Fightbacks, frustration and fortune fill waratah weekend – Weekend Wrap 25th/26th February 2023

st Grade travelled to the wonderful home of UNSW, David Phillips Oval for a massive top 6 clash that could result in cementing a home final for the Tahs.

Captain Lenton won the toss and decided to have a bat on what looked like a decent wicket for batting, like always, the first hour was difficult for the top order with the ball nipping around and a touch of uneven bounce to boot and unfortunately Manly lost 3 early wickets before Ryan Farrell and Joel Davies guided the side through to lunch with the score sitting at 3/80.

With the wicket continuing to play tricks for the away side, UNSW through some tight bowling really put the pressure on and were taking wickets consistently throughout the middle session with scoring hard to come by due to a slow outfield.

Ben Bryant and Mickey Edwards were the batsmen to return after the tea break, but another wicket saw the Tahs struggling at 8/129. But the fight that’s been there all season remained as Ryan Hadley and Ben Bryant put on one of the great 10th wicket partnerships you’ll see as they combined defence and control with attack and put on a 100-run stand to finish the day at 8/234 and giving th Tahs the momentum heading into day two of the fixture. Ben Bryant’s return to the side was a timely one with him finishing on 85* and Ryan Hadley with an extremely important 33*.

Jake Carden

fter a strong victory against NDs last week, we were up and about for our last 2-day fixture for the regular season. The vibes were high with sweet chilli enjoying a few Absolut martini’s at Fika Swedish Kitchen, a strange hair of the dog choice, rather bazballesque from the giddy English cricket tragic.

Unfortunately, the conditions at Manly oval were not quite as dry as Will’s martini with plenty of evidence remaining from Tuesday’s downpour. Cheers from the top order could be heard from afar, particularly after our commander and chief manifested his first toss loss in 7 rounds. Alas, we were sent in on a spicy one.

Proceedings didn’t quite go to plan as we found ourselves in some strife early with the score at 4-10. Veteran Jordan Daly and young up & comer Cameron Merchant went about the rebuild and did so with the class we have come to know and love from the pair. Unfortunately, a lapse in judgement saw the end of Jordan on the stroke of lunch. Further rebuilding was required after lunch with Nappa falling early into the middle session for a well-made 40.

Brynnsanity chanced his arm and put some much-needed pressure back on UNSW. He was duly supported from the lower order, particularly Josh Seward (41). The pair put on a much-needed partnership, pushing us past the 200 mark. We finished our innings on 227 with Brynn compiling a timely 2nd grade high score of 87*.

11 overs remained, unfortunately we were unable to get any breakthroughs before stumps. All to play for as we look to cement our spot at the top of the ladder.

Tom Kaye

he 3s boys showed up to a Cahill Park ready for a big game against the Students.

We unfortunately loss the toss on a spicey wicket we got sent in to bat there were a few big changes to the order because of the wicket, We lost the first wicket of Ellis Raymond then the first sacrificial batsmen Josh Wigney came to the crease we then proceeded to get rolled for 57.

We still had confidence in our bowling attack that we could win in the first innings on that wicket counsell bowled the house down and ended up with 4/22 after 16 overs andrew bouton from the other end keeping the batsmen on their toes while swinging the ball around corners, Josh wigney then got a quick 2 wickets in 3 overs but wasn’t good enough and the students ended up declaring 7/59. Sent us back in for the last hour of the day opening the batting for manly in the second innings was Josh wigney and Lachie trewartha. Lachie was shortly back in the sheds after copping a seed and getting bowled we then lost wiggers and Sam hole and ended the day 3/13.

Lachlan Trewartha

he 4th grade Boys turned up to a picturesque Grahams reserve. With plenty of rain around during the week neither team were sure on what to do if they were to win the toss. Grahams can sometimes deceive you with how much grass is left on it each week.

In Andrew Rochford‘s absence Adam Parkinson was the skipper this week and lost the toss, We were sent in on a soft one. 

Keelan Mendel and Dom Wheeler started off proceedings. Keelan hit a full toss straight to short cover and not long after Adam (1) got one reared up on him and was caught at gully.

Quickly we found ourselves at 2/10

Josh Cooper and Dom steadied to ship nicely. Coops got 18 before holding out to the spinner.  We were very blessed to have club legend Jack Ritche with us this week. Cubby and Dom batted well together. They us too Tea 3 down which everyone knows is crucial in today cricket given the opportunity to school quickly at the end of the day with wickets in hand.

