Nick Larkin has passed 3500 runs in First Grade. He is currently 11th on the Club’s all-time list of First Grade run-scorers, with 3600.
Mark Faraday has passed 2000 runs in Second Grade (although 216 of these were scored for Manly-Warringah).
Tim Ley has moved past Michael Culkoff to become the Club’s ninth-highest wicket-taker in allgrades (with 416).
Sydney Uni's powerful form in the short version of the game continued over the weekend as they comfortably accounted for Bankstown in the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup - Thunder Conference semi-final at Uni Oval 1 on Sunday.
After losing a wicket in the first over, Bankstown stars Phil Wells (38) and Daniel Solway (26) pushed the score to a solid launching pad at 1-53, but outstanding spells from off-spinner Will Somerville (3-19 from 4) and all-rounder Liam Robertson (2-22 from 4) tightened the screws.
Despite a heavy final over, with Nathan McAndrew (29 from 17 balls) displaying some strong hitting, Sydney Uni held Bankstown to less than a run-a-ball, finishing on 8-119.
A fine captains' knock of 49no (from 49 balls) from Nick Larkin controlled the pace of the Students' innings, whilst cameo innings' from Ben Trevor-Jones (23 from 14), Max Hope (23 from 23) and Dave Miller (14 from 11) saw the Students chase down the total with 5 wickets and 4 balls in hand.
The win takes the Students back to the Thunder conference final to be held at the SCG on Sunday from 11am against Northern Districts with the winner going on to the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup final at 6.30pm. Manly take on Randwick-Petersham in the Sixers conference final.
We urge everyone that supports Sydney Uni to join us at the SCG for the conference final on Sunday, let's turn the SCG Blue & Gold and cheer the Students on to glory!
If ever one were asked to describe the fabric that defined SUCC, Nash Ball would never be far from the mind. Throw in a superior level of intellect, numerous premierships and you’ll come close to the definition you’re looking for.
Each day’s play begins with a hotly contested game. Top 6 vs. Bottom 6 (including the evergreen Gary Whitaker) is the customary team divide. Testament to the high stakes has been the recent promotion of Tim Ley up the batting order to 6. Never has one team benefited so drastically from an inclusion since the demotion of ex cult figure Kevin Desai, who despite being the leading run scorer was dropped to 7 purely on nash ability. Tim’s recent promotion has seen the batsmen take home all the spoils so far this season. However, whispers have surfaced on the rumour mill from within the bowling camp, that new inclusion Ben Joy has been extremely poor early doors. There are fears that he will not cope with the idea that Greg Mail continues to referee nash. If you’re reading this Ben, it’s not the first time you’ve dealt with adversity. It would be good to have you back on both fronts.
Nash enthusiasts also believe that the recent elevation of Nick Larkin to first grade Captain will result in a return to Nash ball form. Previously labelled a one trick pony, his decision to promote Tim Ley will have no greater affect than on his own game as the goal mouth is now rarely compromised. A glimmer of hope for the bowling team this season has been Jonte Pattison who continually runs rings around older members of the side. Unfortunately for him his only support occasionally comes in the form of Ash Cowan. I know what you’re thinking but having been found sleeping in the covers after one too many Friday night beers, ‘Smash’ often sports his vollies and begins a comical attempt at showing us what lower grade nash has to offer.
Alongside Jonte this season has been ‘Screech 2.0’ Dugald Holloway. Safe to say his ability to apply complex mathematical models to his nash game have so far yielded little results. Onlookers can expect screech to find his feet and have a major impact as he finds a way to successfully apply the Pythagoras theorem to his nash tactics. He could do worse than take a leaf from the book of Maily who has in recent seasons moulded the game and its rules to suit his ageing frame. The most notable instance was the eradication of the controversial rugby tackle, however many believe this also coincided with Josh Toyer and Tom Kierath no longer lining up in the bottom 6.
After an early season hiccup, Will Somerville otherwise known as emu makes a return to nash this weekend. Experts of the game have on numerous occasions pointed out that the top 6 look most dangerous when emu has the ball in his hands. Unfortunately for him he occupies a spot in the bottom 6 and therefore any spectator witnessing a game will often see the ball purposely turned over. However, top 6 beware, word on the grape vine is that Emu is in the shape of his life having spent his first full pre season as a professional cricketer in the nets and on the ‘bench’ press. Congratulations to Will and his wife who are expecting a baby in Feb.
On the down side, as each season rolls around, you need not look any further than nash for a reminder of just how old you now are. Turning circles grow increasingly wider as each day passes; just ask Will Hay whom this season is trotting out in his 30th year after birth. Luckily for him, his career at SUCC will be defined by far more than his nash ability. Enough said.
I know all grades are again looking forward to cricket this weekend, however turn up to any venue where uni are playing and you will not be able to go past the enthusiasm shown by all in what has become an important part of who we are.
With the representative season now well underway, University players are excelling in the higher levels of the game. Ed Cowan and Ryan Carters are in the New South Wales side that has won its way through to the final of the Matador Cup, and Carters will turn our for the Prime Minister’s XI against New Zealand in Canberra on Friday.
