Sydney University enjoys being in a corner
At the risk of getting repetitive, Sydney University continues to demonstrate its knack of winning games from tough positions. For lengthy stretches of the game on Saturday, the Students were outplayed by Parramatta – like when Patrick Xie and Nick Bertus added 104 for the third wicket in quick time, or when Evan Pitt reduced the home side to 3-18, knocking the top off the innings with some impressive away-swing bowling. But, most of the time, University finds someone to stand up. On this occasion, Jordan Gauci and Ryan McElduff rebuilt the innings with a brisk partnership of 84, Charlie Litchfield boosted the run-rate with a middle-order cameo, and two bowlers with modest batting credentials – Caelan Maladay and Devlin Malone – saw the side home with some well-aimed blows at the death, including the second six of Malone’s First Grade career. The win keeps University in second place on the ladder, although the number of close results the Students have contested means that they have a worse quotient than Penrith, who are tenth.
Welcome to Sydney, Private Player
If you followed the match between Campbelltown-Camden and Easts on Play HQ, you’ll have noticed that Private Player had a blinder, following a handy spell of bowling with a decisive innings of 97. Private Player turns out to be Louis Kimber, a 25 year-old from Leicestershire, who bats and bowls off-spin. Kimber scored his maiden first-class hundred in the last English summer, although that achievement was accomplished in the middle of an absurd run-feast, as Leicestershire replied to Sussex’s 588 by running up 4 for 756. Anyway, on Saturday, Kimber was impeccable, turning in ten tidy overs to take 2-28 (including the key scalp of Angus Robson, who has also played for Leicestershire), and then dominated his partnership with Toby Flynn-Duncombe, whacking 97 from 90 balls. Kimber looked set for a raid hundred before he played a weird stroke against his fellow English import, Tom Prest, attempting to drive through cover off the back foot to an off break that was at least a foot outside leg stump. It didn’t end well. Still, it was an impressive first appearance and gives a further boost to the Ghosts’ mid-season improvement.
Everyone wants to be club captain at St George now
Club captain at St George is a big job – so big, apparently, that it needs two people to do it. This year, it’s shared by First Grade all-rounder Luke Bartier and Third Grade seamer Paul Francis, both of whom have good reason to remember Round Nine fondly. At Manly Oval, early wickets to Nick Stapleton had put Manly on the back foot before the home side recovered to 2-64, with Jack Edwards blasting sixes all around the ground. At which point, Bartier came into the attack, and everything went pear-shaped. With his first ball, he had Edwards, driving expansively, caught behind (for 57 off 29). In his second over, Matt Brewster wafted at a ball outside off stump, and nicked off to Tom Vane-Tempest. And the wickets kept falling – from 6.1 overs, Bartier collected 6-11. St George tumbled over the line to take the points, although Mickey Edwards was outstanding, taking 5-19. In Third Grade, Bartier’s co-captain did even better. Defending 173, he came on to bowl as first change with Manly at 1-25 and grabbed 8-26 in only eight overs. He took eight consecutive wickets, including Ellis Raymond, Dominic Wheeler and Sam Webber in a single over. What’s striking about these two performances is not only that they came at the expense of Manly teams at the top of each competition table, but that they both came out of nowhere: in First Grade this season, Bartier had bowled only a handful of overs for his two wickets, while Francis has been no more than steady in Thirds (and took only ten wickets in the whole of last season).
RPs are clinical when it all clicks
Congratulations to Ben Montedoro, who made his First Grade debut for Randwick-Petersham last week, on the back of several solid all-round contributions in Seconds. We mention this partly because he’s earned it, and partly because, otherwise, you might not have noticed he was there – he didn’t get a chance to bat or bowl as RPs crushed Sydney in an impressively clinical display. The seamers were relentless, suffocating Sydney’s top order, and then the classy Tawanda Muyeye (90 not out) and the ridiculously consistent Anthony Sams (65 not out) cruised past the target of 199 with more than six overs to spare. On their day, RPs can beat any side in the competition, which makes their current standing – 13th – difficult to understand.
That competition you’ve forgotten about is nearly over
If you’ve forgotten that there’s a competition called the First Grade Limited Overs Cup, all is forgiven. Everyone else has, too. But it exists, and next Saturday’s round is the last before the Qualifying Finals on 29 January. As far as we can tell (and we’re relying on PlayHQ, so we could very well be wrong), thirteen clubs have a mathematical chance of ending up in the top six. Entertainingly, the top six clubs are all equal on points and separated only by quotient: Northern District, St George, University of NSW, Campbelltown-Camden, Sydney University and Blacktown all go into the final round needing only to win to reach the finals. Behind them, on 13, sit Parramatta, Penrith and Sydney, while (on 12) Sutherland, Bankstown, Wests and Mosman need a gigantic bonus-point win to have a chance. The big match-ups are at Hurstville, where the loser of Sydney University and St George risks dropping out of the top six; at Asquith, where Sydney has a chance of upsetting the leaders, Northern District; and at David Phillips, where University of NSW and Parramtta meet in what could become a straight playoff for a finals place.