AU REVOIR – 15 FEBRUARY 2025
The men’s morning grade teams will not be sad to see the end of the 1-Day competition on Saturday, with all three already out of contention for the semi-finals midway into the competition. The Premier men, who made the T20 semis and sit mid-table in the 2-day competition, finished with just one win in pool play, losing their final match on Saturday to OBC at home after the batting failed to fire. It was a similar story for Division 1, who at times tested front runners Riccarton in their match, also went down.
The highlight was undoubtedly the Championship boys’ win over OBC on Sydenham 3. Desperate to finish the season well, two new and returning players, Jacob Cotter and Dylan McArdle, provided the often-missing steady hand needed to get their side over the line in a run chase.
The Premier Women resumed their 1-Day competition with a one-sided loss to OBC at the Nursery Ground as OBC’s top order produced a dominant batting display that put the game beyond reach. In the afternoon grades, the Div 4 Goats’ six-match streak ended at Centennial against BWU on a day where only the Cardinal Cavaliers and Div 5 Tamils took wins. Mohanasundaram Kumar’s unbeaten 71 and Ashok Muthukumar’s 4-33 were instrumental in the Tamil’s win, whilst Tom Elliott’s 52 for the Goats and Tim Suddaby’s 63 for the Masters Cardinals were features of their two losses.
The Youth boys continued the good start to their new season, losing only two of their six matches. The First XI got their season underway with a good win over Shirley Boys thanks to a five-wicket bag to the promising Henry Hood, backed up by solid scores from their top order highlighted by Jaxson Moynihan (51) and Conway Andrew (35*). Harry Durdin (82), Leif Kitto (55* and Louie Harri (39) set the foundation for Archie Nielsen’s 4-35 in the 2 nd XI win. There was another 5fer in the Colt’s win over St Bedes, with Benjamin Williams 5-45 ensuring Rupert Nielsen’s 99 did enough for the win. The Year 10’s win had an outstanding unbeaten innings of 46 from Nakul Singh and sound bowling from Luke Griffth and Dylan Tullett to thank for their win.
Some of the photos in this publication are also courtesy of Ash Hart’s Hartland Images.
Scott Insurance Brokers Insurance Premier Men
Sydenham and OBC went into their final 1-Day pool match on Saturday with very different motivations – Sydenham, already out of it, trying to get some momentum going with an eye on the return of the 2-day competition, and OBC, desperate for a win to secure home advantage in the semi-finals.
Sydenham won the toss and, in a change of approach, elected to bat first. The innings didn’t start well when the returning Josh Gard misjudged the line of the second ball of the innings and bowled. A few overs later, last week’s century maker, Ryan Wallace, was out clipping one of his pads and caught by a diving square leg. The 11-2 score in the 5 th over became 24-3 when Nathaneal Paltridge was out bowled, leaving Sydenham in trouble. Aarush Bhagwat and Cam O’Leary put on 27 from the 4 th wicket, but when Aarush was out for 29, no rescue was coming from down the order. Cam fought hard for his 21 off 49 balls, and there were other modest contributions, Josh Wedlake’s 22 off 30 balls the best of them, as the Sydenham innings closed well short of a competitive total, all out for 125.
OBC’s enthusiasm might have been temporarily dented when skipper Mitch Gardner picked up opener Willoughby with the first ball of the innings and the new batsmen in his second over, leaving OBC at 3-2. However, under no run rate pressure because of the low target, the experience of Nic Clark showed through as OBC tightened up, and Clark and young Shukla batted well in a partnership of 80 for the 3rd wicket that all but won the match for the side.
Although Mitch led the bowling effort, the other four youngsters bowled well, especially the slower bowlers, Makenzie Thomson and debutant Nathan Chin. However, the batting had just not given them enough to bowl to as OBC, with no pressure, worked their way through to the win at 126-5 with seven overs still available.
Thanks to umpires Darren Thomason and Kaushik Padmanaban
Next week sees the return of the 2-Day competition with Sydenham playing Heathcote out at Heathcote
Domain.
Full scoreboard & video highlights
Birdwood Café Premier Women
Match report courtesy of Linda Pettigrew
Sydenham headed to Nursery ground to host OBC on a hot and windy day.
