Rain complicates things
Another January, another competition distorted by rain. There’s no answer to this: it’s built in to a game played outdoors at the mercy of the weather. But the fact that it’s unavoidable doesn’t make it fair. Last weekend, Penrith, UTS North Sydney, Campbelltown-Camden and St George each collected wins in First Grade, but there was no time for a result in the other six games. Sutherland and Eastern Suburbs never even made it onto the field. By no coincidence, Penrith and St George sit in the top six, with Campbelltown seventh: winning counts double when other teams don’t get on. With four rounds to go, there are probably still ten clubs with realistic aspirations of playing in the finals – and at least some of those are likely to be disrupted by the weather as well.
We have semi-finalists in the Limited Overs competitions
The quarter-finals of the First Grade Limited Overs competition were held last Sunday, and turned out to be pretty lop-sided: there were no close games, and in three of the four matches, the side batting first was rolled quickly, suggesting that the persistent rain left plenty of juice in the pitches. Conor O’Riordan and Peter Francis reduced Hawkesbury to 5 for 17, after which there was only going to be one result: at Pratten Park, Gordon’s Ash Premkumar and Callum Bladen were even more destructive, as Wests crashed to 7 for 29. At Coogee, Randwick-Petersham stumbled to 3 for 33 before recovering to reach 9 for 203, English import George Bell contributing 39. But Eastern Suburbs’ response never got out of first gear, and Austin Waugh polished off the innings with a spell of 4-11. In the semi-finals, Parramatta meets St George while Randwick-Petersham plays Gordon.
The Green Shield finals are happening, too
There was more excitement in the Green Shield quarter finals, also played on Sunday. In a match reduced to 24 overs a side, Northern District edged out Mosman by 19 runs, mostly because Lachlan Bartlett blasted 108 from 83 balls. Bartlett has had an interesting series – his scores (65, 85, 0, 57. 0 and 108) suggest that it’s a good idea to get him out before he scores. Wests eased past University of NSW, largely because of Martis Johri’s 5-28. Sydney University recovered from an early collapse to squeeze past St George, thanks to Xavier Quoyle’s polished 62 and another fine spell of leg-spin from captain Arnav Yadav (4-34), who set a new record for University in the competition when he took his 22nd wicket. At Merrylands, Gordon’s Archie Hetherington wrapped up the Parramatta innings with a hat-trick, but Gordon’s pursuit of 195 appeared doomed when the first five wickets fell for only 68. Sam David and Sam Dillon repaired the innings with a seventh-wicket stand of 57, and when Arhan Shah took the ball for the final over, Gordon’s last pair needed six runs to win. Shah produced a nerveless performance to hold Gordon to three singles, and Parramatta held on by just two runs.
Jeremy Nunan is in form
Campbelltown-Camden’s solid showing in First Grade this season owes a great deal to Jeremy Nunan, who has picked up 38 wickets with some consistently hostile new-ball bowling. University of NSW actually dominated large parts of the match at Raby, dismissing the hosts for only 200 after good work by Declan White (5-42) and Irishman Gavin Hoey (3-46). Jack Harwicke-Owen scored an impressive fifty in the Bees’ reply. But the decisive period in the game was the top of the University of NSW innings, when Nunan and Raheem Abdul grabbed five wickets for 43 runs. Nunan drew Mahsen Narvel into a poorly-judged hook, which was well held by Abdul at fine leg, nicked off Nihal Desai, and forced Suffan Hassan to retire hurt after striking him with a short delivery. He ended the innings with 4-61. Another important contribution came from Ryan Clark, who swung hard for 38 late in the order, and picked up two vital wickets.
Mosman’s lower graders could use some practice against finger spin
Not that we’re a qualified coach, exactly, but it strikes us that this week at training, Mosman’s lower graders might do a bit of work on how to play finger-spinners who turn the ball a bit, but not that much. In Fifth Grade, Mosman succumbed for only 73 in 36 overs, with the highly experienced left-arm tweaker, Patrick Lindsay, picking up four for seven in 12 overs. Lindsay sent down 72 balls, and runs were scored from only five of them. That was a better effort, though, than Mosman’s Third Grade, who lasted only 33.2 overs and scored just 38. The destroyer was off-spinner Liam Whitaker, who did the hat trick in his first over by dismissing Jamie Dunk, Thomas Elliott and Flynn Farquharson (who, with that name, should never, ever play for anyone but Mosman). Mosman lost five wickets with the total on 12, and Whitaker ended up with 7 for 8 from 13 overs. Meanwhile, in Seconds, off-spinner Harry Gardner picked up six Mosman wickets, admittedly at slightly greater expense. Anyway, there it is – finger spin, guys, it’s an issue for you. There will be no charge for this advice.