Liam Robertson has called it a day
Having quietly announced that this will be his last season in the game, Liam Robertson probably expected the chance to make a farewell appearance for Sydney University, but Sydney’s incessant rain wiped out what would have been his last three matches, so it never quite happened. As it turned out, his last game was the match at Campbelltown, his 233rd in First Grade, in which he collected his first five-wicket haul in the top grade. Robertson was certainly a handy bowler – he took 150 First Grade wickets – but his bowling was possibly the least impressive aspect of his game. He fielded brilliantly anywhere, and he hit the ball superbly, especially down the ground. At his best, he was as good a white-ball cricketer as there was in the Sydney competition. A one-club player, who rose from Green Shield to First Grade captain, he scored 8192 runs in all grades, 5386 in Firsts. But maybe the most impressive statistic is this one: in all, he played 327 games for University and no fewer than 60 of them were finals. The teams he played in, won. He’ll be missed.
Odd things happen in the final round
So, your Seconds are in the running for the finals, Firsts are not, and you lose a few players from your top side. What do you do? Well, obviously, you ask three players from Third Grade to make their debuts in Firsts. That’s what Easts did, anyway, and the strange thing is that it worked, up to a point.
Easts squeaked home in Firsts, largely because of an unbroken fourth-wicket stand between Angus Robson and Marcus Atallah, who took 195 runs from the last 162 balls of the innings. After a slowish start to the season, Robson has been excellent towards the end: this was his third hundred in his last six innings. Atallah cracked 102 not out from 86 balls, bringing up his first hundred in First Grade and clearing the fence six times in the process. Sutherland made a good fist of the chase, and perhaps looked to be on top when Jarryd Biviano and James Arnold took the score to 2 for 222. But Easts held on: a six from the final ball would have won the game, but Will Straker could only manage a single. The debutants did nothing wrong, either: Chris Thompsett (who has, in fairness, played a couple of T20 games already) picked up three vital wickets, Max Cotter held a couple of catches behind the stumps, and Ollie Maxwell… well, Ollie Maxwell still hasn’t batted in Firsts, but he did help run out Andrew Deitz, so there’s that.
Not everything worked out for Easts, though. They made a great start in Seconds, reaching 125 without loss in 28 overs before rain intervened, Harry Byrnes-Howe leading the way with 81 not out. An adjusted target left Sutherland needing 166 from 28 overs. Another Straker – Tom – was on strike for the last ball, needing only a single to win, but Will Lawrance had him caught so the game ended in a tie. As it turns out, even if Easts had won, Sydney University did too, so the extra three points wouldn’t have lifted them into the finals anyway.
Ryan Felsch remembers how to tee off
For a player so well-suited to the white ball game, Sydney’s Ryan Felsch has had a strangely muted season, not reaching fifty since the first round of the competition. But he put that right on Saturday, pulverising University of NSW’s finals hopes by pounding 124 from only 87 deliveries. He actually batted even faster than that suggests, since he managed only a single from the first ten balls he faced. Then he punched Declan White through cover for four, and he was away. In the next over, he casually launched Tom Scoble over wide long-on for six, and he proceeded to add another ten sixes to his tally. When Felsch is in form, his sixes don’t just clear the boundary, but clear it by miles, as if somehow it might be worth eight if the ball travels a bit further. Sydney’s total of 281 looked impregnable when the Bees crashed to 6 for 67, but for a moment it looked as though University of NSW might have one more miracle finish left: Ethan Jamieson scored a classy, rapid hundred, and Suthangan Thanabalasingam contributed a fighting 66. Just when Sydney was feeling nervous, Thanabalasingam and Hayden McLean both fell in the same over to – of course – Ryan Felsch. Sydney and the Bees were effectively playing off for sixth place, and it’s Sydney who advance to the finals next weekend.
Everything old is new again
There was a finals playoff at St Pauls Oval on Saturday, when the winner of the game between Sydney University and Gordon was certain to advance to the post-season, while the losers could put their boots away for the next six months. On a pitch that was never easy for batting, Gordon struggled against a tidy University attack, battling to 113 from 38.5 overs. It didn’t look enough, but when the Students crashed to Tom Stacy, losing 5 for 20 (and then 6 for 33), Gordon was firmly on top. The Stags’ hopes were dashed by Noah Bloch (from Zimbabwe via Perth), who rode his luck and cracked 47 not out so quickly that University not only won the game, but also took an improbable bonus point.
So that was quite a game, but that’s not the interesting bit. Because, back in 1994-95, Sydney University faced Gordon at home in the last round before the finals, on a Saturday when there had been no play the previous week because of heavy rain. On a pitch that was never easy for batting, Gordon struggled against a tidy University attack, battling to make 124. It didn’t look enough, but when the Students crashed to 5 for 19, Gordon was firmly on top. Yet University recovered to win the game. Sydney University advanced to the finals, Gordon didn’t.
Hang around this game long enough, and whatever you saw once, you’ll probably see again. Incidentally, University went on to win the competition in 1994-95, so if you believe in omens, there’s one for you.
Gladys is a Shire girl at heart
It was always likely that the season’s final Gladys Berejiklian Award for the Sudden and Unexpected Collapse of the Round would be handed out in a game involving Sutherland – no team has tried so hard, and so consistently, to earn this particular accolade as the Sharks’ Thirds. And they put in another big effort on Saturday, slumping from the respectability of 2 for 44 to be dismissed for only 90. And yet, and yet. Easts’ Fourths, against Sutherland, did even better. Meaning worse. Having ground out a decent start at 4 for 105, Easts fell in a heap to Sam Fitzgibbon (3-13) and Luke Ritchie (3-14), losing their last six wickets for only ten runs. It turns out that Gladys is a Shire girl at heart.