Round 1 Match Reports v Western Suburbs + Metro
MATCH REPORTS (Liam ‘LJ’ O’Loughlin)
1st to 5th Grades – Round 1 v Western Suburbs (50-Over Matches)
Metropolitan Cup – RPC Gold v Warringah & RPC Green v Georges River
The Randy Petes started off their season with 3 wins out of 5 grades against Western Suburbs. Read about the matches in our reports below. Congratulations to grades 1, 4 and 5 on their starts to the season, while 2s and 3s will not doubt have an improved performance next week. Metropolitan Cup saw a win and a loss each, as honours were split in their first round.
A special thanks as well to Bill Anderson for sponsoring the match balls for this round.
Lefand Group 1st Grade @ Coogee Oval
RPC 9/272 (Eaton 85, Affleck 71) def. Wests 253 (Ayre 3/47, Semple 2/30)
It was a strong first performance from First Grade in a game that saw three new players given their caps by club legend Richard Chee Quee – Will Affleck, Ben Abbatangelo and Ryan Ninan. A fantastic opening partnership from Shaun Eaton and Will Affleck on debut, who both batted well, manipulating the bowlers, turning over strike, hitting boundaries, running well. Their partnership laid the platform for a defendable score.
The lower order were hitting out and able to strike boundaries. Wests did well to peg back our innings and restrict us to probably 30 below our target. A strong innings from Ben Abbatangelo in the middle to push up the scoring rate helped us reach 272.
It was a good team effort in the field as the wickets were shared and all bowled well even though there were some boundaries hit. The fielding was up, couple of dropped catches but 1s did well to bowl out Wests and take the win. A big thanks to Randwick Council for the new state of the art scoreboard at Coogee Oval.
3 – Shaun Eaton
2 – Will Affleck
1 – Adam Semple
Sutton City 2nd Grade @ Pratten Park
RPC 9/144 (Docos 36) def by. Wests 3/235 (Affleck 2/36)
Second Grade welcomes two fresh faces in Stephen Doheny and Tim Affleck for this clash – and also welcomed back Adam Docos after his stint at the Bears… We lost the toss and bowled first on a hard grassy deck. Luke Radford and Jamie Hemphrey opened up with a tight spell and were unlucky not to snag 1 or 2. Radders has trained hard during preseason and could be bowling as well as we’ve seen he can. Wests openers got away to a bit of a flier (0-131 off 30) but taking pace off seemed to do the trick. 29 overs of spin from Wood, Hunter, then Affleck put the brakes on and dragged things back for us, and Wests finishing 3-235 (which could have been 280 after a few dropped catches). Skipper Jack Lyle suffered an ankle injury in the field so was unable to bat.
JMB and Docos started very positively with the bat (Doccy off mark with a whip for 6), before JMB (32) fell with the score at 51 after looking very good. Doccy plugged away (36) with Affleck and Hunter in support, but some poor shot selection and needless run-outs saw us lose 6-9 inside 5 overs, effectively throwing the game in 20 minutes. Radders offered some resistance with 3 horns in a counterattacking 30*. A huge lift will be needed next round taking on the reigning premiers Sydney Uni at home.
3 – Dylan Hunter
2 – Luke Radford
1 – Tim Affleck
Petersham RSL 3rd Grade @ Kensington Oval
RPC 186 (Eldridge 55) def by. Wests 2/189 (Fox 1/33, Kenzie 1/37)
Third grade opened the 2019/2020 season with a return to Kensington Oval, once again under the leadership of Ben Stares. After a disappointing end to the previous season, Stares’ men were keen to get the season off to a winning start. The Randy Petes won the toss and decided to bat first and despite losing Stares early, Dylan Powell and Ashley Burton steadied the ship to have us tracking well into the first drinks break until Burton skied one for a well compiled 27. After the interval, wickets fell quickly stalling the early momentum for Randwick. Jackson Eldridge and Bailey Kenzie formed a promising partnership, however after Kenzie went for one big shot too many and debutant Ryan Miskella also fell, a less than competitive total was on the board. Some strong lower order batting from Reuben Sachs (28) and stubborn batting from Eldridge (55) saw the Randy Petes eventually get to 185 and momentum heading into the Wests innings.
185 was a more than competitive total for the side, however missed opportunities with the ball and sensible batting from Wests kept the game out of reach for Randwick. Miskella was tight up front, bowling ten straight and only conceding 22 and Hayden Fox found an early breakthrough had the Petes firing however there wasn’t much to celebrate after this as Wests eventually chased down the target in the 49th over only 2 wickets down. While there were promising elements on the batting and bowling front, not losing clumps of wickets and maintaining discipline with the ball, were captain Stares’ two main focus points as we look ahead to next round’s fixture against last season’s beaten finalists Sydney University.
3 – Jackson Eldridge
2 – Reuben Sachs
1 – Ashley Burton
Mellick Wealth Management 4th Grade @ Blick Oval
RPC 4/205 (Murdita 51, Abbasi 45) def. Wests 201 (Barnes 3/23, Holland 2/11)
Blick was a green top so we won the toss and bowled. Young gun Lewis Barnes ripped through with some searing swing bowling to have us in a good position early. Wayward bowling in the middle cooked us a bit as we leaked extras. Some tidy bowling at the end had Wests all out for a below-par 201. It was a great fielding effort overall as guys put their bodies on the line to save runs. Shout out to Barnes’ girlfriend who brought drinks around to the boys fielding on the fence throughout our fielding innings.
