PGs 2016/17 Season preview

Heading into the 2016/2017 Season, University is stacked with young talented cricketers, making a large percentage of the club’s higher grades. This has resulted in a very strong Poidevin-Gray Shield squad where spots for final selection have been highly contested.  The University’s Elite Athlete Program, consisting of intense off season training and tours to Sri Lanka, Perth and also a couple of trips to Brisbane has given the many of the players great preparation for the season.  The side has been presented with an equally strong pool, battling it out with previous PG premiers; Bankstown and Sutherland who have retained numerous of their players from previous seasons.  However with five players with first grade experience, Dugald Holloway, Nick Arnold, Nicky Craze, Kieran Elley and Devlin Malone, the university’s side will have experienced heads leading them throughout the campaign.

Dugald Holloway and Kieran Elley will lead the university fast bowlers cartel and will be well supported by leg spinner Devlin Malone.  Second grade opening pair, Kieran Tate and Hayden Kerr will round out the fast bowling attack, followed by the off-speed Jonathon Craig-Dobson.  The strong bowling attack is well backed up by its solid batting order, Charles Litchfield and the hard hitting Hayden Kerr will open up and ACT 2nd XI player from last year Kevin Jacobs will bat at first drop.  Skipper Nicky Craze, Ryan Danne and Dugald Holloway round out the middle order with young gun Christian Lorenzato standing behind the stumps.

SUCC are aiming to make the PGs finals for the first time since winning the competition in 2010/11.    Director of cricket and PGs coach Gary Whitaker is looking forward to a hard and intense round one against Bankstown at University number 1, this Sunday the 9th.

Sydney Uni representatives shine

McElduff was a star for NSW Metro in claiming National Title

Teenage off-spinner Ryan McElduff starred for NSW Metro over the last two weeks in the Under 17 National Championships held in Brisbane.

McElduff was the third highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 14 wickets, had the leading average of 9.57, along with exceptional strike (18.07) and economy (3.18) rates for a spinner.

Batting at 8 for most of the week, McElduff was only required to bat four times from eight matches, where he contributed well to hit 75 runs at an average of 25 in some tough situations.

NSW Metro claimed the title over hosts Queensland in what were excited scenes at Allan Border Field in Brisbane yesterday.

Sydney Uni congratulates Ryan, and the rest of the NSW Metro side for their title.

McElduff will return into Sydney Uni's 4th Grade side for this weekend's clash against Manly.

Bowlers contribute strongly to Under 19 State Challenge

Sydney Uni leg-spinner Devlin Malone and pace bowler Lawrence Neil-Smith have both finished in the top 5 wicket-takers at the Under State Challenge this week.

Malone was joint leading wicket-taker with seven wickets at 17.43, whilst Neil-Smith was joint 3rd with five scalps at 16.20.

Sydney Uni's other participant, Nick Arnold, struggled for opportunities hitting 12 in the opening round, not being required in the second, and being injured for the third.

Well done to all for taking the opportunity and best of luck for all in the lead up to the announcement of the NSW Metro Under 19 squad to contest the National Championships in December.

Sydney Uni Cricket Player of the Round

Following voting by the captain and their teams during the week, our joint leaders in the race for the Club's Player of the Year Award are 4th Grade bowlers Lewis McMahon and Sameer Murthy with 4 points.

Demonstrating the depth of the Club, 33 players (or in other words, exactly half the 6 teams) that have polled votes in the opening two rounds.

Player of the Round for round 2 goes to 1st Grade skipper Nick Larkin, who lead from the front with a dominant 87 runs in the O'Keeffe - O'Sullivan Trophy win over St George at Hurstville Oval. His wonderful knock and astute leadership guided his side to a narrow 2-run nailbiting win.

Nick wins a dinner for two at Surjits Indian Restaurant, thanks to our Platinum Partner.

