The St George Centurion. April, 2014

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1 The St George Centurion T h e cricket newsletter for the St George Area April, 2014

2 Georges River St George District Cricket Association - Juniors The Georges River St. George Cricket Association junior competition grand finals were held on the weekend of 29 and 30 March. As usual there were a few predictable results and a couple of nail biting finishes as well as the odd upset. The 16A s went down to the wire, with Penshurst West chasing down ICC s 114. PW were 9 down and hit the winning run in the last over of the match, hitting the one and only 4 of the day to clinch the decider. 16B Minor premiers, South Hurstville Carss Park, won in classic fashion; batting first they posted and then used scoreboard pressure to strangle Kingsgrove/Beverly Hills in the run chase. The 14A s witnessed another nail biter as undefeated minor premiers, Kingsgrove, chased Penshurst Wests 121. Kingsgrove had to put on 18 for the tenth wicket to secure victory in the 60 th over. The 14B s produced another coach killer as Ramsgate RSL fell one run short in their pursuit of South Hurstville Carss Parks 113. At the end of their 60 overs Ramsgate RSL was agonisingly 9/112. In the 12A s, Kingsgrove (green) batted first and finished with in their 50 overs and were too strong with the ball. Thus ending ICC s fairy tale run through the semi s. Penshurst Wests (white) 12B team set Kingsgrove (green) 166 for glory but were equally good with the ball dismissing Kingsgrove for 129. The tables were turned in the 10A s where Kingsgrove (green) were too good for Penshurst West 69. The 10B s produced the Cinderella story of the season as Penshurst West (white) stormed through the finals series undefeated to win the comp from 3 rd place. After proving too good for the PW (maroon) team in the sudden death semi, they then upset the minor premiers, Beverly Hills, in the preliminary final. Batting last they comfortably chased down Bevo s score with 10 overs to spare. Come grand final weekend and while Penshurst West were on a roll, they were still rank outsiders to clinch the title and could ve named their price with the bookies as the heavily backed St. Josephs were the clear cut favourites. After a week of rain leading up to the grand final, Saturday 29 March was beautiful and sunny on Gannons 5 at 8.30am as the PW openers walked out to bat in front of a massive crowd, half of which yelled good lucks and see you in an hour, while the other half stared daggers at the two 8 year olds with pads on up to their ears. At stumps on day 1 PW were 0-50 and St. Josephs 5-39 with their gun bats already back in the sheds. Gannons 5 reeked of an upset. Day 2 saw St. Josephs reach 8-83, setting Penshurst West 34 runs to get in 20 overs with 10 wickets in hand. And like day 1 the crowd was 10 deep on the boundary, cheering every run and wicket. As the overs dwindled and the run rate slowed to a drip, dot-balls were even being cheered. Parents of any boy who bowled a dot ball were being congratulated for siring such an outstanding cricketer. But in the end the damage had been done on day 1 and Penshurst West hit the winning run with 8 balls to spare and 7 wickets in hand, as comfortable as you like. Congratulations to all clubs for another good season of cricket. Regards, Dan Williams

3 A number of award winners were announced on Friday Night at the annual Players Night Dinner also know as the Kerry O'Keeffe Medal. The main award for Player of the Season was awarded to First Grade stalwart Stewart McCabe after a stellar season that included his maiden first grade century (161 no in Rd 3) followed by another century in Rd 12. McCabe ended up with 798 runs across all formats but it doesn't stop there. He also managed 28 wickets including his maiden First Grade 5 wicket haul which also included a hat trick. Other awards announced on the night were the Players player for each grade which are listed below. 1st Grade - Stewart McCabe 2nd Grade - Matt Baden 3rd Grade - Riley Orr 4th Grade - Steve Wark 5th Grade - Paul Witherly The Brian Booth / Alan Mantle Tertiary Scholarship was presented to young 2nd Grade pace bowler James Green. One of the highlights of the night was two of our four Sheffield Shield winning players Trent Copeland and Kurtis Patterson being interviewed by the MC's Nick Trainor and Dave Williams about their amazing season for NSW. Trent also spoke of his recent ankle operation which will see him out of action for at least a couple of months. Hamish Solomons

