 Despite the weather, good cricket
An excellent day for the club as Rocket zoomed to his second 1st Grade century, Dylan and Jules got six, the Club Coach passed 400 wickets and Nick Cheadle got a hat-trick.
(Rod Hokin during his 105 no)
1st Grade
Despite some wet patches in the outfield, the game at Chatswood started on time. Gordon batted first and, despite losing an early wicket, Beau Casson and James Packman moved the score along well. Each got a good start but lost their wickets when threatening to get big scores.
Rod Hokin came in and, after putting on 74 with James, had some handy partnerships with the middle order, although wickets continued to fall. Another good partnership of 43 with Iain Beverley saw Rocket continue to prosper and at the fall of the last wicket, he had progressed to a fine 105* - a terrific effort which ensured a most competitive score of 230.
Parramatta began their innings and were in early trouble, losing three quick wickets. Some consolidation followed but Dylan Connell bowled a long, fiery spell and took a possible loss out of the equation. He destroyed the middle order – twice being on a hat trick – and Parramatta slumped to 8-120.
 The last few batsmen supported the Parramatta opener, who had played an excellent knock, quite well, but the innings finished at 166, with Beau Casson bowling the number 11. A very strong performance by the Stags.
(Dylan Connell at Chatswood)
Scores
Gordon 230 (Rod Hokin 105*, Beau Casson 38, James Packman 38) defeated parramatta 166 (Dylan Connell 6-27, Adair Durie 1-15, Brendan McDonald 1-18, Beau Casson 1-25, Ed Zelma 1-53) on the first innings.
2nd Grade
The second grade match at Old Kings was in doubt from the start when it was found that water had snuck under the covers, but not on the well prepared playing wicket, but instead on the outside wicket some 5 or 6 tracks away from the playing area, which had made it very damp. With the desire of both teams to play cricket and the excellent assistance of the groundsmen and the umpires the match was able to get going around 1.30pm.
 Early wickets were needed and Gareth Wright provided a double breakthrough with two wickets in his second and third overs to bring his tally to four. At the other end Julian Stephenson was also keen on adding to his tally, however it came in the unexpected way of the batsman driving a low full toss very hard back toward the umpire, that is until Jules stretched out his hand in a reflex action and it stuck. Parramatta all out for 158.
(Jules Stephenson at Old Kings against Parramatta)
The batting started disastrously with a fired up Parra bowling attack setting their sights on our top order to have the score at 3 for 12 with a seaming new ball in the steamy conditions.
Matt Jones and Elliot Richtor were not to be out foxed however and from his first ball Matt played purposely and at times aggressively to get the better of the attack and finish with 68 not out to see us home like last week against Easts.
At the other end the experience of a couple of season of grade showed through for Elliot Richtor who kept steering his younger partner in the right direction with some excellent leg and off side driving and calming influence in a tight atmosphere.
 Elliot unfortunately was dismissed with 10 runs to score, however with two fours past point Harry Evans showed his runs for NSW Schoolboys during the week were still available.
(Well played Matt)
Scores
Gordon 4 for 160 (Matt Jones 68 no, Elliot Richtor 58 defeated
Parramatta 158 (J Stephenson 6-65 G Wright 4-41)
3rd Grade
The umpires and captains showed an immense amount of common sense in their willingness to get a game on a wet Killara Oval. With a deal of super-sopping and an acceptance of the wet outfield, an excellent game of cricket was played.
Gordon bowled first with a very wet ball and ordinary run-ups which made it very hard for the quicks. Subsequently the two spinners, Ed Howitt and Nick Cheadle bowled most of the overs and they handled the conditions well. Ed always threatened while Nick’s bowling improved as the ball got drier and Parramatta struggled to push the run rate along. Ed’s first wicket was his 400th for Gordon and he continued to put the pressure on the Eels.
 (Ed Howitt Jnr. at Killara going past the 400 wicket mark. Well done Hoppa from everyone)
He took the next three before Nick, having seen a dropped catch and some ordinary fielding off his bowling, finally broke through. A good catch by Umayr in the outfield was followed by an LBW. Next ball – stumped Higgins – HAT TRICK! Wilson was in the kitchen mixing the drinks (for a drinks break that was never going to happen so he missed the whole thing – good one, Senior). Parramatta finished 65 overs on 9-205, leaving Gordon 55 overs to score more.
Unfortunately, a couple of early wickets fell and at tea, Sam Pierce and Ian Higgins had some work to do. Two quick wickets fell after tea and Gordon didn’t really recover. Ian continued to bat well and Harry Turner kept the innings building but it became very difficult and despite a spirited knock from Ed Howitt, Gordon fell 27 short.
A disappointing result but it was great to see a good game played in conditions which are so often judged to be unfit. There may be a lesson there.
Scores
Parramatta 9 dec for 205 (Ed Howitt 5-60, Nick Cheadle 3-75) defeated Gordon 178 (Ian Higgins 42, Harry Turner 41, Ed Howitt 36) on the first innings.
 (Nick Cheadle at Killara duirng his spell against Parramatta)
4th Grade
Having played a reasonable part of the game last week, Gordon needed to get off to a good start without losing any more wickets. Iqbal got out first ball. A sensible innings from Adam Cubbage (27) helped to take the score up to a reasonable 202 and it was game on.
An early wicket to Chad Soper was followed by some solid batting from Parramatta and the game remained evenly poised for much of the afternoon. At 4-110, the Eels were looking OK but wickets fell at the right times for Gordon with Iqbal Ahmed bowling a great spell. James Campbell also chimed in with a couple, in an excellent tight spell. As wickets tumbled and runs were hit it was always going to be close.
Fifteen runs needed off the last two overs with two wickets remaining meant sweaty palms. The tenth wicket fell with three balls left and Gordon had won by 7 runs with Iqbal taking a handful. A great finish which puts the Fourths into the top six for the first time this year. Well done!
Scores
Gordon 202 (Sherman 73, Kannangara 35) defeated Parramatta 195 (Iqbal Ahmed 5-43, James Campbell 3-28) on the first innings.
 The wins on Saturday put us now into the top 6 in first grade and fourth grade and one point oiut in seconds. WEith the number of no result matches due to the weather, thirds and fifths are only a win or two out of the six. In a very packed field it also brings us to 6th in the Club Championship one point behind St. George who also happen to be close to us in all grades.
Next weekend ...St. George. We know what to do.
(Iqbal Ahmed in action for his improving 4th grade team) | 
