A Soden Sydenham Park Denies Results

A SODDEN SYDENHAM PARK DENIES RESULTS – 25 OCTOBER 2025

It was a morning of disbelief and disappointment at Sydenham Park when players arrived for the second day’s play to find the outfields saturated — not from rain, but from an overnight irrigation mishap. Despite the glorious weather, the council’s watering system had inexplicably activated overnight, leaving all three wicket blocks sodden and play severely delayed.

Fortunately, the actual pitches for the Premier Men and Championship games escaped the worst of it and played superbly once things finally got underway. But the outfields took hours of work to make playable. The situation was particularly cruel on the Burnside West Premier side, whose opening-round match had also been abandoned without a ball bowled due to a similar ground issue at their home park.

To their credit, all teams — especially the Burnside Championship lads, who were more than 100 runs behind on the first innings — showed great determination to get the games going. After extensive work to dry the surfaces, play finally began early-mid afternoon. However, despite some excellent batting, including a gritty 94 from Ryan Wallace for the Premier Men, time ran out for any decisive results, and both matches were drawn.

With the long weekend meaning no Women’s or Masters fixtures, results elsewhere were mixed. Division 2 fell short after being unable to recover from an 85-run first-innings deficit against Heathcote. Benefiting from a late transfer off an unplayable Sydenham 3, the Goats were the only afternoon who winners, with Chris Douglas’ 5-12 featuring.

In youth cricket, the 1st XI had a bye, while the 2nd and 3rd XI both suffered defeats, the Colts, Year 10, and Year 9 teams all recorded wins. The highlights came with another score from Sam Macdonald, this time with a 61 in the 2^nd XI’s loss. There was a 69 by the 3^rd XI’s Neil Thakar, and a fine 53 from Hridayman Sharma in the Year 9 victory.

Some of the photos in this publication are also courtesy of Ash Hart’s Hartland Images.

Premier Men

Sydenham 209-5 (60 overs) & 246-5 (73 overs)
Burnside West University 249 (46.2 overs)

After a frustrating delayed start to the second day — when an overnight irrigation mishap left Sydenham Park outfield saturated and unplayable for much of the morning — play finally resumed at 1.00pm. Burnside, resuming at 157–6, made the most of the shortened day. Zohrab, Winter and Lewis batted positively to lift their total to 249 before being dismissed. Tom Agnew added another wicket to finish with an excellent 6–63, while Mitch Gardner’s 3–51 provided solid support.

Ryan Wallace – a fingertip away

Burnside’s decision to push beyond Sydenham’s first-innings total secured them the first-innings points, but it also committed them to needing to bowl out the now unincentivised home side to force a result. With only 70 overs remaining and the pitch offering little for the bowlers, Sydenham saw a lop-sided risk/reward and instead set about batting out the day, which it did comfortably.

Jackson Hemingway

An early wicket in the second over gave Burnside brief hope, but Ryan Wallace and Jackson Hemingway settled quickly, adding 77 for the second wicket before Jackson fell for a well-made 54 from 95 balls, an encouraging double after his 43 in the first innings. Ryan continued to anchor the innings as Aarush Bhagwat joined him in another valuable partnership of 75 for the third wicket. When Aarush departed for 41 off 57 balls, the match was already drifting toward a draw.

Ryan Wallace

Matt Tromp’s early dismissal briefly lifted Burnside again, but Dylan McArdle then combined with Ryan for a composed 54-run stand that ended any remaining doubt. Ryan was outstanding throughout, batting with patience and maturity, and was unlucky to miss out on a century when dismissed for 94 from 204 balls. Dylan remained unbeaten on 45 when play was called off 40 minutes early at 6.30pm, with Sydenham comfortably placed at 246–5.

Dylan McArdle

Thanks to umpires Darryn Boyle and Kaushik Padmanaban for their efforts across both days.

A disappointing finish to what had promised to be an intriguing second day, but the side will look to carry their solid form into next week’s clash with East Shirley at Burwood Park.