New South Wales took four University players to Adelaide for its first match of the season in the Toyota Futures League. Tim Ley was in magnificent all-round form, wrecking the home side’s first innings with 4-27 before hitting an aggressive 74 from 117 deliveries (with nine 4s and three 6s). Ley’s seventh wicket partnership of 109 with Josh Lalor put the game out of South Australia’s reach, and he followed up with two second-innings wickets. Nick Larkin was in good touch with the bat, hitting eight boundaries in his positive 40, while Will Somerville bowled neatly and collected a couple of wickets in the second innings. Jonte Pattison was unlucky, as an injury forced him to retire hurt early in his innings, but he’ll be back in representative cricket early in November when the Australian Under 19 Championship begins.
Our Top Ten as at 18th October 2015:
Bowling is for idiots
Two-day cricket resumed in Sydney on Saturday 10 October, with results that make unusually grisly reading for anyone who happens to be a bowler. In the ten First Grade matches played on the day, 87 wickets fell while 3540 runs were scored. Almost 41 runs were scored for every wicket that fell. 5665 legitimate deliveries were bowled, and a bowler claimed a wicket (there were seven run-outs) only once in every 81 balls. These numbers, actually, tell a misleading story, since they include the anomalous game at Allan Border Oval in which Mosman and Campbelltown-Camden managed to lose twenty wickets between them in the day (they made up for this with a run-feast on the second day). A responsible statistician would remove these outlying data to emphasise the underlying trend, which is gruesome. The trouble, of course, is that Sydney’s early-season pitches are drab, lifeless strips of rolled mud that offer bowlers nothing but frustration, impotence and heartbreak. They’re not ideal for batting either – most batsmen would prefer the ball to come on a bit more – but it’s relatively easy to stay in on them, and once a decent batsman becomes accustomed to the lack of pace and bounce, he can score almost at will.
Some years back, there was a game played at Hurstville Oval in which the visiting team produced an excellent effort in the field to restrict a powerful St George side to a first-day total of just over 300. On the second morning, the captain – a fast bowler – decided that his batsmen would benefit from a motivational talk, and announced: “Listen, guys, I just want you to remember two words today – application, concentration and dedication. And if we all score 25, we’ll get these runs.” This piece of spectacular innumeracy was cherished in the dressing room for the rest of the season as proof that fast bowlers are dumb. But the numerical evidence from this season’s Round 3 is even more damning. If bowlers were just a little bit smarter, they would have become batsmen.
Jay Lenton is seeing it like a watermelon
The sheer profusion of runs being scored can make it difficult to sort out the talented batsmen from the flat-track bullies. It’s fairly safe, though, to put Jay Lenton into the first category. Manly’s keeper-batsman reeled off three successive centuries, his brilliant unbeaten 113 (from 97 balls) against Sydney University being followed by a patient 101 not out against Fairfield (with only four boundaries) before he demolished St George with a rare Twenty20 hundred – 104 not out from only 62 deliveries, including seven sixes. It’s not unique for a batsman to score three First Grade hundreds in as many innings (Sydney University’s Johnny Taylor did it, for example, back in 1923-24, when he hit 104 against Western Suburbs, 253 against Waverley and 110 against Petersham). But what is new is that Lenton scored his runs in three different formats – a 50 over game, a two day game and a T20 game. The runs came in three very different situations, too – a desperate counter-attack against the Students, then a grinding innings in an attritional day’s play at Rosedale, and then a blitz to set up the match against St George. Lenton has held a Blues Rookie contract in the past, and has played in half a dozen Futures League games, without ever quite grasping his opportunities. At 25, the left-hander has matured into an excellent player, and has earned his recall to representative cricket with the Futures League team playing in Adelaide this week.
The British are coming
With the English season now well and truly wrapped up, a number of county players are starting to turn up in Sydney’s Grade teams. Not many of them are terribly familiar: they tend to be younger, fringe members of their squads. Josh Poysden, a leg-spinner who has joined Northern District (and who has had a couple of stints with Gordon), has made only five first-class appearances (for Cambridge University and Warwickshire) in five years, although Warwickshire has used him more extensively as a one-day bowler. He has made an execellent start; he was the only bowler to do anything at all on the flat track at Waitara, taking 7-87 while the other bowlers in the game managed 9-552 between them. Another player to make a strong first impression was Aadil Ali, a right-handed batsman who can bowl off-breaks, who made his first-class debut for Leicestershire in July, and had a promising start, with three half centuries inseven matches. His aggressive 162 against Blacktown (with four sixes) made the 21 year old only the second batsman to score a century on his First Grade debut for University of NSW (the other was also an English professional, Luke Sutton). 21 year old Worcestershire batsman, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, did well for Penrith, hitting a solid 50 in an opening stand of 143 with Johnny DiBartolo that set up an improbable chase of Easts’ 7-378. Essex batsman Jaik Mickleburgh is currently on a charity cycling tour of England but is expected to maik – sorry, make – a reappearance for North Sydney soon. Western Suburbs’ import is, at least, a familiar name, although that isn’t entirely his own doing. Kent’s Fabian Cowdrey is the son and grandson of captains of England (Chris and Colin) – besides which his uncle Graham also played for Kent and his great-grandfather played first-class cricket in India. Cowdrey, 22, has enjoyed some success with Kent as a batsman and left-arm spinner and took a wicket in his first over of Wests’ T20 clash with Sydney University.
