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Featured Article
Lean Pickings
It was certainly lean pickings for the Club’s senior sides as the Men recommenced their 2-day competition and the Women played their first match for 2020. The Premier Men were on the back foot for most of their match but fought their way back into it late in the day thanks to the skipper’s five wickets, likewise Div 2 were always struggling after being bowled out for less than 100. The Premier women were well beaten St Albans and the mens 2nd’s are now in a desperate struggle to try to avoid defeat in their match. Down the grades there were more wins than losses, with both Presidents side in particular getting wins.
Premier Men
Sydenham lost the toss in their match against Riccarton on Sydenham 1, were asked to bat, and then got off to a poor start with the two in-form batsmen in Adi Edekar and Ryan Wallace both back in the pavilion with score at 12-2. Adi had got a good one that his defensive shot failed to hold out, and Ryan had miscued pull shot in his first over. Jackson Hemmingway (13) and Pankai Bhagat (10) both got starts and batted time before both were gone with the score at 88-4. It was a bit of a procession from there as wickets fell regularly, and apart from a rearguard innings of 27 from Tom Agnew batting at 9, the middle order and tail failed to retrieve the position.
That the side managed to get through to 137 was almost solely thanks to opener Toby Mowat. Toby played an extremely responsible innings, batting through the entire morning’s session to lunch, and providing an anchor to the innings at one end. His 69 off 149 balls was perhaps his best innings of the season and deserved some better support that wasn’t forthcoming on the day.
Toby Mowat’s 69 dominated Sydenham’s 1st innings effort
With both sides in the lower half of the table after the early stages of the 2-day competition, Riccarton would have been equally desperate for a win out of this match and to their credit they started their innings aggressively as they set about attempting to get into a dominate position in the match. When their first wicket of Bartholomeusz fell at 54 in the 11th over, their run rate was already double that of Sydenham’s at a similar stage when wickets were more the issue than run rate. But with the fall of that first wicket, Tom Agnew immediately snared the critical wicket of Riccarton’s Canterbury player McConchie at the same score and things started to look up for Sydenham.
TJ produces perhaps his best spell of the season when most needed
Despite the 40 run partnership for the 3rd wicket, Tim Johnston, who had taken the first wicket, started to dominate. He took out the other key wicket of Kwant and then ran through the Riccarton middle order and dramatically slowed the innings such that the match is now interesting poised at stumps at 144-5 with only 7 overs left of the 60 to bowl. As Toby had been with the bat, TJ was the dominate figure with the ball, sitting on 5-42 off 23 overs at the close, a performance certainly not aided by his side’s fielding which saw a disappointing number of dropped catches that many of the bowlers suffered from.
The match is now set up for an exciting 2nd day but one that will require a much better batting and fielding effort for Sydenham to give themselves any chance of a result.
Full scoreboard & video highlights: https://www.crichq.com/matches/812360/1st_innings
Premier Women
The Women were at Elmwood Park where they took on a very strong St Albans side that contained three Canty Magicans, an Otago Spark , two CD under 19 and two overseas players. In contrast Sydenham were missing some key players through injury and as a result struggled throughout the day with Saints dominating. Batting first Saints scored an impressive 254-9 off their 50 overs to set up their win. Sydenham main wicket takers were Isla McKenzie [5-3-31], Rachel Davidson [6-2-31] and the Northern Districts captain Felicity Leydon-Davis, who impressed in her first outing for Sydenham, claiming 2-26 off 10 overs.
The Sydenham reply faltered early with Felicity’s 11 the only double figure score out of the top five batsman. The first wicket fell at one and then others consistently from there such that by the 10th over Sydenham were well and truly out of the match at 29-5, and eventually bowled out for 116.
