1st Grade:
Sydney University 10/267 (D Mortimer 115, T Ley 55, M Day 5/39) Defeated Mosman 10/262 (T Ley 4/36, D Holloway 3/31, D Dassanayake 107)
We arrived at Uni No 1 to find a good batting surface to try and defend our score of 267. Good aggression and sustained pace from Timmy Rogers had the visitors literally on the back foot early. When Rogers got through the oppositions captain’s defence and Dougal chipped in to remove M Day, things were looking comfortable for the students, Mosman reeling at 5-61.
In a similar fashion to the Gordon game, the middle order dug in, the ball lost a bit of its hardness, and we struggled to make inroads. This week we were missing the services of Devlin Malone, who is away on u/19 duty and through the middle session we started to notice how effective he has been so far this year. Looking around for a replacement, captain Larkin opted for the man closest in stature to Malone, settling on the miniature poodle that had been strutting around at cover. Cowan was remarkably effective, entertaining us with tales of wickets taken in the 90s and channeling Mo Matthews by predicting shots and what he was going to bowl next. I think he has covered the entire University database with his figures, but if by chance he has lost your email address, check out the celebration here. https://twitter.com/eddiecowan/status/807778860901101568 After that was all taken care of, Mosman came out playing shots after the tea interval, and threatened to overhaul the total. A fast, reverse inswinging Yorker from Holloway (3/31) and thin edge through to BTJ from a Tim Ley (4/36) outswinger were enough to get us the six points. Just. A solid team bowling display, Tim Ley had his best game in recent memory and Dugald returned to First Grade with immediate impact. Onwards and upwards.
2nd Grade:
Sydney University 9/289 (C Litchfield 103, D Miller 43, H Kerr 38, T Slack 4/69) Def Mosman 10/284 (N McCamley 64, J Procajlo 50, N Doyle 40, H Kerr 2/30, D Miller 2/17)
Mosman set about chasing our 289 aggressively as their opening batsmen took the attack to SUCC opening bowlers K Elley and Jonathon “Dibblie Dob” Craig-Dobson (FYI Crowls did not keep up to the stumps to the new ball). The opening pair found the boundary on several occasions but it always felt like a chance was looming. Hayden “dos-man” Kerr was the one to create that chance and regular wickets fell for the next 30 0vers.
A particular highlight was Crowls’ stumping on the first ball after tea to end Mosman’s major partnership of the day. It was a ‘well-planned’ manoeuvre; Skipper Miller speared one down the leg side forcing the batsmen to fall off balance leaving Crowls to whisk the bails off.
To have Mosman 7/180 just after tea, the students were in the drivers seat however a 90 run 8th wicket stand put the game well and truly back into the balance. Hayden Kerr made the crucial breakthrough again to have Mosman 8/270 still requiring 20 to win, Jack Holloway then grabbed his first for the game to have Mosman 9/279.
11 needed to win, 1 wicket in hand. Mr 305 (Charles Litchfield) left the field early to attend his dad’s 50th, enter SUCC nicest member Vinnie Umbers… the last wicket had progressed the score to 284, 6 needed to win, I wicket in hand. A quick single was pushed to mid-on, where sub fielder Lumbers attacked the ball, collected and threw down the stumps in one motion. How did we do it? Easy! (not quite)
3rd Grade:
Sydney University 8/296 (M Powys 68, TKierath 55, A Shaw 53, M Ali 3/57) Def Mosman 10/170 (L Hearne 100, L McMahon 5/39, R Danne 2/9).
Rolling into Fortress Pauls with 300 on the board confidence was high.
In another heated encounter on the Nash field, 'Young' turned in a spirited defensive effort partnered with an electric display of counter attack to, against all odds (notably 'Olds' dubious application of the rules, spirit and duration of the game), finally break a losing streak running back to last seasons finals series.
The day's play began equally frenetically. 3 wickets in the first 4 overs of the day and a 4th before the score had reached 20 had us firmly on our way. The ladder leading Whales would not lie down easily, digging in with a curiously abrasive wicket quickly taking the shine off the ball. Two breakthroughs on the stroke of the break made the pilgrimage down to No. 1 for tea slightly less punishing, 6-101.
