Five things we learned from Round 14

1   March is the wettest month

Mostly what we learned was that March is the wettest month in Sydney, with average rainfall of 164mm.  The rain wiped out any hope of a result anywhere in First Grade, disappointing noboldy more than Sutherland, who had reduced Blacktown to seven for 42 after Tom Doyle hit his maiden First Grade century.  The fact that no-one scored any points, anywhere, means that the top four (Sydney University, Gordon, Bankstown, Sydney) are all assured of playing in the finals.  University goes into the last round still holding on to first place, but having played only sixty overs of cricket in the last month and with a challenging away game against Bankstown.  If Bankstown were to win, and Gordon beats Wests, University could drop as low as third.  There are still six teams are playing for the last two spots.  Here’s how it works:

• Parramatta (5th, 47 points) needs to beat Mosman, but even if it does it can still miss out if Penrith beats Sydney and Manly beats Hawkesbury with a bonus point.  If that were to happen, Manly would sneak past Parramatta on quotient.  Alternatively, if Parramatta loses to Mosman, it would need all but one of Penrith, Manly, Randwick-Petersham, Eastern Suburbs and University of NSW to lose.  Or, if you want to explore every possible situation, Parramatta would get through if all but one of Penrith, Manly and University of NSW lose and Easts and Randwick-Petersham tie.

• Penrith (5th, 47 points) is in an identical position to Parramatta.  A win over Sydney gets the Panthers in.  If they lose, they need the cards to fall their way in the same as Parramatta.

• Manly (7th, 46 points) needs to beat Hawkesbury.  If either Penrith or Parramatta trips up, that gets them through.  If Penrith and Parramatta both win, Manly will need a bonus point.  Manly has a better quotient than either Parramatta or Penrith, so finishing equal on points will be enough.

• The next three sides could theoretically sneak in, but need big wins and a whole lot of luck.  Randwick-Petersham (8th, 43 points) needs to beat Eastern Suburbs and then needs a whole heap of results to go its way: it needs Parramatta, Penrith and Manly to lose and University of NSW to lose or win without a bonus point.  Essentially the same position applies to its opponent, Eastern Suburbs (9th, 42 points).  And University of NSW (10th, 42 points) needs to beat Fairfield.  Even if they can pick up a bonus point, the Bees will still need only one team out of Parramatta, Penrith, Manly, Randwick-Petersham and Easts to win (unless, of course, Randwick-Petersham and Easts play out that tie).

We’re assuming (in line with the long-range forecast) that there’s no further interference from the weather.  On the other hand, March is the wettest month in Sydney.

2   Sydney leads the pack in Seconds

In the least surprising news anywhere in Premier Cricket, Sydney could forget to turn up this Saturday and still be minor premiers in Second Grade (they’re twelve points clear of second place).  University of NSW also has second place sewn up, courtesy of a smash-and-grab win in Round 14, one of the few victories achieved in any grade.  John Venianakis (6-50) claimed career-best figures in Seconds to dismiss Bankstown cheaply, after which Connor Jackson clinched the result with his maiden century for the club.  Northern District and Manly can’t miss the finals.  But then there’s the log jam.  Mosman (48) and Parramatta (44) play off for a finals place, although if Mosman were to lose, it could still cling to sixth place if Penrith, Gordon, Sydney University, Eastern Suburbs and Fairfield-Liverpool all lose as well.  It’s a simple equation for Penrith (7th, 44 points): it needs to upset Sydney, and then its strong quotient should earn it a place in the finals no matter how anyone else goes.  Gordon (8th, 43 points) needs to beat Wests to go past the loser out of Penrith and Mosman; then it needs Penrith to lose as well.  Sydney University (9th, 43 points) is in the same position as Gordon, but with an inferior quotient, so it needs Penrith and Gordon to lose, or to sneak ahead of Gordon with a bonus point.  Eastern Suburbs (10th, 42) and Fairfield-Liverpool (11th, 42) are real long shots, but it’s mathematically possible for them to reach the finals if Penrith, Gordon and Sydney University all lose.

3   The Mitchell Cup holders are minor premiers again

The only result in Thirds in Round 14 had no important bearing on the table: Randwick-Petersham’s demolition of Campbelltown wasn’t enough to haul it into finals contention.  And Third Grade is the most straightforward of the finals races.  Sydney University, the current Mitchell Cup holder, is guaranteed to win the minor premiership regardless of results on Saturday.  Only two points separate the next four teams (Mosman, Wests, Penrith and St George) but all of them will play in the finals.  Sixth-placed Northern District is six points clear of seventh-placed Manly and eighth-placed North Sydney, so Northern District will miss out only if it can find a way to lose to 18th-placed Campbelltown and either Manly or Norths snare a bonus point.