Performance of the Round goes out to younger brother, James Larkin, who built a superb innings of 118 runs in 2nd Grade's win at Uni No. 1 Oval. James began calmly whilst skipper Dave Miller despatched the ball to all parts of the ground, but upon Miller's departure, James took control and helped post a strong total of 8-271. It was his 1st century in 2nd Grade for the Club and he also claimed his 1st wicket in 2nd Grade later in the match.

James wins a $20 voucher at The Nags Head Hotel, home watering hole to the Club.

Five Things We Learned... Round 2

1.    Gordon could be this year’s Sydney

Last season, an unheralded Sydney team surprised everyone except themselves by storming into the First Grade finals.  A mixture of promising young players, journeymen and the hard-headed, experienced Dan Smith, they surged through the season on a blend of committed effort, teamwork and sheer momentum – much of which came from an exceptional start to the season.  It’s too early to make predictions, but Gordon has started the new season in much the same style.  It doesn’t field a very fashionable collection of players – its one first-class player (before the expected arrival of Hampshire leg-spinner Mason Crane) is all-rounder Chad Soper, and he plays for Papua New Guinea.  Fairfield-Liverpool, in contrast, had four NSW representatives in its side last Saturday.  But Gordon produced a great effort in the field, supporting the suffocating accuracy of Elliot Richter and Tym Crawford, who removed the potentially explosive Ben Rohrer for only two.  It’s a brave man who bowls left-arm spin with the surname Junk, but Matthew, an off-season acquisition from Mosman’s Second Grade, marked his first game for Gordon’s top side by taking two cheap wickets.  Gordon than battled past Fairfield’s representative new ball attack of Doug Bollinger and Gurinder Sandhu to claim the points.   There’s a long way to go, but Gordon has two wins from two starts and has University of NSW (yet to win its first match) this week.  As Sydney showed last season, early-season momentum can be invaluable.

2.    Northern District has a handy one-day side

Northern District has bolted out of the gate this season, scoring bonus-point wins in its first two one-day games.  It turned out a decidedly useful team on Saturday, including four NSW representatives.  Test off-spinner Nathan Lyon bowled neatly, as did his Blues understudy, Chris Green, although the greatest damage was done by opening bowler Harry Conway, who defied the flat pitch to take 4-30 and contain North Sydney to 200.  That was never going to be enough if Dan Hughes got going, and his first century of the season occupied only 98 deliveries.  Andrew Harriott was even faster, blasting three 6s in his 78 from 63 balls.  The target was run down inside 29 overs: off-spinner Robbie Aitken took both the wickets to fall, but gave away 46 runs from 29 balls in the process.  Along with Bankstown and Sydney University, Northern District looks likely to feature prominently in the two short forms of the game this season.

3.    Ayden Brown has started well

Bankstown has introduced its young fast-medium bowler, Ayden Brown, into First Grade gradually and gently over the last two seasons.  In truth, he’s been promoted more on the basis of promise (he was in the NSW Under-17s a few years back) rather than for anything he’s achieved in Seconds, where his record isn’t remarkable.  But the policy seems to be paying dividends this season: he followed an impressive 3-52 against St George in Round One with a lively spell of 3-26 against Manly last weekend, bowling all three of his victims.  If he continues to improve at his present rate, his name will be much more familiar by the end of the season, which will prompt even more people to wonder whether his parents just couldn’t spell “Hayden”.

4.    Nic Bills plays for Sydney now

An update on fast bowler Nic Bills, who seems like a veteran – he played Shield cricket for NSW five years ago – but actually is still only 24.  Bills played with North Sydney when he made his State debut, but in 2014-15 he moved to Manly.  It wasn’t a bad idea: Bills had a strong season, and helped his new club to a First Grade premiership.  For reasons we can only guess at, he then played the following season at Mosman, which didn’t work out quite as well, and now he’s with his fourth club – Sydney – in as many seasons.  Bills is a gifted cricketer with plenty left to offer, and hopefully this move will help him return to his best form.  On the other hand, if he does move on again next spring, he’ll equal some kind of record by playing for five different clubs in as many seasons.  That was achieved back in the 1980s by slingy fast bowler Russell Duncan, who turned out for a bewildering variety of clubs even though players were then supposedly bound by residential qualification rules.  The legend was that those rules didn’t apply to Duncan, because he lived in the back of the panel van he drove to matches every Saturday.  It may or may not be true, although we have seen the panel van.

