First Grade - scorecard
Toss
Sydney University won the toss and elected to bat first
Result
Undecided
Game scores
Sydney University first innings, 3/383 off 96 overs
Notables
Scott Henry, 200*, Greg Mail, 105, Ryan Carters, 36
Report
The combination of the start of the grade season, 20 new tracks on the world-famous “Da Scoota Anthems” playlist, stories of battles won and lost by Tim Ley and Nick Larkin (on and off the field) in Ireland during the European summer and the salivating prospect of going toe-to-toe with Sydney Uni legend, Ian Moran, put a buzz in the musty air of the visitors’ change room at Waverly Oval on Saturday morning.
Back in the driver’s seat, captain Mail informed his charges that “Plan A” would be implemented on day 1. This, of course, meant that if the toss were to be won, Sydney University would bat first, the top order would be expected to bat judiciously in the first few sessions and the middle order would be free to play some shots after tea.
Scott ‘Scooter’ Henry and Ryan Carters opened the batting together for the first time and scored 72 quick runs for the first wicket. Carters was disappointed to flick a loose ball to square leg on 36, but the high quality of his stroke-play made it clear that that he has been an outstanding off-season acquisition for Sydney University.
What followed was an imposing partnership of 246 runs by Scooter and Greg Mail, during which both players showed why they have won first-class honours. Mail eventually departed for 105, with grade century number 39 (yes, 39, that is a record!), notched on his belt.
Scooter batted out the day, bringing up an eye-catching 200*, in the last over. A special mention must go to Nick Larkin f
or finding two quick singles in the last over to feed the strike back to Scooter and enable him to finish off his double ton.
Quotes
of the day both fell from the lips of the quintessential student and ever-humble
Henry. The first came during the lunch break, when he mused: “books are for losers”; the second came as
he relaxed with a tinny of VB at the end of play and reflected on his chances
of winning the club’s player of the round award: “some lower grader will probably get 3 for 50 and 30 runs and beat me to it”. Gotta love the Big Dog.
Second Grade
Toss
Sydney University won the toss and elected to bat first
Result
Undecided
Game scores
Sydney University first innings, 308/10
Notables
Adam Theobald, 94, Alexander Logan 54, Darius Visser 53
Report
Second grade arrived at Uni no. 2 with the weight of expectation from their heroic efforts in the finals last season. Fresh new faces were coupled with reliable veterans around the team circle.Skipper, Tom Kierath won the toss and decided it was time to bat. The no.2 wicket had a even spread of grass and seemed to be rock hard underneath.
The odd couple of Will Hay and Alexander "log-on" Logan, strolled out to the middle for the first session of the season. Both of the lads started solidly and managed to see off the new rock through to drinks.
After Hay was dismissed Theobald made his way to the crease and immediately stamped his presence on the Eastern Suburbs attack. Balls were thundering from his bat and racing away to the boundary. It was a dominant performance that left the opposition searching for answers to plug the holes in the field. Logan effectively "stone-walled" them down the other end whilst Adam hit top speed. The pair produced the partnership second grade needed and had the boys only one down at lunch. Adam was dismissed six short of his century and this ended a partnership of 128.
After lunch Alex managed to notch up a half century in his first second grade innings.
Wickets fell consistently before and after tea, and credit must be given to the Easts attack for hanging in there during tough windy conditions.
Darius Visser was the shining light in the afternoon session. Powering his way to 53, he was relentless on the front and back foot.
It was great to have a several team members open up their 'horns' account in their first innings for the season. The sweetest of them all was Josh Toyer's straight six towards Uni no. 1.
Off the field there was a lot of banter, headlined by Will Hay. The outlet of Adam Theobald's iPhone sparked much debate about what's hot right now, and what use to be pumping in the early 2000s or Hay's 'prime.' A divided team suggested an array of music, from Jason Derulo's latest to Jack Hill's favourite"bubble butt."
A successful day for the dents who will be fired up to take on the Eastern Suburbs batting line up this weekend.
