Milestones Monday

Ed Cowan was outstanding in New South Wales' Sheffield Shield victory over Victoria in Melbourne during the week.  His 212 was his 23rd first-class century and his second double-century.  It was his highest score for New South Wales and in the course of his innings he passed 6000 runs in Sheffield Shield matches.

During his innings of 35 against Parramatta, Greg Mail passed 500 runs for the season (he now has 506 at 50.60).  This is the 17th occasion on which Greg has scored more than 500 runs in a First Grade season.

Against Parramatta, Hayden Kerr made his first appearance in First Grade outside the Twenty20 competition.  His 42 not out was his highest First Grade score, and he took his first wicket when Ashton May caught Owen Simonsen.

Devlin Malone's 34 against Parramatta was his highest score in First Grade (more than doubling his previous best of 15) and his highest in any grade since he hit two half-centuries in Fifth Grade for Sutherland back in 2013-14. 

Kevin Jacob made his Second Grade debut for the Club.

Angus Cusack's 40 against Parramatta was his highest score for the Club.

Nicholas Powys, whose 56 was a vital innings in Fifth Grade, hit his first half-century for the Club.

Murray Miles, with 3-35 against Parramatta, returned his best bowling figures in Fifth Grade.

In Metropolitan Cup, Ayush Mishra's match-winning 4-38 against Randwick-Petersham was his career-best effort with the ball for the Club.

Ethan Clout, who scored 66 not out against Randwick-Petersham in Metropolitan Cup, hit his highest score and first half-century for the Club.

Cowan dominates in Melbourne: update

Equally untroubled by the the Dukes ball (being used in Shield matches for the first time) and the bowlers who propelled it, Ed Cowan scored an unbeaten 134 yesterday to guide New South Wales to a first innings lead over Victoria at the MCG.

Cowan came to the crease after the departure of Nick Larkin, who played confidently and comfortably until his dismissal for 11.  Daniel Hughes was dismissed in the following over, leaving NSW in trouble at 2-17.  But Cowan was immediately into his stride, driving the fourth ball he received back past the bowler, Jake Reed, for four.  He batted through the rest of the day, defending securely and playing shots all around the wicket.  Against the faster bowers he drove fluently and cut strongly; he used his feet to knock left-arm spinner Jon Holland off his length, and he successfully negotiated a spell of leg spin from Victorian captain Cameron White, whose bowling was described by one knowledgeable onlooker as "OK, but nothing earth-shattering".  He added 141 for the third wicket with Kurtis Patterson, and 92 for the fourth wicket with Moises Henriques.  A pull for two from the bowling of Evan Gulbis gave Cowan his 23rd first-class century and by stumps he had reached his highest score for New South Wales. He reached his century from 202 deliveries - altogether, he has faced 267 balls and hit 14 fours.

Update: After batting through the whole of the first session (in which he extended his partnership with Peter Nevill to 180 from 45.1 overs), Cowan drove Jon Holland for a single in the first over after lunch to reach his first double-century for NSW and the second of his first-class career.  He also passed 6000 career runs in the Sheffield Shield during the morning session.

Player of Round 11

Voting has been completed for the Sydney Uni Cricket Player of the Round following Round 11 of the McDonald's NSW Premier Cricket competition.

The Surjits Player of the Round goes to Greg Mail for his 106* in First Grades exceptional chase of 356 against Blacktown

The Nags Head Performance of the Round, goes to Tom Kierath for his 103 in Third Grades comprehensive victory over Blacktown.  

Greg posted his 44th First Grade hundred in imperious fashion on Saturday, arriving to the crease with the game in the balance at 3/145 he proceeded to wrestle the game away from Blacktown.  Facing 142 balls during his innings with 11 boundaries, it was Greg's second hundred of the year after his round three 179 against Manly, pushing his season tally to 471, at an average of 52.33.  

Tom Kierath battled the oppressive heat at Whalan to post his first Third Grade Hundred.  TK combined with Kevin Jacob to post a 178 run 2nd wicket partnership to secure the 6 points.  During his knock TK passed 5000 runs for the club, combined with his 465 wickets, he leads Greg Mail, Ian Moran and Ash Cowan as other students to have scored 5000 runs and taken 100 wickets.  

There were a handful of other outstanding performances this round that require a mention;

Ed Cowan continued his Futures League form notching 79 during First Grades victorious run chase. 

Hugh Farrow joined an elite few by scoring 108 on debut for the club in Metro Cups outright win over Mosman

Zohirul Islam claimed his best bowling for the club, taking 5/29 also in Metro Cups outright  

Kevin Jacob posted a dominant 76 to guide Third Grade to victory. 