5.    Corey Collymore still plays

Did you ever wonder what became of Corey Collymore, the opening bowler for the West Indies between 1999 and 2007?  No, we didn’t either: Collymore was a hard-working servant of West Indies cricket, who took 93 wickets in his thirty Tests, but he wasn’t the most exciting of cricketers.  His open-chested action didn’t generate great speed, and he relied on accuracy and a little bit on inward movement for his wickets.  After his Test career ended, he prolonged his time in the game through county contracts with Sussex and later Middlesex, for whom he last played in 2013.  More recently, he’s been turning out in the Nottinghamshire League for the West Indian Cavaliers.  Somewhere along the way, too, he played a few games for Parramatta, and he appeared for Blacktown in 2011-12.  Anyway, now, closing in on his 39th birthday, he’s back playing for Blacktown.  Whatever pace he had deserted him some time ago, but he’s as relentlessly accurate as ever: his eight overs against Campbelltown-Camden last Saturday brought only a single wicket, but cost just six runs.  

McElduff and NSW U17 Metro side win through to the final in thriller

Sydney Uni's Ryan McElduff has contributed solidly yet again to aid NSW Metropolitan in winning a nail-biting semi-final against Western Australia today.

McElduff contributed 8 runs before being run out in NSW Metro's innings of 148 runs from 48 overs, a far cry from the 6-316 they scored against WA in the preliminary rounds. Eight runs might not seem like much but in the context of the game, it was within a 7th wicket 33 run partnership with top-scorer Joel Foster (49no), the highest partnership of the NSW Metro innings and the 3rd highest of the game.

With WA in the box seat at 4-98, requiring just 51 runs with 6 wickets in hand, it was McElduff who turned the match on its head with 2 wickets in consecutive balls, to see NSW Metro seize momentum at 6-98. McElduff finished with figures of 2-19 from his 4 overs.

WA though rebuilt, and were again favourites for victory at 6-143, requiring just 6 runs for victory with 4 wickets in hand... those 4 wickets though were lost for just 2 runs, handing NSW Metro the 2-run victory inside the final over of the match.

NSW Metro will take on hosts Queensland, who claimed victory over ACT/NSW Country in the other semi, in a State of Origin grudge match at Allan Border Field at Qld Cricket HQ tomorrow. Queensland will be lead by skipper Angus Lovell who has completely dominated the competition thus far with 481 runs at an average of 80.2 runs, two centuries and a lowest score of 31 runs.

It should be an exciting conclusion to the National U17 Championship, and we wish Ryan a successful match and hopefully a national title.

You can keep up to date with the scores throughout the day here.

NSW U19 State Challenge

In other representative news, Devlin Malone claimed another 2 wickets (2-39 from 10 overs) in his Metro Sixers' 146-run thrashing of the Country Sixers in today's round two action at the NSW U19 State Challenge. Lawrence Neil-Smith also claimed 2 wickets (2-29 from 7 overs) in the Metro Thunder's 8-wicket win over Country Thunder, the big victory meaning Nick Arnold did not get an opportunity to display his talent with the bat.

Weekend results, Milestones and Top Ten

RESULTS:

Sydney Uni had another strong round against the powerful St George DCC with victories in 1st, 2nd and 5th Grade over the weekend, including claiming the O'Keeffe - O'Sullivan Trophy for the first time in its history.

First Grade:

Skipper Larkin won the toss and elected to bat on a sunny but windy morning at Hurstville Oval.

A conservative start from openers Cowan and Larkin saw Sydney Uni creep to 0/25 after the first ten overs. Disciplined channels from the St George bowlers along with some tidy fielding made scoring tough. Slowly the batsman gained some momentum, pushing the rate up above four an over before Cowan fell for a gritty 54 with the score at 131. Larkin followed soon after for a well compiled 87. Superstitious anyone?