Third Grade
Toss
Easts won the toss and elected to bat first
Result
Undecided
Game scores
Easts first innings, all out 196, Sydney University first innings, 2/15 off 8 overs
Notables
Ronit
Lotliker 5/40, Jim Ryan 3/50 , Lewis McMahon 2/39
Report
The start of the season saw a few new faces join the 3rds, who are looking to go one better than last year’s efforts where we lost the grand final. After we lost the toss, Easts elected to bat on what appeared to be a good batting strip.
Jimmy Ryan and Lewis McMahon, two of the new faces in the team who are in desperate need of nicknames (uni games this week should help), opened the bowling for the Students and they applied early pressure. Jimmy showed his class and seemed to be at least two yards too quick and Lewis bowled great areas to pick up a couple of early poles, including one delivery that, according to the man himself, was ‘an absolute peach’. Upon closer inspection and conversation with Cheaty the Duck (aka Ed Arnott) it appeared as though it did do a bit, but not that much…
Both Jimmy and Lewis bowled well all day and both picked up wickets and looked threatening. Special mention as well to Cheaty behind the stumps, who kept beautifully as always but had a mixed day with his fishing wire, collecting two bowled decisions but pulling the bails off another 25 times, which unfortunately only resulted in time delays, not wickets.
The star of the day was Instagram’s Ronit Lotliker who operated a masterclass in legspin bowling, taking 5 wickets and he was unlucky not to have more. Highlight of Ronnie’s work was a tie between a quality wrong un which the batsman left only to have it thump into the pad (apparently not hitting the stumps, but did look very out, and should have been given on that basis alone) and the beautiful pre meditated lap sweep from their no 10 off a full toss which lobbed to 1st slip…
All in all it was a good day in the field, and the ‘dents did well to restrict Easts to 196 on a good batting deck.
An edgy 8 over stint at the end of the day unfortunately lost us two early wickets from some good bowling; however we should be quite confident that we can knock of the remaining 180 odd and register 6 points next week.
Fourth Grade
To be submitted
Fifth Grade
Toss
Easts won the toss and elected to bat first
Result
Undecided
Game scores
East’s
First Innings – all out 144; Sydney University First Innings – 6/58 off 21
overs
Notables
Tom Hill 3/19, Kieran Tate 3/34 and Ed Lewis 32
Report
Another season has rolled around and a team in fifth grade oozing talent. A few cases owing due to some dubious navigation and it was time for the first game of Nash in a seriously competitive setting, with the batsmen emerging 1-0 winners in a typically scrappy early season come.
After losing the toss we were sent into the field with Tom ‘Sore Toes’ Hill and Kieran ‘Wayne Rooney’ Tate getting us off to a great start with some tight bowling and a couple of poles. Hilly showed great thought and accuracy in setting the East’s opening batsman up with a first ball half tracker followed by second ball half tracker which was hit straight to Irish import Peter Eakin who took a blinder of a catch for his first involvement for the club at backward point.
On a dry and largely unforgiving deck for the bowlers we were patient in our approach and this paid dividends with indecisive running and the need to score some runs allowing us to keep the runs down and the wickets falling with East’s grinding their way to 144 all out off 57 overs. A good result considering we lost our leading spinner Anthony ‘Injured Again’ Lown to an injury to his spinning finger, even though he himself doesn’t know how he acquired the deep gash.
We were looking good with the bat with Ed ‘Chris Rogers’ Lewis leading our charge with some well played shots through the off side, however the dismissal of Harry ‘The Grub’ Watt sparked what could be described as nothing less than a batting collapse. A combination of good tight bowling and some very poor batting led to the Students slumping to 6/58 with the game delicately poised with a long batting line up and Andrew ‘Mumbai Mauler’ Devaraj and Anthony Lown at the crease with the ability to guide us home next week.
However all was made to feel a little better after the poor finish to the day by taking advantage of the new players inexperience to boost the fines kitty early and set the tone for what will be a light hearted and fun season to come in fives. Special mention to Tom Hill for anything that came out of his mouth for the day, will be supplying much of the money to pay for our season’s various gatherings.
Bring on next week, and hopefully six points to start us off.