4 ST GEORGE DCC REPORT ST GEORGE GRADE CRICKET REPORT End of Season The 2013/14 season just completed was one where we didn t achieve any premierships but managed to get some of our sides into the playoffs in their respective competitions. 1st Grade made the SF s in both the T20 and One day competitions. 2nd Grade reached the SF s as did the AW Green Shield side. The Poidevin Gray Under 21 side managed to make the QSF s. Unfortunately this season 3rd Grade, 4th Grade and 5th grade failed to reach the playoffs. Our Club Championship position was 7th. The one thing that was achieved this year was that Hurstville Oval was named Ground of the Year and hosted the 1st Grade Final. Well done to Adam Lewis and the staff. We shouldn t forget that we started the season off hosting two Ryobi Cup matches at Hurstville Oval in October, No doubt not having our key 1st Grade State players had a tremendous impact on our overall standing. Moises Henriques, Josh Hazlewood, Trent Copeland and Kurtis Patterson were all key contributors in the NSW victory over Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield Final. Moises made a welcome return to the Australian Test team being 12th man during the three Tests in South Africa. An important role of a Grade Cricket Club is to help develop players for the next level and clearly we have been very successful in doing that. In closing, thank you very much to our many sponsors, members, volunteers and supporters who have, in different ways, helped St George Cricket both on and off the field during the season. Jon Jobson CEO St George DCC Inc.

5 In a season that was affected by rain, only 2 of our sides- the Creak and Watson- advanced to the Qualifying Finals. The Creak were beaten by the slimmest of margins while the Watson valiantly chased a big score that was always going to be difficult. Our other teams had mixed results. The Foster team will benefit from their experience and will be much improved next season. The Moore and Cawsey teams were only one result away from going further in their competitions, and will be very competitive next season. The talented Gee team was disadvantaged by having a bye and being unable to improve on its position. The Weblin finished the Round with its first win on turf and could be a dark horse next season. The Martin Shield found the going rather tough, losing each of their three matches. In conjunction with the Grade Club, we are considering ways to provide high level coaching to our Representative players. We are hopeful that this will help to raise the skill level of our players and make our teams more competitive at this more intense level of competition. The Association is grateful to the Coaches, Managers and parents who give up so much of their time to support the players. Rick Francis Representative Team co-ordinator Georges River St George DCA

6 Georges River St George District Cricket Association- Seniors Well, another successful season has concluded and the Association would like to thank the St GDCC for its assistance during the season. The competition this season was exceedingly close with many positions in the semi-finals not decided until the final round. First grade was won by Illawarra Catholic club for the 8 th time in the last 10 seasons. Although defending only a small total of 111, they did it with ease, dismissing De La Salle for 79. Second Grade was much closer with De La Salle defeating Beverly hills on the first innings, however the match was not decided until the very last over of day two, with De La Salle hanging on against an outright result by two wickets. Third grade was keenly contested by two ICC Teams, Green and White, with White prevailing 87 to 74 in a very low scoring match. Ramsgate were victorious in 4 th Grade defeating De La Salle on the first innings 185 to 121. In the T30 Sunday competition Penshurst West defeated Mortdale RSL 164 to 107. Congratulations to all players concerned on a very successful season and hope to see you all back again next season. Ron Ryan Senior Competition Secretary

7 The St.George-Sutherland Women s District Cricket Club The season has been an extremely successful one for St George-Sutherland Women s Cricket Club (the Slayers), culminating in winning the prestigious Sydney Women s Cricket Association Club Championship award. Having entered teams in all four grades (1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd for the seniors, and the Brewer Shield competition for the U17s) for both the T20 and limited overs competitions, we ended the season with 5 Premierships and 1 Minor Premiership. Our 2 nd and 3 rd grade teams completed a clean sweep, both finishing unbeaten in the T20 and limited overs competitions and claiming all 4 Premierships. Our 1 st grade side came from 4 th on the ladder to take out the T20 Premiership, but had to settle for the limited overs Minor Premiership as they were beaten by Universities in the Grand Final. Our senior teams have been coached by Andrew Gordon this year, and his efforts have paid dividends. Our Brewer Shield side (who, for the first time, have had their own dedicated coach in Thomas Healy) showed great improvement over the course of the season. They finished the T20 competition (held before Christmas) in 6 th place, but by the end of the season had taken 4 th place on the limited overs ladder, narrowly missing out on a spot in the Grand Final after a close semi-final match against eventual Premiers Universities. Being a young side, they have many more seasons together to build on the foundations laid this year. In terms of personal success, this season many of our players have gone on to represent at the highest level: Rene Farrell was a key member of the Australia side that took on England in the Ashes this summer; Leah Poulton, Nicola Carey and Sohryn Miles represented NSW in the Lend Lease Breakers squad; Rene Farrell, Sally Moylan and Kate Pulford represented ACT in the Tradies Meteors squad; Roxsanne Van Veen, Julie Muir, Rhe Lotter and Veronica Gordon were part of the victorious NSW side at the 2014 Imparja Cup (for indigenous cricketers). As for the juniors, in the U18s Anna Horton represented NSW and Tiarne Hamam represented ACT, and in the U15s Caitlin Bornstein represented ACT. Our pre-season training for the season will get underway in September and we always welcome new players of any ability. Send us an to clubslayers@yahoo.com.au or check our facebook page for more information. Helen Williams