At 2/151 with after 38 overs, Carters and May had a significant task in front of them to help SUCC post a defendable total. May continued on with the strong form he showed in round one, making 37 off 30 balls before falling in the pursuit of quick runs. Carters showed all his skills as he ramped, cut, pulled and stroked his way to an unbeaten 57 from just 44 deliveries. The highlight being back to back sixes off Trent Copeland from the final two balls of the innings. The versatile right hander looks to have found his mojo and showed why he has been so successful as 'the finisher' for NSW in the past.

SUCC 3/254 off the allotted 50 overs.

St George got off to a rapid start, with McCabe taking on Tom Rogers with success in the opening overs. Debutant Kieran Elley bowled with maturity beyond his years, containing both batsmen and building pressure in the face of some strong hitting.

Devlin Malone was introduced to the attack with instant success, Carters whipping of the bails to remove last weekends centurion Watkins.

Ben Joy joined the attack and found McCabe's edge, ending the onslaught at 41 off 33 balls. St George 2/63 after twelve overs.

Australia A batsman Kurtis Patterson was joined by Australian test and one day allrounder Moises Henriques. Both took their time to get in, but controlled the tempo of the game, as the SUCC bowlers were strategically rotated in the hope of a breakthrough.

With the game shifting in St George's favour, former Dragon, Ashton May, snuck one past Henriques, bowling the NSW captain for 54 off 55 balls.

The momentum swung back in Uni's favour as Joy and Malone squeezed the new batsman, Malone breaking through again in his final over to finish with 2/42.

Joy found the edge through to Carters a further two times to finish with 3/52. A lengthy spell which combed pace and control, the lanky Englishman looks back to his best.

With two overs remaining St George needed 20 runs with four wickets in hand. Patterson still at the crease and looking dangerous, was joined by former Sydney Uni player Darius Visser. The task of delivering the penultimate over fell to the reliable Robertson, a man who has stood tall in similar situations in recent seasons. With Patterson targeting the small boundary, Robertson did well to concede only 11 to the rampaging left hander.

6 balls remaining, 9 runs to win. New recruit Tom Rogers was tasked with delivering under enormous pressure. Deliver he did, nailing his length and ensuring both Patterson and Visser couldn't get under the ball. With four required of the final delivery, Visser could only find a single to third man, as yet again Rogers found the mark.

One of the best wins in recent times for the Sydney Uni first grade side, against a high quality opposition.  More importantly, two from two to start the season and plenty of players in good form.

The O'Sullivan/O'Keefe trophy will be held by SUCC for the first time since it's inception. A game truly worthy of Micko's name.

Second Grade:

2nd grade won the toss and didn't hesitate to bat first on a flat Uni #1 deck, with Dave Miller and James Larkin getting off to a brisk start. Miller made 52 before departing with the score on 81, bringing Trevor-Jones to the crease. From there, Uni consolidated and built the platform for a commanding total, with Trevor-Jones (47) and Larkin (118) controlling a well constructed innings with a 130 run partnership. Larkin with his maiden hundred in second grade was all class, dispatching the Saints bowlers to all parts of the ground with many glorious cover drives, pulls and sweeps. A late cameo from the slighter Ben Larkin (19) saw the students finish with a very defendable 271.

Full of confidence, but knowing defending would be a tough ask on a flat wicket and quick outfield, the boys started well and took wickets early through Hayden Kerr and Dugald Holloway to have the Saints struggling at 3-69. The visitors put together some solid partnerships with Bartier (68), Turnbull (23) and Edwards (44) keeping them alive. Some tight bowling at the death by all of the Uni quicks and a good piece of fielding from Nick Arnold to run out the St. George captain held off a late charge by St George. The Students holding on for a 17 run win which was probably tighter than the scores reflect. A great bowling effort by the young attack, with Lawrence Neil-Smith impressing on debut and Kerr bowling brilliantly at the death in just his second match. Kieran Tate bowled well and had the pick of the figures for the Uni bowlers with 3/44 from his 10.

