Week 3 Wrap vs Parramatta and R-P

1st Grade UTS North Sydney vs Parramatta at Bon Andrews Oval

UTS North Sydney 8/427 (dec) (T Jagot 149*, A Bariol 101, J Avendano 48, T Reynolds 37, B Atherton 37, JN James 34) def Parramatta 337 (M Alexander 4/69, J Campbell 3/83)

After declaring on the overnight score, the Bears set Parramatta 96 overs to score 428 runs. James Campbell got the home side off to a terrific start by taking out the middle stump of one opener with the first ball of his second over with the score on 12. State player Nick Bertus strode out to be met by an equally menacing delivery that took the outside edge of the bat and was brilliantly caught low down by Jack James at third slip first ball, and the Bears had the visitors 2/12. The early action didn’t stop there as Matt Alexander, after being hit for two big sixes, had the last laugh removing the dangerous Ben Abbott, caught by keeper Aiden Bariol and the Bears were on a roll at 3/24 after just 4 overs.

The opening bowlers had done their job, taking early wickets, and so it was time to squeeze the Parramatta batting order with the introduction of Mac Jenkins (0/21 off 8 before lunch) and James Aitken (0/12 off 7). After resting up, Alexander was given another crack just prior to lunch and he did not disappoint, clean bowling the set no: 4 and reducing Parra to 4/94 from 29 overs at the break.

With two youngsters at the crease, another youngster, in Jack James (1/21), was given the ball. Jack is making a habit of taking a wicket early in his spell and he delivered once again, bowling a ripping off break that dipped and yorked the batsman taking out his off stump. This brought big hitting Luke Dempsey to the crease. After a few sighters, Dempsey started to target the short boundaries presented by Bon Andrews Oval and, with his young partner collecting singles from the other end, he raced to 82 from 67 deliveries and Parramatta to 236. Just after the tea break, on his 68th ball, he made the fatal mistake of moving across his stumps to turn one to the leg side and was plumb LBW to a very exited Mac Jenkins (1/96), who leaped for joy as he ran to embrace his relieved skipper.

The Parramatta batsmen continued to fight hard, but with close to 200 runs needed in a session it was advantage Bears. The 7th wicket fell at 265 with a sharp catch by Bariol, up to the stumps to James Aitken, who returned figures of 1/48 from 19 overs. A further 40 runs were added to the total before Alexander (4/69) and Campbell (3/83) cleaned up the remaining batsmen with the new ball – all bowled, to have the Two Blues all out 337 in the 87th over, giving the Bears a comprehensive victory and 6 valuable points.

2nd Grade UTS North Sydney vs Parramatta at Old Kings Oval

UTS North Sydney 6/368 (M Papworth 126, R Aitken 93*, R Alexander 66, G Aitken 43) vs Parramatta

Through the eyes of Cameron New.

The beloved Bears 2nd Graders negotiated the heavily fortified defences at the entrance to Old Kings Park on Saturday morning. No doubt word of the Aitkens causing trouble had reach some ears, and concerns were high of more to come. Not to disappoint, Robbie Aitken strolled to the crease at 10:29 and calmly brought up his century (107* off 149) as the total ticked over to 9/388 declared from 102 overs. What was clear from the early proceedings was that the outfield was 10mm shorter and the pitch now resembled a 22 yard strip of O’Connell Street harvested during the construction of Bankwest Stadium.

With a minimum of 88 overs to complete the day, yhe 2nd innings got underway with Will Graham (1-34 (14)) and Harrison “The Big Horse” May (2-58 (18)) sharing first use of the pill. The opening bowlers battled hard to get the most out of the new ball – both collecting edges that were taken with aplomb with some excellent glove work from Max Papworth behind the stumps. The first session ended with two Parramatta wickets in the sheds.