Bowling first, Sydenham were denied early wickets, with OBC batters settling into their work early. This continued for the innings as OBC worked their way through to 253/3. Megan Meltzer the best of the bowlers with 2/48 from her 10 overs.
After a long and hot innings in the field OBC’s total would be a challenge without an early partnership. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be with Sydenham’s batters getting starts but unable to accumulate enough to challenge the large total. Molly Loe (36) and Shizuka Miyaji (22) worked hard in the lower order to push the score over 100, putting on a 63 run partnership for the 8th wicket. Sydenham were all out in the 40th over for 133.
Many thanks to Andrew Quinn and Southern Districts CC for providing and delivering hessian to the match.
Scott Insurance Brokers Championship
Match report courtesy of Matt Bell
A new wicket on a sunny day at Sydenham Park greeted the Championship Team on the number 3 block versus a strong OBC Team. Sydenham won the toss and elected to bowl first and get first use of the new wicket prepared excellently again by our turf team of Andrew Quinn and Jordan.
OBC came out of the gates fast, led by their captain George McLean, 23 (14), which was helped by a couple of no-ball free hits, and OBC were racing along at 38 runs in only three overs. Step up Charlie Finnie, who took a great catch off Carl Hooper on the long on boundary to get rid of McLean. This was followed up next over with a one-handed diving catch by Shevon Perera at mid-wicket off Tom Agnew’s bowling and the start of a big momentum swing. OBC quickly found themselves going from 0/38 to 5/52 in quick succession thanks to the fine opening partnership between Tom Agnew 2/33 (7) and Carl
Hooper 3/48 (10).
Things only got worse for OBC with the introduction of Charlie Finnie 2/23 (5) to the crease, picking up two wickets in his first over and finding himself on a hat trick. However, there was some fight in the tail of OBC as their new recruit, Mabin 65 (54), launched a counterattack and struck the ball sweetly, clearing the short straight boundaries with great ease. It was time for Sydenham to take the pace out of the game, and Benji Bell stood up, bowling his leg spin with great control and accuracy. Benji cleaned up the tail, claiming figures of 3/14 (5), picking up the last two wickets with back to back deliveries and leaving Sydenham 148 runs for victory.
Chasing down the total was all about negotiating the new ball, and the young guns of Akshan Gulati 14 (28), and Jacob Cotter 30 (67), did this with great maturity and put on 34 for the first wicket. Knowing we were chasing down a small target, it was all about building as many early partnerships for the first 20 overs, taking the sting out of their attack and having the hardness and shine taken out of the new ball.
Some nice team partnerships of 19 runs between Cotter and Michael Robinson 9 (19) and the 17 runs between Cotter and Dylan McArdle were all valuable contributions. This allowed PK Bhagat 20 (12) to play freely and take on the young OBC off Spinner, where he used his feet down the wicket to great effect and started to take the wind out of the sails of the OBC Team. A quick partnership of 42 runs for the 4th wicket from PK and Dylan McArdle led to a fine display of power hitting from Dylan 53* (36) to quickly close the game out with an unbeaten 34-run partnership with Shevon Perera 6* (20).
The win was achieved inside 33 overs which also secured a valuable bonus point win which dragged the team off the bottom of the table and back in charge of their own destiny to secure a Championship spot for next season. The next match will have the team move back to the red ball and play Heathcote at home and a chance to pick up more points and keep the late momentum in the season going and end on a real positive note.
Division 1
Match report courtesy of Richard Howe
Riccarton are top of Div 1 and likely heading to Champs next season. In the last game against us, they scored 200 in a T20 on the same pitch as today, so we had a big job ahead of us. Cullen Crowe and Tom Sulzberger were making debuts for Sydenham and instructed to pad up after Riccarton won the toss and chose to bowl. Todd Ward and Tom opened, pitting on a positive 35 before Todd was out for 11 after a lovely six and looking good. Tom also looked good with 19 off 20 before mistiming a pull shot.
Cullen was next out for one, followed by several low scores -Ajith Shetty 8, Nadun Seneviratne 12, Zack Howe 4, Noah Jeferson 8 and Cam Spriggs 10. Thirty-five odd overs down, and we are 124 for 8, with Gourav Jadhav (who was in at no 5 with a plan to bat through the innings) joined by Isaiah Prasad (down the order managing a calf strain). There was still hope to get through to 200. Sadly, Gourav was out for 35 shortly after followed by Isaiah on 3. 132 all out in the 39th over. The immense frustration was that many of our batters caused their own demise when looking comfortable. Six batsmen out, caught, most not executing attacking shots off pretty poor balls. We were well short of where we wanted and, quite
frankly, where we should have been based on our batting talent and the depleted bowling attack
Riccarton had.