The ladies revert to the start of the T20 competition next week with two matches against Saints and then OBC. However, with some luck on the injury front, and the arrival of Felicity and Erika Oda, the latter who has just returned from Japan, there is reason to go into the series with some confidence.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/812362/1st_innings
Division 1
The 2nds have a real fight on their hands to save their match after the first day when they took on East Shirley on Sydenham 2. The toss was always going to be important in good batting conditions but unfortunately Easts won it and then set about putting themselves in a commanding position in the match by scoring a massive 374-7 off 60 overs. The two key East batsmen both delivered - Entwistle who seems to relish Syd2, scored his second century there this season, this time a massive 188, and along with Duncan (76) made life difficult for the Sydenham bowlers. The best of them were probably Connor Williams [8-3-63] and Dave Simpson [18-2-98] but it was a day for the bowlers to forget.
Keiran Charlton
Sydenham needed to bat well, but lost openers, skipper Kelvin Scott, and then Sahan Perera, inside the first 7 overs to be teetering at 16-2. A considered 68 run partnership for the 3rd wicket between Tom MacDonald (38) and Taylor Irie got the score through to 84-4 before Tom was disappointingly run-out. Taylor batted on responsibly in one of his rare innings this season due to injury before he too was out for 44 off 107 balls. Matt Day (19*) and James Barnes (3*) weathered the remaining overs of the day to finished on 117-4 with 20 overs left in the first innings.
Taylor Irie during his comeback knock of 44
Next week will be a test of character for the side with saving the match now the sole objective which will require batting out the remaining overs, and then bunkering down to attempt to bat out the rest of the day in their second innings.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/812351
Division 2
The Div 2 guys failed to make good first use of the Sydenham 3 wicket when they took on OBC on Saturday. After losing their first two wickets with the score at 9, the side never recovered to be all out for 75 in the 32nd over. The indomitable Paddy Wickets topped scored with 15 off nine balls, including two sixes, but the rest of the batting order struggled to create partnerships.
Sydenham started well with the ball with Daniel Watts and Thomas Owens getting both openers with the total at 5, but two mid-order 40’s from OBC saw them through to 142-6 at the close of the first day. Best of the bowlers were the two youth players in Daniel [12-2-27] and Thomas [8-2-32] but Paddy and James Simpson also did well to contain the batsmen going at close to 2’s.
Thomas Owens (top) and Daniel Watt
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/812457
Division 3 Goats - Lost
Details not available again but the Goats are rumoured to have lost
Division 7 All Stars - Won
Check the scorecard, it’s not an error, the All Stars won their match in 16 balls. Sydenham played Heathcote on Centennial Park, and Heathcote would no doubt have rued their decision to bat first when they were dismissed 13 overs later for just 19. All four Sydenham bowlers did the damage; Abe Atherton [5-3-2], Mark Flowerday [5-2-6], Gouray Saini [1-2-4] and Dan Linden [2-2-1].
In reply Ben Potter [14 off 9 balls] and Rhys Williams [6 off 7] finished the win off in that 16 balls with plenty of time for early afternoon refreshments.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/812772/1st_innings
Division 8 Tamils - Lost
The Tamils had a rare loss when they played Riccarton at Barrington Park. Asked to bat first Sydenham could only muster 114 all out with the top scorers being Vignesh Devel (26), Mukesh Kapila (17) and Gopinath Karuppiah (18). Riccarton then proceeded to quietly chase down the target for the loss of five wickets with Balkaran Singh the best of the bowlers [8-3-17]
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/813006/1st_innings
Cavaliers Cardinals - Won
The 2nd placed Cardinals had good win over league leaders BWU in their match on Burnside 3. Batting first Sydneham scored 128-7 thanks to Kieran Williams (45 retired) and Cameron Rennell (39). In reply BWU were bowled out for 125 but it was a close thing with BWU’s last pair needing 4 to win off the last over before Adrian Patchett got the vital last wicket to give the Cardinals a three run victory. Full details are not available but we understand that Josh Gardiner was the best of the bowlers with three wickets.