Full scoreboard & video highlights: https://live.nvplay.com/nz?tab=m_scorecard#m4072ebf2-0108-4364-ad6c-436415e797ec

Championship

Sydenham 279-4 (56 overs) & 50-5 (15 overs)

Burnside West University 171 (44.1 overs) & 221-6 (37.2 overs)

Conditions were even more difficult on Sydenham No. 2, where the Championship side also faced Burnside West. While No. 1 had only a waterlogged outfield, No. 2 had taken the full brunt of the overnight irrigation — standing water was not only on the outfield but also across parts of the wicket block.

With a commanding 108-run first-innings lead, Sydenham were understandably eager to resume play — but to their great credit, so too were Burnside. After a lot of work and thorough inspection, both captains agreed to restart the match at 3.15pm.

Josh Wedlake

Once Sydenham enforced the follow-on, Burnside seized control of the shortened afternoon session. Openers Kennedy and McDuff batted with intent, dominating the Sydenham attack and scoring freely at around six runs per over. Their aggressive approach saw Burnside surge to 221-6 inside 38 overs before declaring, setting Sydenham a target of 114 from just 15 overs.

Cullen Crowe

It was an enterprising declaration that briefly looked as if it might pay off. Sydenham’s reply began disastrously — last week’s century-maker Nathaneal Paltridge fell in the first over, and by the end of the fourth, the home side had slumped to 19-5 in pursuit of the steepening asking rate of 7.5 per over. Recognising the futility of the chase, Sydenham opted for damage control and safely negotiated the remaining overs to finish on 50-5. Josh Wedlake was the pick of the bowlers, bowling without much luck to finish with 1-32 from 10 overs, whilst Cullen Crowe and Askhan Gulati both picked up a couple of wickets apiece.

In the end, it was a disappointing yet probably fair result, with both sides clearly dominating a day apiece, but the delayed start left too little time to force a decisive outcome. Sydenham’s next fixture is away to Halswell at Halswell Domain.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/mens-championship/game-centre/a21c555f

Division 2

Match report courtesy of Richard Howe

Heathcote 205-7 (45 overs) & 148 (44.1 overs)

Sydenham 120 (32.2 overs) & 90 (31.4 overs)

With Heathcote starting the day 114 runs ahead with 10 wickets in hand, our goal was to get 10 wickets in as little time as possible. Udhi Upadhyay (4 for 33 off 8started us off beautifully by removing an opener with the third ball of the day. Udhi continued to target the stumps, and the extra pace was too much for most of Heathcote’s top order, and he had them 4 for 83 after 25 overs. The inspired bowling change of Ryan Lightfoot (2 for 28 off 6) brought about yet another wicket off the second ball of his spell. Ryan and Nathan Chin (1 for 31 off 11) then worked away at restricting the runs to try and frustrate the batsmen into making a mistake. Nathan was unlucky not to pick up a couple more wickets with difficult chances going down. As the lead passed 200, Heathcote looked to push on and continued to provide chances. Tanhirdaypal Pannu (2 for 6 off 4) came on and did the damage, taking the final two wickets, leaving us requiring 234 to win.

Todd Ward

With 30 minutes to bat until lunch, our chase didn’t get off to the best start, losing two wickets in the first six overs. Unfortunately, that set the tone for our innings, as we lost regular wickets and never looked like chasing 234. A few decent starts from Shevon Perera (16 from 18), Isaiah Prasad (15 from 29) and Nathan Chin (29* from 56) provided resistance, but we were eventually bowled out for 90 after 31 overs. On another day, a couple more catches would have stuck, the required total would have been under 200, and a couple of the lads would have gone on to score big. It just wasn’t our day. Plenty to be positive about as we look to the coming weeks of cricket.

Adityan Suganthi

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/mens-division-2-red/game-centre/44487fd4

Division 3 Tamils XI – LOST

No match report available

Sydenham 155 (32.4 overs)

Halswell 156-5 (31 overs)

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/mens-division-3/game-centre/d4a79959

Division 4 Goats – WIN

Match report courtesy of Geordie Dann

Sydenham 173 (38.1 overs)

Lancaster Park 146 (36.3 overs)

Sydenham played Lancaster park at Bradford Park. We were excited to finally have a game at Sydenham 3, but alas, the sprinklers had been on and there was a puddle at one end. A quick relocation to Bradford Park solved the problem, and for once the rugby league posts were gone!