Ross Elliot got an unfortunate stiff call early in our innings, but Jaya ‘Mal’ Murdita and Rushton steadied the ship and got us over 100 to put us in the driver seat. Mal took it to the bowlers and showed great maturity coupling solid attack and cheeky manipulation of the field. Debutant Bilal Abbasi did the same, batting with maturity beyond his years. And once again ‘Iceman’ Kel Mullins polished it off for us with our top 6 getting the job done. One massive positive to note is that there were 3 partnerships worth 50 or more.
Quick shout out to club legends David Bourke, Rod Stafford and Nigil Singh who came down throughout the day to support, was great having them around the team and for Staf and Singhy to belt out the song with us. Also, apparently it was Dickie’s 450th game scoring. Not sure the validity to that, but congrats to the great man nonetheless.
3 – Lewis Barnes
2 – Bilal Abbasi
1 – Jaya Murdita
Bendigo Clovelly Community Bank 5th Grade @ Marrickville Oval
RPC 3/111 (Sultan 38*, Hussain 36*) def. Wests 109 (Sultan 3/17, O’Loughlin 2/16)
It was a fresh Fifth Grade line-up in Round 1 to what we saw last season, and the energy from the new players certainly reverberated through to the more experienced campaigners. Mitch Winslade, Ben Thomas, Haider Ali and Mason McGlone all made their grade debuts and added plenty in the field. A fantastic team effort with the ball and in the field saw us bowl Wests out for 109. Winslade performed well on debut taking a pole, and a lack of seamers in the team saw Ali and Sultan brought on very early – and it worked out perfectly. Sultan – usually a part-time offie at best – took 3/17 and tightened the screws. Ryan Connolly (and myself…) came on and kept the momentum going, restricting the run rate and frustrating the batsmen into a low total of 109.
After a solid start from McGlone and Neale ‘Cindy’ Crawford, Sultan (38*) and Akhter Hussain (36*) came in and combined for a stellar partnership to give the Randy Petes a 7-wicket win with 18 overs to spare. It will be a much tougher task next round against Sydney Uni but there is no doubt the boys will be up for the challenge and ready to take it head-on.
3 – Sayem Sultan
2 – Akhter Hussain
1 – Liam O’Loughlin
Metropolitan Cup: Cartwright Insurance Green v Georges River @ Marrickville Oval
RPC Green 6/185 (Lau 63, Leeson 35*) def Georges River 9/184 (Bugti 3/23, Khoo 2/17, J Dodd 2/31)
Metro Green opened their season with a 4 wicket win over Georges River at the picturesque Marrickville Oval. The toss was won and Georges River were invited to bat on a wicket with quite a bit of early life in it. Bugti (3/23) and Dodd (2/31) bowled impeccable opening spells with Bugti getting a double breakthrough trembling at 2-17. GR fought back with their opener leading the way before Leeson (1/22) brought about a mistimed shot to cover. Her bowling in the middle order couple with Dharman (1/31) and Khoo (2/17) put the brakes on the scoring. Pingu’s second ball did the opener through the air to leave him stranded mid pitch. Some late order hitting pushed the score along but brought about wickets. It was a good fightback from the Greens to hold River to 9-184 at the end of the 45th.
Confidence was high going into the run chase. Lau (63) and Iosifidis (23) established a strong platform with 87 for the first wicket in 14 overs. In the middle overs tight bowling from River pegged back the scoring. But Leeson (35*) regained control with smart batting and even smarter running with the middle order bringing the run rate under control. With one and half overs and 4 wickets in hand Dodd (11*) finished proceedings with a lofted drive over cover to seal the win with a well run 3 and 6 points to Green.
Green are also appreciative of the support during the match from Woody who ran a great warm up and to Smally for his advice during the match. Also thanks to PK, Jeremy Jastrzab, Stephen Doheny and Colm Flanagan for coming down and lending their support and assisting with off field matters throughout the day.
3 – Carly Leeson
2 – Joshua Lau
1 – Anis Bugti
Metropolitan Cup: Titan Fitness Gold v Warringah @ Mike Pawley Oval
RPC Gold 137 (Beaumont 32) def. by Warringah 8/181 (W Deller 3/30, Whalebone 2/28, Beaumont 2/29)
Metro Gold started their season with a trip up to the Northern Beaches with as many as 7 debutants in tow. After losing the toss and being asked to bowl first, it was the most experienced and diametrically aged pair of Will Deller (3-30) and Jeremy Jastrzab that combined for the first dismissal. It was hard work after that, as the Warringah number 3 put the nascent attack to the sword. Threatening to take the game away from the Golds at 1-131 and on track for 200+, Angus Beaumont (2/29) started the clawback with two wickets in two balls across 2 overs. Freddy Whalebone (2/28) also chipped in with a couple, coming back well from an expensive first over, before Deller came back to knock a few over at the death.
8-181 was much more palpable to chase, and the Golds fought valiantly to stay in the game as long as possible. Deakin Antaw, Alan Xu and Marley Besgrove all got starts, while Beaumont (32) showed off impressive power. They entered the last ten over with 68 needed and several good batsmen still in the shed, but after Deller was run-out and Ahsan Shahid chipped back to the bowler, the chase petered out to be all out for 137. Not the start we were looking for, but there were a number of positives to be taken from the game.
3 – Angus Beaumont
2 – Will Deller
1 – Freddy Whalebone
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