 4th Grade Annual Report
Let me just say before I put pen to paper that it was once again a fun yet frustrating season for the fourth grade team. There was a high turnover of players during the season, not to mention a high turnover of captains, as the appointed captain missed half the season due to an unforseen fight with a timber wall that I am sure is reinforced with brick.
The runner-up in the fight: Iqbal Ahmed
Player turnover happens a lot with this particular grade (and a few other grades) as the club tries to promote the young talent that will take this club into the future as well as keep a few experienced heads to lead them….if they are available and not injured.
The season started poorly for us as we failed to click as a unit. Although there were glimpses of potential from the lads, it wasn’t enough and three straight losses against St. George, Balmain and Sydney Uni were the result. This put us on the back foot and it was all up hill from there.
The fourth round saw the start of a new look team and a new attitude for the 4ths as we crushed the Hawkesbury side with a dominant performance with both bat and ball. The stand-outs were Mitchell Kleem with 98, Dan Richtor and Keiran Jones who both made well compiled 50’s and then little known Umayr Amir, who showed us what he could do with the ball by taking 6-30 of 14 overs .
The momentum had swung in our favour as we put 307 runs on the board against Fairfield (Makepeace 92, Kleem 64) only to be washed out the next week.
Good team performances then saw us get the better of Wests (by 16 runs) and Parramatta (36 runs). In both games there were some good individual performances, notably by the 15 year old Steve Colley who scored 90 and 74 respectively. I would like to think that it was my captaincy and not the young lads obvious talent that produced such fine performances.
Other contributions were from Evans (66 not out) and Ahmed (53 and 3-51) against Wests and D. Richtor (47 runs ) and Ahmed (57 and 4-56) against Parramatta.
We then suffered losses to Sutherland and Penrith which set us back again.
The assignment during the Christmas break was then thrown down in front of us (a gauntlet thrown down if you know what I mean) - win every game post Christmas to continue into the knock out stage in March.
The lads set about the task by winning the next four games against Blacktown, Easts, Mosman and Bankstown. We then dropped a game against a strong Randwick-Petersham team, and then finished off the season with an excellent performance against Northern Districts.
Some of the stand-out performances with the bat were Keiran Jones with 143 against Easts, Dan Richtor with 105 against Bankstown, our English import Neil Longhurst with 99 against Bankstown and Mitchell Kleem with 95 against Randwick-Petersham.
With the ball Stobo took 5-21 against Blacktown, Chris Lee took 4-29 against Easts and Ahmed took 5-19 against Northern Districts.
Congratulations to the Colts for securing their second title in as many years and undefeated - a superb effort by the boys. Congrats as well to Kells and his 3rd grade team for making it to the final, unfortunately stumbling at the last hurdle. Last but not least, congrats to 5th grade for making the top six.
Thank you to all the support staff whether you be parents of the boys involved or just part of the mobile cricket committee. You all provide unconditional support to all of the players on Saturdays. Special thanks to Tony Wilson, Michael Falk, Geoff Hickman and Paul Stephenson for all their help and support.
See you all next year.
Iqbal Ahmed | 
