 Saints on top but only till next week
Saturday was a day that could have gone better in all grades, however all matches are still in the balance and a committed effort next week will see us with a number of wins. Falky is greedy…he will still take all six.
(Charlie Cozens shows his prowess during his debut for the Colts at Beauchamp)
First Grade
On a wicket that looked like it might have some movement early, however ended up being a good batting track, the first grade bowlers stuck to their tasks on a hot day at Hurstville to restrict the St. George batting line up to 7 for 309 at stumps.
The day started slowly with Saints carefully picking the balls to play and left for the lunch break with the score at none for 72 off 35 overs. The session unfortunately also saw the loss of Craig Simmons for the day with a hip flexor muscle strain after 3 overs of his mediums. Hopefully he will be OK to bat next week.
Matt Jones took over from Craig and showed he wasn't overawed with a number of maidens in his early overs. Matt finished with none for 38 off his 10 overs. The experience of bowling to Graham Rummans and Moises Henriques will be invaluable for his progress.
 (Matt Jones on debut at Hurstville)
The middle session saw the Saints bats accelerate to 3 for 170 with Ed Zelma and Brendan McDonald picking up the wickets. It was hard going for the bowlers however they stuck to their guns with a goal of keeping the runs to around the 300 mark. Julian Stephenson chimed in for some final session wickets to go with an Ed Zelma run out and wicket.
The final session also saw an excellent innings from Moises Henriques who picked up his maiden first grade hundred.
It is always a pleasure meeting up with the great Warren Saunders at Hurstville and he let slip that Moises was the first batsman he had seen that he could compare with Norm O’Neill. This will be a task for Moises to live up to, however there is no doubt he has the talent.
Scores
St George 7 for 309 (Ed Zelma 3/64 (20), Julian Stephenson 2 for 54 (17), Brendan McDonald 1 for 83 (26)
 Second Grade
An early wicket from second grade debutant James Kennedy gave the Seconds hope of holding back the strong St. George batting team on a very good Chatswood wicket.
(Chris Archer at Chatswood against Saints)
While Saints consolidated they were still in trouble when their 5th wicket fell for 150 with Chris Archer picking up 3.
This was the signal however for the Saints bats to dominate the bowling and take the score to 280 before the next wicket fell.
This last breakthrough got a roll on from the Stags bowlers and Saints finished with 321.
Unfortunately we lost Nick Medcalf early in the Gordon innings, however Jack Ritchie and Harry Evans saw out the day and finished at 1 for 20.
Scores
 St George 321 (C Archer 5-68 J Ritchie 2-13)
Gordon 1 for 20
(James Kennedy on debut in Second Grade)
Third Grade
After a good start that that saw the score reach 60, Gordon lost two quick wickets with both Blair Lindsay and Sam Pearce back in the pavilion. This meant a quick trip for Blair who made the dash to Hurstville to filed for the injured Craig Simmons.
The rest of the batting failed to get into gear for a big score except for a solid 47 from Steve Colley and finished with 177 all out of 70 odd overs.
You might consider that not a great day in the office, however Dan Mahaffey had other ideas and stormed in to collect 3 Saints wickets, for them to finish with 3 for 4 and now a job on their hands to reach the Stags 177 next week.
Scores
Gordon 177 (Steve Colley 47, Sam Pearce 33, Blair Lindsay 23)
St George 3 for 4 (Dan Mahaffey 3 for 2)
 Fourth Grade
It was a difficult day at Killara for the 4th Grade after Saints decided to bat on a good batting deck and typical Killara outfield. All bowlers, however were up to the task and deserve much credit for containing the opposition to 9 for 263 at stumps. The spinners were most impressive with Iqbal (3 for 37) and John Blake (3 for 55) bowling long controlled spells on an unresponsive deck.
(Kanangara, Hicks, Blake, Ahmed and Sherman await their chance in 4ths)
It was John's first big hit out of an interrupted season and hopefully this is the start of productive times ahead for this very talented young all-rounder. We also witnessed the grade debut of Henry Carmichael, our Greenies captain, and first 4th Grade game for Patrick Effeney. Both admirably acquitted themselves on debut with good lines and length. An interesting chase next Saturday, however this side has proven that they know how to chase down good totals.
Scores
 St George 9 for 263 (I Ahmed 3-37 J Blake 3-55)
(Shenal Siriwardhane at Killara against saints)
Fifth Grade
Another really tough day at the office for our boys at Cahill. Injuries and unavailability's really decimated this team that was desperate for cricket, after a rough deal with the rain over the past weeks. Not surprisingly the bats struggled to push the scoring rate along on a fair deck. After 20 overs, they were 39 and after 60 only 120 and thus to finish at 9 for 181 at stumps was a good effort.
Obviously the problem was no-one really went on to build a good innings after many bats were off to a reasonable start. The skipper Hugh Selby top-scored with only 28 and Weaver batted well to reach 24 and therein lies the story of the day. A big task lies ahead, however with runs on the board, another bowler next week, this new look side can pull it off.
Scores
Gordon 9 for 181 (H Selby 28, M Weaver 24)
Colts
 The 'new look' Colts lost the toss at Beauchamp and had to bowl to UNSW on a very good batting wicket. The Gordon side had no fewer than 7 debutants with 4 from our Green Shield team in Chris Hulston (Barker), Alex Shaw, (Knox) Tom Ledgerwood (Shore) and Declan Jakrot (Barker)and three 17 year olds fast bowlers, Jack Playfair, Charlie Cozens and Nick Burnell all from Shore.
(Michael Falk, part of the "new look" bowling attack)
We look forward to all of these boys getting matches when they can after meeting their important school commitments. It was great their cricketing "mentor" Richard Stobo was able to watch their debuts.
Two wickets in Jack Playfair's first over was most encouraging and an early afternoon was on the cards. However, despite some good bowling from Jack and Charlie Cozens, UNSW managed to keep the score rolling along.
The Stags dropped a couple of catches which proved costly and, at tea, the score was 4-142. At the resumption, that grand old man of cricket, Richard Stobo, began a good spell which put great pressure on the batsmen. Wickets began to fall and the innings finished at 204 - better than it looked for a while.
Gordon started reasonably and, despite losing a couple of wickets, finished in a solid position, with Jack Playfair and Tom Ledgerwood consolidating nicely. An evenly balanced game.
(Charlie Cozens, Jack Playfair and Nick Burnell below at Beauchamp)
Scores
UNSW 204 (Jack Playfair 2-30, Charlie Cozens 2-27, Richard Stobo 2-25, Michael Falk 2-7, Biraj Shrestha 1-45) vs Gordon 3-82 (Tom Ledgerwood 28*, Chris Hulston 17, Sunny Sajdeh 14, Jack Playfair 14*).
(The last time coming off the field together for Gordon (or the first?)...Michael Falk and Richard Stobo)
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