Into the field with no options really except to attack. Isaiah opened, shaping the ball back into the right-hander and away from the lefty, partnered by Zack Howe”;s off-spin. Both bowled well, with Isaiah picking up two, including a tremendous low catch taken by Gourav, and both bowlers creating other chances we didn’t take. Nadun and Ajith bowled tidily without luck before Gourav and Richard Howe were brought in. Gourav struck the first ball, and Richard enticed a mistimed shot off a full toss, Riccarton 76 for 4. Syd still well in this! Zack Howe returned and picked up one more, as Riccarton (103 for 5) rode their luck playing aggressively, several aerial shots not going to hand, including a couple of
leading edges. Cullen had a late crack with his offspring, but ultimately, our failure with the bat cost us, as Riccarton won by five wickets in the 31st over.
Who knows what would have happened if we had taken just a few of the chances we had missed – we would have been well in the game, even defending 132; however, most were tough. Bowling: Isaiah 6 overs 2 for 16, Zack 8-1-40, Nadun 5-0-19, Ajith 4-0-13, Richard 6-1-24 Gourav 2-1-11, Cullen 1.4-0-11 Thanks to our dedicated supporters who keep coming even though there have been few wins this season. We plan to change that over the remaining three red ball games!
Division 4 Goats – LOST
Match report courtesy of Tony Danenberg
Winning the toss at Centennial 2 the Goats invited BWU to bat first and had immediate success with Paddy having their opener caught at slip from the first ball of the match. Tight bowling from both openers kept the pressure on and at 3-19 we were well on top. A good partnership of 54 then stalled our progress but we kept chipping away, led by Ollie Philpotts 4 wickets and Chris Douglas’ 3. Burnside’s last wicket partnership was notable, which put on 25 frustrating runs taking the chase up to 146.
Our run chase stuttered from the start with Burnsides tight bowling having us in trouble immediately and at 5-38 half of our wickets were gone as well as half our allotted overs. 4 of our first 5 wickets were LBW which was unusual but reflected how straight Burnside bowled. The lower order fought back as some bowling changes were made. With Ollie anchoring the inning Chris, Paddy and Connor all hit out to get us right back in the game. While all made starts, the wickets continued falling, and we eventually finished 24 runs short. Notable was playing cricket in a gale with multiple large tree branches falling through the day, which was even more distracting than the beach volleyball being played behind us. The fine jar was filling fast, led by George turning up without his gear as he hadn’t done the washing for a fortnight.
Our run of 6 wins in a row ended, and we need a win against the bottom team next week to make the
semi finals. Dougie insists he’ll be back for that even after breaking a bone in his hand just two weeks
ago.
Division 5 All-Stars – LOSS
Match report courtesy of Abe Atherton
The Sydenham Allstars faced off against the Richmond Rhinos at Barrington Park #2. Winning the toss, the Allstars elected to field first. Opening bowlers Mark Flowerday and Jacob Koster maintained tight lines, with Koster striking early—keeper Jason Ungerer taking a sharp catch. Tom Elliott and Jordan McCormick continued the pressure, both claiming wickets despite the Rhinos steadily accumulating runs. With only 10 players, Abraham Atherton and Sumedha Senaratha were called upon to bowl, conceding some runs but with Atherton managing to grab a wicket, thanks to a well-taken catch by McCormick. The Rhinos built a solid platform, losing only a handful of wickets before launching an aggressive attack in the final 15 overs. Their innings closed at 215-6 from 40 overs. Koster was the standout bowler, finishing with figures of 2-19 from his eight overs. Catches were taken by Ungerer, Elliott, and McCormick. Unfortunately, Mark Flowerday suffered an injury during the game, and we wish him a speedy recovery.
