AFTERNOON GRADES SHINE BUT MORNING GRADES HAVE SLOW START – 11 JANUARY 2025
The individual performer of the round was Masters Hospital player Jinto Mathew, who started the new year with a sparkling century that cleared the way for his side’s 115-run win over Marist Harewood on the weekend. Indeed, it was a solid start for the afternoon sides, with wins to the Goats, Tamils and both Masters sides.
Although the All-Stars were one that missed out, theirs was a significant match as it brought up long-time skipper Abe Atherton’s 500th wicket for the club.
Abe Atherton – 500th wicket
However, the year didn’t start well for the three morning grade sides. The Premier Men were a few runs short of chasing down St Albans’ 252 on Sydenham 1 despite another half-century from Aarush Bhagwat, and the Championship and Division One sides were unable to defend their totals on the Nursey Ground and Sydenham 2, respectively. The highlights were Tom Macdonald’s 67 for the Championship and two half-centuries to Division 1’s Gaurav Jadhav and Nadun Seneviratne.
Some of the photos in this publication are also courtesy of Ash Hart’s Hartland Images.
Scott Insurance Brokers Insurance Premier Men
There was a moment of silence before the start of Sydenham’s match against St Albans on Sydenham 1 to acknowledge a very popular local umpire, Dave Herber (Herbie), who had unexpectedly passed away earlier in the week. He will be sadly missed around the cricket grounds of Christchurch.
The match itself proved to be one where St Albans got its head in front early on, and although the home side was never really out of it, it never managed to get back to par at any point in the match. Asked to bat first, St Albans started the match well with their two openers putting on 82 for the 1st wicket, and then another 76 for the 2nd as that pair stepped the run rate up above five before the fall of the second wicket at 158-2 in the 32nd over.
Archie Goodrick
The Saint’s top three had set the match up well for their side, and at 187-3 into the 36th over, the prospects of a score close to 300 looked a possibility. Although the Sydenham bowlers struggled for wickets early, they did produce a step up from the disappointing effort at Heathcote just before Christmas. They fought back well, containing the middle order and then managing to hold the total to 252 by bowling St Albans out, with Archie Goodrick taking out the tail to finish with best figures of 4-46.
Credit also to Josh Wedlake with 2-44 and Taylor Irie with 2-35.
Josh Wedlake claims another wicket.
Sydenham openers Matt McCall and Ryan James got the Sydenham reply off to a steady start, putting on 45 for the first wicket before Ryan (25 off 46 balls) was out caught behind, driving at a wide one from the off-spinner. Needing to up the run rate from there, Sydenham looked set to do that until a piece of bad luck saw Matt McCall (19 off 55)) run out at the non-striker’s end from a return shot deflected onto the stumps. Ryan Wallace and new batsman Aarush Bhagwat then looked to be taking charge until Ryan (25 off 32) was out six overs later to a sharp return caught and bowled by Rapson.
Matt McCall
Richy Faust joined Aarush, and together, the pair did an excellent job of getting the run rate back towards track. By playing good cricket shots, working the ball around, and putting the occasional bad one away, they had the run rate up to 4.5 before Richy played not such a good one to be bowled by Souness for 38 off 34 balls with the score at 157-4 in the 35th over. Two further wickets fell quickly, including Aarush’s, and at 171-6, Sydenham started to struggle, requiring 82 off the remaining 12 overs.
Mitch Gardner (20* off 27) and Tom Agnew (12 off 19) did their best, but the St Albans bowlers did a good job of minimising the boundaries. The contest was effectively over when Sydenham still required 40 off the final two overs, finally finishing at 225-9.
It was a good competitive match, with St Albans deservedly winners having good control over most of the match, and Sydenham was not quite able to wrestle it back.
Thanks to umpires Gavin Fantastic and Dave Miller
Full scoreboard & video highlights: https://live.nvplay.com/nz?tab=m_scorecard#mdd43df81-7d28-4e81-8758-2533b5a349ec
Scott Insurance Brokers Championship
Sydenham played St Albans on the Nursey Ground, with Saints winning the toss and asking the visitors to bat first.
