Welcome to the wrap of round 3 of the 2023-2024 season. No week is a small week for the MIGs, plenty of cricket to recap and some great off-field events keeping the MIGs and MIG fans coming back for more each time. In the cricket, our grades played Lane Cove, Metro played Blacktown, and 5th Grade played Epping followed by Lane Cove. Our Masters and Classics sides continue their fortnightly rotation with Classics taking on Macarthur and Masters taking on Roseville. Off the field, the WellGreens have locked in the always popular and immensely rewarding Tomorrow Man for the WCC community to engage with on Tuesday night. Thanks to our sponsors for supporting us to get the boys on the paddock each week and for helping us to put on events each week.
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Warringah
6-143
S Barnett 58, H Ferguson 22, T Gupta 22
Lane Cove
78
L Molyneux 3-5, M Munro 3-13, S Cook 2-17
Warringah won by 4 wickets.
Round 3 saw Warrinagh leaving Weldon for the first time this season, venturing over the Roseville Bridge to the picturesque Tantallon Oval. Hamish lost the toss and lane Cove decided to have a bat (why wouldn't you when you were chasing 340 and managed it 2 down last week). Although the wicket had all sorts of weeds coming out of it, the deck felt firm when pressed and the sun was shining. Early wickets were crucial for the MIG. James and Aiden started the boys off nicely, with the score at 2/20 in the first few overs. A couple of tidy catches to our man on Debut Davo and some tight lines from Shane Cook saw the Covies reeling at 4/40 at the first drinks. Enter- the right arm off spin twins; Molly and matty Munro. The boys bowled with such control, backed up with some tidy ground fielding, we strangled Lane Cove from both ends. Molly ended the day with figures 5 overs 3 fa 5 and Munners 10 overs 3 fa 13. Covies all out for 78!! Cooky picked up 2, Aiden 1 and Jimmy 1.
After the change of innings and some famous Tabby treats, the MIG set out to mow these runs down. The Covies bowled well and certainly put us under pressure, making for a tricky chase. 22 from Hamish at the top seeing off the dangerous Joe Scarcella and 20 odd from Tejas in the middle got the MIG within striking range. We lost a few quick wickets and I'm sure a "surely we can't crumble" crossed a few of the lad's minds. Barney steadied the ship, with some powerful hitting to all parts of the ground. He batted with patience and hammered the bad ball, especially anything short! Barney passed lane Coves total and continued to blister them to all parts. Unfortunately he was waiting to be bowled from a raging leggy for 59 of 58 balls. The MIG ended the day on 6-143 with a 65 run lead, wickets in hand and hunting for 10 points next week.
Unfortunately we received the bad news on Friday night that lane Cove never put the covers down on Thursday or Friday, even though the weather was always predicted to hit late in the week. The council closed the ground on Friday meaning week 2 was a washout, might I add; one of two games washed out in the whole of Sydney. A real shame as I honestly believed we were in a fantastic position to gain 10 points. 6 points for the good guys and we move onto Southern Districts next week with plenty of momentum.
Warringah
144
G Evans 27, K Broome 22, B Cook 16
Lane Cove
5-241
R Outred 2-71, B Cook 1-20, M Kuchel 1-38
Warringah lost by 5 wickets.
After losing the opening two games of the season, we were looking for a win for our first home game of the season. Sub-in captain P.Chapman won the toss and Warringah were to bat first on a green Weldon deck. Wickets were lost in segments and the MIG were 4 for not many after 20-overs. K.Broome hung around with top scorer G.Evans (27) but a mix-up sent Broome on his way and the only respectable partnership of the batting innings was lost. G.Evans later went, and B.Cook was unlucky to be given out on an lbw decision. With no significant contribution from the tail the MIG were all out for a disappointing 144. Early wickets in the top order meant we couldn’t cash in later in the day with the bat when the deck lost its life and batting became easier.
With 15-overs left in day 1, the opposition openers tore us apart and our chances of winning slowly slipped away. They were 0-80 at stumps and a miracle with the ball was needed to get a win. It was a similar story with the bowling day 2. A chance or two went down but Lane Cove cruised to a 10-wicket win. M.Kuchel on 2’s debut was arguably the pick of the bowlers across the 2 days of cricket, bowling consistently and looking like the only bloke who had a chance of getting the opener who got a century out (which he eventually did). R.Outred added a couple wickets to his season tally but the game was called at tea with both captains agreeing no further play was needed.
Warringah
8d.-193
L Overhoff 39, C McKay 31*, R Donato 23
Lane Cove
127 & 34
G Newman 5-43, B Martin 2-18, J Osborne 1-17 &
C McKay 5-6, G Newman 2-14, B Martin 1-2
Warringah won OUTRIGHT by an innings and 32 runs.
