It was two wins each and a draw. In First Grade, Gordon suffered a comprehensive outright loss and Thirds had a narrow defeat. Seconds went oh so close to winning outright while the Fourths won an absolute thriller in the last over. Fifths dominated for two days but were unable to snare the last two wickets for a win. 

1st Grade 

(Over the week – Gordon 154 vs R-P 7-249) 

Randwick-Petersham batted on until just before lunch, building their lead to 177. In the couple of overs prior to the break, Gordon lost both openers to stumble to 2-13. 

Straight after lunch, another wicket fell and, with Tym Crawford unable to bat due to a broken finger from last week, Gordon were in deep trouble. Wickets continued to tumble as the Stags fought to avoid the outright loss. 

Unfortunately, the innings folded about half an hour after tea with only Harry Evans and Max Newman making worthwhile contributions. 

A very disappointing effort. 

Gordon 154 and 158 (Harry Evans 48, Max Newman 37) lost outright to Randwick-Petersham 7 dec 331. 

2nd Grade 

(Over the week – Gordon 2-137 vs R-P 175) 

Gordon lost two wickets quickly in their pursuit of the 40 runs needed for a first innings win. Then, Oli Zannino and Michael Roberts took them past the total before the latter was dismissed. Gordon batted on to a lead of 101, with Oli remaining undefeated on an excellent 60*. 

Randwick-Petersham started brightly before Matt Wright broke the partnership. Two run outs followed before Matt struck again and the game sat at an interesting stage at tea with Randy-Petes 4-85. 

Wickets continued to fall after the break. Ryan Meppem took a couple, with Dan Stickland and another from Matt and, with 11 overs remaining, Randwick held a lead of 32 with one wicket left. 

Alas, the last couple of batsmen held out and the Seconds were left to celebrate a convincing first innings win. So close! Well done! 

Gordon 276 (Ryan Tullia 74, Oli Zannino 60*) defeated Randwick-Petersham 175 and 9-143 (Matt Wright 3-67, Ryan Meppem3-36) on the first innings. 

3rd Grade 

(Over the week – Gordon 142 vs R-P 5-99) 

There were a few nervy moments but Gordon just didn’t have enough runs in the bank. Randwick-Petersham passed them and were all out for 154. 

After losing an early wicket, Gordon’s second innings moved to 32 before the loss of three quick wickets. It was looking a little shaky but Jamie Bekis and Nick Andreou consolidated and carried the score to 112 when the game was called. 

A disappointing first innings batting performance. 

Gordon 142 and 4-111 (Jamie Bekis 32*, Nick Andreou 29*) lost to Randwick-Petersham 167 (Chris DeKretser 4-31, Charlie Booth 3-42, Pat Effeney 2-32 ). 

4th Grade 

(Over the week – Gordon 275 vs R-P 1-8) 

It was very hard work for the bowlers as they strived to secure a couple of wickets. The two Randwick-Petersham batsmen were going well and at 1-153, things were desperate for the Stags on a top batting wicket. Finally, the breakthrough came and the Gordon bowlers kept toiling away. Wickets started falling and the pendulum began to swing but it was still a tall order. Lachie Burrows, Vikrant Nehru and Manus Chauhan were all bowling well but could they get there? 

At last, in the final over of the day, the tenth wicket was taken and Gordon had completed a fantastic victory. Well done – a great fight! 

Gordon 275 defeated Randwick-Petersham 251 (Lachie Burrows 4-39, Vikrant Nehru 2-40, Manus Chauhan 2-44) on the first innings. 

5th Grade 

(Over the week – Gordon 8 dec 300 vs R-P 1-8) 

Will Rogers took an early wicket to have Randwick-Petersham 2-10. However, some wayward bowling followed and runs came freely. The partnership was finally broken by Dave Monaghan. An excellent run out came shortly after, before another good partnership. Then, just before tea, Prahlad Iyer got a break through and shortly after the break, an excellent catch off Dillon Amjad saw the score on 6-130. Prahlad took another at 162 but the Stags were unable to break through again until too late when Will took his second. 

So, a drawn match with Randy-Petes eight down but never in the hunt. 

A disappointing result, as Gordon dominated for the entire game. 

Gordon 8 dec 300 drew with Randwick-Petersham 8-220 (Will Rogers 2-43, Prahlad Iyer 2-44).

Gordon had a real ‘up and down’ day against Randwick-Petersham. Seconds, Fourths and Fifths are all in strong positions at the end of Day 1 while the batting in Firsts and Thirds fell away badly after solid starts. 

The highlight of the day was Mitch Kleem’s century in Fourth Grade – his fifth for the club – which moves him into 11th spot in the list of all time run scorers for Gordon. A terrific effort. 