Sydenham got off to a poor start, losing opener Lucky Singh in the second over with the score at five. By the end of the fourth, they had lost another two to be struggling at 17-3—the other opener, Askhan Gulati, contributing 16 of those on his Sydenham debut. Tom McDonald and Eliyas Varghese steadied the ship somewhat over the next 10 overs, with Tom looking to anchor the innings and Eliyas playing more as the aggressor. However, when Eliyas was out in the 15th over with the score now 58-4, further pressure came on the run rate as PK Bhagat, making a return to the club, and Tom played out the middle overs.
Akshan Gulati on debut
Nonetheless, their 80-run partnership had done the job to get the score to 138-4 with 12 overs remaining, ideally setting up for a strong finish and score above 200. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be as two wickets fell in the 39th over, including PK for 30 off 77 balls, and regular wickets fell from there.
The final six wickets fell for just 27 runs, with Tom taking the last of those for a captain’s knock of 67 off 111 balls.
A score of 165 is inevitably sub-par in the usual batting conditions on the Nursery ground, and despite Sydenham having one of its better bowling line-ups this season, that proved to be the case again. Daniel Watts gave his side the start it was looking for with two early wickets to take the early initiative, but the Saint’s middle order played it well from there. Their 3rd wicket partnership put on 78, and the 4th another 44 as they comfortably cruised to the target in just 34 overs for the loss of four wickets.
It was very much a match where Sydenham’s failure to finish off their innings left their bowlers 50-60 runs short of being able to make the run chase a real test for the Saint’s batsmen.
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/cmca-adult-summer-202425/mens-championship/game-centre/edbde60f
Division 1
Match report courtesy of Matt Bell
Marist won the toss and elected to bowl first, and after an early rain delay, the opening bowlers hit good areas, which made it tough for the Sydenham top order to get going. After a second rain delay, the game was reduced to 40 overs and the team needed to show more intent at the crease as at that stage Sydenham were stuck at 27 for 2 off 15 overs. Freddie Winsor (29 runs off 49 balls) and Gaurav Jadhav (50 runs off 72 balls) really got the innings back on track. It was complemented nicely by Ajith Shetty (23 runs off 21 balls) and a fantastic knock by Nadun Seneviratne (49 runs off 34 balls) to ensure the team had a decent total of 181 runs from their 40 overs.
Nadun Seneviratne
George Hiatt playing his first game for the club opened the bowling along with Potiki Hamilton-Morrison (1 for 46 off 8 overs) who got the team off to a perfect start collecting a fine tickle through to the keeper Nadun. Marist responded with a 71-run partnership which broke the back of the run chase but the bowlers toiled hard and we always felt we were in with a chance if we could put the ball in the right areas enough. George Hiatt (2 for 45 off 8 overs) came back for his second spell and had a double breakthrough which gave the team a small chance with Marist 151 for 4 off 28 overs still needing 31 runs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as Akshay Bhatia (101 not out off 105 balls) took the game away from Sydenham with a fine knock and Marist deserved the win by 5 wickets.
George Hiatt on debut
It was a good competitive game and some good signs from the Sydenham Div 1 team playing against a side like Marist who were T/20 Champions and a team with huge confidence around the skills and roles that they play. The team will be looking to keep building on the good things that happen during the game in the next round verses Lancaster Park at Saint Albans Park.
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/mens-division-1/game-centre/8f2131ae
Division 4 Goats – WON
Match report courtesy of Kyle Clark
Saturday saw the Goats return to the Home of Cricket, Bradford Park playing Brighton. Like most games there, we had concerns about this pitch, this time it wasn’t the two paced-mess, or the crumbling wicket, it was the sheer amount of grass on it. But no matter, Paddy Wickes and Joe Taylor assured us they were fresh off the Christmas BYC season.
We won the flick and sent them into bat on what would be a tough innings. Clouds kept rolling through bringing small showers, slowing the field and ruining the ball. It didn’t stop Chris Douglas from getting us off to a quick start, taking the poles of their captain who played all around the ball. Unfortunately, the ball ended up in a creek at some point, warping massively and making the seam more pronounced. This, combined with George Wigley and Ollie Philpotts’ bowling, saw wickets fall somewhat regularly, keeping the Brighton final score under control, even with the classic Goats fielding of shelling four catches (some harder than others.) The highlight of the innings would have to be seeing club stalwart, Tony Danneberg wearing the infamous Dick of the day shirt, something we realised we had never seen him in. He quickly lost the shirt to wicket keeper Kyle Clark. Tony out of the goodness of his heart decided he’d take it off Kyle a few overs later again and keeping it for the rest of the day. Bowling Stats: Chris Douglas (8) 3-8, Ollie Philpott (7) 3-27, George Wigley (6) 2-23.
