Round 3 Preview v Fairfield-Liverpool

What a round against Mosman! Two of our up-and-coming batting stars setting the cricket world alight with a couple of scorching innings while a competition debutant began his career with a ton!. Jason Sangha became the youngest EVER player at 18 years and 29 days to score 162 or more in the history of the 1st Grade competition which dates back to 1893. And Jack James at 17 years and 316 days became the second youngest in the club to score a century in 2nd Grade when he rattled up 128 at Allan Border Oval. Usman Khawaja however, holds the 1st and 2nd Grade youngest century records at 17 years and 320 days in 1sts and 17 years and 23 days in 2nds. The brilliant innings of Jason and Jack resulted in a total of 636 runs being scored in both grades to record excellent wins.

And not to be overawed by the occasion of his first Premier Cricket game, Peter Andonopoulos at just 16 years and 313 days became the second youngest in the club and the youngest in 5th Grade to score a century. Peter played Metro Cup last season scoring 161 runs with 62 his best score. He batted no. 3 last Saturday and hit 19 fours and a six in his whirlwind innings. What a start to a cricket career! Reminds me of Joe Hill who made his Sydney Grade Cricket debut in 2002-03 hitting 123* in 1st Grade against Uni. of NSW at Village Green.

Our good start to the season sees us in 3rd place in the Club Championship with 174 points just 43 behind early leader Sydney. We have not been this high in that competition since 29 November 2014 when we were sitting in 2nd spot. We let it slip thereafter to finish 11th. Not the thing to do this season.   

This round its two-day cricket again and we take on Fairfield-Liverpool who have had a slow start placing 16th in the Club Championship on 90 points. They have won one match in each of 1st, 3rd and 4th grades.  Over the years we have an advantage over them winning 37 out of 74 games (50%) with 24 losses and 13 draws.

1st GRADE is at Rosedale Oval: A brilliant start to the season chasing down North’s 229 in the first round and Mosman’s 343 in the second. We’ll need to be at our best again however, as we generally have close games against the Lions with the win ratio 8 to 7 in our favour. Last year was a real “bat-a-thon” with us making 7-332 and Fairfield 323 in a one-day match at Coogee. We played them at Rosedale two seasons ago and made 348 to win by 196 runs after a record 8th wicket partnership between James Psarakis and Soumil Chhibber who both made 98. Jason Hughes returns after a great club debut in round 1 while former Leicestershire right-arm fast bowler Luke Radford joins us as capped player no. 115. Welcome Luke.

NOTE: To view the updated 1st Graders Player Profiles go to the club website under “Club” or the following link: http://www.rpcc.tv/club/the-first-graders.html

In form Jason Sangha will be looking for back to back centuries

2nd GRADE is at Coogee: A close win but a good win last round. Fairfield have yet to gain a point but have performed well the first two rounds going down to Uni. NSW after scoring 7-200 and losing to Campbelltown with 264 on the board.  Historically we have had the wood on them winning 8 to their 4. We have lost the past 2 games but won the previous 5. Matt Everett returns after injury while Josh Bohannon comes into the side to complete an excellent fast bowling attack. Last round’s century-maker Jack James is unavailable this match.

3rd GRADE plays at Fairfield Oval: A bit of a disaster last round after inviting Mosman to bat first resulting in the largest loss margin recorded in any grade for the club. But that was last week. We need to reproduce our batting effort in round 1 as Fairfield have had two 200+ scores in the two rounds. In the first match they made 6-218 before losing to Uni. NSW while last Sat. they did well to chase down Campbelltown’s 236 with an 8-238 scoreline. We won last season 6-246 to 244 with skipper Ben Stares (73) and Jack Lyle (64) the main scorers. It’s 2 all the past 4 matches but over the years we lead 6 wins to 4 with 3 draws.

3rd grade skipper Ben Stares in action

4th GRADE is at Petersham Oval: The boys are on a roll with 2 wins from 2. This is only the third time in our 17 seasons we have won the first 2 in 4s. We did it last year but the wheels fell off and we lost the next 4. We have only won the first 3 once—in 2005-06. This is a real chance to improve that record. There’s nothing like incentive to get the best out of a team and the bookies say we can do it!  The Lions had a good win over the Ghosts last round but went down to Uni. NSW in round 1. We beat them by 5 wickets last season but over the years they have a one win advantage winning 6 to our 5 with 3 draws. Last season’s 5th Grade premiership skipper Nigil Singh returns.

Last year’s 5th grade premiership winning captain and RPC Highest All Time Wicket Taker Nigel Singh returns this week in 4th grade

5th Grade plays at Don Dawson Oval: This is the slowest start 5s have had as they have never lost the first 2 before. So having the bad oil disposed of early there’s only one direction for the defending premiers—up! And it could start this round. Fairfield have had a couple of poor batting efforts the first two matches so if we can produce another performance like Peter Andonopoulos’ big ton last week, we could get the bickies. We have won 9 to 4 with 2 draws over the years including 4 of the past 6. Last season we won by 35 runs in a one-dayer.

Metropolitan Cup from Jeremy Jastrzab: Metropolitan Cup players will take solace from a much improved performance from last week, even though they still ended up short. After three weeks of one dayers, the real two day cricket starts in earnest now. The Gold team will take on their favourite opponent in the form of Jay Patel’s Mosman. Neither team that descends on Snape Park for the next two Saturdays has a win yet, so both sides will be keen to open up their account. Recent history is in favour of Randy Petes, with Mosman having not won a Metro encounter in 3 seasons against either the Greens or Golds. Green will have the rare privilege of playing on a 1st Grade ground over the next two Sundays as they take on Eastern Suburbs at Waverley Oval. Easts have put together a strong young side for this season, and the Green players will have to take a moment away from admiring the surroundings and focus on putting on a strong performance.

DON’T FORGET THE PHIL TRESIDDER MEMORIAL GOLF DAY at RANDWICK GOLF COURSE on FRIDAY 20 OCTOBER!  A big Ambrose event hitting off at 8 am.  HAVE YOU NOMINATED YOUR TEAM OF 4 YET???  TIME IS ALMOST UP. BOOK TODAY!

Go the Randy Petes!!

Lyall Gardner