Complete tally of SUCC Player of the Year Points:

Sydney Uni Vets Report against Barker Old Boys

On a very hot day at Rosewood oval, Barkers won the toss and elected to bat.

The two young quick vets opening bowlers (Draco, J Hobson) started off quite well bowling a pretty good line and length. However it became apparent pretty quickly that we were up against some quality opposition. The barkers opening batsman (Newton) showed serious class, I for one haven't seen the likes of it in this competition before.

He played shots all around the wicket which meant it was very hard to set a field to, coupled with a fast outfield and flat deck he proved to be a formidable force and batted almost the entire innings before getting run out for (151) on the 35th. He also had good support from his two batting partners who both scored 40's, and Barkers ended up with a daunting total of 2/261. Figures probably aren't worth mentioning but Hunter and S. Hobson put together a reasonable bowling partnership during the middle part of the innings to somewhat stem the flow of runs.

After having a long hot day in the outfield chasing the ball to all parts of the oval, the vets were tired and morale was low. It got even lower when the first 4 vets batsmen all got out for single figures, and the vets were 4/18 off 9. Le couter never gave up hope and made good use of the flat deck to score a nice 50. Along with Hunter (22) the pair showed some good resistance but the vets were never really in the game and ended up being all out for 124.

There wasn't really much to take out from the game apart from the fact that the two youngsters got some experience bowling to a quality batsman, and will apply that experience into the many years of cricket they left ahead of them. We all agreed that the start and the end of the proceedings went well eg. Fielding 11 players, and having cold beers in the esky to drink afterwards. Its just the middle part of the day 'the match' that needs some work.

Five Things We Learned From Round Eleven

1   Thirteen into six doesn’t go

By the start of Round 12, you’d expect the composition of the top six in First Grade to be reasonably predictable.  It isn’t.  In Round 11, both Gordon and Northern District lost games to teams placed low on the table, while Parramatta and Sutherland slugged out a gripping draw that earned neither side a point.  So, while there’s a clear top six (with seventh-placed Northern District two points adrift), there are still another seven sides with realistic ambitions of playing in the finals.  Two of the most interesting matches in Round 12 pit Sydney University (first on 55 points) against Parramatta (sixth, 40) and Gordon (second, 49) against Sydney (3rd, 48).  But the games between teams on the fringe of the top six may be more significant.  Either Northern District (seventh, 38) or Sutherland (12th, 31) has the chance to stay in touch with the leading pack, but a defeat would probably end Sutherland’s chances.  Out west, Penrith (8th, 37) and Hawkesbury (ninth, 36) will fight to keep their seasons alive.  There are five teams that could move into the six with just a first innings win and a couple of other results falling their way. 

2   It’s just possible that they’re batting too low…

Back in Round Seven, Sutherland’s Kurt Brockley and Jake Wilson created all kinds of new records when they broke their club’s First Grade record for a last-wicket partnership.  Against Parramatta, they went one step further, demolishing the club’s 47-year old record for the highest ninth wicket partnership.  Brockley, now batting at nine, went to the crease with Sutherland deep in trouble at seven for 172, and 17 runs later he lost his captain, Chris Williams, who had battled for more than four hours for his 85.  Brockley counter-attacked, lashing four 6s and ten 4s on his way to an unbeaten maiden century, from only 85 deliveries.  Wilson was more subdued, scoring 33 from 94 deliveries, and by stumps their partnership was worth 129.  Although Sutherland batted into the second day, Brockley was dismissed bowled by the second delivery he faced from Ben Martin, before another run was added.  Sutherland’s previous ninth-wicket record was set 47 years ago almost to the day, on 17 January 1970, when Les Ritchie (101) and Brian Stephen (28 not out) added 103 against Bankstown.  Ritchie, famously, reached his century in only 49 minutes before he was bowled by the fast bowler then known as Len Durtanovich (later Len Pascoe, and even later, a Sutherland player himself).  Anyway, Brockley and Wilson now hold both the ninth and tenth wicket records for Sutherland, having broken both in the space of a few weeks, and if anything like this has happened before, it has escaped us.  The eighth wicket record in First Grade for Sutherland is 130 – just saying.