Presidents Cardinals - Won
The Cardinals kept their championship ambitions on track with a good win at Centennial Park over a strong East Shirley Black side. A patient 69* from opener Dave Hardy who batted through the innings was the backbone of the Sydenham innings of 169-5. Other key contributors were captain Phil Walker (39), Jeremy Brown (27*) and Tim Hannan (18). Easts got off to a poor start but were never totally out of the match despite the regular loss of wickets. Tim Hannan [8-3-21] and Warren Guy [8-2-26] did the early damage, but when the pressure came on latter in the innings, it was Anthony Wild’s dismissal of Harkness, and his 3-42 that cemented the victory – 33 had been required off the last 3 overs, and then 16 off the last, before Julien van Dyke ran out the last batsmen to confirm the win.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/812918/1st_innings
Presidents Hospital - Won
Hospital completed the double for our Presidents sides when they beat Lancaster Park at Garrick Park. Sydenham won the toss and elected to bowl first. They then kept the Park innings in check with some miserly bowling from the likes of Minesh Fakir [8-1-13], James Barkhuizen [8-1-20] and Bryan Bunz [6-2-16] and Pieter Barkhuizen [8-1-24]. Park batted through to 134-6 in their 40 overs.
The Sydenham reply was an equally well shared task with the first four batsmen all contributing with Richard McKinay batting through for 47*, but there were also good scores from James Barkhuizen (25), Prassana Karunasekera (30) and Minesh Fakir (23). Hospital batted through to reach the Park score at 134-3 in the 34rd over to take out the match.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/812759/1st_innings
Break Through Win
Sydenham went into this match on Thursday night against regular champion St Albans on Sydenham 1 with a only a slim chance of making the T20 semi-finals – however, we hadn’t beaten Saints for a year or two and so this match was a good test to see where the side had progressed over the season.
Sydenham won the toss and elected to bat first in the better early evening light on what was a cloudy afternoon. The batting had been buoyed by the availability of the team’s Canterbury player Chad Bowes and it was Chad that really set the tone for the innings that developed. Fellow opener Toby Mowat started well and got to a run a ball 15 before being involved in a highly unusual run-out that defied description off a free hit delivery. Ryan Wallace arrived, and for a while looked like he was back at Heathcote Domain striking boundaries at will as he did on Saturday, until St Albans targeted his one vulnerability this season, his judgement of a second run. With Ryan gone for 19 of 13 balls in the 8th over with the score at 48-2, Adi Edekar then joined Chad and together they put on another 46 to get the score through to 94-3 by the start of the 15th over with.
Adi was then bowled trying to force the pace, TJ likewise as he just failed to clear the fielder on the square leg boundary, and Jackson Hemmingway was run-out by an excellent side-on throw when attempting to take a quick single that circumstances demanded. Pankaj Bhagat then produced a little cameo 17* off 11 balls that saw the side reach 123-5, a somewhat smaller target than looked likely at one stage. Chad Bowes remained unbeaten on 40 off 49 balls in an innings where he looked in good touch as his Canterbury efforts this season testify to, but perhaps didn’t get as much strike as he and his side would have preferred.
Chad Bowes take a boundary through the covers
Although a target closer to 140-150 might have been seen as more appropriate with the quality of the Saints batting line-up, that ignored the somewhat slower and lower bounce of the wicket of late, and the outfield which the council seems unwilling to cut below about 6 inches – perhaps 123 might be enough but it was going to require an excellent bowling performance to defend it against a quality side that wouldn’t have any concerns about achieving it.
Carl Hooper and Mitch Gardner set the tone with opening spells that between them dismissed the first three batsmen to even up the contest at 22-3 in the 4th over. That pressure was maintained by all of the bowlers with Ryan Wallace [3-3-11] probably the best of them, but Mitch’s 3-2-9 was equally damaging. TJ and Jackson Hemmingway applied the pressure through the middle stages and slowly squeezed the Saints batting effort that never managed to get a substantive partnership together. The loss of Tyler Lorton was a key wicket and one that left some confusion for a few minutes after Ryan Wallace caught him with a forward diving catch and then cast some doubt about whether he’d actually got there despite fielders, spectators and most importantly the umpires, clearly seeing that he had. Eventually Saints were bowled out for 94 in the 18th over for Sydenham to take a 29 run win.
