From the Pavilion – Round 4 vs North Sydney
Higgins Dominates with Back to Back Hundred
A decent day out against North Sydney sees most teams in strong positions going into day 2, while the Poidevin Gray boys continued their great start with another win against Sydney.
1st Grade: RPC 9-355 vs North Sydney @ North Sydney Oval
After losing the toss, the Randy Petes were surprising asked to bat on a ground that is traditionally batting friendly. A couple of early wickets with the new ball saw RPC 2-48, but then Jake Scicluna and Shaun Eaton steadied the ship, adding 119 for the 3rd wicket. When Eaton was dismissed for a solid 61 from 125 balls, the game was set up for the middle order to explode with Scicluna well set. Scicluna brought up his second 1st Grade century, compiling a mature 111 from 235 balls, and then skipper Adam Semple (42 from 28 balls) and Anthony Sams (62 form 52 balls) put the icing on the cake to see RPC go to stumps with a formidable 9-355 on the board.
Link to scorecard: http://www.sydneygrade.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?matchID=1850017&entityID=4
2nd Grade: RPC 306 vs North Sydney 2-29 @ Coogee Oval
Skipper John McLoughlin won the toss and elected to bat first on a typically flat Coogee Oval wicket, and it proved to be a good call as RPC posted 306 from 80 overs with Suffan Hassan continuing his solid start to the season with 87, but the highlight was an explosive 134 from Englishman Ryan Higgins. Higgins was dominate throughout his stay at the crease, flaying the hapless Bears attached to all parts of Coogee Oval. It was Higgins first century for Randy Petes, and it sees him already past 500 runs in all formats this season, not bad for a bloke who missed Round 1!
With 14 overs to face, the Bears struggled to 2-29.
Link to scorecard: http://www.sydneygrade.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?entityid=4&matchid=1855487&gradeid=62_1
3rd Grade: RPC 7-281 vs North Sydney @ Bon Andrews Oval
Skipper Rod Stafford had no hesitation in batting first after winning the toss at Bon Andrews Oval. Jack Lyle (74) and Kushaal Ram (53) lead the way early, before veteran Matty Hilder (50 not out) and Rehann Nawaz (29 not out) put the finishing touches on the innings to see RPC well placed at 7-281 at stumps.
Link to scorecard: http://www.sydneygrade.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?entityid=4&matchid=1860893&gradeid=63_1
4th Grade: RPC 190 vs North Sydney 1-43 @ Petersham Oval
Skipper David Bourke won the toss and elected to bat on a good looking Petersham Oval strip, but a stop start innings saw RPC dismissed for 190 after 65.3 overs. Lurker Chris Singh (51) was the backbone of the innings, while Josh James (29) and Ash Burton (20) also got starts.
The Bears moved to 1-43 at stumps with Jaya Murdita (1-12 from 6 overs) taking the pole, setting up an interesting day 2.
Link to scorecard: http://www.sydneygrade.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?entityid=4&matchid=1861759&gradeid=64_1
5th Grade: RPC 94 vs North Sydney 5-127 @ Kensington Oval
Skipper Jason McLean won the toss and elected to bat at Kensington Oval, but after a 40 run opening stand between McLean (20) and Sam Muir (29), the innings crumbled to see RPC dismissed for 94 after 37.2 overs.
In reply, the Bears moved to 5-127 with Grant Rimmer picking up 4 wickets.
Link to scorecard: http://www.sydneygrade.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?entityid=4&matchid=1862022&gradeid=668_1
Poidevin-Gray Round 2: RPC 9-236 vs Sydney 136 @ Drummyone Oval
Captain Jake Scicluna won the toss and elected to bat on a wicket that had a good even coverage of grass at one end, whilst the other was very dry and showing signs of deterioration. Openers Scicluna and Higgins were both coming off hundreds from Saturday’s play. Could either go back to back by making one against Sydney? Unfortunately for Jake that question was answered rather quickly with a ball that caught the shoulder of his bat and caught at point. When Jagot pushed one back to Sydney’s left arm orthodox opening bowler, the score was 2/30. With spinners now on from both ends, Higgins and Eaton rotated the strike with singles and put the odd bad ball away to the boundary. The pair played brilliantly and summed up the conditions extremely well. Their partnership of 113 came to an end with Eaton getting an inside edge and playing on for a well compiled 49. The partnership of 113 also became a new PG record for the third wicket, the previous best was set in 2004-05 when Michael Watson and Matthew Taylor hit an unfinished 98 against Mosman at Rawson Park. The wicket began to show signs of variable bounce. Higgins continued to form small partnerships with the middle and late order, however Ryan played the starring role in bringing up his second century of the weekend. Before his wonderful innings came to a close on 127, Ryan even managed to smack a couple of switch hits to the fence! Randwick Petersham finished on 9/236 after the 50 overs. Interestingly, Sydney bowled 38 overs of spin!!