3   Campbelltown-Camden got off the mark

It has been a tough season down at Raby – last year’s finalists lost several key players in the off-season, and a depleted and inexperienced First Grade side struggled through its first ten matches without a win.  In most matches, Campbelltown has played highly competitive cricket, only to lose its grip on the game at vital moments.  But its players have stuck to their task with grit and enthusiasm, and they were rewarded on the weekend with a solid win over Mosman.  Former England spinner Monty Panesar turned in his best performance of the season, sustaining his threat over 28 overs to claim 3-50.  In pursuit of a modest 234, Campbelltown slumped to five for 124, and for a while it looked as though another strong position might be squandered.  But Jack Preddey, who has batted with plenty of determination throughout the season, steadied the innings, occupying the crease for more than two hours while compiling an unbeaten 59.  Campbelltown meets Western Suburbs this week, and both clubs will see the game as an opportunity to improve on their record for 2016-17.

4   Aaron Royall is resilient

Five years ago, Aaron Royall was a promising left-arm wrist spinner with St George, and plenty of good judges were excited about his future.  He was good enough to be chosen to play for City Colts against Country Colts, and if that doesn’t sound like the most exciting representative assignment, consider the company he was in – from that City Colts team, Jordan Silk, Kurtis Patterson and Nic Bills all progressed into Shield cricket, while others like Andrew Harriott and Kerrod White have forged impressive careers.  But Royall went the other way.  No cricketing talent is more fragile than that of a left-arm wrist spinner, and Royall struggled to achieve consistency.  He began to slide down the grades, and towards the end of last season, he was languishing in Fourths.  It’s in that situation that many promising cricketers concede that the game has defeated them, and either retire or change clubs.  But Royall (who works as a development officer for the AFL) has stayed with St George and persisted, climbing from Fourth Grade to Second Grade this season with some tidy work with the ball , as well as scoring three fifties in four innings.  In the last round, in Seconds, he collected 4-64 against Penrith before scoring 30 useful runs.  It isn’t, perhaps, the most dramatic comeback story imaginable, but it’s always good to see a loyal and resilient player being rewarded.

5   There has never been a more exciting time to be a Fifth Grade bowler

This is the perfect time of the season to be a bowler in Fifth Grade.  The standard of play in this competition tends to decline late in the season: sides that are out of finals contention are often weak and under-strength, plus there’s rain about, and the covers on Fifth Grade grounds aren’t always perfect.  So plenty of bowlers in Fifths spent Round 11 improving their averages.  In the ten matches in Round 11, there were no fewer than eleven instances of bowlers taking five wickets in an innings.  In the first seven rounds this season, Gordon opening bowler Sam Watts took six wickets at an average of more than 30; last weekend he took 5-21 and 5-10 against North Sydney, who put together totals of 42 and 52 (which would have been significantly worse but for the efforts of Tim Reynolds, who scored 12 and 45 – yes, 45 out of 52).  Parramatta’s Angus Graham was equally effective against Sutherland – he took 3-8 and 4-10 (with a hat trick) in Sutherland’s innings of 32 and 112.  There are four more rounds of this kind of thing to go.

Round 11 Review

1st Grade:

Blacktown 10/356 (A Lilley 77, J Fawcett 60, D Crawford 48, D Holloway 3/44, T Ley 3/72) Defeated by Sydney University 5/357 (G Mail 106*, E Cowan 79, D Mortimer 59, D Singh 2/66)

With temperatures, approximately 10 degrees warmer than last week Nick Larkin’s decision to bowl day one seemed a stroke of genius. With Joe McAleer looking as hard and as fast as ever, Nick and Ed Cowan quickly took control of the match. After their 6 hour, 330 run partnership on Monday in NSW Futures League game, you could forgive these two for being sick of each other’s company.  However, with ease they posted their 3rd 100 run opening stand for the students this year before Nick was run out for 42 perhaps they were sick of each other’s company after all. Ed continued his imperious form, before he was eventually dismissed for 79. Ryan Carters followed soon after and the game was back in the balance at 3/145. 

However, the odd couple of Damien Mortimer and Greg Mail joined forces and posted the second 100 run stand of the innings as Morts notched his 6th score over 50 for the year. Damien was dismissed for 59, bringing Ashton May to the crease at 4/246.  Ashton and Greg preceded to post the third significant stand of the day before Ashton fell 3 short of yet another 100-run partnership. Greg and Ashton where exceptional, taking total control and refusing to allow Blacktown a sniff.  Maily does what he does best, posting another first grade hundred (his 44th) finishing unbeaten on 106 as we passed Blacktown’s 356 with overs to spare. 

It was a truly impressive chase and further cemented our position as ladder leaders after 11 rounds. 