With a challenging target ahead, the pitch remained true, giving the Allstars hope. Koster and Elliott opened the batting positively, racing to 51 runs in just a few overs. However, Koster fell for 30 after a fishing expedition outside off-stump. Jason Ungerer came in and struck a well-timed boundary over cover before departing soon after. Senaratha played some elegant strokes in support of Elliott, adding 14 runs before his dismissal. Elliott carried on, pushing the total to 93 before Daniel Wright joined him at the crease, only to be run out for 1. Atherton looked to rebuild with Elliott, but a moment of misjudgment saw him dismissed for 10. Elliott was the backbone of the innings, reaching yet another half-century. Unfortunately, after reaching 52, he was dismissed, marking the turning point in the chase.
The Allstars were eventually bowled out for 128-9 in 27 overs.
A tough loss, but plenty of positives to take from the game.
Division 5 Tamils XI– WON
Match report courtesy of Jagannath Radhakrishnan
The Sydenham Tamils secured a convincing victory after winning the toss and electing to field. Ashok led the charge, taking 3 wickets in the first 3 overs and finishing with 4 wickets. Niranjan provided excellent support, claiming 1 wicket. A crucial turning point came in the 19th and 20th overs, as Arun R took 2 wickets, followed by John’s 2-wicket haul. Arun R ended with 3 wickets, helping to bowl out the opposition for 105.
In response, the opening pair made a blistering start, with Monty top-scoring an unbeaten 71. Arun V provided solid support as they chased down the target in just 12.3 overs.
Cavaliers Cardinals – WON
Match report courtesy of Jamie Livingstone
The Cardinals fronted at Warren Park to play Halswell to find a rock hard outfield to supplement the artificial. Big runs in the offering if skipper Geo could when the toss. 1.55pm came around and still only 4 from the opposition, so toss was done and we had to field. 2.15pm the rest of the opposition turned up and we didn’t have to have umpires with pads on.
Queenie took the new ball and struck first over, but we had to wait until the 5 th over when Manny returned from injury to take a wicket first ball thanks to Keza taking an outstanding leg side stumping. Bam then did the same in his first over and Halswell were 3 down early. Manny picked up another and the skipper bought himself on and took a wicket in his first over too! Andre who answered the SOS earlier in the week got the 6th wicket with a bit of turn and bounce. Then Geo and Keza wrapped up the innings. Halswell with 93 on the board.
A fine bbq supplied by Keza was enjoyed at innings break and well cooked by Jeza and Geo.
Bam and Geo had the honour of opening and had a 92 run opening partnership which featured some powerful strokes but also some good running between the wickets forcing a few over throws. Smitty would have been proud. Biggest hit of the day went to Geo who retied on 42. Bam smoked one straight back to the bowler to be caught second time around for 38. That left Wolfy and the out of form Livo to complete the game. A wide then an easy single finished the Cardinals innings in the 11 th over.
Great to have Larts down for the entire game to give a blow by blow commentary on the team chat for those who couldn’t make it down. To quote AB, “it felt like I was there.”
Thanks again to our outstanding sponsors: Good Home Wigram, Romano Builders, Canterbury Glass and
Team Bagrie Racing.
Masters Cardinals – LOST
Match report courtesy of Brenden Winder
Sydenham played New Brighton at Rawhiti Domain. We lost the toss and got sent in to bat, which felt more like a punishment than a choice once we saw the pitch behaving like a mischievous teenager— unpredictable, moody, and occasionally spiteful. Paul Mathews put together a patient 40, looking like a man determined to outlast the chaos, while Dave Hardy fell victim to his favourite shot (again), discovering the hard way that the wicket had other ideas. Phil Walker’s golden run came to an unfortunate halt, but Chris O’Connell decided runs were there to be had, launching a few big blows before departing for 20.
Grant Ross, as ever, looked in control with a well-structured 25 before a peach of a delivery sent him on his way. Paul Smith introduced himself with a glorious cover drive off his first ball, then promptly sacrificed himself in a run-out trying to protect the set batsmen—selfless, noble, and deeply frustrating.
Then James arrived with a bang, teeing off for a rapid-fire 28, including a towering six over square leg that had the fielders looking for insurance policies. Anak followed up with a cameo that included a shot will be talked about for years—advancing down the track to a quick bowler, dropping to one knee, and scooping a delivery from off-stump over fine leg in what can only be described as cricketing sorcery.
A few big swings at the end didn’t quite connect, and we finished with 165, thinking it might just be enough on a deck that had been playing tricks.
