a great season all in all for the mighty 7’s who as always, will go again next year and who knows what heights we can assail?
Best Batting
55* Dave Ward
21 Rob Sanderson
Best Bowling
2/56 PJ
2/60 David Ritchil