1st Grade Limited Overs Quarter-Final:

Penrith 10/165 (J Sammut 30, R Gibson 26, D Malone 6/36, T Rogers 3/28) Defeated Sydney University 10/136 (A May 36, J Lalor 3/30, J Wholohan 2/18)

After cruising through the rounds unbeaten the students arrived full of confidence for the qualifying final of the Limited Overs cup. 

Tommy Rogers got us off to the perfect start claiming a wicket in his first over, before a fifty run partnership from Gibson and Hackney.  Enter Deadly Devlin.  Devlin tore through the Penrith batting line up with variation and deception. After his first over went for 16, Devlin claimed 6/20 from his remaining nine overs. Penrith were in trouble at 7/109, before a few late partnerships enabled them to post a defendable total of 165.

With eight runs scored before a legal delivery bowled in the chase, the Uni boys appeared to be in the box seat.  However after a ferocious bumper from Lalor to Carters followed by an outstanding piece of fielding by Ryan Hackney to run out Damien Mortimer, the Uni boys were in trouble at 2/31. Unfortunately, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and when Liam Robertson joined Ashton May the score sat at 4/53.  These two combined well and did their upmost to restore the chase as they added 50 odd before Robbo was run out from yet another athletic display from the Penrith fielders. 

Throughout our chase we were unable to ever take the game forward as the Penrith spinners bowled with exceptional control supported by an outstanding effort in the field.  Ultimately we fell thirty runs short in a rather disappointing display with the bat.   

2nd Grade: 

Blacktown 89 (G McCartin 23, J Craig-Dobson 4/33, L Neil-Smith 2/7) Sydney University 3/87 (B Trevor-Jones 34, N Craze 19)

Resuming the day needing just 3 runs to secure the 6 points, Nicky Craze and Ben Trevor-Jones quickly ticked over Blacktown’s 89 as the students then pressed on in an attempt to claim ten points.  Nicky, fresh from a week’s sabbatical in Perth, posted his highest score for Sydney Uni in second grade with an entertaining 58. The students were eventually dismissed after trying to up the ante with a lead of 110.  

Uni quicks, Lawrence Neil-Smith and Dugald Holloway had the openers in trouble early, however it quickly became apparent that the ten points was out of reach as Blacktown cruised to an unbeaten 100 run partnership.  On the break of tea, with Blacktown 2/170 uni had conceded the possibility of ten points however with the Blacktown opener unbeaten on 83, the decision was made to retake the field.  Dugald, clearly wanting to finish the day bumped the opener until he eventually skied one for a well taken catch by Ben Larkin.  Both sides happily agreed to end the day there, with the students claiming the 6 points and moving closer to a finals berth. 

3rd Grade:

Blacktown 10/142 (G Ganeshkumar 37, A Titterton 35, H Clark 3/23, R Kurtz 2/25, J Kershaw 2/30) Defeated by Sydney University 7/228 (T Kierath 103, K Jacobs 76)

The boys returned to Whalan for week 2 confident of continuing a winning run with a tick over 100 needed and 9 wickets in the hutch.

The fire in the thermometer was matched on the Nash field as 'Young' were once again handed an education, this time of the rule book as 'Old' exploited several little known rules to take the chocolates.

The sweaty conditions meant the lower order had their feet firmly up, taking refuge in the limited shade hopeful of a strong chase. They weren't disappointed as the 2nd wicket partnership of Kierath and Jacob put on a clinic adding 170 to see us over the line and give us a sneak look at an outright.

Images of a largely lifeless opening batsmen on the shower floor at tea foreshadowed the possibility of a new member in the exclusive 'Retired Cooked' club, but two hearty plates of tea meant TK forged on.

Some lusty hitting post tea allowed the Hail Mary play for 10 points but unfortunately a decrease in skin folds and morale was the only reward for the short stint in the oppressive fielding conditions.

We are back to Fortress Paul's next week, welcoming the Two-Blues in search of an 8th straight win.

4th Grade:

Blacktown 10/236 (A Gater 57, Y Sharma 33) defeated by Sydney University 9/239 (N Fitzgerald 72, R Kurtz 47*)

Returning to St Paul's oval to chase 236 for the win, 4th grade started the day in similar fashion to the week prior, with the nuffies comprehensively beating the self-proclaimed Julios. 