The dogged rearguard effort continued into the afternoon session, led by a stoic 100 from a still Green Shield eligible Lachlan Hearne. But with the abrasive wicket now offering the elusive prize of reverse swing, the last 4 wickets fell quickly to close out another dominant display for the 3s juggernaut. Mosman all out 170. Lewis McMahon was the pick of the bowlers, combining fantastic control and late reverse swing, and despite claiming “this is probably the worst I’ve bowled all year” he finished with handy figures of 5/39.
Four wins on the bounce mean the defending premiers once again find themselves on top of the Sydney Grade pile with 8th placed Sydney waiting in the last round before the festive break
4th Grade:
Mosman 10/165 (L Kimber 66, N Heath 37, AJ Grant 5/53 off 26, A Peek 4/32) Sydney University 8/167 (T Galvin 40*, L Hughes 37, N Fitzgerald 26)
Arriving at Rawson Park at 1/8 chasing 166 the Students knew we’d have a fight on our hands to grab the 6 points. After reversing the batting order last week and sending out three nightwatchmen, we got off to a rough start and quickly found ourselves at 3/30. Liam Hughes or “Walshy” as he likes to be called, started to steady the ship with Nick Fitzgerald as we slowly crawled towards the target. With some tight spin bowling, Mosman broke the partnership and brought about a mild collapse. Tom Galvin and Christian Lorenzato came together, clearly inspired by his MOM Nash performance Galvin controlled the ship with a mature 40* and Christian worked well down the other end with a crucial 19. Christian was dismissed within touching distance of the total, with AJ joining Galvin at the crease. AJ had only just recovered after bowling 26 overs on day one, and worked hard for 9* to get us over the line 8 down.
5th Grade:
Mosman 7/343 (D Patel 69, A Carre 62, A Nouree 55, Z Islam 3/42) Def Sydney Uni 10/261 (A Bell 85, B Dilley 81, D Patel 5/40)
Chasing 343 was always going to be difficult for the Students, however Alex Bell (85) and Braydan Dilley got us off to the best possible start putting on 150 for the first wicket. These two batted with superb patience and control, waiting for the bad ball and then punishing it to all areas of Camperdown Oval. Unfortunately, losing these two in quick succession brought upon an unfortunate procession of wickets, with 5 of the first 6 wickets to fall adjudged LBW. Despite an aggressive cameo by the number one Groundsman Angus Cusack (37) we were unable to capitalise on the strong start and ultimately fell 82 runs short.
Metro Cup:
Georges River 10/243 (A Salgueira 145) Defeated Sydney University 10/151.
After the mixed day on day one, the students arrived 3/42 requiring another 201 for victory. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be with Georges River’s bowlers proving too strong as we were dismissed for a disappointing 151. Our inability to form any meaningful partnerships ensured chasing was difficult. Hopefully we can learn from this experience and be better come round 8 next weekend.
Ryan Carters passed 2500 runs in first-class cricket during his gritty second innings in the Sheffield Shield match against South Australia in Adelaide.
At the Under-19 National Championships in Adelaide, both Lawrence Neil-Smith (3-15 v Northern Territory) and Devlin Malone (3-34 v South Australia) set new career-best performances for NSW Metropolitan.
When Ed Cowan dismissed Mosman’s Kurt Neely last Saturday, he captured his first wicket in First Grade since 2008-09.
Lewis McMahon’s 5-39 against Mosman was his fourth five-wicket haul in Third Grade.
Liam Hughes made his Fourth Grade debut against Mosman, scoring an important 37.
Tom Galvin made his Fourth Grade debut against Mosman, contributing a matchwinning 40 not out.
Alex Bell, with 85 against Mosman, hit his first half-century in Fifth Grade and his highest score for the Club.
Brayden Dilley, with 81 in Fifth Grade against Mosman, hit his highest score for the Club.
During his 25 in Metropolitan Cup, Andrew Wilkinson passed 1000 runs for the Club.