It wasn’t. Clem and Chris opened up with good lines and lengths, but the NBCC openers played as if the demons in the wicket had gone out with the tide. They hit straight, worked the gaps, and scored at a run-a-ball without really breaking a sweat. We made a change. The thinking was much better than the execution. A bit of pace-off bowling finally brought us two wickets—one via a sharp reflex catch from James as keeper, with Paul Mathews poised at slip ready to pounce if needed. But that was as good as it got. Their opening bat Higginbotham, put together an assured, almost effortless 81*, dispatching
anything loose with power and precision. It was a display of controlled and composed hitting that barely
gave us a sniff.
NBCC were simply better than us on the day and fully deserved the win. They were excellent hosts too, with the game played in good spirits—mostly. One particular opponent, who had been louder than a fire alarm while fielding, expected complete silence while he was batting, which was, let’s say, an interesting contrast. MOM: James – for his explosive batting, calm captaincy, and a superb catch that gave us the tiniest whiff of a miracle before reality set in.
A tough day, but we’ll be back. Hopefully with a bit more luck, a bit more patience, and a pitch that doesn’t have a personal vendetta against us.
Masters Hospital – LOST
Match report courtesy of Matthew Gilling
Sydenham Hospital Masters against Marist playing at Bradford pitch, won the toss and put Marist into bat. Marist made steady progress and were 70/2 at drinks. Marist began to accelerate and increased the run rate for quite some time. Then some quality bowling put the brakes on, including two overs with two wickets in a row in each. Marist all out (1 player down) 182 in the 39th over. Bowling; Rahul Mukherjee 8-0-30-3, Jim 8-0-25-2, John Hampton 4-0-13-2. Special note to the most spectacular “almost catch” of the season goes to Jamie Billings who dived down to the ground very fast to a ball that had been absolutely smoked, only to have to pop out of his hand. It was a great bit of athleticism that not only saved four but had the opposition clapping.
Hospital had a good first over, but a steady fall of wickets saw us 21/5 after 13 overs. Then began a 100+ run partnership between Tim Suddaby and Bryan Bunz (who was in another 100+ partnership in the previous game). This gave Hospital a glimmer of hope that perhaps a win was on the cards. It was not to be with the fall of the partnership and the following batsmen, Hospital went from 124/5 to 136 all out.
Wickets shared around the Marist bowlers. Batting: Tim Suddaby 63 and Bryan Bunz 35
Women Division 1 – WON
Match report courtesy of Linda Pettigrew
Div 1 travelled to Pleasant Point for their match v Pleasant Point. PP must have been the hottest place in the country, 29 degrees and no wind.
Sydenham lost the toss and were placed in the field first. PP had a really good start, getting through to 29 for the first wicket. After a couple of quick wickets Sydenham settled into the grind as PP accumulated 71 for their third wicket before the breakthrough came with Emma Begg taking a caught behind off Dakoda Potter’s bowling. Their in batter was out soon after with the safe hands of Kyla Tilson taking a great catch at mid off. After this breakthrough the wickets flowed regularly until PP were all out for 130.
Standout performances in the field were Dakoda 3/16 and Kiyo 2/12. Their bowling was accurate and really hard for PP to get away. Special mention to Emma who was first match back from an operation to wicket keep on a really hot day and take 2 catches.
At the change over the match was evenly poised. Sydenham’s batters had some work ahead of them.
Emma and Linda Pettigrew opened the batting slow and steadily. Emma’s departure in the fifth over saw Charlotte Clatworthy come to the crease and score a quick 30 off 34 balls. Linda (26) departed not long after with the score at 78. After a couple of quick wickets Sydenham were 88 with only 1 batter on the sideline. At this point Kiyo came to the crease. Kiyo batted really well, hitting 5 boundaries as she worked her way to 32* and won the match.
A huge thanks to Pleasant Point for their hospitality. The country hosts made the day so much more enjoyable by sharing a fielder for the whole match and another one when one of the Sydenham players was overcome by the heat and needed a recovery break. They also shared a BBQ and some ice cold drinks after the match to make sure we were ready and able to drive back to Christchurch safely.
And in case anyone missed it – it was really, really hot out there.
