Seven teams are fighting for one spot
If you accept our (patented and highly unscientific) proposition that a team will need 50 points to reach the First Grade finals this year, then five of the six finalists are already settled. Sydney University (66), Sydney (57) and Manly (52) will certainly be there; Fairfield-Liverpool (45) and Northern District (44) need only one more win from three games. That leaves seven teams fighting it out for sixth place: North Sydney (34) has the spot at the moment, on quotient, but only just ahead of Randwick-Petersham (also 34), Bankstown (34), Eastern Suburbs (34), St George (33), Gordon (32) and Wests (32). This week, either Bankstown or Gordon will knock the other out of contention, while Easts could end Wests’ hopes, or vice versa. Unless it rains, which it will, and that will confuse things even further.
In the lower grades, Manly (65) looks to have the minor premiership locked up in Seconds, while St George (54), Sydney University (45) and Wests (45) look fairly safe. Northern District (64) has a clear lead in Thirds, with ten other sides still in contention for the top six. St George won outright in Fourths, jumping over Sydney University to claim first place, and Penrith leads a tightly-bunched field in Fifth Grade.
Dugald Holloway is a bad habit
The great (but French) songwriter Georges Brassens once sang (but in French) that talent without technique is just a dirty habit. This observation is widely regarded as astute, and yet there are undoubtedly some cricketers for whom technique acts as a handbrake on talent, and that leads us to Dugald Holloway. The Sydney University fast bowler took bucketloads of wickets last season, winning a place in the SCA Merit Team. He did it with a technique no coach would ever recommend: he doesn’t have the kind of smooth and metronomically repeatable action that analysts love, and he doesn’t bowl six balls an over on a fourth-stump line. Occasionally he gives the impression that he’s not entirely sure where the ball’s going, or why. Holloway, though, succeeds not in spite of his unorthodox method, but because of it. His left-arm angle is awkward, he can generate unsettling pace, and the fact that he seldom bowls two identical balls in the same over makes his bowling dangerously unpredictable. In the first couple of rounds this season, Holloway bowled with exceptional discipline and accuracy, keeping a tidy line and length. And he was nowhere near as dangerous as he is when spraying it around a little. Now, he’s back to his unpredictable best, which is far more threatening, and there’s never a dull moment when he has the ball. Against Randwick-Petersham, after Liam Robertson had invited the home side to bat, Holloway leaked 32 runs from his first six overs, profligate work in a low-scoring game. But then everything clicked, and in his next nine overs, he claimed 4 for 21. University made heavy weather of chasing 145, and the game was in the balance when Holloway walked out at 6 for 82. Again, you will find few coaches advising you to copy Holloway’s distinctive crouching stance; but, when in touch, he hits the ball with power and timing that most batsmen would envy. His 33 from 34 balls was by some distance the freest scoring of the match, and his stand with the endlessly reliable Tim Cummins effectively settled the outcome. The result leaves University nine points clear in first place, while Randwick-Petersham dropped out of the six and into the pack jostling for sixth place.
