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October 26th / 27th, 2024
Round 2 down for our junior teams and hopefully everyone is getting into the swing of the season. I myself saw some fantastic cricket, although Saturday afternoon copped a little too much sun (from the west) standing in the middle and have a red left arm to show for it! Make sure to apply that sunscreen regularly!
Around The Grounds: Highlights & Match Reports
Performance of the Round Lachlan Balzer (B Grade): 113 runs - our performance of the round this week comes from our seniors B-Grade team, as it's our club's first ton of the year - Lachlan Balzer scoring 113 in the team's big win over St Andrew's Parramatta. This inning was ably supported by captain Laurie Wallis, scoring 52 runs for his second half-century this season. Our seniors are actually in their fourth round of competition, and this is their third win - keep it up team!
Match Reports
U10: LWCC Black (184) def. RHH Pirates Jolly Rogers (102)
What a satisfying win not withstanding the game went 30 mins past time. The session we had in the field of backing up the stumps and always being in motion was evident, especially those first 10 overs. Honours go to Oscar, 19 runs, with 3 boundaries without losing his wicket, he backed this up with 2 wickets, followed by Kiran 20 runs, 2 boundaries for the loss of 1 wicket. Also well done for Kiran, in his first game of wicket keeping the after drinks. Emmett also had a great day behind the stumps, as well as 2 wickets and a handy 15 runs. Strike bowler Henry struck again with 3 wickets including a C&B, and Ryan with 2 wickets.
U11: LWCC Black (180) def. LWCC White (132)
U11 Black won the toss and elected to bowl in a friendly derby against the LW U11 White. Conditions were perfect as LWCC White made a strong start with aggressive running a feature of their game. LWCC Black pulled them back with some good overs from Dashiell Collier, Felix Hagen, Rufus Shemmell and Dilhan Clark, the later finishing with 3/12 from his accurate leg spin. Dilhan continued his strong all round performance when opening the batting, hitting a game high 36 off 15 including 7 fours and 1 six! A flurry of great runouts brought the contest closer before some late order hitting put the game away with LWCC U11 Black taking the chocolates. Special mention to all the wicket keepers involved throughout for keeping admirably, particularly Noah Lane who conceded zero byes in his ten overs with the gloves on. Well played Leichhardt Wanderers Under 11 Black!
U12: LWCC Red (7/81) def. by RHH Pirates Buccaneers (8/103)
A loss in the books, but LWCC U12 Red again showed plenty of promise and played well and in good spirit against mixed Buccaneers on a sparkling morning at Bedlam Bay.
Overall a strong bowling performance, with Oliver Sims and Charlie leading the way as opening bowlers (2-10 and 2-8 respectively) with the rest of the wickets shared between Noah, Oliver B, Leon and Morello, Mo’s delivery taking a hefty chunk out of the Buccaneer’s set of stumps (middle) impressing all.
Chasing a gettable 103, the batting also showed promise but some accurate bowling and consistent fielding and hypnotic rotation seemed to maroon our run rate and our counterattack didn’t quite come off. Well done though to Jordan, James, Morello and Charlie who all contributed to our mid 80s score (the app having conniptions by the end of the game). We were quite close to notching up our first win – just a shot and a dropped catch here or there and it could have gone our way.
It’s been great to see the improvement in just two games and team management is very confident that with just a little more aggression in the batting (and a smidgeon of luck) we will be up and away. C’mon you Reds!
U12: LWCC Gold (6/105) def. Concord Briars Gold (103)
LWCC U12 Gold continued their unbeaten start to the season in a captivating match of cricket at Campbell Park on Saturday. Electing to bowl after winning the toss, LWCC Gold worked hard to contain their opponents, with some disciplined bowling and sharp fielding. Concord Briars Gold managed to post 8/103 from 22.1 overs. Like week one, LWCC U12 Gold's success in containing the opposition was largely due to the depth of the team's bowling stocks. Last week seven Leichhardt bowlers shared wickets, this week it was five. Standout performances this week were Kasper Arnmark taking two crucial wickets for just nine runs (career best figures) and James Day as well as Will Baratt also claiming two important breakthroughs apiece. LWCC's tight bowling stifled Concord’s run rate and halted attempts to build momentum.
In response, LWCC U12 Gold’s innings had its shaky moments, with early wickets testing the team's resilience. James Day opened with a quick fire 19 off just nine balls, setting a solid pace before falling to a catch by Jake Maiden. Steadying the ship, Will Barratt anchored the chase with solid shot-making and a forced retirement after his first 30 balls.
LWCC U12 were sitting at 6/51 still 53 runs short of their target when Jax Lee and Will Barrett came together with just one wicket remaining. For over an hour the final two Leichhardt players held strong. In an incredible partnership they picked off run after run and meticulously lowered the number of runs remaining. Jax Lee ended up on 24 not out from his 46 balls and Will Barratt finished at 36 not out from his 50 balls. Collectively they hit 7 boundaries including a cracking strike by Will to win the match for Leichhardt and resulted in him being chaired off the field by his ecstatic team mates. An incredible moment for Will, Jax and the team.