Ryan Tullia is on 70* with much more to do after the Seconds bowlers did a great job and the Fifths batting was strong, led by 63 from Fraser Wilson and a couple of powerful half centuries from Steve Bristow and Shayne Lin (a tear came to eyes of a few of the more senior spectators as they saw Shayne play a couple of those ‘old’ shots people marvelled at a few years ago. He wasn’t aiming at the boundary – he was aiming well over it!). 

1st Grade 

Gordon batted first on a very hard Chatswood wicket with a greenish tinge. After losing an early wicket, things proceeded nicely and, at 2-92, with Cam Eccles and Tym Crawford going well, Gordon was sitting quite comfortably. However, once another wicket fell, they continued to fall. Apart from Scott O’Brien, the remaining batsmen contributed little and the innings concluded at a very disappointing 154. 

Randwick-Petersham lost a couple of early wickets but a partnership between David Warner and English County player Daniel Bell-Drummond saw the batting side take complete control. They moved past the Gordon total and at stumps sat 95 runs ahead with a couple of wickets left. 

Much work to be done by the batsmen next week! 

Gordon 154 (Tym Crawford 55, Cam Eccles 34, Scott O’Brien 24) vs Randwick-Petersham 7-249 (Scott O’Brien 2-56, Alex Patterson 2-59) 

2nd Grade 

Gordon bowled first on a Petersham wicket offering a little assistance. The bowling was good and Dan Stickland struck early. Jack Plom and Dan took further wickets to have the score 3-41 after an hour. The score moved along before Ollie Sutton took a couple and then Jack took another, along with one from Matt Wright. Ryan Meppem was bowling well and he took another two as the Randy-Petes struggled to mount an adequate score. A run out finished the innings at 175 with Gordon having 43 overs left for the day. 

An early wicket was disappointing but then Lachlan Barnsley and Ryan Tullia came together and they showed great maturity as they put on 90 before Lachlan was out for 38, another excellent contribution. Ryan and Glenn Winsor then safely saw the day out adding another 42. Ryan finished on a terrific 70* while Glenn contributed a very pleasant 20*. 

An excellent day’s work by the team with a lot of game to be played next week. 

Gordon 2-137 (Ryan Tullia 70*, Lachlan Barnsley 38, Glenn Winsor 20*) vs Randwick-Petersham 175 (Ollie Sutton 2-20, Ryan Meppem 2-29, Jack Plom 2-32, Dan Stickland 2-41). 

3rd Grade 

Liam McElduff and Tom Hamblin got the Stags off to a great start, taking the score to 77 before the first wicket fell. Unfortunately, the innings collapsed completely after that. Wickets fell regularly as the hole got deeper and deeper. Chris DeKretser made a valiant attempt to improve the situation but it was all over at 142 – a disaster after such a great opening partnership. 

No photos of third grade this week, so here's a photo of Jack Plom instead. 

Randwick-Petersham started well, adding 33 before Pat Effeney struck. Charlie Booth and Chris DeKretser both took wickets and then another for Pat in the final over saw Randy-Petes 5-99 at stumps. A couple of quick ones next week certainly might make it interesting. 

Gordon 142 (Tom Hamblin 46, Chris DeKretser 34, Liam McElduff 29) vs Randwick-Petersham 5-99 (Pat Effeney 2-21, Charlie 2-28) 

4th Grade 

The Fourths were sent in to bat at Coogee and got off to an excellent start with Chris Spratt and Mitch Kleem adding 67 before the former was out. Darren Jayasekera then joined Mitch and they continued to bat well, taking the score to 140. Mitch was playing a gem and, when the score reached 175 he brought up his ton – his fifth for the club. He was finally out for 119 – a great effort! Manus Chauhan and Stuart Bromley made valuable contributions as the innings finished at 275. In the couple of overs before stumps, Vikrant Nehra picked up a wicket to see Gordon in a sound position with runs on the board. 

Gordon 275 (Mitch Kleem 119, Chris Spratt 31, Manus Chauhan 26, Stuart Bromley 25) vs Randwick-Petersham 1-8. 

5th Grade 

Gordon batted first on another excellent Killara wicket. After a good opening stand of 46 between Fraser Wilson and Shiv Rana, Fraser and Naba Haider pushed the score along steadily.

 Fraser was dismissed for a stylish 63 and at tea the score was 3-130. Things slowed a little after the break but following a couple of wickets, Steve Bristow and Shayne Lin came together and added 77 in good time. Both batted very aggressively and steered the game in the Stags’ direction. Both scored excellent half centuries and, with a couple of cameos from Dave Monaghan and Matt Keane, Gordon was able to declare at 8-300 and leave Randwick-Petersham an uncomfortable 5 overs to see the day out. Danusha Seneviratne snared one and the Stags finished the day in a strong position. 