Arguably, Jay Lenton is in form
Until halfway through January, you’d have said that Jay Lenton was having an ordinary season. The Manly captain’s first 14 innings of the season produced half a dozen scores in the 30s and 40s, but not a single half-century (although The Grade Cricketer may have allowed him a couple of “fifty-odds”). Then, as soon as it started to rain and the pitches became bowler-friendly, Lenton went into overdrive. He followed his 101 against North Sydney with 105 not out against Blacktown and then 156 not out against Wests. Manly’s innings against Wests was simply weird. They scored 304 although the third-highest score was Ryan Hadley’s 8 at number eleven. Early on, Lachlan Ford cleaned up Joel Foster, induced a leg-side tickle from Ryan Farrell, and removed Isaac Vumbacca from a top-edged hook; Oscar Oborn-Corby struck twice, and Manly was 5 for 33. At which point, irrationally, Lenton rebuilt the innings in a partnership of 206 with Sam Gainsford. Gainsford is a Manly stalwart, born into the club, but he was batting in First Grade for the first time this season and he had scored only one fifty in his previous 12 matches in the top grade. He played with an admirably simple method, defending stoutly, then swinging his arms powerfully whenever given the chance to drive or pull. He blasted three straight sixes from the Wests’ leg-spinners, and also lifted Ford over long-off for six. His maiden First Grade hundred was an immensely popular one at the club, and there’s something hugely entertaining about the way he holds the pose after completing a meaty stroke, without starting to run. Lenton also drove cleanly (although he’s considerably more elegant), and he’s in such good touch at the moment that the ball only needs to be fractionally short before he hoists it away over mid-wicket. Hadley and Elliot Herd bowled well on the second day, though Manly must have wondered whether they had batted too long when Tom Brooks and Ford held them up by adding 68 for the ninth wicket. But Hadley removed Brooks – caught, naturally by Lenton – and then the Manly captain ended the game by holding onto an outside edge from Ford’s defensive bat. Steve O’Keefe (unless he retires first), Ollie Davies and various members of the Edwards family should soon be returning to Manly and, especially if Lenton maintains his form, they will be serious contenders at the back end of March.
The Chef served up a memorable day
Mosman’s Matt Moran had an unlucky miss in Round 11, reaching 98 against University of NSW before he whacked a long hop down the throat of deep midwicket. But he didn’t have to wait long for his first hundred in the top grade. Against an Easts attack led by Harry Conway, Moran belted 150 not out from only 147 deliveries, hitting 13 fours and clearing the boundary five times. He shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 231 with Harry Dalton (93 not out), taking only 31 overs to do it. A tall batsman with long levers, there are two distinctive features to Moran’s batting – he trades heavily in boundaries, and once he’s set, he keeps on going (his 150 was only his fourth highest score in Premier Cricket). Before this season, he had a phenomenal record in Third Grade and a puzzlingly ordinary one in Seconds. He put that right in Round Two this year, cracking 202 not out against a strong Sydney attack, and since his promotion to Firsts, he’s made handy contributions in most matches. On Saturday, he weighed in with the ball as well, removing Tim Armstrong and Peter Nevill as Easts set about chasing an improbable target. Jordan Cox was even more dominant than Moran, thrashing 100 not out from 78 balls, seven of which disappeared over the fence. He reached his hundred by blasting the final ball of the day high over the long-on fence. There was no time to force a result either way, but results elsewhere have kept Easts in contention for the finals, and the point they salvaged for the draw may yet be important. Finally, our sympathies to Jono Bank, who made his First Grade debut for Easts, but without batting or bowling. Maybe next time.
They used to make Tooheys ads about this kind of finish
Spare a thought for those lower grade players who hoped that they’d finally play a two-day game, only to have large amounts of Round Twelve wiped away by rain. Still, the round produced some interesting results, including the game at Killara Oval, where Gordon hosted Sutherland, with both teams still in the hunt for the Third Grade finals. Only 100 overs were possible, and Sutherland set Gordon the enticing target of 154 from 47 overs. Gordon stayed in the chase throughout its innings, even though no batsman managed more than Arvin Niranjan’s 24. At 7 for 122, Gordon was struggling, but Shivraj Rana and Nathan Sequeira put their side back on track with a defiant late partnership. With one over remaining, Gordon needed five runs to win with three wickets in hand. Opening bowler Will Straker, handicapped by a slippery ball, had Rana caught from his first delivery, when the batsman tried to clear mid-off and failed. The next ball smacked into Ethan Sitaramayya’s pads, leaving the umpire in no doubt as to where it was heading. Last man Simon Read swiped aggressively at the third ball, slicing wide to the left of cover, where Brendon Piggott, one of the Sharks’ better fieldsmen, made good ground and clung on to a difficult chance. It was a good day for Piggott, who also passed 1000 runs for Sutherland. Straker’s hat-trick (and 7-53) gave Sutherland the points: they leap-frogged over Gordon on the table, and will most likely break into the top six if they beat 18th-placed Hawkesbury next round.