Jon won his third toss in a row and chose to bat, a lucky call, as a clerical error meant we only had 10 players to start with, giving us time to find an 11th. Ollie blunted a decent LPW attack at the top, and eight of our top nine batters reached double figures. Geordie made 27, Jesse 23, and Chris 19. Highlights included a Raj ramp for four and Paddy’s second-ball cover drive for four. We finished with a competitive 173 all out.

Chris Douglas, returning from a hand injury sustained courtesy of his brother Dougie (who had thrown a ball at him in warm-ups), didn’t miss a beat. He tore through the LPW top order, taking 5 for 12 from eight overs straight. LPW fought back in the middle stages, but Ollie and Jon pegged them back nicely. JB claimed two leg-side strangles thanks to tidy work behind the stumps from Tony Danenburg.

LPW were eventually bowled out for 146. Big thanks to the Tyrants for being a great bunch of lads, including multiple instances of players walking after light snicks.

Goats are pumped to have started with 3 wins and no losses.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/mens-division-4/game-centre/a708396f

Division 4 Royal Challengers – LOST

Match report courtesy of Anand Beena

Sydenham 97 (34.2 overs)

BWU 98-5 (26.4 overs)

Sydenham played Burnside West at Burnside Park, won the toss and elected to bat. Sydenham had a good start with Amrinder (36) hitting 4 fours and 2 sixes, but then we lost two early wickets in Amrinder and Chandu. After that our middle order collapsed and we were 48-8. We had a good partnership between Tushar (11) and Shyam, adding 20 runs to the total. Then our last man Siva (19) and Shyam (14*) stood until the 35th over to take Sydenham to total of 98 runs. Rhys was the pick of the bowlers taking 5 wickets supported by John Cowley (2).

We started our bowling in good note taking some early wickets by Aasif (2) supported by Tushar, Amrinder taking a wicket each, but we couldn’t defend the total. Josh Dyer (34*) and Jonathan Collins (11*) batted really well and took the game away from us and finished the game in the 27th over.

Overall good gameplay from both the teams.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/mens-division-4/game-centre/f20d6e68

Division 5 All-Stars – LOST

Match report courtesy of Abe Atherton

Richmond 172-9 (40 overs)

Sydenham 65 (21.4 overs)

Sydenham took on Richmond at Richmond Park. Sydenham won the toss and elected to bowl first, fielding with intent and discipline through the early stages of the innings. The opening bowlers kept things tight, with Mark Flowerday (3/34) and Jacob Koster (3/41) leading the attack effectively. Flowerday and Koster’s consistent line and length earned key breakthroughs.

Abe Atherton

Tom Elliott (2/8), Abraham Atherton (1/24) and Cameron Hatcher (1/29) continued to apply pressure. Catches were well held by Joel Thomson, Shubh Kalathiya, Jacob Koster and Tom Elliott (2), reflecting the All Stars’ sharpness in the field. However, a crucial sixth-wicket partnership for the Rhinos turned the match, pushing their total to a competitive 9/172 after 40 overs. Koster’s full length diving catch to dismiss the inform Rhino’s batter would be one of the best catches of the season.

In reply, the All Stars batting lineup struggled to find momentum. Despite a few starts, wickets fell at regular intervals. Joel Thomson (13), Andrew Reynolds (10), and Abraham Atherton (9)* were the only players to reach double figures. The Rhinos’ bowlers maintained pressure throughout, bowling Sydenham out for 65 in 21.4 overs.

Although the result went the Rhinos’ way by 107 runs, there were positives for the Allstars — especially the disciplined bowling and catching effort. The team will regroup and look to rediscover their winning form in the coming rounds.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/mens-division-5/game-centre/5a520c53

T20 Cavaliers Cardinals – LOST

Match report courtesy of Jamie Livingstone

Cardinals played St Albans Fozzie’s on the Polo Grounds. The Cardinals returned to the scene of last season’s finals victory on the back of a 0 and 2 start to the season. The fixture scheduler offered the Cardinals no respite, serving up perennial title contenders St. Albans. Initial signs were not good, with the lack of spring stumps meaning a chilly bin was at one point considered as an alternative wickets option. Fortunately, St Albans’ former black cap was running a second set, so a more standard-looking pitch was put in place.