8 4 TH GRADE GO BACK TO BACK The Shires season finished on 30 th March with our 4 th Grade side going back to back in premierships beating Epping in the final yesterday at Lance Hutchinson Oval. Nathan Napier was also awarded Man of the match for his first innings 63 on a difficult batting wicket. It was pleasing to see that only 3 of these players were in our winning team from last year and 8 of the current team were under 18. The road to the Grand Final saw us defeat Epping (our eventual GF opponents) in the qualifying final by 298 runs with Tory Pizzalato 91 and Liam Sparke 81 doing most of the damage. The semi final against Burwood saw a much tighter match with young leggie and man of the match Ben Saunders destroying our opponents with figures of 8-51 in their first innings. Unfortunately our batsman could not capitalise on this performance and we only made 155 meaning we took a 12 run lead. Burwood came out swinging and declared leaving us an uncomfortable 113 runs to get in 39 overs. After the loss of a few of early wickets the young blues decided to shut up shop & it was left to that man Ben Saunders to hold the batting together with a stoic 1 run from 69 balls at a strike rate of 1.4!!! Well done Ben. The final went a similar way to the semi final with Epping s 10 th wicket putting on 57. After getting off to a reasonable start we once again had a collapse when we passed their score and this gave Epping a sniff of outright victory and a competition win. However, this time when we were set 114 off 33 overs our openers negotiated the early enthusiastic bowling and then played very positively and at 0-61 in the 14 th, the Epping skipper new they had no chance and called it. The 4 th Grade result culminated in this season being our most successful for a number of years with us coming 6 th in the Club Championship. The Frank Gray U24 team were beaten in the Grand Final by Warringah a few weeks ago and with only 3 players from this team being ineligible next year we have high hopes on them performing very well again. Our 5 th Grade Stingrays side continued our good recent tradition with at least one of our 2 teams in this grade playing in the final series for the last 6 years but unfortunately the were beaten by Warringah (yes that mob again) in the qualifying final. In their inaugural season our Masters team (O40 s) came 2 nd in their first past the post competition. In other Grades, First Grade (8 th ) were having their best season in quite a number of years running 2 nd at Christmas, then hitting the wall after the break but gaining some redemption by beating eventual Grand Finalists Warringah in the last round with a bonus point.

9 Second Grade suffered the same fate as first Grade with only 2 losses up until Christmas but they were hampered by unavailability s after that and ended up missing out on the six by 4 points 3 rd Grade put in some very strong performances over the season with 3 outrights but with this intermingled with some losses in matches they should have won saw them miss out on the Qualifying Finals by 4 points as well. 5 th Grade Sharks came in 10 th but they lost a few players later in the season going into 4 th Grade and for a number of players this was their first season on turf wickets. We would like to thank the U16 junior players who filled in from time to time. We hope you gained some valuable experience on turf wickets and this has helped you in your cricket development experiencing different playing surfaces. We would also like to congratulate the St. George-Sutherland Slayers on their overall very successful season on the field. Congratulations to all of the competition winners in the Georges River Competition especially to ICC in First Grade and Penshurst West in 16A s winning these prestigious competitions. Also thanks to the Grade Club for their support during the season and congratulations on their 2 nd Grade team reaching the semi finals. David Yates

10 The Barry Davison Tribute Night was organized to recognize the significant contribution to cricket development by Legendary Level III coach Barry Davison. Barry has currently been battling Multiple Myeloma for a number of years. Unfortunately in January it was discovered that Barry s Liver was riddled with cancer. The night was very well supported by the many cricketers, cricket clubs and associations that Barry has been involved in over a 40 year period. Aside from a long association as a player and coach with Sutherland JCA and Sutherland DCC, Barry in recent times has also helped with coaching roles at St George DCC as well as the Junior Association including the Gee Shield side in the season just completed. Through his role as head coach for almost 20 years at Kingsgrove Cricket Academy he has also coached many of our young up and coming players.

11 The night was a major success with 250 people in attendance which also consisted of tables from St George DCC and Georges Rivers St George JCA as well as Kingsgrove CC. On the night Cricket NSW also presented Barry with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement in Coaching. There are still some donations coming through but at this stage over $15000 has been raised. The chief organizers, Harry & Hamish Solomons as well as Morris Iemma would like to take this opportunity to thank those who supported this wonderful cause. Money raised will be filtered through to the Multiple Myeloma Foundation as well as the creation of various cricket scholarships in Barry s honour. Hamish Solomons