Three Out of Three

THREE OUT OF THREE – 4 DECEMBER 2025

The first—and only—Thursday night T20 round saw all three Sydenham morning-grade sides in action at Sydenham Park, producing a night of mixed fortunes.

The Premier Men continued their strong run of form, securing their third consecutive victory with a convincing win over St Albans on Sydenham 1. Another disciplined bowling display restricted Saints to a modest 102, before Matt Tromp led an assured and positive chase that wrapped up the match comfortably, keeping Sydenham joint leaders in the T20 competition.

For the Championship side, however, it proved a challenging evening. Their batting stocks were heavily depleted by sudden illness and injury, with several players called up to bolster the Premier side. Despite this, the bowlers—supported by some impressive contributions from Youth XI players—performed admirably to hold St Albans to a gettable total on Sydenham 2. Unfortunately, the weakened batting lineup was unable to capitalise, collapsing under pressure in the pursuit.

Division 2 remained competitive throughout their clash with Hornby. Set 145 for victory, they made a promising start through Freddie Winsor and Sam Jones, but despite that foundation, the innings lost momentum, and they eventually fell 17 runs short.

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

Premier Men

St Albans 102-7 (20 overs)

Sydenham 103-2 (11.3 overs)

St Albans won the toss and chose to bat on a beautiful Christchurch evening. They began steadily through openers Harper and Rapson, who put on 33 for the first wicket before Jackson Hemingway struck, removing Harper. Two overs later, Tom Agnew claimed a sharp return catch in his follow-through, and from there the St Albans innings began to unravel.

Daniel Watt

Daniel Watt—home briefly and stepping in for the side—delivered an excellent spell, claiming two key wickets, including Rapson, to leave the visitors stumbling at 57–4 in the 13th over, soon slipping further to 66–5. Flavell and Clement managed a brief resistance, but once Clement fell with the score at 95–6 heading towards the 19th over, momentum never returned. One more wicket fell in the final over as St Albans closed at 102–7.

Jackson Hemingway

Watt (4–2–14) was arguably the pick of the bowlers, but Hemingway continued his strong season with another two wickets, while all three other bowlers contributed with a wicket apiece and tight, economical spells.

Josh Tromp

The Sydenham chase quickly became the Matt Tromp show. Tromp and Matt McCall extinguished any chance of a tense pursuit by blasting 50 for the opening stand in under five overs. Both enjoyed a slice of luck with a couple of dropped chances and miscued lofted shots landing safely, but they wasted no time taking the match away from St Albans. Tromp was particularly brutal, smashing two sixes and five fours in a rapid 45 off 19 balls before departing as the first wicket down.

Matt McCall

Ryan Wallace kept the momentum going with a brisk 12 before falling in the 8th over at 73–2. From there, Aarush Bhagwat finished the job in style, hammering 26 off just 9 balls. He and McCall—who anchored the chase with an unbeaten 17 off 29—guided Sydenham to the target comfortably in the 12th over, closing on 103–2.

Sydenham now look ahead to a busy Saturday, with a morning match against Riccarton at Riccarton Domain followed by a top-of-the-table clash against co-leaders BWU at Burnside Park.

Thanks to umpires, the father and son duo of Matthew and Robert Hill.

Full scoreboard & video highlights: https://live.nvplay.com/nz?tab=m_scorecard#m551135ba-290c-4e38-b6ce-116ecf26b386

Championship

Unfortunately, there is no scorecard available for this match, which Sydenham lost, and so the details are sketchy.

Sydenham went into its match against St Albans on Sydenham 2 with their batting resources stretched by last-minute withdrawals that resulted in the side only retaining two of the team’s top six batsmen in the season to date. However, although the side’s vulnerability this season has tended to be its bowling, the introduction of a number of youth players made a big difference when Saints batted first. The side fought well and managed to hold the batting side to a modest total just above 100

Cadell Durdin

The Sydenham reply got off to a disastrous start with multiple wickets lost in the first few overs leaving the side 34-8 and almost out of the match – Noah Jefferson played a nice reguard innings in the lower order but never found enough support to seriously threaten the target, with his side eventually pulling up well short of the required total.

Noah Jefferson

Thanks to umpire David Miller

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/cmca-adult-summer-202526/mens-championship/game-centre/ece0b4fc

Division 2

Match report courtesy of Todd Ward

Hornby 145-5 (20 overs)

Sydenham 129-7 (20 overs)

Sydenham played Hornby on Sydenham 3, lost the toss and were asked to bowl first. Isaiah Prasad (1 for 16 off 4) opened the bowling and restricted the flow of runs early, backed up by Lyle Cupido (0 for 23 off 4) at the other end. After 4 overs Hornby were 19 for none and we were applying good pressure, unfortunately a couple of catches went down that allowed for the openers to settle more and towards the end of the powerplay they began to up the scoring rate. Ryan Lightfoot (1 for 42 off 4) eventually broke that partnership to open up an end. At that time Ajith Shetty (1 for 23 off 4) came into the bowling attack and made an immediate impact, removing the other opener and bowling tight lines. At 98 for 2 after 12 Hornby were looking like setting a big score but we then managed to tighten the screws and string dot balls together to build pressure. Gaurav Jadhav (2 for 19 off 3) bowled brilliantly to pick up a couple of wickets to finish off the innings, with Hornby leaving us 146 to win.

Ajith Shetty

Freddie Windsor and Sam Johns started the batting steadily with good rotation of strike and the odd boundary. They put on 49 before Freddie was dismissed for 24 from 20. We continued to rotate the strike well and collect runs, but were lacking the odd boundary to keep us on top of the run rate. We were on track after 9 overs, collecting 60 odd runs. But with the dismissal if Sam for 36 off 31 we struggled to find any momentum and kept losing wickets through the middle to find ourselves 88 for 6 after 15.

Todd Ward

Still needing 58 from 60 balls we were not out of the game, but we had no set batsmen, and it was going to be a tough ask in the fading light. But then stepped up Gaurav who took hold of the 18th over making 14 from it to leave 23 required from 2 overs. All of a sudden, we believed. What happened next however was not what we were hoping for, the fading light made it hard to make good contact with the ball and in the most unlikely circumstances a maiden was bowled. That left 23 from 6 balls which was simply too much to ask for. We finished our 20 overs 127 for 7 with Gaurav on 26* from 18

Tks Toddy, yep you were certainly looking likely for quite a part of that match

Full scoreboard: https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/org/christchurch-metro-cricket-associationcjca/summer-202526/mens-division-2-red/game-centre/723f531b