Camo won the toss and put us in. The first two games of the season had seen the Cardinals limited to double-digit scores, and the Cardinals knew they would need to do better to be in with a sniff. Camo and Larts led the charge against some solid St Albans bowling, with both batters smashing some lusty blows, combined with some circumspect defence. Camo fell in the 30s to a decent grab in the outfield. Keza joined Larts and continued the progress before Larts fell to a decent caught and bowled. Smitty came out swinging and, alongside Keza, pushed the Cardinals to a respectable 147.

Even with double last week’s total on the board, the chat at halfway was that with an artificial pitch, freshly mowed outfield and a shortish boundary, we may have been 30 short, and so proved to be the case. Fynn and Kez were the pick of the bowlers, sending down some decent stuff against a quality batting line-up. Both bowlers were unfortunately not supported in the outfield, with some very average catching on display. Particularly galling for young Fynn was seeing a catchable chance go down to claim the wicket of former Black Cap Stewart.

St Albans reached the target with three overs to spare, and the Cardinals slipped to 0 and 3 for the season. The boys can take heart from a much-improved batting effort, however, and gave one of the title contenders a run for their money. With less vaunted opposition surely round the corner, the first win of the season is not far away.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/cavaliers-section-red-t20/game-centre/c6c38038

T20 Gujarat Kings – LOST

Match report courtesy of Yash Patel

St Albans 169-6 (20 overs)

Sydenham 64-7 (1`4 overs)

Sydenham T20 Gujarat Kings played St Albans at Garrick Park 2. It was a tough day with the bat for our Kings, as both our top-order batsmen had to retire hurt early in the innings — putting us on the back foot from the start of the chase. Despite that, the boys showed great fighting spirit with a strong bowling performance, especially Yash’s brilliant 3-wicket spell.

The team will regroup and come back stronger in the next game!

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/cavaliers-section-black-t20/game-centre/5e4584e4

Youth First XI – BYE

Bye round for the boys

Youth 2^nd XI – LOST

Match report courtesy of Daniel Herd

Sydenham 128 (32.4 overs)

CBHS 130-6 (27.3 overs)

The Sydenham Youth 2nd XI fell short in a tight, low-scoring contest against Christchurch Boys’ High School 4th XI, going down by four wickets at CBHS. After being asked to bat first, Sydenham recovered from a shaky start to post 128 all out in 32.4 overs. Captain Sam Macdonald led from the front with a commanding 61 off 58 balls, striking eight fours and two sixes. He found support from vice-captain Leif Kitto (12 off 40) and later from Lucky Lasiyal (11 off 33) and Noah Dean (12*), but regular wickets halted momentum. Despite 21 extras and a couple of small lower-order partnerships, Sydenham’s innings ended just shy of a defendable total.

Defending 128, the bowlers showed real fight. Reuben Williamson (2/34) struck twice early to leave CBHS reeling at 23/3, and Bayley Gardner (1/24) maintained pressure with consistent line and length. Later, Cameron Fairhall (2/23) claimed two middle-order wickets to keep Sydenham in the contest. However, despite their persistence and sharp fielding — including a fine run out from Archie Nielsen — CBHS reached the target in the 28th over. It was a match defined by small margins and solid effort across the field. The 2nds will take plenty of positives from their disciplined bowling and leadership from Macdonald, using the loss as valuable experience ahead of next weekend’s fixture.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/2025/cricket-express-1st-xi-bowl-one-day/game-centre/884231b1

Youth 3^rd XI – LOST

Match report courtesy of Dayle Kinzett

Sydenham 270-7 (50 overs)

St Andrews College 271-7 (39.1 overs)

We played St Andrews’ 3rds, @ St Andrews’ No.2 which is a grass wicket, that is one of the better batting wickets to play on. Sydenham won the toss and we chose to Bat first.

As expected we faced some good accurate bowling from St Andrews’ early on. An excellent opening partnership of 60 in 13 overs Liam Kinzett (16 off 39balls) & Eli Helms (32 off 70 balls) setting the innings up well. Handy contributions from Will Thorpe (18 off 24balls) & Utkarsh Singh (29 off 26balls) took us through to 4-169 off 33 overs. We had good partnerships with our top scorer Neil Thakar (69 off 64balls) along with meaningful contributions at the end by Blake Winter (24no off 30balls) & Nishchay Singh (25no off 37balls), meant we posted a good 7 for 270 off our 50 overs.

