What a weekend for the TravelSIM Waratahs taking out the prestigious Club Championship after a clean sweep against local rivals Mosman.
It’s fair to say that the silverware has come a little bit out of nowhere. 200 points behind Parramatta at the Christmas break and with plenty of injuries and and unavailabilities to deal with, we weren’t expecting to be top of the pops.
But it shows our amazing depth. Consider this; the entire 1st grade bowling line-up played 2nd grade for the first 2 rounds of the season. The entire 1st grade bowling lineup from those rounds were unavailable through injury (Matt Alexander and Mickey Edwards), university commitments (Taylor Beatty) or rep commitments (Chris Green). So an entire bowling line-up has climbed a grade from 1st grade all the way down to 5th grade.
We were only 2 points behind Parramatta before the beginning of the last round, but ended up winning the award by a whopping 84 points after a last round clean sweep, including bonus point victories in 1st and 4th grade.
To see the smiles on everyon’e faces on Saturdya night was amazing. From Bob Rollins in the corner still giving advice on how to keep your top elbow up, to Todd Harper discussing how we can get even better next year, and Bob Brenner lapping up the fruits of all his hard labour over so many years in the 80s and 90s….. it was great to see.
It actually means we have won the Club Championship 6 times in the last 18 years and 3 in the last 7. With a 20 team competition that is an outstanding strike rate.
The only clubs that come close to this are St George and Sydney University who have each won 3 Club Championships over the same period.
Next to the 1st Grade premiership, the Club Championship is probably considered the second most prestigious award in NSW Premier Cricket. It rewards the club who has the most consistent strength throughout all 5 grades, Poidevin-Gray and Green Shield, so it means that everyone who has played for us has contributed to the award.
That is what pleases us most.
Comiserations must go to Parramatta as well. They were a club no one expected to be dominating this year but found themselves in 1st place from the very first round right up until the last round where we pipped them at the post. They are certainly a club on the rise and will challenge again in future years.
To all our players, volunteers, coaches, officials, sponsors, members and supporters, we thankyou for your contribution throughout what has so far been a very successful season.
But it doesn’t end there. We have 2nd, 4th and 5th grade in the finals starting this coming weekend, and we are keen to go premiership hunting.
Go Manly!