Youth First XI – WON
Match report courtesy of Daniel Herd
The Sydenham Youth 1st XI met Shirley Boys High 1sts at Hagley Corner. A greenish tinge prompted Cadell Durdin to ask to bowl, after winning the toss once again. Durdin (1/16 off 5) backed up his decision quickly by cleaning out one Shirley opener in his first over. Shirley set a bit of a platform from there, largely thanks to a solid effort from former Sydenham player Sam Singh (25). With Singh’s wicket, Shirley were at 4-66. Regular wickets fell after that, largely thanks to excellent off spin from Henry Hood (5/29 off 13.5) and Shirley were out for 148. Pōtiki Hamilton-Morrison, Isaac Tutt, Josh Chapman, and
Conway Andrews all chipped in with a wicket each.
Now it was up to the Sydenham batters to show what they’d learned in a week and see if they could control the chase. Finlay Hill (12) and Sam Johns (12) ensured no early wickets were lost – both batting with composure until Hill was out in the 8th over and Johns in the 13th. Isaac Tutt (20 off 81 balls) anchored the innings from one end, while Jaxson Moynihan showed more aggression with an excellent 51 off 67 balls. Conway Andrews (35* off 34) also played his natural attacking game to close the chase down supported by a wee cameo from Will Herd (12 off 11) at the end.
The boys showed excellent control and application throughout the match, demonstrating what they are capable of across the field, with the ball and with bat in hand.
Youth 2 nd XI – DRAW
Match report courtesy of Paul Durdin
The 2 nd XI met Shirley Boys 2 nd XI at the Polo Grounds. Winning the toss and deciding to bat the 2 nd XI got off to a shaky start losing 3 early wickets for 14 runs. That saw Harry Durdin and Louie Harris come to the crease. The pair worked hard early in their innings seeing off the Shirley attack who had their tails up. Once both boys passed 20, the runs started coming freely. Louie Harris was removed for an excellent 39 and part of a 101-run partnership. Thomas Wedlake (12) came to the middle, hitting the ball hard, and combined for a 40-run partnership before both Harry and Thomas fell with the score at 155. Harry Durdin making a fine 82 from 97 balls. Leif Kitto kept up the momentum with a fine 55 not out from 51 balls and was well supported by Yahya Shasawar (9), Lucky Lasiyal (10) and especially by Quinn Helms (29 off 23) who combined with Leif to put on a critical 52 runs for the final wicket. Sydenham dismissed for 266 in the 53 rd over.
Being declaration cricket, Sydenham not only needed to restrict Shirley from reaching the target but also needed to bowl them out to get the win. The Sydenham bowlers struggled with their length early on and the Shirley batters capitalised getting through to 87 before Archie Nielsen grabbed the first wicket with his leg spin. Leif Kitto (1 for 22) grabbed an excellent caught and bowled before Archie Nielsen upstaged him with a very sharp one himself. Two more wickets to Archie Nielsen (4 for 35 from 8) had Sydenham well positioned with Shirley at 136 for 5. A solid partnership and a couple of missed chances saw Shirley creep back into the game before Jaxson Stove took an excellent catch from the bowling of Quinn Helms
(2 for 28 from 11). Jaxson Stove picked up a couple of late wickets (2 for 25 from 7) which led to an exciting final two overs. Shirley managed to survive and finished with 217 for 9, meaning the match resulted in a draw – with 4 points awarded to Sydenham for having the higher run rate (winning draw) and 2 to Shirley.
Whilst not the result we sought, it was an exciting match, and the boys showed some real grit, both with the bat and with the ball. We now sit second on the table.
Youth 3 rd XI – LOST
Match report courtesy of Bevan Williamson
We played Christchurch boys high school 4th XI on a warm, but very windy day. We won the toss and decided to bat. We were going along great for the first few overs, when we were rocked to be 19/2 after only 4 overs. William Thorpe then seemed to take control to right the ship again with assistance from Samuel Wild, but with some very accurate bowling from CBHS, and some “interesting” shot selection from us, we slumped to be 77/6 at the first drinks break. Some frank discussion was had during the drinks break, and William and Nishchay Singh tried to dig in and rebuild the innings. They were doing a good job of it until William was caught off a leading edge for 29. Reuben Williamson was next to go in and I asked him to help Nishchay and just stay in!! Along with Nishchay and Louis Southworth he did just that. Batting for time before being dismissed at point with a very sharp catch that had been hit very hard, for 18 of 75 deliveries. We were eventually dismissed for 141 off 45.4 overs.