With the change of innings and the pitch now starting to dry the batting was opened by Joe and Tony chasing 131 to win. Joe, being in the inform batsman, who had put on a clinic leading up to the Christmas break. However, all good things must end, and he quickly knocked off for just 1, claiming that his mind was on his charter fishing trip on Sunday. Sameer went out with the classic ‘you’ve got time’ advice ringing in his head. This didn’t stop him from some classy-looking straight drives to the boundary before being bowled after facing 18 balls.
The first shining spot of our batting innings was Andrew Douglas (41) who had been telling the Brighton boys he was “subpar” Looking extremely composed he proceeded to knock the Brighton bowlers all over the park including a six to get off the mark through long which landed on the bench 5 metres back from the boundary. All good things don’t last, he was eventually dismissed after clipping a full toss to mid-wicket. This saw the second shining light of the innings, George Wigley, walk to the crease. With a bit of luck, he managed 49* to see the Goats home to a 3rd straight round robin win by 3 wickets with a couple of overs to go. A tight win with Jonny Bennett claiming that he knew that the Goats would scoop the win if George was there at the end. Reminding the grade that Bradford Park, the Home of Cricket, was a Goat’s Fortress. Batting Stats: George Wigley 49* (57), Andrew Douglas 41 (53) Kyle Clark 12 (22)
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/mens-division-4/game-centre/c056a7a7
Division 5 All-Stars – LOST
Match report courtesy of Abe Atherton
The Sydenham Allstars faced Weedons in a hard-fought match at Centennial Park #2. After winning the toss, the Allstars elected to bowl first.
Abe Atherton set the tone early, capturing two wickets in his opening spell. His first wicket was a milestone moment, as J. Koster took a brilliant catch in the gully to secure Atherton’s 500th Club wicket. Despite the early success, the Weedons batters capitalised on a wet ball to build a strong partnership, passing 100 before the 20th over.
Jaedyn Ward
After the drinks break, the Allstars regained control, led by a stunning spell from C. Hatcher, who claimed four wickets, including two sharp caught-and-bowled dismissals. He was well supported by J. Koster and M. Flowerday, who both picked up two wickets each. C. Hatcher: 4-30, A. Atherton: 2-24, J. Koster: 2-20, M. Flowerday: 2-30
The fielding effort was commendable, with catches taken by C. Hatcher (2), J. Koster, T. Elliott, and D. Linden. Weedons were eventually bowled out for 159 in 39.5 overs.
Mark Flowerday
The Allstars’ chase started with promise as J. Koster and J. Ward played some lovely shots. However, Koster’s dismissal at a team score of 20 marked the beginning of a difficult phase. Ward continued to fight, forming a partnership with T. Elliott, but fell after scoring 21 from 28 balls.
Elliott anchored the innings, contributing a well-played 37 runs from 47 deliveries. Despite his efforts, the wickets fell rapidly at the other end. J. Talanoa offered some resistance with a 25-run partnership with Elliott. Talanoa scored his highest score of 7 and a well-deserved boundary. The Allstars’ hopes dwindled as Elliott fell at 92 for 8.
Ultimately, the Allstars were all out for 96 in the 26th over, falling short of their target.
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/mens-division-5/game-centre/4281c403
Division 5 Tamils XI– WON
Unfortunately, no match report available
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/mens-division-5/game-centre/2814c39e
Cavaliers Cardinals – LOST
Match report courtesy Colin Paintin
The Cardinals took on Riccarton on Polo Grounds 2. Sydenham kicked off 2025 at a wet and cold Hagley Park. Captain Stokes lost his first toss of the season which was a portent of things to come. From the outset, it was evident that the Cardinals had fed and watered well over the Christmas break, with energy low in the field. Riccarton’s opening bat took full advantage of the lethargy smashing a classy 40 and retiring after 5 overs. The rest of the Riccarton batting was a mixture of cricket and rugby players and the intent was very much to swing for the fences.
The Cardinals utilised five bowlers with Queenie grabbing three wickets and Smitty two the pick of the bowling effort. After finding ourselves under the pump for the first ten overs, the Cardinals were relieved to find that they were only chasing 152.