After the break the lads took us past 150. Dom (69) brought up his 50 and Cubby (55) too.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalise on the opportunity the top order had set up for us. Wickets fell frequently and we weren’t able to get any sort of momentum. Special mention to George Cummings for barbecuing me then proceeding to chip one to cover 4 overs later.

209 felt like enough on that wicket so Adam decided to declare leaving us with 6 overs to bowl before the end of the day. Evan managed to get an edge of his bowling with a brilliantly held catch from Frazer Noack at 2nd slip. To have 1 down overnight definitely justifies to deceleration.

Lachie Kerr

kipper Simon Waddington on toss and decided to have a bowl on a fresh pitch.

James Waddington (3/23) got the perfect start with a snick. Some aggressive batting saw UNSW get to 20 quickly but Waddo struck again with a snick to his dad who suddenly felt a lot better than the ball before. A top edge to Jack Donnan in the covers saw them 3/45.

Some sensible batting saw them get to 85 before Will Skinner (1/8) got an edge to Reilly. At tea UNSW were looking half decent at 4/107 but Waddo had a revelation and threw me the ball for some reason. My first ball was a slow full toss which some might put down to nerves. Anyway, I slid in there with a snick to get rid of their main scorer and from there with Josh Lawson bowling thunderbolts down breeze we got through them easily, Josh getting the unflattering figures of 2/36 and me the flattering figures of 4/5.

With the bat, Jack Donnan played a nice straight drive but soon edged to gully. I got possibly unlucky (no one listens so why bother stating the truth that I didn’t get near it) with an edge down leg for 10.

Some wily bowling from UNSW saw Ollie and Liam get undone and at 4/31 we were arguably in a spot of bother. But as the club continues to show weekly we fought our way out of it with Reilly 28 and Chris 31 making sure no more mishaps and finish strongly at 4/85.

anly Womens 1s arrived on a warm Sunday morning to a lovely drummoyne oval. After our weekly warm up game of fielding soccer ended in a draw mik had won the toss and elected to bat. We opened with Sas and Shiv, who got us off to a great start. They were both batting beautifully with Sas finding the on side boundary with ease. Sas (28) was first to fall bringing in Sarah who was unfortunately run out soon after. Lauren (15) and Kelly (20) had great partnerships with Shiv who provided the much needed stability for the innings. After Shiv was dismissed for a well earned 53, Mik (18) and Charley (16) put on a good partnership, running hard and finding the gaps. We finished our 50 overs 9 down with 183 on the board. An improvement on last week, however, we knew we’d need to put in a great bowling display to contain Sydney.

We opened the bowling with Kelly and Annabel, from the start Sydney were looking to attack but Kelly bowled consistently as she has been the whole season. Annie unfortunately struggled to find her line and leaked too many runs up front. Chelsea and Mik came on and looked to break Sydney’s strong opening partnership, despite a few well bowled deliveries from Chelsea we again struggled to find our best lines and lengths. Lauren then came on and took Hicks’ wicket first bowl with a stumping from Katie!! After a quick fire 25 from Sammy Jo-Johnson and two down the ground 6s it was Lauren again who broke through taking Sammy’s wicket. This time a sharp catch from Kelly at short cover.

At this stage we still felt we were in it but would need to deliver our best bowling. Unfortunately Churchland and Dimeglio continued to bat with great confidence and were able to hit the gaps too often. Sydney looked like they would cruise to victory two wickets down, however Kelly struck twice dismissing Churchland with a catch from Sarah at mid off and Dimeglio with a spectacular catch from Lauren at slip!!

In the end our bowling was well below parr and definitely wasn’t good enough for a great Sydney side. Whilst we won’t make finals this year the team look to improve our standards for next weeks clash with Northern Districts.

2 Points – Shivani Mehta
2 Points – Kelly Castle
2 Points – Lauren Kua

Annabel Hutt

e arrived at Manly oval for a big game against Sydney. Mia won the toss and chose to bowl. Molly and Emma opened the bowling and got us off to a very good start leaving Sydney at 4/35. With Emma taking 4 wickets. They started to build a solid partnership but 2 quick wickets to kaya left them at 6/79. Unfortunately a massive 7th wicket partnership brought them to 7/165. The tail got cleaned up leaving us with a very tough total to chase of 207.