The Students enjoy the short game
Less than a month into the season, each club has now played six limited overs games – two in the Grade competition and four Twenty20s, and Sydney University is the only team to have won all six. A team close to full strength bullied Fairfield-Liverpool at University No1, with Nick Larkin striking cleanly down the ground for his 60 and Ryan Carters mixing orthodox strokeplay with clever improvisation on his way to 61. Ben Joy, Nigel Cowell and Tim Ley bowled beautifully to strangle the Fairfield chase, Cowell claiming the vital wicket of Ben Rohrer and Joy slicing up the middle order. Almost as impressive, in its way, was the way in which a side without six representative players (Ed Cowan and Ryan Carters on Matador Cup duty; Nick Larkin, Jonte Pattison, Tim Ley and Will Somerville in Adelaide for the Futures League) accounted for Wests. David Miller hit a lively fifty, Liam Robertson showed how much he enjoyed the captaincy with 71 from 48 balls and a couple of wickets, and Tom Kierath bowled four miserly overs for 3-20. By virtue of winning the Sydney Thunder conference, University now plays, this Sunday, the team that finished fourth in the conference – Bankstown, whose only loss was a two-run defeat at the hands of the Students in the opening round.
Mark Appleton is inspired. Or extremely lucky.
Mark Appleton is one of those cricketers for whom University of NSW seems to have a production line. He’s a lower-grade medium-pacer. Played a bit of Seconds, never really threatened to go much higher – but, a devoted, tireless worker for the club, who has done plenty of donkey work in Thirds and Fourths. Think of older players like Rob Stark and Greig Robinson and you’ll get the idea. In a dozen or more previous seasons with the Bumblebees, he’d taken five wickets in an innings exactly twice, with his career highlight 6-10 in Fifth Grade at Hawkesbury back when John Howard was Prime Minister. Anyway, this season Appleton, an engineer, is captain of Third Grade. In Round Three, he took his side out to Jim Hanshaw Oval to play Blacktown. It was hot, the pitch was flat, and Appleton won the toss. Blacktown’s captain braced himself for a long day in the field, only to be told that he was batting. Appleton’s batsmen were bemused at missing out on ideal conditions, and the bowlers were mildly resentful of missing out on a day with their feet up. Except Appleton, who took the new ball and somehow persuaded the first six batsmen to nick the ball to either keeper Hamish Stening or second slip Danny Bhandari. Blacktown crashed to five for 14, and Appleton took a rest after removing the first six batsmen for four runs in nine overs. After knocking over Blacktown for 62, University of NSW won outright. Appleton’s team-mates are still debating whether his decision to bowl was inspired or freakishly lucky.
A full weekend of cricket again for Sydney Uni saw some mixed results against Randwick-Petersham in the Sydney Grade Cricket competition, with complete domination of the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup with a final round win against Wests.
First Grade entered the day full of confidence to chase down Randwick-Petersham's overnight declaration of 306, but going was tough throughout due to some tight line and length from the opposition quicks. Most of the Sydney Uni bats made starts but were unable to find third gear, Ryan Carters top-scoring with 33. Uni were eventually bowled out shortly after tea for 166 runs.
Second Grade were in trouble early in their chase of 229 runs, falling to 4-50, but another superb century by Steve Hobson (102no) and some classy contributions by Dave Miller (55) and Tom Decent (34no) saw them home with 5 wickets in hand.
Third Grade saw a comprehensive partnership of 191 runs between Jum Larkin (109no) and Jack Holloway (99) that steered the side to victory, finishing on 3-261 for victory.
Fourth Grade struggled from the outset and were never in the hunt, falling 71 runs short, all out for 156 runs. All-rounder, Jonathan Craig-Dobson, top-scored with 37 before falling victim to an unfortunate run out.
Fifth Grade fought hard to come back from early disaster, but were eventually bowled out for 176 in reply to Randwick-Petersham's 210.
The mixed results has allowed St George (267 points) to take the lead in the Club Championship, with Sydney Uni (264) and Sutherland (260) right behind. A key clash this weekend between Sydney Uni and Sutherland will begin to sort out the pecking order for the coveted Club Championship.
Metro Cup made a stunning return to form hitting 201 runs before bowling Randwick-Petersham Gold out for 108 runs. Patrick Carfax starred with both bat and ball, hitting 75 runs and taking 3-10 from 17 overs.
The final round of the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup was held on Sunday against Wests, with seven of the regular side out due to higher commitments. The fresh look team continued the domination of the T20 competition, with a 49-run victory over their hosts. Liam Robertson again took man-of-the-match honours, belting 71 from 48 balls and claiming 2-16. Dave Miller continued his run of form with the bat to hit 56 from 40 deliveries, and Tom Kierath impressed with a tidy 3-20 from 4 overs.