In the end a solid all round performance resulted in a great victory over the strong St George team, and marks a step in the right direction for the 2nd grade boys with their first points of the season after a disappointing performance in round one.

Third Grade:

The defending premiers suffered a tough loss after posting a competitive 6-206, unable to make consistent breakthroughs to be passed with 7 wickets and 6.1 overs remaining.

For Sydney Uni, Matt Powys hit 63no, Kevin Jacob with 49 and Ed Arnott scoring 30 runs.

A 116-run opening partnership from St George set the tone for the run-chase with only Ryan Kurtz (2 wickets) and Xavier Frawley (1 wicket) able to claim wickets. Jono Craig-Dobson was excellent as well conceding just 27 runs from his 10 overs.

Fourth Grade:

Fellow defending premiers also suffered a 2nd round defeat, though in a much heavier fashion.

A strong team effort with the ball had Uni confident of victory at the lunch break with Uni restricting St George to 176. Six bowlers claimed wickets with Lewis McMahon, Sameer Murthy and Henry Clark each claiming 2 wickets.

A disastrous batting performance followed however with Uni bundled out for just 76 inside 20 overs. Only Jake Day put up any sort of resistance, hitting 33 not out whilst no other batter reached double figures.

Fifth Grade:

Youngsters Braydon Dilley (75) and Doug Rogers (40) laid the platform for the Fifth Grade total of 234 runs.

Consistent breakthroughs were the cornerstone of the victory, with the largest St George partnership being just 36 runs. Lead by stand-in skipper Andrew Wilkinson (3 wickets) together with Ryan Holcroft (2 wickets) and Doug Rogers (2 wickets), Uni dismissed St George for 187 runs.

Metropolitan Cup:

With Wilkinson moving up to Fifth Grade and numerous last minute changes to the line-up, a very young side took to the field against Gordon. Tristan Mears (39) and skipper Ethan Clout (16) were the only bats to reach double figures in Uni's total of 93. Uni were unable to take any wickets in defence.

For full scorecards, please click here.

MILESTONES:

Milestones this week for Keiran Elley, Nick Larkin, Ben Joy, Charles Litchfield, Lawrence Neil-Smith, James Larkin, Dave Miller, Dugald Holloway, Kevin Jacob, Ed Arnott, Matt Powys, Sameer Murthy, Munab Shirazi, Braydon Dilley and Hamish Rogers.

Click here to see the Milestones for Round 2.

TOP TEN:

Zohirul Islam maintains a slender lead in the batting stakes despite James Larkin's round 2 century, whilst Devlin Malone's strong start to the season has seen him claim 6 wickets in the opening two matches.

Click here to see the Top Ten results following Round 2.

Sydney Uni youngster claims five in National Champs

Sydney University's Ryan McElduff has contributed strongly to NSW Metro's Round 3 annihilation of Western Australia yesterday, as well as today's probable victory over Northern Territory.

On Thursday, McElduff faced only 8 balls but hit 9 not out in the final push for a huge score, NSW Metro posting 6-316, and was virtually unplayable in claiming 5-29 from his 8 overs including 3 maidens. NSW Metro eventually bowling WA out for just 96 runs inside just 23 overs.

NSW Metro had previously claimed a 7-wicket win inside 15 overs against the CA XI on Monday, together with another 7 wicket win inside 35 overs against ACT/NSW Country on Tuesday.

NSW Metro leads Pool A with a mammoth 17 points, including two double bonus point wins (CA XI and WA) and a single bonus point (ACT/NSW Country). Queensland lead Pool B with 12 points (3 wins).

In today's action against Northern Territory, McElduff 2nd top-scored with 33 runs in NSW Metro's 9-210, and is yet to bowl with NT currently 7-62 in reply., another bonus point looming.

NSW Metro complete their preliminary round matches on Sunday against Victoria Country before heading into the finals next week with plenty of confidence.

Click here to check out all the action from the U17 National Championships.