Much like the round prior, Parramatta’s third wicket partnership steadied and frustrated the efforts of the bowling side. A further 95 runs were added before Sam “Pound-for-Pound” Alexander (3-59 (24)) broke through to remove both set batsmen. Samoz employed all of his guile and magnetism to woo the umpire into a positive decision after a ball spat off a length into Pappy’s waiting gloves – thanking all. The spinners bore the bulk of the bowling workload throughout the second and third sessions with Sam, Robbie (1-49 (17)) and Niranjan Naguleswaran (2-61 (15)) cycling from both ends. The boys were supported ably in the field, highlighted by a sharp overhead catch at backward square-leg by James Leary.

The final session of the day commenced with 33 overs still to be bowled, thanks to plenty of delays by the batting side. There were five wickets needed for victory and this was going to be a challenge as Parramatta appeared to have given up any chance of the win still 198 runs in arrears. Sam claimed the first scalp of the evening session with a tossed up off-break that was chipped straight to Niranjan at long off. This was proceeded by an almost identical effort off Niranjan’s bowling a few overs later at mid-off to leave Parramatta 6/225. Unfortunately, our bowlers were unable to capture the remaining four wickets required to take the 6 points. The Parra batters completely shut up shop and, despite a late surge of force from Niranjan and Samoz (including a wicket in the last over of the day), Parramatta finished 9/262 from 88 overs.

It was a solid round of cricket from the 2nd graders. There were plenty of excellent performances with the bat to build upon going into next weeks clash with UNSW at home. A credit to the bowling team for battling through the hot, dry conditions on an unresponsive wicket to nearly close out 6 points.

A big week ahead of training at Bon to follow.

Congratulations to the First Grade on their success against Parramatta and to PGs who opened their season with a thorough shellacking of Randy Petes at Kensington Oval on Sunday!

Kingsgrove Sports Twenty20 Cup, Round 1: UTS North Sydney v Randwick Petersham @ Kensington Oval

UTS North Sydney 122 (19.5 overs) (BS Atherton 59, A Bariol 22) def by Randwick Petersham 4/126 (18.4 overs) (R Aitken 2/32, JN James 1/22, J Campbell 1/31)

Buoyed by four of the team's success in the morning's PGs fixture, the First Grade side were full of confidence going into Round 1 of the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup against the Randy Petes. This continued with Justin Avendano winning the toss and electing to bat, but the Bears suffered an early setback with Avendano adjudged lbw from his first ball faced. Tom Jagot quickly followed for 2 and the Bears were on the rocks at 2/9 in the fifth over.

This brought together Brent Atherton and Tim Reynolds, who put on 27 runs in 19 balls, including the first bomb of the game from Atherton over mid-wicket and two well-struck fours to Reynolds. Reynolds was stumped for 13 and Olly Knight quickly followed to a brilliant diving catch by the Randy Petes keeper Anthony Sams. With 8 overs bowled, UTS North Sydney were still struggling at 4/43.

Aiden Bariol came to the crease, and combined with Atherton to dig the Bears out of trouble, increasing the score to 100 in the 13th over before Bariol holed out in the deep for 22 off 16. Atherton quickly followed for 59 off 51 balls (with three sixes and three fours), which had held the innings together. With his dismissal it was 6/108, which became 8/108 with a hat-trick to Scott Coyte sending back Jack James and Mac Jenkins, and suddenly the Bears were at risk of being bowled out. Matt Alexander, James Aitken and James Campbell combined to put on a further 14 runs to get the score up to 122 before Campbell was bowled with one ball remaining.

It wasn't an easy deck to bat on, but to defend 122 we were going to have to bowl and field brilliantly!

The first wicket, a catch to Alexander off Campbell (1/31), came with the score on 18. However, a partnership off 46 off 38 between Will Affleck and Sams put the Randy Petes well on top, despite Mac Jenkins (0/22) keeping it tight with only 8 taken off his first three overs. Rob Aitken (2/32) broke the partnership by bowling Sams, and then dispatched Shaun Eaton lbw two overs later, but the score was 3/78 off 11.4, so Randy Petes needed just 36 off 8.2 overs.