Zara and Eliza came out to bat and built a solid partnership but the loss of 2 quick wickets saw us at 2/42. Mia and Brooke started to build things back up and managed to get us to 76 runs. Before we had a huge collapse leaving us at 7/104. A good partnership from Emma and Steph followed by another partnership by Steph and Kaya got us to a total of 176. The loss of another quick wicket left us at 178. 30 runs from victory. A tough loss to take as it means we are out of finals contention.

3 Points – Emma Thatcher
2 Points – Kaya Punter
1 Point – Steph Hughes

Eliza Henry

fter a couple rainy, cold days during the week, the weather cleared up nicely for a dry, hot start to our last game before semi-finals. We were out at Tunks Park against UTS North Sydney, the parking nightmare living up to expectations, of course.

Captain Renee lost the toss and the team got ready to open with fielding/bowling.

Our openers were Sophia Chick and Olivia Champion, both starting off the innings strong, keeping the opposition in their creases, and only a couple singles within the first few overs. Isabella Zovi came through with the first wicket of the innings. Throughout the rest of the innings, we were able to secure 7 more wickets, with each of our bowlers taking at least 1, and Jamie Loh with 2. Renee, Jamie and Olivia all coming away with maiden overs. By the end of the innings, we were set to chase 134 runs. 

Steph and Bella opened our batting innings with a couple boundaries and singles in the first few overs, however after an unfortunate catch by the opposition, wicket keeper Steph was dismissed, and Emily Hatfield was sent in. Bella was the greatest batting asset with 39 runs of 39 balls and a total of 6 boundaries. After another wicket which sent her off, Renee went on, keeping up the pace set by Bella, with a couple more boundaries and many more ones and twos.

After the next wicket, sending off our captain, Sophie Beukers went on, staying on until the end of the innings, while other batters cycled through. A nail-bitingly close end to the innings, however, unfortunately saw us missing out on the win by 5 runs, finishing the 40 overs with 8/129.

3 Points – Isabella Zovi
2 Points – Renee Hough
1 Point – Jamie Loh

Dyandra Prins

he Manly girls were honoured to be the first women’s premier league team to play on North Sydney oval #1.

They started off well with Caitlin winning the toss and electing to bat.

Caitlin and Bella opened the batting on a new green top pitch. The runs where hard to come by as the bowling from UTS was tight and on a very good length. Caitlin hit the first runs nicely then Bella followed soon after with the first 4 of the game. Unfortunately, shortly after Caitlin

was dismissed by a great yorker on middle stump. This allowed for Hannah to come to the crease. Hannah played some nice shots and kept the strike rotating nicely. Hannah was drawn into a nice shot which saw her edge to the keeper. That bought Ari in to bat. With a four off the second ball she faced, things were looking promising for a nice partnership to develop, with the strike rotating nicely things were looking good. Some great bowling from UTS saw Ari edge to the keeper who took her second catch of the game. Ash came in and helped stabilize the middle part of the innings allowing Bella to play some lovely shots and pick up the run rate, unfortunately Bella despite looking set for another big score edged to the keeper for a third dismissal. Charlotte came out and helped Ash in the middle. Unfortunately, Ash was given out LBW from a nice ball from the UTS bowler. Darcey came in with great intent and Charlotte helped keep the runs ticking over. After Charlotte was bowled by a good ball which sent Shae in to bat with Darcey. They did a great job holding the start of the back of the batting order, making sure there was runs in every over.The partnership was building till sadly Darcey was dismissed last ball of the over and Shae the first ball of the next over. Lara and Jamie went out Jamie was dismissed by a great ball and Olivia went out. Olivia and Lara got us to 100 then unfortunately Olivia was bowled. We ended up with 106 runs.

Manly took to the field knowing we had to go out bowl and field well to defend 106 runs. It was a very fast outfield that had seen our innings bring 4s or 1s, not many 2’s or 3’s. Darcey and Lara started with the ball for Manly. Lara got the first break through in her 3rd over, an amazing catch by Liv saw the Manly girls with a spring in their step. A couple of overs later, Lara struck again, she took a great catch off her own bowling. A change in bowlers saw Ari and Eve take the ball. UTS were up for the challenge, some great bowling, and some good shots from UTS saw the score ticking over. Ari was the next to strike, a lovely full pitched delivery saw the bails go flying. Despite the good bowling and some great efforts in the field the inform UTS batters where just to good this week and showed why they are 2nd on the Brewer Ladder.

Despite the loss the girls loved the experience of playing on such a great oval and never stopped trying.

2 Points – Lara Hughes
2 Points – Isabella Zovi
1 Point – Olivia Champion
1 Point – Darcey Whiteley

Eve Burke