3rd Grade had a good start winning the toss on a beautiful day at Lane Cove. Spirits were high as the MIG’s mounted the pressure early with some quick wickets to Gareth and Julian. Lane Cove struggled as our Pace attack were so consistent with their plan and kept run scoring very low. This pressure became too much as wickets continued to fall. The boys went into tea in a commanding position. However, it was after tea that we really came alive. The first ten overs went for almost nothing with wickets to Bill and Gareth. This became all to much for the Lane Cove middle order as they crumbled to being bowled out for 122 of 61 overs. Gareth being the star as he made batting look very difficult on a relatively flat pitch, finishing up with 5-43 off 22 with 10 maidens.
The MIG’s went into bat with 16 overs left on day 1. Unfortunately, Richo nicked off early seeing an end to his day, this left Toby and Lucas in the middle, after a few missed chances by Lane Cove, the boys knuckled down and protected their wicket to end up 1-36 off 16. Day 2 started off well with another 40 added to the 2nd Wicket partnership before Lucas and Toby were removed in quick succession. Ruben and Lachie Coy came to the middle and upped the run rate quickly with a few boundaries before leaving the crease at 23 and 19 respectively. With the message now to score some quick runs Bill, Cal and Gareth did excellently to find the fence on multiple occasions. With some big sixes from our opening bowlers. This saw us declare at tea with 8-193 off 50 overs.
After tea, the boys had a great opportunity for a 10-point game as Lane Cove only had 9 batsmen from the previous week. This opportunity was taken by the scruff of the neck by Cal who ripped through the openers and middle order with 4 wickets in his first spell. Bowling excellently on the stumps and Lane Cove had no answer. Some more wizardry from Gareth saw him take 2 wickets alongside Cal, and Bill took one as well. With one wicket remaining, there was only one man that Ruben could call on. So Cal came back and was too quick, getting an lbw to take his 5th wicket of the innings and winning the game for the MIG’s. An outright win that will prove incredibly valuable come finals time.
Warringah
6-217
S Higgins 73, L House 66*, O Higgins 25
Lane Cove
216
H Burke 3-46, Z Buchanan 3-47, A Caruso 1-15
Warringah won by 4 wickets.
The People’s Grade made their long-awaited return to their spiritual home of Frank Gray Oval, knowing their own strength of home-ground advantage (approaching a year without losing there). This match-up was also a golden opportunity to continue the recent run of picking up points from matches where Warringah failed to score points, this time against Lane Cove. As tradition dictates, stand-in captain Ben Rowse didn’t tell the players what happened at the toss (he lost the toss for the first time this season) but Warringah were going to be bowling in very warm conditions.
Vic Caruso and Buckets Buchanan started proceedings and it was the veteran quick who picked up a wicket in the 3rd over, snicking off one of the Lane Cove openers to Ashwen Durairaj, who took a sharp chance at 2nd slip. This got the Warringah tails up early as Buckets knocked over the other batter for a 7-ball duck. However, from that point on, the strategy from Lane Cove became apparent for all to see, as the lack of intent to score runs commenced from this point on. The 3rd wicket stood for 52 runs (with the 1st drop scoring just 6 off 63) before Seth Thompson managed to get a tickle and a great catch by Dusty Labador on the stroke of tea, the only time that anyone in the field managed to make enough noise to wake Jeff up.
The Lane Cove Crawl continued but it was the return to the attack of Buckets that then broke the next little sequence, knocking over the main Lane Cove bat for 68 (off 105) and then the number 5 for 18 (off 66, see a trend forming here). Ash then came on to bowl and picked up a somewhat fortuitous caught-and-bowled to have Lane Cove at 6-122 (that batter managed only 16 off 56), before two of the younger players for Lane Cove then decided to do their best Geoff Boycott impersonations and start either blocking or playing and missing everything right until stumps. At that point, Lane Cove had faced 78 overs to be 6/160. Although Warringah didn’t help their cause with a couple of dropped chances, it has to be said that the batting performance from Lane Cove would have been an amazing treatment for Insomnia.
The two teams returned for Day 2 in much cooler conditions, with Lane Cove looking to continue to drive slower than a Smart Car and it took Harry Burke to make the breakthrough, taking 3 quick wickets of the two young walls (36 off 168 and 39 off 128), with 2 of the catches going to Dusty and another catch to Ash, before Warringah managed to run out 140-year-old Brian Scott to close the innings out at 216 after 103 overs. This left Warringah 49 overs to reach a target of 217, effectively making the run chase a one-day match-style chase. Buckets and Burkey ended up with 3 wickets each, while Ash, Seth and Vic picked up one each, the latter bowling an incredibly boring 12 maidens from his 19 overs.