In the Sheds…Salad
To the outside observer, the hierarchy of Sydney University Cricket Club (SUCC) would logically be based around on-field performance. It would make perfect sense for runs scored, wickets taken and run-outs/catches effected to establish the foundations of your cricketing identity.
But in reality, on-field performances are the mere gloss on top of a young man’s character. In-game moments are reflected upon and great players come and go – or at Uni, come and stay – but the truly defining characteristic of any Uni cricketer lies beneath his baggy blue and gold.
It’s a salad.
For those not familiar with the term, this salad is no dietary delight. It’s not Caesar nor Greek or even Garden. It should however be ever-fresh. It’s the product of your weekly, monthly or quarterly trip to the barbers – or to the salad doctor’s surgery (Military Rd, Neutral Bay) if you’re that way inclined.
It’s your hair.
SUCC provides a peerless barometer for the transient fashions of the male lid. The varieties of style are vast, but it isn’t altogether impossible to establish some generic looks…
The Mop: Most proudly exhibited by little known enigma Josh Stuart, the mop has also seen recent exhibition by Matt Powys and, over many years, Henry Clark (sb. Balding). Characterised by a distinct lack of attention paid to it, the mop is an unruly tangle of strands also commonly sported by opponents from coastal clubs, especially in blonde.
The High and Tight: The namesake haircut of salad itself. Short sides (bowl), neatly styled top (leaves) – commonly with wax (dressing) – the high and tight salad is the apple of a number of students’ eyes at the club, just as it is the envy of many others’. Extravagantly paraded by James Crowley (sb. Balding), the high and tight commonly draws comment but can easily be spoiled by a lack of maintenance, or excessive aggression. In the mould of Tom Galvin circa 15/16, Xavier Frawley has fallen the most recent victim to “making his haircut worthwhile” and opting for No.1 sides and back. Also notably embraced by Salad Bros. Lewis McMahon and Alex Shaw, the high and tight is an undeniably strong haircut. Though if either of them worried half as much about executing their on-field skills, they might have played more than half a dozen games of 2’s between them.
The Dome: Need it any introduction? Steve Hobson has the most dominant dome that ever graced the elevated tabletop of the old No.2 or the hallowed home sheds. The man is reverse-Samson, and if there’s any causation rather than correlation to batting success, there should be blokes all throughout the inner-west pulling out the VS Sassoon to emulate him. Plus, as a haircut, it’s easier.
The Tennis Ball/Microphone: In a similarly peerless display to that of his batting, Greg Mail’s textbook single-length-all-over number must sit quite superbly beneath the Albion. It’s the epitome of no-nonsense and he wears it well. It implies the same lack of concern for salad as Greg shows for spinners, but it isn’t for everyone. The most recent attempted replication by recent SUCC alumni Alexander Logan hasn’t ended up so well. He should have stuck with the widow’s peak, despite his ardent protestations that he “likes it”. Judge for yourself by checking out @alexanderlogan.
Balding: A common affliction amongst middle-aged males, SUCC is a graveyard for once-proud salads turned shadows of their selves. Sufferers include aforementioned Clark, Crowley along with Alumni Toyer and the original Theobald.
Synonyms:
Devon: Small to moderate bald patch, typically on the crown eg. Will Hay.
Receding: Oversized forehead due to hairline recession eg. Jack Holloway
Antonyms:
Proceeding: Full, thick crop of hair, protruding from the forehead eg. Ed Arnott
In a category all of his own however is 3rd Grade stalwart and skipper Ash Cowan. In what can only be described as one of the greatest debacles of all-time, on one occasion Ash decided that the services of a hairdresser were superfluous; it was either that or he needed to save money for the bus fare to Dave Phillips the following day. So bad was his DIY trim, he didn’t have the gall to tell the boys he’d done it himself, shamelessly dragging the reputation of an unsuspecting Sydney barber through the mud in a bid to save himself ridicule. It didn’t work. And so the truth came out at an end-of-year function, Cowan regaling the disastrous tale to a group of teammates who could only be described as paralysed with laughter. If you’ve ever got a spare half hour, a 6-pack and access to tubs, hear it from the great man himself.