4   The current premiers will be back in the Fourth Grade finals

Sydney University clinched a place in the finals with its first-day victory over Fairfield-Liverpool.  Ryan Holcroft (4-32), captain AJ Grant (2-20) and Angus Cusack (2-14) did the damage with the ball before University chased down its target of 88 within 34 overs.  Even so, Sydney is certain to finish first here, and no-one can beat Northern District into second spot.  St George (56) and Sydney University (56) can’t miss out.  Gordon (5th, 54) is fairly safe, but if Wests spring an upset, Gordon can be overtaken if Easts (7th, 48) beat Randwick-Petersham with a bonus point.  Penrith (6th, 50) is vulnerable if it can’t beat Sydney – in that case, the winner of Randwick-Petersham and Easts could take sixth spot, although a low quotient means that Randwick-Petersham (another Round 14 winner) would probably need a bonus point.  It’s also possible, if Penrith and Easts both lose, that Manly (9th, 43) could slip past Randwick-Petersham into sixth if it can beat Hawkesbury with a bonus point.  That would leave Penrith, Randwick-Petersham and Manly all on 50, and if Penrith loses heavily and Manly wins massively, Manly might just be able to lift its quotient above Penrith’s.  These aren’t the kind of odds you’d back when sober.

5   The minor premiership is up for grabs in Fifths

Penrith and Randwick-Petersham both advanced their positions on the Fifth Grade table by winning in Round 14.  There’s a real fight for the minor premiership– any one of the top four teams could still finish first.  It would be unwise to beat against the leader, Gordon (56) who has a great quotient and faces 15th-placed Wests in the final round.  But St George (55), Penrith (53) and Randwick-Petersham (52) are all within striking distance and will all play in the finals.  Northern District (50) looks pretty safe, too: even if it were to lose to Campbelltown (18th), it can’t be passed by Hawkesbury (7th, 43) and has a much better quotient.  So the only top-six side that’s really at risk of missing out is Blacktown, which has to beat second-placed St George.  If Blacktown loses, it can be passed by Hawkesbury (43), Mosman (8th, 42) or Sutherland (9th, 42), although Sutherland’s poor quotient means that it would need a bonus point.

Milestones Monday

Ed Cowan's 115 for New South Wales against Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield match on Saturday was the 24th century of his first-class career.  During his innings (which was the first first-class century ever to be scored in Wollongong) he passed 500 first-class runs for the season and 2000 first-class runs for New South Wales.

Playing for ACT against Tasmania at Manuka Oval last week, Tom Rogers hit 89 (from 149 balls, with 11 fours and two 6s) to record his highest score in the Futures League.

Ed Arnott's valuable 41 against Fairfield-Liverpool equalled his highest score in Second Grade.

Ryan Holcroft (with 4-32) helped to dismiss Fairfield-Liverpool for only 88, helping his side to first innings points on day one, and earning his best Fourth Grade figures in the process.

Cowan holds it together in Wollogong

Drenching rain has prevented cricket in most parts of Sydney today, but the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Tasmania in Wollongong has been unaffected.  Sent in by the visitors, New South Wales lost three early wickets in the first session, but the experience of University left-hander Ed Cowan salvaged the innings.  At lunch, he was unbeaten on 41, out of his side's three for 79, batting with poise and confidence against a testing Tasmanian attack.  A short time ago, he had reached 70, as the Blues recovered from their early setbacks to reach three for 131.

Already in this innings, Ed has passed two landmarks - he has reached 500 first-class runs for the season, and 2000 runs for New South Wales in first-class cricket.

Player of the Round: Round 13

Voting has been completed for the Sydney Uni Cricket Player of the Round following Round 12 of the McDonald's NSW Premier Cricket competition.

The Surjits Player of the Round goes to Fifth Grade's star all-rounder Sameer Murthy who was outstanding with the ball to claim 5-31 before top-scoring with 36 runs against Randwick-Petersham. 

The Nags Head Performance of the Round was taken out by a captain's performance from 2nd Grade skipper, Dave Miller, who burgled 2-7 from 5 overs to help bowl Randwick-Petersham out for just 123 runs, before batting assuredly in the run chase with 50no. 

There were a handful of other outstanding performances this round:

Jack Holloway leaping to joint leader in the SUCC Player of the Year Award with 3-18 from 7 overs in the 2nd Grade victory at Sydney University Oval.

Josh Toyer with 4-33 from 6.1 overs in 3rd Grade's hunt for the Minor Premiership.

Nick Arnold's 65no from 63 balls to help chase down Randwick-Petersham's total of 198 in the 3rd Grade clash.

AJ Grant leading the way in 4th Grade's victory with 3-16 from 6 overs.

School kid, Connor Slater, who bamboozled his 4th Grade opposition with 1-18 from 10 overs, an unheard of RPO rate for a young leg-spinner in a Limited Overs match.