The Riccarton opening bat also took the new ball in the Cardinals reply and got the ball hooping in the first over of the game which was seen off by Stokesy. The skippers hard work was undone however by getting out in the next over to one of the rankest deliveries you’ll see in this, or any grade. This brought Geo to the crease and he and Smitty put their best foot forward against some very average bowling. Smitty even managing to pull two muscles swinging for balls exceptionally slow and wide.
When Smitty got out hitting for the rope into the stiff southerly, a middle order collapse ensued and even with Geo retiring and coming back out the Cardinals stumbled to a disappointing defeat to start the new year.
Next up are league leaders (and Cardinals bunnies) Sumner. Full turn out required where possible for the long trip East.
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/cavaliers-section-red-t20/game-centre/45a73d55
Masters Cardinals – WON
Match report courtesy of Bert Walker
Sydenham took on Burnside Foxes at Hagley 3 on a cold miserable drizzly day. Phil Walker won the toss and elected to bat, on what turned out to be a very good pitch with a true bounce. Paul Matthews got us off to bright start, but at 23 he was LBW for 17, which brought in the in form Phil. As he was fresh from an over 50s tournament in Auckland where his last 2 scores were 77 and 119! So, he played himself in assuredly and then with Grant Ross, set about building a very good partnership. They both survived chances from offie Roulston in a good spell but scored freely all-round the wicket from the other bowlers.
By drinks they had the score up to 91, and after weathering a hostile spell from young left arm quick Stewart, they pushed the score along in fine fashion until Grant was caught for 65. This ended a great partnership of 124 and we then lost some wickets, as guys tried to force the pace. But young Josh Hardy (15*) batted well and with Phil at the end together they took us up to 208/5, with Phil finishing on a superb 94*.
In reply Burnside started steadily, but our first 3 bowlers Flem (8 1 27 3), Phil (8 2 27 0) and Paul M (8 1 27 1), all bowled very accurately and well, at drinks Burnside were 77/1 and with more accurate bowling the run rate kept climbing afterwards. Chris Kennedy and Pienaar took the score up to 102, before they both fell to Flem for 44 each, trying to force the pace.
The following batsmen all hit out, with mainly limited degrees of success – as Josh (8 1 35 1) battled gamely into the wind and Paul R (6 0 49 3), while unusually erratic, always looked like taking wickets with his outswingers. They were backed up with some good catching, the best of them being a very sharp caught behind by Paul S, and Ammario at short cover pulling down a powerful drive above his head. While just to round off a great all-round performance, Phil never looked like missing 2 skiers.
Eventually after a game effort Burnside finished with 187/8, so they retained the fabulous “Fail Bail:” trophy for the loser of this always most enjoyable match. Which as usual was played in excellent spirits – the Foxes have 8 players who have played over 100 matches together and they certainly have a great team spirit and camaraderie. While rumour has it that Phil, with 290 runs at 145.00 in his last 3 innings (and after NZ’s 21/5 collapse v S), was hopefully awaiting a call from Steady about his availability for the Champions Trophy Squad 🙂
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/joes-garage-masters/game-centre/c5b993f2
Masters Hospital – WON
Match report courtesy of Matt Gilling
Some drizzle didn’t delay the start of the game between Sydenham Hospital Masters and Marist-Harewood Masters. The pitch looked a little “interesting” but this didn’t stop an opening partnership between Jinto Mathews and Mark Crawford of 100 in 14 overs. Good bowling by Majur slowed the run rate with a regular loss of wickets. Some lusty blows by Jinto saw him get to 136 with steady scoring at the other end. Hospital 224/9 after 40.
Jinto Mathews 136, Tim Suddaby 23, Jamie Billings 13, Mayur 8-2-34-5, Sanjay 8-2-29-3
Marist-Harewood came into bat and hit some well time shots, and for a while looked like they might make a go of it, but the regular loss of wickets hampered their efforts. Eventually all out of 109 in the 31st over. Some great catches by Jamie Billings and Balfour. Wickets spread around.
Anant 30, Balfour 6-2-24-2, Bruce Day 4-0-12-2, Tim Suddaby 5-1-16-2, Matt Gilling 7-1-12-2
Hospital won by 115 runs.
Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202425/joes-garage-masters/game-centre/eddd87bf
You must be logged in to post a comment.