Sydney University bowlers Devlin Malone and Lawrence Neil-Smith set up a comprehensive victory for NSW Metropolitan over the Northern Territory at the National Under 19 Championships in Adelaide today.
Northern Territory won the toss and not much else. Batting first, they crumbled to Neil-Smith's hostile opening spell, in which he grabbed two early wickets. Devlin Malone had too much variety and control for the middle order, and the Territory managed only 72 from 23.4 overs. Neil Smith finished with 3-15 from 6.5 overs, while Malone captured 2-23 from seven overs. NSW romped to a ten-wicket victory, and remains on top of Pool A, and the only unbeaten side in the Championships.
NSW Metropolitan plays the last of its pool games on Sunday, against Victoria Country, and is assured of a place in the qualifying finals, which are to be played on Monday 12 December.
NSW Metropolitan and Western Australia were the two undefeated teams in this year's Under 19 National Championships going into their match at Adelaide's Railways Oval today, but Sydney University's Lawrence Neil-Smith and Devlin Malone helped to ensure that the contest was never a close one.
After NSW Metropolitan had posted a competitive 9 for 254 from its 50 overs (Gordon's Axel Cahlin hitting 91), Lawrence-Smith knocked the top off the WA innings, trapping both openers lbw inside his first two overs. Reduced to 2-4, WA threatened to recover only briefly, when the fourth wicket added 44 in rapid time, but Malone came on to strangle the middle and lower order, allowing only 17 runs from his first six overs. WA was dismissed inside 35 overs for 142, giving NSW Metropolitan a conclusive victory. Malone took the bowling honours with 3 for 40 from ten overs, while Neil-Smith ended with 2 for 24 from 7 overs.
NSW Metropolitan defends its unbeaten record against the Northern Territory tomorrow.
Although you’ve probably seen it.
It sits in the trophy cabinet at the University Grandstand, an impressive silver cup, 27 inches high, crafted by silversmiths in Sheffield – a dimly-remembered relic of the first attempt to create a systematic club cricket competition in Sydney.
Club cricket began in Sydney some time in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Matches were originally played between two clubs for a stake, with enthusiastic support from gamblers. Sydney University played its first recorded match in 1854, and around that time a number of other clubs formed – especially Warwick, Albert and Carlton – who attracted the majority of Sydney’s leading players. And yet there was no structured competition. By common consent, the cricket season began at the end of September and, if the weather was good enough, it could linger on until the start of June. During those months, the “senior” clubs, as they became known, scheduled matches against each other on a casual basis, but no-one thought of forming a league or playing for points. In 1870, the New South Wales Cricket Association donated a “Challenge Cup” for competition between the leading clubs, but contests for this trophy (which University held briefly in 1871-72) failed to attract lasting interest.
In September 1881, however, Holdsworth & Gardyne, a firm of ironmongers based in George Street, donated a trophy “to be competed for by the senior clubs, to be retained by the club winning it in three successive seasons”. This compelled the NSWCA to do something it had never done before, which was to draw up a schedule for a competition. This wasn’t a hugely complicated task, as there were only four clubs to accommodate, and the Association published a schedule which called for each team to play the other twice, home and away, between October 1881 and April 1882.
The competition did not begin well for University. Drawn against the Carlton club, it spent the whole of the first day in the field, as Carlton compiled 8 for 264. Charles Bannerman, who had scored 165 in the very first Test match four years earlier, was dismissed for only 17, but his brother Alick, another Test opener, batted for most of the day for 117. Carlton pressed on to reach 301 on the second day, but this was a strong University side, which contained three Test players (Sam Jones, Tom Garrett and Reg Allen) and five others who at some time appeared in first-class cricket (Richard Teece, Joseph Coates, Dr William Wilkinson, Theodore Powell and Monty Faithfull). Jones, a brilliant attacking batsman, hit a rapid century and University took a first-innings lead of 53. After Carlton succumbed cheaply in its second innings, University completed a comfortable victory.