Unlike the Lane Cove Innings, Warringah came out with some intent through the father-son pairing of Oliver and Stuart Higgins. The pair got Warringah off to a flyer before Ollie was dismissed for 25, copping a nasty delivery and edging to the keeper. Dusty came in and attempted to go on the attack before holding out in the deep for 14. This was then followed by two quick wickets, with Ash and Aidan Boulton going cheaply and the chase looking in some doubt.
Any thought of that doubt then disappeared as Liam House and Stuart Higgins showed what positive cricket was all about. Stu defied his age, working the ball all over the field for singles and turning the strike over, while Liam commenced plundering the very pedestrian Lane Cove, especially through the covers in a manner that would have made Imran Khan more than a little excited. Stu Higgins eventually departed for a well-made 73 (from 101) but that didn’t stifle the chase, as the run-rate continued to drop from 5.5 runs an over down to 2.5 runs an over. Harry Burke was unfortunately run out for 5 with the end in sight, but Liam House (66* off 63) and Seth Thompson (16* off 14) saw Warringah home in what was the 2nd most exciting moment of the entire match, with the most exciting moment being the 1st grade ring-in fielder getting sick of Vic’s constant positive encouragement of the batters by telling him to shut up and stick to podcasting. For the record, said player then went down with a cramp, showing that he should have hit liked and subscribe, least Karma decide to bite back.
With that, the People’s Grade managed to survive the most boring match that they have ever had to endure, claiming a well-earned win that keeps the 3-time defending champions at the top of the table, 3 points clear of North West Sydney and Auburn, and facing another redemption opportunity against Mounties this week
Round 4
Warringah
181 & 0-30
N Barnett 53, W Toohey 49, L Macfarlane 42
Blacktown
227
O Fairchild 4-61, G Park 2-14, J Olde 2-33
Warringah lost by 4 wickets.
Metropolitan cups first 2 day game of the season came against Blacktown. A relatively young team, this metros squad won the toss and elected to bat on a hard yet very green wicket. Our openers got off to a solid start with a great knock from Macfarlane to set up the tempo and runs for the long day to follow. Following his knock, our number 3 Toohey came in and provided a solid presence at the crease with some important runs to keep us in the game. With a few wickets lost in the middle order, a good partnership from N Barnett and H McCracken in the middle to lower order put the boys back in the game, with a true captains knock from N Barnett, who provided stability in the crease during this lower order comeback. Around the 76th over mark in the first day, the boys were bowled out for 181, and we were able to have a 2 over crack at the openers before the days end. The next Saturday and day 2 of the game, the boys were send in to bowl at a score of 0/7 of two overs from the previous day. A great standard of fielding to start the day out put the competition right in the game, and the boys picked up an early wicket of the opener. A great opening spell from O Fairchild met a solid Blacktown top order who slowly hit their shots and turned over the strike well. A great combination of spinners from both ends in the back end of the innings meant Giles, Olde and Mccracken picked up two wickets each, with a solid 14 over straight spell bowled by McCracken. This was generally a spinners deck, with Park, Olde and McCracken picking up 6 wickets in total. Despite the bowlers best efforts, 181 was a tough total to defend, and in the 56th over the Blacktown team chased the score down. After this, the Blacktown team continued to get more runs in hope for an outright win however, another great spell from the opener O Fairchild cleaned up the rest of the lower order of Blacktown. Our openers were sent for the rest of the game as the Blacktown team put on 227 all out. The boys did well to remain none down however it was unfortunate to finish the game on a loss. Well done to all the metros boys who played this game.
Round 4
Warringah
2-162
A Gatehouse 54*, F Pandit 52, C Conners 45*
Epping
161
P Clift 3-17, S Roche 3-21, H Kirkham 2-26
Warringah won by 8 wickets.
The first of six consecutive Sundays on the road for 5thgrade saw us make the trip out to play Epping at Epping Oval. Kel finally proved he's human by losing atoss and we were asked to make first use of the ball on what looked to be avery hard, flat deck with a fast outfield.
Harry Kirkham and Lachie Scott opened up for us and whileLachie was a little inconsistent, Harry settled into a great rhythm beating thedefenses of the opener in his second over to have the Bulls 1/8. Anything that beat the field and was halftimed by the batters raced to the fence, so some decent shots against the loosestuff saw Epping move to 30 before Harry again beat the defenses of the otheropener disturbing his furniture. At theother end Lachie was working hard to try and find good L's but ended up comingoff after 6 with 0/29. Harry finishedhis 6 over spell with 2/14.
