Throw Back Thursday – Brought to you by Brightset Printing

We are on the brink of an historic occasion. And it’s not a good one……

We are on the brink of an historic occasion. And it’s not a good one. Going into this round we do not have a team in the top six in any of the five grades. 1st and 5th grades are the only two sides which can make the finals and both have to rely on other results going their way. And if they don’t, it will be the first time in the club’s 14 years history that it will NOT have a team in the finals. 1st Grade made the semis of the Twenty20 Cup but that is a separate competition altogether from the Grade comp.

In our first 13 seasons we have had two teams or more in the finals 12 times. The season we had only one side was 2008-09 when 5th Grade made the Grand Final before going down to Campbelltown. This season is a new ball game for the club. Let’s hope we can resurrect something from this summer’s ruins. This Saturday is the final round of the season. It is a one-dayer (50 overs a team) against neighbours University of NSW. Time to finish on a high note.

And talking about history, how about these two moments in time:

• Last Saturday our 4th Grade side included 12 years old Niv Radakhrishnan and 62 years old Alan Wright—two players with a mere 50 years age difference!
• John O’Loughlin, who passed away last year, was a wonderful Randwick batsman who played for 24 years. His son Paul also played lower grades for Randwick. Last weekend Paul played in the Metropolitan Cup team along with his sons (John’s grandsons) Liam and Mitchell. At one stage Paul and Mitchell were batting together while Liam was the umpire! Three generations of O’Loughlins!!! John would have enjoyed that from his grandstand view in the sky. It doesn’t get much better.

Club Championship: Picking up three wins against Sutherland last Saturday we advanced one spot to 11th. Manly has already won the Club Championship for the fifth time in the past 16 seasons. We are 612 points behind Manly after being neck and neck with them a few weeks before Christmas. Uni. of NSW have struggled all season and are running 18th—315 behind us. The best finish we can hope for is 9th which will mean overtaking Hawkesbury (10th and 56 ahead of us) and Parramatta (9th and 66 ahead of us).  Not a pretty situation considering we have been in the top seven nine times in 14 years.

1st Grade is at Coogee: Who would have thought that losing by one run last game would have been so costly. We dropped from 4th to 8th—the first time this summer we have been out of the top five! We need to win this Saturday and hope that North Sydney (18th) can knock over Sutherland (4th); that Hawkesbury (14th) can account for St George (6th); that Penrith (5th) can roll Sydney Uni. (7th) and that Mosman (9th) don’t get up over the leaders Manly. A win with a bonus point also wouldn’t go astray for us. We have beaten Uni. 11 times to their five wins. Best of luck to all players!!

2nd Grade is at Village Green: A sensational win over the Sharks last week has come too late and we are destined to finish in the second half of the competition. We are presently 13th but could make 10th. Uni. is 19th in the comp but has a 7:5 win ratio hold over us.

3rd Grade is at Petersham: The side got out of jail last week to register a huge win over a team they hadn’t beaten for 10 years so anything can happen in this competition! Uni. leads us 6 wins to 5 historically. We are 10th this season and they are 18th.

4th Grade is at David Philips South: David Bourke did indeed win his 12th successive toss last game so now he faces “lucky 13.” Uni. is 16th and we are 19th this season while they lead the clashes between the teams six to five. However, their last win came five years ago.

5th Grade is at Kensington: We are equal 6th on points with Parramatta but 7th on quotient. We need to hope Fairfield (19th) can beat Parramatta; Hawkesbury (14th) can account for St George (5th); and Wests (16th) can overcome ND’s (4th). Should any of those results occur and we win, we’ll likely make it. Cross your fingers!

Metropolitan Cup from Denis Hinds: Metro gold get a holiday as the young Fairfield side have forfeited. Green are still in the race for a final spot if teams above them are beaten but face red hot title favourites Penrith. On our home turf at Marrickville, Green have been known to put on some superb performances and will take a full strength team into the match. Skip Bala Mohan has promised to bring them to their peak for this crunch match.  

Masters Cricket from John Mesar: Randy Pete’s Masters v’s Wyong @ Kensington Oval. Round 11 Sunday 15th March. Last game of the season and it sees Randy Pete’s Masters in 8th spot on the ladder out of 20 teams. Hopefully we can push for a win and climb up a couple of places to give this gutsy group of guys a huge finish as they all deserve it.Wyong are sitting in 5th spot and are never easy to beat but on our home turf at Kenso we are no pushovers either. Likely squad is: J Mesar
F. Heaton, A. Malouf, D. Parker, J. Hourn, S. Beck, G. Scott, R. Bryant, G. Standing, P. Lazaropoulos, M. Wall. Lee Morris in N.Z. On behalf of our Masters team I would like to wish Denis Hinds all the very best in his new found love of becoming an umpire. Hope you get a couple of our games next season Denis, and thank you for all your help in 2014-2015.

Lyall Gardner

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