University performed a similar escape act in its second match, against the powerful Albert Club. The early stages of the game were dominated by Dave Gregory, Australia’s first ever Test captain (and also, just once, a University player). Gregory hit 71 and took 6-44 as University was forced to follow on, 116 runs behind on the first innings. But Jones blasted another century, and Reg Allen hit one of his own – the pair shared an opening stand of 231. University left Albert with 212 to win, and took the match by 71 runs.
These games provided enthralling cricket, and were well-supported by the public. But the shambolic nature of the competition was soon exposed. The NSWCA had provided for each match to occupy two weeks; but, as they were played to a finish over four innings, both the Carlton and Warwick matches extended over four days. Nor had it occurred to the Association to establish any means of scoring points. Even though the entire competition consisted of only 12 matches (six for each of the clubs), it was not completed during the season, and in September 1882, the Association announced that the return match between University and Albert, which would decide the winner of the trophy for 1881-82, was to be played in October. Albert won that match, which left the Association with a problem – as each of Albert and University had won the same number of matches, and there was no points system to separate them, the trophy was still without a winner. As a result, although teams had already begun their matches in the 1882-83 competition, a final was scheduled to decide the winner for the previous season. It was played at the Association Ground (now the Sydney Cricket Ground) and Albert was boosted by the appearance of the legendary fast bowler Fred Spofforth, recently returned from taking 14 wickets in Australia’s thrilling victory (by seven runs) at The Oval. Spofforth was expensive in his opening spell, as Sam Jones and Tom Garrett (both of whom had also played at The Oval) cracked 38 runs from his first six overs, after which Reg Allen hit a half-century. The game lasted for four days, but University forced Albert to follow on and eventually cruised to victory by eight wickets – a task made easier by the fact that Spofforth could not be bothered to turn up for the last day of the game. One third of the way into the 1882-83 season, University won the Holdsworth-Gardyne Trophy for 1881-82.
In February 1883, the Association announced what everyone else already knew - that the “rules of the competition were very defective” – and formed a committee to improve them. It was decided that, if University retained the trophy in the new season, it would become its permanent holder. And, in the event, University had little trouble retaining the trophy. This was one of the strongest University teams ever assembled, including four Test players – Garrett, Jones, Allen and Roley Pope – two of whom (Garrett and Jones) were the most effective all-rounders in New South Wales. But its trump card was Monty Faithfull, a lawyer who sported extravagant whiskers and bowled at a lively fast-medium pace. Faithfull received only two opportunities in first-class cricket, although he performed well: in his second and last match, he helped to defeat Victoria by taking three for 16 from 27 overs. But at club level he was devastating: his 619 recorded wickets for University cost him only nine runs each. Faithfull took 4-11 and 5-49 to help Tom Garrett (5-41 and 5-43) rout Warwick. Then, when University managed only 136 against Carlton, and appeared to be headed for defeat, Faithfull triggered a collapse. After taking a first innings lead, University amassed 356 in its second attempt.
Now only the Albert Club stood between University and the trophy. University began uncertainly, losing its first four wickets for only 18 runs, before Roley Pope’s 55 pushed the total up to 155. That appeared modest enough when Albert reached two for 84; but Theo Powell, who seldom bowled, snatched 6-14 as Albert’s last eight wickets tumbled for only 26 runs. University then produced a collapse of its own, losing its first six wickets for 19 before a few slogs from Faithfull lifted the score to 56. Albert needed 102 to win, but Sammy Jones decided the game with a masterful spell of medium-paced bowling, taking 5-33 to dismiss his opponents for only 71.
That brought the competition to a close, permanently. There was a tangible sense of relief within the Cricket Association when the trophy was delivered, forever, into the custody of the University club. Another ten years would pass before the Association dared to attempt another structured competition – and, this time, Sydney University was the only one of the old “senior” clubs to survive. The new participants were clubs newly formed to represent districts, and the competition, known at first as “Electorate Cricket”, still exists, in essentially the same form, as Premier Cricket. And the Holdsworth-Gardyne trophy sits on its plinth in the Grandstand, a reminder of the fact that Sydney University is the one club in Sydney that successfully bridged the old form of club cricket and the new.