Losing a few early wickets had the students in trouble early, until Nick Fitzgerald joined Jack Hill on return after a 5 week American circuit to steady the ship.  Hilly showed his class in a fluent 37 while Nick harked back to the early 2010s with an impressive 72. A bit of a bumpy period post tea had us 9 down, bringing Ryan Kurtz and Angus Cusack to the crease. Following captain AJ Grant's regular and loud advice of "take your time" and "take it deep", the pair put on 45 runs for the 9th wicket partnership. With scores tired a slight mistake from the otherwise flawless Kurtz saw him chip one to straight midwicket only to be gifted a life.  Two balls later Ryan relished in punishing a short ball from the Blacktown spinner over midwicket to secure an incredible victory and his highest score for the club 47*. This places 4th grade in equal 5th place, only a point behind 4th.

5th Grade:

Sydney University 10/196 (S Murthy 46, C Lorenzato 44, B Frost 33, M Harris 32, H Rauf 4/37) Defeated by Blacktown 8/197 (M Brinnand 44, H Khan 36, C Slater 3/46, N Yoganand 2/49)

An incredible disappointing result for fifth grade on Saturday.  After a relatively strong performance last week on a tough deck and slow outfield the boys arrived for day two pumped and ready to go. 

Connor Slater broke through first on day two and bowled with exceptional control and spun the ball sharply.  A run out and then successive wickets to Connor and Sameer had the students on top, Blacktown 6/109. Natesh chimed in and grabbed the 7th as Blacktown went into tea struggling at 7/116. 

Momentum was with the students, however the heat seemed to sap our energy as we allowed the Blacktown 8th wicket partnership to get on top of us, as their number 9 posted an aggressive 44.  Eventually Connor dismissed him as well and at 8/166 there was still hopes we could reign in the 6 points.  However we were unable to make any further breakthroughs as they chased our 196 8 down in the 79th over.

 Overall a disappointing result, but a good lesson to our young players on the importance of pressing home the advantage and not allowing your opponents back into the game when you’ve got them on the ropes.

Metro Cup

Sydney University 8dec 315 (H Farrow 108, M Miles 49, B Kayani 34, S Blundell 4/122) Defeated Mosman 10/67 & 10/132 by an innings at 115 runs.

Day 2 at Balmoral served up an improvement on the already picturesque weather and saw a larger than average crowd gather to watch a lower grade cricket game. Almost as hard to spot a blade of grass on the wicket as it was to find a cloud in the sky. The 'olds' team regained their control of the Nash area with a blistering victory, despite a consolation run-through on the call of last play. Islam's goalkeeping ability put under intense scrutiny as he failed to even attempt defensive action on the rogue runner.

Resuming the day at 3/12 Mosman were put under immediate pressure after Jono Phoebus and Murray Miles combined well to take two wickets in their opening spell. The wicket betraying its softer underneath as Miles struggled to gain grip behind the crease. 2 wickets in the first Ethan Clout over had the home side reeling at 7/38. Some late hitting padded the score but in the end tight fielding produced the runout to end Mosman's innings at 67.

Asking the Mosman's captain to put the pads back on injected new life into the batting team as they went about dispatching the Kookaburra to the boundary. 22 runs off the first two overs on a wicket that had dried out considerably since the morning session made the quest for 10 points look much harder to complete. But the big swinging ploy brought about the opportunity for wickets and Miles and Phoebus obliged seeing the score to 3/31 at the tea break. All three wickets hitting the top of middle stump.

The introduction of spin to the dried out wicket made survival increasingly difficult for the batsman. Debut century maker Hugh Farrow opened his wicket taking account but the hero of the second innings was new found spin bowling prodigy Zohirul Islam. Taking his maiden 5fa for the club Islam spun and bounced his way around Mosman's defences until victory was achieved.

Bowling the Whales out for 132 in the second innings (and an overall lead of 115) was a strong victory gaining valuable points in the campaign towards finals. The students now move into the top 4 and journey to Kensington to play 5th placed Randwick-Petersham.

Larkin earns a Shield recall

Sydney University captain, Nick Larkin, has been named in the New South Wales twelve to play Victoria at the MCG in the Sheffield Shield match starting on Wednesday.

It's a vital match for the Blues, who are in fourth place on the table on 20.95 points and need to win to stay in touch with leaders Victoria (35.69) and South Australia (29.63). 

If he's selected in the final eleven, it will be Larkin's sixth first-class match for New South Wales.  He has earned his selection through the sheer weight of his scoring - so far this season, he has 918 runs for University at an average of 70.62, as well as 521 runs at 104.20 in the Futures League.  He has already hit three double centuries this season, one for University and two for NSW in the Futures League.  Also named in the New South Wales side was University's Ed Cowan, who last week hit 157 in the Futures League match against Victoria and 79 in First Grade's win over Blacktown.