With a poor start to the new year a big turnaround was dearly needed. It was established early in the morning by the inspirational skipper, Shayne ‘Rin’ Lin, that our attitude was simply not good enough. With that in mind the lads took to the warm up with intensity that looked like a winning outfit.
Stan Gaynor... this shot was similar to his first for Gordon, down at Balmoral. The webmaster dropped him in his fantasy team immediately
Due to our dismal batting display on our last hit at Killara, Shayne was a bit unsure whether to bat or bowl on what looked like a good batting deck. Fortunately Shayne didn’t have to make a decision, as is the trend this season he lost the toss and the opposition elected to bat.
Sam Watts was absolutely terrific with the ball opening up. 2 wickets in three balls gave us more to cheer about than we have since the New Year. This was essential in setting the tone in our fielding effort. Sam was practically unplayable in his first spell and was well supported by Matt.
This set a perfect platform for the young Dylan Hood on debut in 4's to execute his skills and continue the pressure created by the opening bowlers. Generally pressure and tightening up runs leads to wickets. This was no exception but not without some magic. Iqbal "magic fingers" Ahmed was the wizard that executed one of the catches of the season.
Kleem, without the trademark red helmet, but in a good vein of form
A thick edge raced to the big man, with a slight movement to the left he stuck out his right hand and he never looked like dropping it. This shifted momentum on our side and throughout our entire innings we were exceptional in the field; lead by Lez "pineapple head" Leighton.
Ben deserves plenty of credit for Gordons energy and talk in the field. Ben and Iqbal bowled very well in patnerships managing to keep the runs down. Randy-Petes were tracking towards a total below 200, however some fine power hitting from one of their youngsters threatened to build a total far greater than that.
Fortunately Sam Watts couldn't put a foot wrong at the death and managed to pick up more wickets and keep the runs down. Sam ended up with a 5 for and deservedly so.
Gordon were set a total of 212 and with our recent run of things we thought 212 could be a competitive total. However all of us were wrong.
Sam Watts sets his side up for the win
212 was far too little for the class of Gordons top 3 (as that’s all it took). Mitch Kleem was clearly excited about his recent texts from a new friend he made in the Philippines. She/He would be very proud as he smoked his way to 41 and laid an excellent platform. Unfortunately whilst thinking about the photo “they” sent, Stan took a run that was a bit too risky and he was run out.
The fall of wicket bought Saahil to the crease. The pair capitalised on the great start and took the game away from the opposition. Both played some excellent shots and made it look far too easy.
Stan and Saahil batted till the end and scored 75* and 68*. It was a wonderful all round performance. Let’s take this momentum to the next match and see where the season takes us!
5th Grade were out to get their season back on track after some disappointing performances since Christmas, and we were doing this by playing a Randwick Petersham team sitting 6 points above us on the ladder.
With not a lot in the pitch we knew we had to bowl at the stumps. Coops chipped in with one more, before ‘Pic’ Sherman polished off the innings taking 3/9 - all LBW’s. The bowling unit was excellent combining tight overs and wicket taking balls to bowl Randwick out for 135 in 38 overs.
Despite a solid dusting up at the hands of Sydney Uni the previous week, the 2s were nevertheless confident ahead of our game against Randy-Petes. 
The introduction of Jack Skilbeck brought immediate success. His first spell of seven overs changed the game, picking up 3 wickets with some fine outswing bowling. He would later return to claim a 4th scalp. Skilly was ably supported by Anand who bowled a disciplined line and was rewarded with the wicket of their attacking opener. 
Blaize, ably supported by Cubby and the Verm, got us remarkably close to the target with his enigmatic yet effective style at the crease. In the end we fell 7 runs short, but the bowlers certainly can’t be blamed for not getting us over the line. 
It was noted in the wrap following the match against Northern Districts that Harry Evans had now reached 3000 first grade runs. Obviously this is a great achievement in itself as he is now 16th on the list of first grade runs scorers, However when delving deeper into his performances some additional stats on his average is now worth another mention. 
Everyone of course will know of Charlie Macartney who entered the Australian Hall of Fame a few seasons back. Charlie who played in Gordon’s first match at Chatswood Oval on 30 September 1905, has a special place in the Club’s history. He was the first Gordon player to be selected in the NSW team, while a member of the Club, and the first to be selected in an Australian Test team.
Kelleway Test career had started back in 1910 but like Macartney heard the famous call from Billy Hughes in 1914 when he said:
To be honest, without James Kennedy the “bottom six” looked lost in the AAFC (Anti - look for arguments sake I will let the reader fill in the blanks from here) derby at Coogee Oval. At times predictable and one dimensional, “long ball Kennedy” was missed purely for his ability to control the backfield. 
How ironic, “take it deep” was the one thing the Gordon batsmen failed to do when chasing RP’s total of 263. 
Chad Soper followed Stobo from the ‘Goodger’ end. Harold set an attacking yet restrictive field and Soper delivered with his length and line. The middle overs were a point in the game the playing group identified needed to improve from last week. The bowling and fielding responded to the call, restricting the hosts to around the 110 mark at 30 overs.
The crowd gathered thick and fast on the boundary line. All of a sudden, 80-90 of Chad’s mates hurdled the fence and formed a giant fight circle. One guy was seen to be carrying a trident. The chant started from an older, less mature group of adults “feed-your-self, feed-your-self”, but it was no use.