Metro Cup skipper, Andrew Wilkinson's 4-24 and 24no to almost get his side home in a tight affair against Gordon.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR TABLE:

TOP TENS

Five things we learned from Round 13

1   Climate change is real

The first day of Round 13 was cancelled due to an anticipated heat wave: the second was heavily disrupted by rain.  Of course, extreme weather has interfered with Grade cricket before – in 1976-77, one day’s play was famously disturbed by a solar eclipse, and in 1994-95, several matches were postponed due to rampant bushfires in and around Sydney.  But this was new, and (through no-one’s fault) it had a distorting effect on the competition.  Worst affected were Sydney University and Randwick-Petersham.  Their game at Coogee eventually began an hour late, and when bad light forced the players from the field, only 10.5 overs had been bowled in University’s innings – 25 frustrating balls short of a Duckworth/Lewis game.  Only one other match in First Grade failed to achieve a result, but there were no points for either University or Randwick-Petersham.  Chasing 229, University was in front of its undemanding Duckworth/Lewis target, but that calculation is highly sensitive to the number of wickets lost, and the home side also thought it was well in the game.  As it was, University remains on top in First Grade, but only on quotient – Gordon drew level on 61 points – and lost the chance to move into second place in a tight Club Championship race.  And Randwick-Petersham dropped to eighth place, making it possible that its Round 15 meeting with Eastern Suburbs could be effectively a play-off for a finals spot.

2   The Bees are still in touch

University of NSW has had an unusual season, never in the top six, flying under the radar, but never entirely out of contention.  They’re now in ninth place, only five points south of a finals place with two rounds to go.  The Bees’ 304 on Saturday was probably about par for North Sydney Oval, set up by David Dawson’s second century of the season and James Henry’s 95.  This actually represented a timely return to form for both batsmen – Dawson’s previous two innings yielded 0 and 4 while Henry had scored 0 and 0 in his last two visits to the crease.  Rico Du Plessis launched the innings in spectacular style by lashing four 6s in his 52 from 45 balls.  North Sydney was 52 runs adrift of its Duckworth-Lewis target when thunderstorms forced the players from the field after 21 overs had been bowled in its innings.  University of NSW now needs to upset Bankstown (whose form looks ominously assured) in Round 14 to keep its season alive.

3   Manly is the master of the late charge

Last season, Manly overcame a lacklustre start to surge towards the finals, missing out by only a single point.  Something similar is happening in 2016-17.  Manly won only one of its first three matches, but now has worked its way up to seventh, just one point behind Parramatta and Penrith.  Michael Visser neatly symbolizes this recovery: in Round 3, he returned the decidedly unflattering figures of 0-138 against Sydney University, but since then he has taken five wickets in an innings on three occasions, and his 5-31 against Fairfield set up another Manly victory.  Visser took the first five wickets to fall as Fairfield crumbled to 5-39 before Matthew Harivel and the lower order lifted the total to 137.  Manly actually squeezed home by only nine runs on Duckworth/Lewis, negotiating some testing bowling from Doug Bollinger, who made a rare appearance for his club.  Manly now plays the faltering Northern District (beaten on Saturday for the sixth match in succession) at Mark Taylor Oval. 

4   Second Grade is a log-jam

Not right at the top – Sydney won again, putting its minor premiership beyond doubt: it’s 18 points clear of second-placed University of NSW.  But a little lower down, things get interesting.  Mosman (48) and Parramatta (44) round off the top six, but then there are another six teams within three points of Parramatta.  Sydney University (9th) and Mosman (5th) could swap places on the table if results go a certain way in Round 14 – but there are also plenty of other possible permutations.  Mosman plays seventh-placed Penrith in a Round 14 match that has the look of sudden death about it.

5   Hugh Sheriff looks like one to watch

Old players of a certain age can still feel the bruising where they were hit by the Balmain left-arm quick Andrew Jones a few decades back.  Jones, whose bouncer was suspiciously difficult to pick up, was often a deadly operator for Balmain, as well as bowling well for New South Wales.   But now he seems in danger of being upstaged by his 15 year old nephew, Hugh Sheriff.  Sheriff is a lively fast-medium bowler whose season has been disrupted by injury, but he played a part in Sydney’s AW Green Shield victory, and now turns out in the Tigers’ table-topping Fourth Grade side.  At Birchgrove Oval on Saturday, he was given the ball as first change after Wests had struggled to four for 25.  A few chaotic minutes later, the innings was over.  With his second ball, Sheriff bowled Rowan Carthey; he then bowled Alex Cheung and completed the hat-trick by removing Mandeep Oberoi. With the last ball of his over, he had Mitchell Fleming caught: 4-0.  In his next over, he delivered two wides, but also won lbw decisions against Lachlan Dawson and Zain Shamsi.  Wests were all out for 33: Sheriff sent down only ten balls for his six wickets, while allowing no runs at all off the bat.  Predictably, Sydney knocked off the runs two down- the whole game occupied only 24 overs.  What makes it all slightly worse for Wests is that Sheriff is actually a Wests junior, having played with the ACC Club in the Wests/Canterbury Cricket Association.

Milestones Monday

Tom Rogers (5-47) claimed his first five-wicket haul for ACT in the Futures League against Victoria last week.

Devlin Malone made his Futures League debut for New South Wales against Queensland last week.

Hayden Kerr (2-35) improved on his best First Grade bowling figures against Randwick-Petersham.

Nick Arnold's 65 not out against Randwick-Petersham was his second score above fifty in Third Grade.

During his economical spell against Randwick-Petersham (allowing only 18 runs from 10 overs), Connor Slater collected his first wicket in Fourth Grade.

Sameer Murthy (5-31) took his first five-wicket haul for the Club in Fifth Grade's match with Randwick-Petersham.