Gordon 8dec 300 (Fraser Wilson 63, Steve Bristow 54, Shayne Lin 52, Naba Haider 38, Shiv Rana 31, Dave Monaghan 23, Matt Keane 19*) vs Randwick-Petersham 1-8.

Dear Club Supporter,

Much has been talked about over recent months about the health of grass roots cricket in Australia. As President of Gordon DCC I can assure you that a lot of what you have read is accurate. Grass roots cricket is struggling and we are no exception to this. HOW CAN YOU HELP?

We need more volunteers and if you are able to help we would love to hear from you. We also need to increase our revenue base so that we can remain competitive and ensure our club has a bright future. Unlike some grade clubs we do not pay our players. All of our funding goes into providing top quality coaching for our players and the running of our club.
We have relaunched our Associate Membership package and it is an excellent way to stay engaged with the club and also help support the club financially. We are looking to create a minimum of 200 associate members and you can be a part of this. THIS IS A WAY YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR CLUB AND HELP SUPPORT THE CLUB INTO THE FUTURE.

If you click on the link below it will take you to further details of the packages on our website, we have three packages available to hopefully fit your budget.
http://www.gordoncricket.com/gdcc-articles/associate-membership-drive-for-2018-2019

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I look forward to your support.

Yours Sincerely

Geoff Hickman

President
geoffjhickman@gmail.com
0416-254706(M)

OK I apologise, when I said we needed some rain to freshen up our grounds, I wasn’t expecting two weeks of non stop rain, virtually washing out the first half of October. Unfortunately, as always, the rain didn’t fall where they really needed it, in the country. We still keep hoping that will change.

It has been a frustrating start to the season for our club, we were well placed in most grades against Blacktown only to see all games washed out and had our Round 3 games against Uni of NSW all changed to one dayers. When we finally got back on the field, it was like the season was re-starting again. On a positive note we have just come off a great weekend against the strong Penrith club with wins in six out of seven games played over the weekend. With a great T20 win against Randwick-Petersham the week before, hopefully we have turned the corner and that winning feeling will grow as we lead into the important pre-Xmas period. Remember work hard, listen to your captains and coaches and play as teams and we will have some positive results over the coming six weeks.

There have been a number of outstanding performances over the past weeks, led by Axel Cahlin who has had a sublime start to the season with three centuries in the first five rounds. Axel has been rewarded with selection in the Futures League this week along with our NSW contracted player, Charlie Stobo. Good luck to both of you this week.

Also congratulations to Glenn Winsor on a great all-round performance on the weekend, Liam McElduff’s century on his return to the Stags and Ryan Tullia’s great century against North Sydney in Round 4. All teams won tight matches on the back of these centuries and it shows the value that they give the team in their quest for victory.

On the bowling front, interestingly five out of our top seven wicket takers are spinners. Congrats to Prahlad Iyer, Matt Wright, Ryan Meppum, Matt Junk and Rohan Watson on their start to the season. Our leading wicket taker is Ashwin Premkumar with 17 wickets so far.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Glenn Winsor and Josh Staines for their selection in the ACT/NSW Country Squad for the Under 19 championships to be held in Adelaide in December.

Off the field we have had some challenging times in the past month, with the need to dismiss one of our volunteers due to inappropriate comments placed on our Team App. We need volunteers to run our club, but we will not let our culture be eroded by the actions of the minority.

On a positive note, I was advised that at our 5^th grade game last weekend, with the key help of Steve Bristow’s mum and dad, we put on a BBQ for not only our team but Penrith as well. Congratulations to 5ths, this is exactly what we want from our club.

Also in the past month Paul Stephenson has advised me that he will not be available to run our Communications area going forward. Paul will be sorely missed and if there is anyone out there who would like to assist we would love to hear from you. Paul has done a tremendous job for our club over a long period running our club website, writing the Weekly Wrap for fifteen years and writing the amazing stories about our World War 1 and 2 veterans. Paul will still be seen around supporting us on Saturday’s and I’m sure if we twist his arm we may get the occasional story from him.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Michael Falk for stepping in and taking over the Weekly Wrap which is an important part of our club where our players are highlighted for their performances after each week’s play.

As we move through November, we have our big double header T20 day at Chatswood in early December. The social committee are doing a great job doing the pre-organising and we look forward to a successful day.

Geoff Hickman

President 

The club is pleased to announce our new sponsor would like to offer club members, volunteers and their families a special deal for working with Century 21 Northside for their real estate needs:There offer is as follows: 

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