Importantly the Leichhardt lads quickly stopped celebrating quickly and shook hands and congratulated the Briars team on a fantastic encounter. Lots to take away from the win, especially an understanding that no matter how dire the scoreboard might look, there is always hope in cricket.
U15 Sixers: LWCC Gold (86) def. by RJCC Thunder (3/87)
With locked toilets, bladders were stretched to the limit on the sidelines and tensions rode high in the middle in a game that was a tough lesson for the team and one to possibly file under, “Do Not Disturb”.
When Randwick strike bowler found his line and length and took four in a row to finish off our innings, we knew we really needed something extraordinary with the ball to defend an 86 total.
Amongst the madness there are always heroes in the highlights reel -
Evan Wildin - 20 runs off 33 balls including 5 fours. Two wickets from his 2 overs. Superb and continues to improve
Declan Slakey - 22 runs off 28 including 4 fours. One catch as WK. Very impressive.
Sam Evans - 3 overs, 2 maidens for a total of 8 runs. One catch at slips. Not Out for 6 runs off 31 balls. Great all round contribution
Ben Robertson - 3 overs, one maiden, one wicket for 6 runs. Great start to the season
Henry F - solid defensive effort with 6 runs off 31 balls
Henry K - great first knock with 13 runs off 23 balls
Ryan - gets the Team Spirit award for turning up, despite being injured, and supporting the team. (Love this! - ed.)
U17 Sixers: LWCC Black (127) def. by RJCC Phoenix (3/130)
The u17 Black were very sorry this week to lose their friend and team mate Leo Nelson for the rest of 2024 due to a knee injury, and we all wish him a quick and full recovery. Similarly, our thoughts are with coach Tony, as he undergoes his own knee surgery this week.
On the pitch, we were a little bit below our best at Boronia, and RJCC Phoenix had a deserved victory in a well-contested game. Highlights for Wanderers included another outstanding all-round performance from Cameron, who narrowly missed out on both a half-century and a hat-trick. Will’s crucial, unbeaten 27 was his highest ever score with the bat, and Finn’s six overs for the concession of just 9 runs were a tribute to great discipline and consistency. We know that we all need to perform at that level to win games in this division.
B Grade: LWCC (4/212) def. St Andrew's Parramatta (139)
A really good win for B grade yesterday. A cracking day in the sun at Timbrell. We lost the toss and were sent in. The St Andrew's bowlers were swinging it around early and we lost an early wicket. Laurie and Lachie combined for a really good partnership which got us to drinks 1/79. We continued for a while playing low risk cricket and rotating strike. Laurie lost patience and holed out for 52 and we were 2/121. Asif (20) and Harry (7*) kept our momentum going and Lachie cashed in getting himself up to 113!! And the team totalled 4/212 from our 35 overs.
Our turn to bowl and we were confident with runs on the board. Harry and Deep got us off to the perfect start grabbing an early wicket each to make it 2/12. St Andrew's put a good couple of partnerships together before Stu put an end to the resistance grabbing 2fa. Josh grabbed another wicket just before drinks and they were 5/72. After drinks we closed things out quickly with good spells to Scott and Josh (both 2fas), Himanshu 1fa and Deep came back to wrap things up with 2fa. A very comprehensive win! Big congrats Lachie on a superb hundred and everyone on a great game!
U13: LWCC White (7/108) def. by RHH Pirates Jolly Rogers (5/235)
After a close loss in round one, U13 White found themselves up against last season's undefeated premiers, the Jolly Rogers. Some quality top order batting - albeit on a small field - from the Pirates openers saw us 1-141 at drinks. Though Anton's first wicket for the team - taking out the best batter in the competition - was a fantastic moment! Pleasingly, the boys all fought back hard in the second 15 overs, not only slowing down the run rate but continuing to take wickets, including a direct hit run out from the boundary by Darcy and a clever piece of fielding from WK James S to run out another. Nice wickets to Harrison, Conor & Oli also gave our fielding innings some bright spots. All in all, our bowling was actually quite decent - but a couple of high quality batters did most of the damage, knowing just where to hit everything.
The Jolly Rogers followed on their quality batting innings with some quality bowling and we fell well short of the run chase. However, with three top order retirements from Darcy, James L and Archer, followed by a wonderful cameo from James S, it was very pleasing to see our boys make the Pirates earn their win and we never gave up. Every one of our players valued their wickets: Darcy showed fighting spirit right until the end, finishing top scorer with 34* off 55 balls, refusing to let the Pirates get him out. James L (15), Archer (17), Jack (11) & James S (9*) all contributed with some runs.
Certainly a convincing loss on paper, but super proud of all the individual efforts, fighting spirit and a collective willingness to apply themselves against a very tough opposition.
Reminder that we would love to receive highlights and brief match reports from coaches and managers after their matches, which we will publish in the weekly newsletter and on our News page here. (Please submit these by Monday each week to leichhardtcricket@gmail.com). We're particularly keen on hearing about special achievements, whether it's a standout performance, acts of sportsmanship or general good stories about your games of cricket!
Best of luck for the weekend! Let's hope we end up on the right side of the current "50% chance of showers" forecast!