A key moment – O’Gorman lofted Ryan Wallace to backward square where Jackson Hemmingway (left) takes an important catch
The night was an interesting one for the competition with only one of the top four sides winning their matches, and accordingly the leader board closing up tightly. Sydenham’s win keeps alive a mathematical chance to go through to the semis if they can beat Riccarton at Sydenham next Thursday, and if other results go as required. But despite how that plays out, the St Albans win was significant in that it broke a long winless streak against the champions, and provides some encouragement as the rest of the season plays out.
125th Anniversary Celebrations
In November 2020, during Show Weekend (13/11/2020 to 15/11/2020) we will be celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the Sydenham Cricket Club.
We are setting out a programme for the weekend that will include all sections of our club - Men, Women, Youth, Juniors, and Supporters.
There will be cricket matches, a BBQ, an anniversary dinner with celebrity guest speakers, fun cricket related events, and much more.
We need your help please to spread the word about the anniversary among all present and former players, and club members - plus we want indications from everyone who would like more detail and information. We need to have some indication of numbers of potential attendees so we can adequately cater for all.
Please reply to indicate your interest via email to sydcc125@sydenhamcricket.co.nz
We look forward to your emails.
Tom White
Chairman
SCC 125th Anniversary Committee
A Win and a Loss
The adult men were mostly all back playing on Saturday after the Christmas break, with all three morning grade teams with double headers T20 matches. It was a case of a win and a loss for both the Prem and the 3rds (Div2), whilst the 2nds had an excellent day winning both of their matches and getting their T20 campaign back on track.
There were a number of outstanding performances, and although Ryan Wallace (Prems) and Anthony Wild (Pressies) both just fell short in the 90’s, there were two centuries from Balkaran Singh (Tamils) and Dan Linden (All Stars)
Premier Men
After losing two of their first three matches in the competition the Premier men were desperate to beat BWU on Burnside Park on Saturday. There was again no luck with toss with BWU electing to bat first and getting off to a great start. After losing their first wicket at 40 in the 5th over, the next pair of Heenhan and Hay dominated proceeding with a couple of quick half centuries and a partnership of 76 at a 8.5 run rate. Whilst that pair were going 180 plus certainly looked on the cards for BWU as the Sydenham bowlers struggled to contain them.
However, the fall of the 2nd wicket at 116, when Tom Agnew bowled Heenhan, saw the run rate start to pull back as Tim Johnston in particular again put the screws on as he had a few days earlier against Easts. The other slower bowler in Adi Edekar was doing likewise, and combined with some solid late spells by Tom Agnew and Carl Hooper, the side did well to eventually contain BWU to 158-6 in their 20 overs.
Jackson Hemmingway topped scored with 30
A slightly less than 8 an over run chase looked realistic in the good batting conditions at Burnside, however Sydenham got off to a rough start with Toby Mowat gone at 8, and TJ later as the 2nd wicket fell at 26 in the 4th over. Ryan Wallace came in, looked in great touch but them mishit a pull shot to be caught for a run a ball 22. Lane Tutty then fell first ball, and Adi Edekar shortly thereafter for 14, which had the innings was on its knees at 56-5. Jackson Hemingway (30 of 35 balls) in only his 5th Prem match did his utmost to turn the situation around, and together with Carl Hooper (15), closed the gap somewhat, but the task was too great and Sydenham eventually struggled through to 106-9 and a 45 run loss.
Full scoreboard: https://www.crichq.com/matches/810211/1st_innings
Carl Hooper tries to work one
The afternoon saw a rush around town from Burnside Park to Heathcote Domain to play the second match 90 minutes later against Heathcote. This was the first match for most Sydenham players on the smaller Heathcote ground where with its smaller boundaries, especially square, and a seemingly excellent wicket, created much doubt about what was to be a competitive score. One guide was the earlier morning’s match between Easts and Heathcote which had seen a close match with Easts just getting up to reach Heathcote’s 136-8.
TJ finally managed to win a toss and no hesitation to bat first and try at set a demanding target for Heathcote. The fact that he was able to do so came thanks to a commanding 136 run partnership between the two form players in Ryan Wallace and Adi Edekar. Toby Mowat and TJ started solidly, and when TJ fell early for 4 Toby pushed the rate along with his 22 off 15 balls before he too fell with the score at 43-2 in the 6th over.