Jack James (1/22) chipped in with the wicket of Riley Ayre clean bowled, but it was clear the Bears just didn't have enough runs on the board. Will Affleck was immovable at one end Adam Semple saw the game through with him, Randy Petes winning by 6 wickets with 8 balls to spare.

The boys will regroup before their next T20 fixture against UNSW on 25 October, after a two-day match against the same opposition.

Round 1: Poidevin-Gray Shield UTS North Sydney v Randwick Petersham at Kensington Oval

Randwick Petersham 73 (18.3 overs) (M Jenkins 2/7, JN James 2/14) def by UTS North Sydney 1/77 (11.3 overs) (T Reynolds 50*)

The young Bears arrived at Kensington Oval with ex Randy Pete, Nick Hay, and Drew Sellers being added to the 13 man squad to soak up the atmosphere of the under 21s competition.

New captain Aiden Bariol lost the toss, with Randy Petes deciding to have a bat on what looked a dry dusty wicket. Ex Randy Pete, Mac Jenkins, got the team off to the perfect start, grabbing a wicket with his first ball courtesy of an Aiden Bariol stumping. Chris Savage and Nuwan Whyte (0/5 – 2 overs) bowled the next two overs, building pressure on the batsmen who could only manage 6 runs.

In the fourth over, another ex Randy Pete, Jack James, drew the no: 3 into a false stroke as he advanced down the wicket, lobbing the ball in the gap between mid on and mid off and into the safe hands of Adam Cavenor, who took a brilliant running catch.

Six bowlers were used in six overs with Randys 2/23. Ben Knox then came back for his second over, deceiving the batsman who top edged the ball to gully into Jack’s waiting hands – RPs 3/30 after 8.

Mac bowled the 10th over and, with runs drying up, the batsman hit the ball towards mid wicket and ran. The ball was pounced on by Jack, who fired it back to Mac to take off the bails and the Bears had their fourth wicket.

In a groundhog day moment, the new batsman, facing Knoxy (1/19) in his final over, also took on Jack at mid wicket. This time he was sent back by his partner, but not before the throw was fired in next to the stumps and Aiden had assisted in the second run-out of the game.

The best was yet to come when the set opener took off from the non-striker’s end, with Chris Savage bowling, and Jack picked up and hit the stumps with one to aim at to complete three run-outs for the game and leave Randy Petes 6/58 after 14 overs.

Jack was in the action again in the 15th over bowling a quicker one that hit the batsman in front for an LBW decision to finish with 2/14 from his 4 overs.

Mac claimed his second wicket of the game in the 16th over, clean bowling the batsman as he looked to hoik him over cow corner. Mac finished with amazing figures of 2/7 from his 4 overs and reduced RPs to 8/66. Fletcher May then returned for his second over, grabbing a wicket from the first ball with a comfortable catch taken by Tim Reynolds. The final pole belonged to Chris Savage (2.3 overs 1/10) who rattled the off stump of the no: 11 bringing the Randwick Petersham innings to a close after 18.3 overs – all out 73 - which in the process avoided a five run penalty for slow over rates.

Jack and Tim opening the batting, knocking the ball around early before Jack mishit a shot back over the bowler’s head and was caught at mid on. Aiden (16) joined Tim and was happy to pick up singles and twos while Tim picked up the pace. Tim dominated the batting innings, hitting four maximums, including two in a row against the leg spinner over deep mid wicket and cow corner.

With the game almost done and Tim sitting on 44, Aiden took a run off a no ball, which brought Tim back on strike with a free hit to follow. Tim didn’t waste his opportunity, making a clean connection, hitting over cow corner and landing a bomb over the fielder’s head to bring up an unbeaten fifty from 41 balls and the win for the team in the 12th over.

The win gives the boys 3 points and a excellent net run rate, and is the third year in a row that the Bears have towelled up Randy Petes in PGs. Next Sunday, the Bears take on Sutherland, who also had a convincing win in Round 1.

Media courtesy of Tony Johnson, David James, Jeff Vilensky, Sarah Berman and team captains.