The Students are almost back at full strength
On Saturday, Sydney University fielded two players who have broken a thumb or finger this season, as well as two who have missed games with leg injuries. Now that they’re back, the Students are more or less at full strength, except for their Big Bash players, and their win over Penrith kept them on top of the First Grade ladder. Penrith will look back on the game as a missed opportunity, since Tyran Liddiard (52) and Cameron Weir (95) gave the Panthers an excellent platform, but Dugald Holloway, rediscovering his best form, undermined the innings with 3-23 and Devlin Malone and Ben Mitchell took important wickets to restrict the score to 235. The chase was clinical: Charlie Dummer led the way with another vigorous fifty, and Liam Robertson maintained the momentum with a rapid 42 (an innings that included two massive sixes from Jordan Browne’s off-breaks, as well as Robertson’s 7500th run for the club). And the game was finished off by Ryan McElduff, returning from injury, who hit an unbeaten 66 from 67, driving crisply and threading the ball through the on side. University did not always look convincing in the first half of the season, but the side is gathering strength and momentum at the right time.
Manly’s depth has held up well
The Big Bash season is not always enjoyable for Manly, who lose the Edwards brothers, Stephen O’Keefe and Ollie Davies to one franchise or another (and we’re not counting theoretical Manly player Mitchell Starc here). This season, however, their depth of talent is so good that they have managed to hold second place on the First Grade ladder, and first place in Seconds. On Saturday, Manly battled to 8 for 189 against Eastern Suburbs, and looked well beaten when Easts reached 3 for 143, needing 47 from 20 overs. Yet they won by 18 runs. Most of the damage was done by Elliott Herd, who has emerged this season as a genuine wicket-taker in First Grade. The off-spinner was expensive, allowing 60 runs from his ten overs, but the four wickets he took were vital. It’s not unfair to say he had a little help from Easts’ batsmen, with Peter Nevill and Will Simpson both lofting inoffensive deliveries to fieldsmen in the deep, while Jack Preddey tried to sweep a ball that was too full and straight. Herd won’t mind: already this season he has 25 wickets, and Manly are not missing O’Keefe nearly as much as expected. Ryan Hadley has been below his best this season, but played his part to perfection, removing Tim Armstrong and Angus Robson at the top of the order and wrapping up the tail. Easts will be trying to work out exactly how they managed to lose this one, the main consolation being the form of young Kent batsman Jordan Cox, who hit a classy 74 in his first First Grade innings for the club. Cox was removed by Isaiah Vumbaca, who’s proof of the depth at Manly; recently promoted to Firsts, Vumbaca contributed 37 vital runs and also picked up a vital wicket, his first in the top grade.
You can’t bowl there to Tom Doyle
The innings of the week in a losing cause was played by Sutherland’s Tom Doyle, who belted 109 from 101 deliveries after his side had slumped to 2 for 36 against Sydney. Doyle has been in Sutherland’s First Grade side for five years now, making very valuable contributions without ever quite scoring as heavily as a player of his talent might. When he’s on song, though, he’s very difficult to bowl to – he’s extremely strong square on the off side, between cover and point, regardless of whether the ball’s full or short. That often forces bowlers to straighten up, and then Doyle works the ball through the leg side. On Saturday, his square drive brought a large proportion of his eleven fours, and there was also a flat slap for six over cover from Ryan Felsch’s bowling. When Nic Bills straightened up his line, Doyle played an audacious flick over the midwicket fence (although he was lucky to survive an ugly heave later in the over, the bottom edge eluding both the stumps and the keeper and running away to the fence). Doyle and Daniel Fallins (57) steered Sutherland to the respectability of 6 for 239, but Sydney’s batsmen staged a well-paced chase and reached that target with an over to spare. Beau McClintock, with 61, led the way, while Sutherland’s bowlers will regret donating 14 wides and no-balls to their opponents.
The Bees are on a roll
They may be underperforming in the First Grade competition, but University of NSW is still in the hunt for silverware this season, after storming into the Grand Final of the Harry Solomons Little Bash. Their formula is pretty simple: they bowl tightly, field aggressively, and then Jack Attenborough goes beserk (in a very elegant way). And a bit of luck helps too. At Chatswood Oval on Sunday, Brandon McLean handed the new ball to left-arm spinner Adrian Isherwood, who started off with a dreadful half-tracker. Nine times out of ten, Tym Crawford would have deposited it into Orchard Road; this time he picked out Declan White’s safe hands on the boundary, at which point Isherwood embarked on a delirious victory lap that makes you wonder what he’ll do if he ever manages to pitch the ball on leg and hit the top of off. Nathan Doyle’s 74 from 54 hauled Gordon to 6 for 150, not a huge total on Chatswood, and Isherwood (62) and Attenborough (57) pounded the Stags out of the game with a second-wicket partnership of 115 in only 12 overs. They were both brutal on Quincy Titterton, and Isherwood launched Dylan Hunter for a couple of flat sixes over cow corner. Isherwwod and Attenborough make it very difficult for bowlers to settle into a line and length: Isherwood is left-handed, Attenborough right, and since Isherwood just about comes up to Attenborough’s shoulder, he pulls deliveries that his partner drives.
Except for an over and a half, during which Ben Abbott thrashed everything out of sight, Bankstown was always in control of its match against Parramatta, and logically they start as favourites for the Grand Final at Bankstown Oval on Australia Day. But the Bees are on a roll, and it would be risky to bet against them.
There are more finals coming
It’s easy to forget, but this coming Saturday is the last of the preliminary rounds for the First Grade Limited Overs Cup, so it’s worth checking up on the state of that competition. The fact that the competition has only five rounds has made the table very congested, especially as one of those rounds was mostly washed out. So at this stage, all we can say for certain is that Campbelltown (1 point) and Blacktown (nil) will not be in the qualifying finals on 7 February, while Manly, Sydney University and Randwick-Petersham (20) certainly will be. Everyone else could be, as a matter of mathematical possibility, although Mosman (for example) would need to score two for 509 before bowling out St George for 12 and hoping other results go their way. Perhaps the most interesting match of the round is at Bankstown, where the home side (14 points) could miss out on the top eight with a loss to Northern District (19). University of NSW (7) would leapfrog their opponents Eastern Suburbs (13) if they win with a bonus point, while Fairfield-Liverpool (13) can sneak in to the eight if they beat Sutherland and other results favour them.