Opener Toby Mowatt goes over the top
The run rate was solid but about to accelerate as Ryan and Adi became established. Ryan was the initial aggressor who was not shy of hitting the bad balls over the top, whilst Adi was likewise stroking boundaries as the opportunities presented themselves. Unfortunately for Heathcote as the pressure came on their bowling deteriorated compounding the problem as the run rate started to accelerate up to 8, then 9 and eventually above 10.
Ryan Wallace – now 3rd In the Metro Premier club aggregates
Ryan was superb and thoroughly deserved a century but was inexplicably run-out for 96 off just 48 balls with a dozen balls still to go. Adi carried on the innings to likewise finish on a no less impressive 67 off 47 balls, with Sydenham closing at 208-3.
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Adi Edekar all elegance in his 67* against Heathcote
Any questions about the quality of that target were quickly dispelled when Heathcote got off to a poor start with Braden Gardner bowling beautifully to dismiss the number 2, 3 and 4 batsmen for ducks inside the first 3 overs to have the opposition struggling at 9-3. Despite their other opener batting through to 70*, and a couple of 20’s and 30’s further down the order, the Sydenham bowlers keep the pressure on and watched as the run rate headed into the high double figures. Best of them was undoubtedly Braden Gardner with his 4-26, and TJ with 2-26, but there were also useful contributions from most of the others mostly notably, Carl Hooper and Mitch Gardner. Heathcote eventually closed at 137-7 to lose by 71 runs.
Skipper Tim Johnston in great T20 bowling form
Full Scoreboard: https://www.crichq.com/matches/810442/1st_innings
Despite the win, the earlier loss to Burnside realistically puts the semi-finals out of Sydenham’s reach with just two more T20 matches to come over the next two Thursday nights, fortunately both at home to St Albans this Thursday, and Riccarton the following one.
Division 1
The Div1 boys had a great day. Although exhilarated by their win in the 1-day final just before Christmas, they were also equally conscious that their two first up loses in the T20 competition had done little for their even more important promotion prospects which cover total points across all three formats, with semi-final and final points not counting to that. They got that back on track on Saturday with two excellent away wins, one of which was against fellow promotion contender East Shirley.
The first match against Lancaster Park at Garrick went with form with Sydenham asked to bat first but then compiling a useful 140-6 thanks to the consistent Pankai Bhagat with an excellent 46 off 39 balls. He was well backed by Matt Day {28 off 25 balls] and Dave Simpson [23 off 17 balls]. Park were then bowled out for 101 with Charlie Finnie [3-21], Connor Williams [2-17] and Josh Charlton [2-6] and Kieran Charlton [1-8} the wicket takers, and skipper Kelvin Scott the most miserly with 0- 7 off his three overs.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/810320/1st_innings
The crunch second match against East Shirley at Burwood Park was a much less comfortable affair. Sydenham won the loss and elected to bat with Kelvin Scott getting them off to a good start with his 44 off 43 balls. However, a comfortable 73-1 in the 12th over, became 85-4, then 91-5 in the 17th over as the batting effort stumbled. However, a late rally from James Barnes [23 off 14 balls] and Charlie Finnie [13 off 10 balls] saw the side through to a better but still modest 126-6.
It required a determined bowling and fielding effort and that came initial from Connor Williams when he bowled the opener for two, and then the other was run out with the score at 7-2. The Easts middle order all came in and got starts but the Sydenham bowlers kept chipping away at them with Connor [4-3-26], Charlie Finnie [4-2-12] and Kieran Charlton [4-2-14] to the fore. With Easts 85-5 with 5 overs to go, 8 runs per overs on Burwood was probably still in Easts favour but Kieran then took a couple of key wickets, followed by one each to Connor and Dave Simpson, and Sydenham slipped home as they managed to hold Easts to 110-9.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/810432/1st_innings
Division 2
It was a win and a loss for the 3rd team, well beaten by BWU in the morning, and then comprehensively beating Hornby in the afternoon, both matches on Sydenham 1. The BWU match saw BWU win the toss and ask Sydenham to bat first who then got off to a solid, but probably too slow, a start despite the slowness of the wicket. Into the 15th over only two down for 77, the run rate was only 5 and wickets were lost in the pursuit of a better total. Sydenham eventually close at 103-8 at the end of the 20.