The double change saw Sam Roche from one end and Paul Cliftfrom the other. Sam's first over wentfor 8, but then the two of them tore the heart out of the Epping line up takingthem from 2/53 to 6/53 in the space of 11 deliveries picking up two wicketseach.
After taking some time to get his eye in, Epping's number 7Anand turned out to be their best looking bat of all. He patiently saw himself in and then pickedoff the bad balls for the next 20 overs to build a score. We missed a couple of chances over the next 8or so overs which could have had us chasing a very small total, but credit tothe batters for battling away. Sam wastaken off after 5 with 2/15 to his name, and Matt Melville came on to tie upand end and try to get some poles with his offies.
At the other end, old man Clift got dragged after 6 with2/11 under his belt and replaced by Harley Cruickshank who had an immediateimpact breaking the annoying partnership to have them 7/83 after 28 overs. Anand was still ticking away at the other endand a 49 run 8th wicket partnership showed how good the deck was.
Harry was given a chance to add to his tally, but his overwent for 12 (finishing with 2/26 from 7) and instead, Clifty was brought backon and took the 8th wicket in the 35th over. Nelson Davis came on to replaceHarley (1/22 off 5) and tightened things up at the other end. Clifty bowled outhis 8 for 3/17 and Sam came back on to take the 9th finally dismissing Anandfor 63. Sam finished with 3/21 from 6and Nelson took the tenth off the first ball of the 40th over finishing with1/9 and Epping all out for 161. Probablycould have had the under 100 at one point, and under 150 later on, but still avery chaseable score on a very flat pitch.
Five changes from last week's disaster saw our batting welland truly bolstered. Matt Melville and Alfie Gatehouse opened up for us and setthe tone early going a run a ball for the first four overs before Matt shankeda full toss to mid wicket to be out for 4. Enter Fraser Pandit who seemed to be a man on a mission. Fraser plundered the bowling to all parts ofthe ground while Alfie continued going about his business putting the bad stuffaway while finding singles most of the rest of time, and running hard betweenthe wickets.
Epping could not find answers to the way these two batted asgaps for ones, twos and fours seemed to be appearing all over the park. Fraser quickly overtook Alfie and the pairbrought up their 50 run partnership off 39 balls. Fraser soon passed his half century off 36balls and was eventually dismissed for 52 of 38 balls in 38 minutes. The 75 run partnership taking 61 balls andsetting us up for a shot at a bonus point.
Caleb joined Alfie in middle and the pair took us to 2/127at drinks off 20 overs with Alfie bringing up his half century off 57 balls afew delieveries before the break. The instruction at the break was simple; weneed 35 off 24 balls or less to get the bonus point, so give it a go.
The lads had their plan, and executed perfectly with Calebtaking 12 off the 21st over. Alfie thenpicked up a single to give Caleb the strike and he took another 6 off the 22ndleaving us needing 16 off 12. Again,Alfie took a single first ball of the over and Caleb went 4, 2, 4, 4 to levelthe scores at the end of the 23rd over. A single off the first ball of the 24th saw us home for the BPcomfortably, Alfie finishing 54 not out and Caleb Connors 45 not out off 31balls and a 63 run partnership off 47 balls. A brilliantly aggressive chase by the four young lads involved and greatsigns for the weeks to come.
Round 5
Warringah
8-227
A Gatehouse 88, L Jurcevic 42, H Cruickshank 23*
Lane Cove
124
P Clift 6-20, H Cruickshank 2-12, S Roche 1-24
Warringah won by 103 runs.
Match report to come.
First match
Warringah vs Linfield, Weldon Oval, Sunday 10 November, 2023 at 10am.
Warringah
179
D Wait 45, D Ford 42*, G Davies 15
Roseville
6-181
C Wyatt 3-38, S Waddington 1-19, G Davies 1-28
Warringah lost by 4 wickets.
Match report to come.
Warringah
92
D Jeffs 25, S Waddington 15, R Melchiore 12
Macarthur
4-94
G Allsop 2-30, G Park 1-16
Warringah lost by 6 wickets.
Match report is brief, but I'm told it's fitting and comprehensive.
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Warringah Contacts
Club President
Chris Melville
president.warringahcc@gmail.com
Club Captain
Ben Cook, Lachlan Molyneux and Noah Kasmar
clubcaptain.warringahcc@gmail.com
Club Secretary
Nic Johnson
secretary.warringahcc@gmail.com
Club Treasurer
Jeff Downs
treasurer.warringahcc@gmail.com