Ellis and McLean put the pressure on Sydney early with straight tight bowling. Jagot took a good gripper and Biviano a catch to see the hosts 2/20 after 10 overs. A couple of partnerships formed for Sydney but it was always going to take an innings of class to get them even close to being in a winning position. Pasternatsky batted very well for his 67 but found no other real support as his team went from 3/97 to 136 all out. Randwick Petersham fielded extremely well in holding their catches. Jagot held onto three and was very good. The wickets were shared around in the end with Sam Wood taking 3/33, Ellis (2/18) and Eaton (2/23) two and McLean, Chhibber and Rehaan Nawaz (on debut) taking a wicket each. In the end our boys won with a bonus point to cap off a comprehensive victory!
Thanks to Sydney and in particular David Kelly for his hospitality on the day. Both teams and umpires finished by sharing a drink together over a few yarns.
The team now sits equal 1st on points in the competition but 3rd on quotient.
Thanks to Tony Biviano & Chris Scicluna for scoring, Alan Vaughan for his photography as well as family and club supporters for coming over to Drummoyne Oval. Our next game is at Manly Oval on November 20.
Link to scorecard: http://www.sydneygrade.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?entityid=4&matchid=1865354&gradeid=1224_1
Rob Huxley
Poidevin-Gray Coach
Randy Petes Masters Round 3: RPC 9-167 vs Collaroy Plateau 5-170 @ Frank Gray Oval
Randy Petes won the toss and elected to Bat.
After our 40 overs we ended up with 9 for 167. Top scorers were: Darren Smith 49 n/o. Mark Wall 33. Anthony Malouf 24.
A smallish total by our standards but, if we bowled and fielded well the game was there to be won.
Collaroy Plateau innings. 5 for 170 from 39.2 overs.
Our Bowlers:
Dean Parker. 9 overs 2 for 40
Mark Wall. 7 overs 1 for 28
Greg Scott. 6 overs 1 for 23
Steve Beck. 4 overs 1 for 13.
Special mention to the evergreen Dennis Hinds who took an absolute blinder of a catch at square leg to dismiss their opener.
Summary: Once again not enough runs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But a very strong effort to take the game to the last over.
Link to scorecard: http://sydneymasters.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?locx=MATCH&matchID=1838298
John Mesar
RPC Masters Captain
RPC Green vs Mosman @ Balmoral Oval: RPC 7-285 (dec) vs Mosman 0-34
RP Green were asked to bat first after losing the toss at Balmoral oval , Mosman. The pitch was flat and conditions were looking very conducive for batting.
RP Green team got off to a great start, Luis Siddall and George Frazakis negotiated the opening bowlers well and built 34 runs opening partnership before Luis Siddall lost his wicket for lbw. With a good foundation set by our openers (34/1), RP Green was hoping to continue the run hunt. Mark Wall played a mature innings with George Frazakis and pushed the score to 76/2 before Mark wall lost his wicket. Saurov Barua joined George Frazakis, both played an attacking innings and took the score to 208/4. Saurov Barua showed a lot of patience and determination to stay in the middle, scored 32 runs before losing his wicket by playing a freaky shot. Alexis Coovre, Mitch Hunt , Caleb Coles and Bala Mohan all chipped in nicely and took the score to 285/7 (dec) off 72 overs. The Star of the day is our Green Run Machine, George Frazakis, scored a mammoth 96 runs, exhibited a range of drives, pull shots, cut shots, etc, also demonstrated huge patience and willingness to fight in the middle and always in hunt for runs. With 285 runs on the board, RP Green was pumped and sent Mosman batters to play the last 6 overs of day 1.
Mosman batters played some freaky shots and run away with 34 runs off 6 overs,
The game is evenly balanced, RP Green is looking forward to day 2.
Link to scorecard: http://www.smcc.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?matchID=1872803&entityID=2318
Bala Mohan
RPC Green Captain
RPC Gold vs Sydney University @ Kensington Oval: RPC 116 vs Sydney Uni 4-179
Metro gold v Syd Uni
We won the toss and leapt at the opportunity to bat first on a brilliant Kensington wicket and outfield. Stuart Parsons (36) and Elliott Oates (26) gave us a great start with Stuart mauling the bowlers and we looked to put plenty of runs on the board. Stuart tried one too many and lost his wicket and unfortunately the rest of the batting line up followed too softly. 1-50 to all out 116 off 27 overs. The students then took the advantage of the conditions and chalked up a decent 4-179 with our wickets going one each to Chas DeSilva, Adam Lee, Niv Radakrishnan and Andy White who also took a fine catch in the deep. We look forward to a tough day at the office next Saturday.
Link to scorecard: http://www.smcc.nsw.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?entityid=2318&matchid=1872804&gradeid=1532_1
Denis Hinds
RPC Metro Manager
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