We knew we were going to have to bowl very tight to defend a total that we felt was possibly 40 runs light. We were off to a fantastic start with Callum Walsh picking up a wicket on the third ball with 0 runs on the board, and then we snaffled another a few overs later to have CBHS reeling at 17/2.
Unfortunately, the strength of the wind and some wayward bowling on our part allowed CBHS off the hook and their middle order made a good fist of the run chase with one score of 52 included. There was a glimmer of hope when our boys lifted to get a couple of quick wickets to have CBHS at 115/6, but some lusty hitting took the game away from us, and CBHS finished up on 144/7 after 27.1 overs.
There were some positives and some negatives to take away from the game, but most importantly I think, we learned some valuable lessons around what happens when we don’t value our wicket enough, and also when don’t bowl as well as a unit as we can.
Overall rating for the game: Valuable lessons learned, and some work ons for training.
Youth Colts – WON
Match report courtesy of Callum Green
Sydenham played St Bedes College Colts at the College and, after losing the toss on St Bedes No. 4, were sent into bat. Their openers provided a steady start, laying a reasonable platform for the innings.
Braithan Davies contributed a solid 23, allowing the more aggressive batsmen to capitalise on a good batting surface. The highlight of Sydenham’s innings was undoubtedly Rupert Nielsen’s impressive performance. He and Jonty Rutherford put together a valuable 93-run partnership, with Rutherford contributing 21. Nielsen’s innings, which included some powerful hitting, ended just short of a century, as he was dismissed for 99. Sydenham finished their 53 overs with a total of 192.
Sydenham’s bowling attack was disciplined and consistent. The opening bowlers maintained a good line and length, and wickets fell at intervals throughout the St Bedes innings. Will Johns made the initial breakthrough in the 14th over, with his outswing proving effective. Benji Williams’ leg-spin caused huge problems for the St Bedes batsmen, and he finished with superb figures of 5-45. William’s bowling masterclass was illustrated by patience and discipline. St Bedes offered resistance, but James Gross eventually took the final wicket in the 45th over, securing an outright win for Sydenham.
This performance builds on the team’s batting confidence from the previous week. While there were notable individual contributions, the overall team effort was key to the victory. The fielding was energetic and efficient, with catches being held and close-in fielders working well together.
Next week we play Christs College on Christs No4.
Youth Yr 10 – WON
Match report courtesy of Pim de Monchy
A fine afternoon greeted the boys assembled at Brookside Domain in Rangiora for their match against NCYCC on Saturday. The pitch was very soft with long grass, so when co-captains Dylan and Remi won the toss they elected to bowl, thinking the surface would offer variable bounce.
It certainly did. At the southern end in particular, a good length delivery could either shoot through just above ankle height or pop up onto the splice. Our bowlers just kept dropping ball on a good length around off stump and let the pitch do it’s thing, which was assisted by the opposition choosing some cross bat shots despite not knowing how much the ball would bounce. That resulted in 7 bowled dismissals, two LBWs and a fine C&B. Luke Griffiths picked up 4/23 and Dylan Tullet 3-12, but credit goes across the board to the unit for sticking to a good plan and bowling accurately. Jayden Wallis picked up the last wicket as NCYCC finished on 92 all out, setting the boys our 2nd sub-100 chase in two weeks.
However, as we all know, both teams have to bat on the same pitch and strange things can happen. Openers Nakul Singh and Vansh Sharma started well putting on 43 for the first wicket and giving the boys confidence that the result was a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately though, the vagaries of the pitch combined with our batters’ choices led to a collapse of 7 wickets for 24 runs, leaving 20-odd to chase with two in hand. A 16 run partnership scratched out for the 9th wicket left just a couple of runs to get, and we were perhaps fortunate that the bowlers then fired down a couple of wides to give us the
win, by the barest of margins.
Player of the match was opener Nakul Singh who carried his bat for an impressive 47* off 64 deliveries which effectively won us the game. He attacked poor deliveries to find the big boundary six times but had the patience to temper his natural aggression and respect anything that threatened his stumps with a straight bat. A fantastic innings.
The boys now have two wins from two games and are well-placed going into round 3.
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