Any chance Sydenham had of getting a win was then kneecapped by some loose and inaccurate bowling that saw BWU coast to the win in only 14 over and the loss of just three wickets.
Full scoreboard and video highlights: https://www.crichq.com/matches/810313/1st_innings
The encouraging point for the second match was that lessons seem to have been learnt, especially from a bowling viewpoint. Hornby won the toss and elected to bat but then ran into a much stricter bowling performanc e from Sydenham than seen in the first match. The unacceptable 21 wides in that first match became just 3 in the second as the bowlers held tight reign over Hornby. Paddy Wickes [4-3-9] and Archie Goodrick [4-2-10] were the best of them, but Thomas Owens, Daniel Watt and Preetham Pagadala also bowled tightly and picked up a couple of wickets between them as they held Hornby to 99-9.
The Sydenham reply was emphatic – Gaurav Dudeja went early with the score at 19 but then Wayne Robertson [67* off 33 balls] and Cameron Spriggs [20 off 30 balls] batted out the rest of the innings as Sydenham reached the Hornby target at 102-1 in just the 14th over.
Full scoreboard and video highlights: https://www.crichq.com/matches/810313/1st_innings
Division 3 Goats
No details available
Division 7 All Stars - Lost
The All Stars took on Riccarton at Barrington Park, won the toss and elected to bat. A good score as then always in the offering as opener Dan Linden set about compiling a score of 104 off 111 balls. Other solid contributions down the order from Paul Jensen [44 off 42 balls] and Chris Reeve [23 off 49 balls] saw Sydenham through to a competitive 198-6.
Sydenham got off to a good start at their turn in the field with Mark Flowerday claiming the two Riccarton openers for a total of 6 runs but struggled to restrict from there. Despite Dan’s turn with the ball getting 2-41 off 8 overs, and Paul Jensen 2-25 off 3, not to mention Abe Atherton’s 0-10 off 7 overs, Riccarton managed to eke their way closer to the target and eventually got here nine down with just four balls to spare.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/810636/1st_innings
Division 8 Tamils - Won
The Tamils remain top of the table after a big win over Merivale Papanui at Bishopdale Park. Winning the toss and batting first, Sydenham compiled an intimidating 253 all out thanks for 114 from Balkaran Singh and David Jayapaul’s 60. In reply the MP innings never got much momentum with wickets regularly lost with Gopinath Karuppiah [8-3-49], Lucky Bastra [5-1-19] and Jayaharish Balachandran [8-2-35] the main wicket takers. MP eventually held to 161-9 for a 92 run victory or the Tamil XI
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/810655/1st_innings
Presidents Cardinals - Won
The Cardinals were winners in a close match against the always competitive St Albans side. Skipper Phil Walker won the toss, batted, and then had Anthony Wild (92) and Matt Loose (50) to thank for the bulk of his side’s total of 216-7. The Saint reply was solid and always in with a chance as most of their top six got 30’s, and one 60. But the Sydenham bowlers were generally holding them below 5’s with Julien van Dyke [8-1-28] and Phil Walker [8-1-29] outstanding as the Cardinals eventually held Saints to 200-4 to take the win
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/810727/1st_innings
Presidents Hospital – Lost
It was a strange match at Bradford Park where Hospital took on Merivale Papanui. Sydenham won the toss, and not surprisingly on a usually dicey Bradford wicket, asked MP to bat. MP got off to a poor start but recovered week mid-innings to post a likely competitive score of 174-8. The Hospital reply was strange one with the two opener James Barkuizen ( 61) and Richard McKinlay (66*) but the required run rate moved away on Hospital such that with three overs to go it was up to 8 and a struggle. The required 12 off the last over only resulted in six and a win to MP as Sydenham finished at 169-1.
Full scoreboard https://www.crichq.com/matches/810639/1st_innings