Utkarsh Singh

We picked up regular wickets early against St Andrews to have them 5 for 72 Hirun Clements (1-52 off 10overs) Callum Walsh (3-65 off 9overs) lead the way. And both Neil Thakar (2-49 off 7overs) & Eli Helms (1-49 off 7overs) tried hard to pick up the remaining St Andrews wickets to round out very good all round games by them both. Unfortunately though St Andrews had two batsmen who both survived several very confident caught behind appeals, to score 75 & 74no between then, which ultimate turned the game in St Andrews favour, reaching our total 7 wickets down in the 40^th over.

Eli Helms

We played a lot of the better cricket, and played some really good cricket, unfortunately it wasn’t to be our day, the players can look forward to that day coming soon if they continue to build on this performance.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/2025/cricket-express-1st-xi-bowl-one-day/game-centre/4ba0d188

Youth Colts – WON

Match report courtesy of Amanda Davies

Sydenham 146 (32.2 overs)

St Bede College 72-9 (20.3 overs)

The Sydenham Colts continued their strong Term 4 campaign with a 74 run victory over St Bede’s College on Saturday, thanks to a gritty all round performance led by the bowlers after a testing start with the bat.

Batting first, Sydenham posted 146 all out in 32.2 overs. Opener Jonty Rutherford (24 off 37) and Noah Green batting at 4 (32 off 63) provided stability against a young St Bede’s attack, rotating the strike well and punishing loose deliveries to set a solid platform. Zarnder O’Donnell a quick 24 off 16 balls, including several well-timed boundaries, lifting the run rate through the middle overs. Lower order contributions from Reuben Peterson (22 off 35) and Kahn Stanbury (13 off 11) ensured Sydenham reached a defendable total despite regular wickets. Extras played their part too, with 19 runs donated by St Bede’s through wides and no balls, handy on a day when partnerships were hard fought. Sydenham were eventually dismissed for 146, a total that looked competitive but required early breakthroughs with the ball.

The Colts’ bowlers responded superbly, tearing through the St Bede’s lineup to bowl them out for 72 in 20.3 overs. Opening bowler Rupert Nielsen (5 overs, 1 maiden, 21 runs, 2 wickets) set the tone, finding swing and seam to remove key top order batters. He was well supported by William Johns (5-0-17-2), whose disciplined line outside off stump built pressure through the middle overs. The standout spell came from James Gross, who returned excellent figures of 5 overs, 1 maiden, 20 runs, 3 wickets, dismantling the middle order and effectively ending any hopes of a St Bede’s revival.

Benjamin Williams (2.3-1-1-2) finished the job clinically, while Joe Wilke contributed economically in his three over spell. In the field, Rutherford and Nielsen each took sharp catches, helping Sydenham maintain their momentum and energy throughout the innings.

After being bowled out for 146, Sydenham showed character and discipline to turn the game decisively with the ball. Every bowler contributed, and the team’s fielding intensity was a highlight cutting off singles and converting chances to ensure St Bede’s never settled.

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/2025/cricket-express-colts-one-day/game-centre/bbb659db

Youth Yr 10 – WON

Match report courtesy of Akash Patel

Sydenham 213-8 (40 overs)

Shirley Boys HS 79 (28 overs)

We had a great win against Shirley Boys/St Bedes Year 10. They won the toss and selected to field first. Our team, Sydenham year 10, started great in batting putting up a score of 8/213 in 40 overs. Om Patel made 40 runs off 39 and Captain Dylan Tullet made 27 off 39 not out. We did very well on batting as we managed to bat the full 40 overs.

Benny Wilkinson

In bowling, Sydenham year 10 bowled them out for 79 in 28 overs. Nakul Singh took 3 crucial wickets alongside Benny Wilkinson, who took 2 wickets and Christopher Skinner, who took 2 wickets as well.

Our fielding was great all-round as we stopped many important runs for the opposition. Om Patel took an extremely great catch at silly mid-off and Vansh also took a great catch at mid-on.