BEYOND THE BOUNDARY Sydenham Cricket Club April 2019 issue PRESIDENT’S managed, well coached and understand the pathways we can provide for them into adult REPORT cricket. Graham Harris, President As always a big part of the strength of any club is the tireless (and often thankless ) work of the Our season ended on committee. I know I say it every year, but I really Saturday 30th March and we do appreciate the commitment of a lot of our all gathered together to committee members. And again I must say it is celebrate our season and the same group of committee members who do hand out awards to our the most work. deserving winners. There were some outstanding individual performances Kevin Congdon our treasurer who goes way with both bat and ball ( more about that later in beyond his budgeting,financial reporting, and the newsletter). We also celebrated our 6th Grade fund raising activities, because he is also very Cardinals who took out the Grade Championship involved in our weekly and monthly newsletters by beating New Brighton in the last game. Special which provide a vital link to all of our players and mention should also be made of our Goats team supporters. who won the round robin section of their Div 4 competition. Andrew Chisnall who works tirelessly assisting the Captains to get our afternoon grades on the Our season end was tinged with huge sadness as park with eleven players each week, and then run we all felt the effects of the tragic event of the the Bar on a Saturday night and get a game of 15th March. Whilst we did not lose players cricket in as well. I should also point out that our directly from that awful day, we know other clubs hugely successful end of year wards night is did, and we send our heartfelt sympathies to largely the result of Andrews organisation and those clubs and indeed the wider Muslim efforts. community as we all come to terms with this atrocious attack on our community. Linda Pettigrew and Ferg Smith who look after our Womens grades and Youth teams On a happier note I trust you all enjoyed your respectively have really stepped up their season of cricket. Your committee are mindful of involvement in club matters as we build playing the demands placed on families and individuals strength and playing ability in these groups. as we play our beloved game, and we have certainly noticed teams struggling some weeks Bill Nicholson also warrants a huge thanks for his to get full teams on the Park. I know that Metro tireless work in getting the Division 1 sides on Cricket are very aware of this issue and are the field each week. Whilst we are determine to working hard to devise game formats and resolve this issue next season, without Bill’s schedules which adapt to the changing efforts, including filling himself to make up the circumstances of our cricket playing community. numbers, the situation would have been much worse. During the off season your committee will again be hard at work preparing for the new season. It has been great to have Ivan Thomson back Financial budgets form a large part of our work , fully involved in the running of our club and to as does the reviews of our past season and all of our other committee members I express my ensuring we have a working structure in place to sincere thanks because without you our club meets the changing needs of our game. This would simply not function. winter we will also be spending some time working on our youth cricket teams in both boys Last but not least I do want to give thanks and and girls. recognise the sterling work Mike Dolden has done in his various management roles in the We recognise they are the future of the club and Premier playing squad. It is a fact that his efforts it is important that we ensure we have the right and leadership have helped the Senior team win structure in place that these groups are well a two day trophy and a T20 Trophy over the last Beyond the Boundary April 2019 few years. Mike has announced that he is this showed at the bar which was well supported standing down from his Premiership leadership thru out the season. And well done to those who role and also from the committee at the end of turned out for Bert’s second quiz nite. this season, and we wish him well in the future. I am sure we will see him around the grounds next This year the senior club increased in size to 17 season- cricket is in his blood!! teams with the youth teams now under the club banner. Exciting times ahead with the youth To all of our club members and supporters, I talent coming thru both in the mens and womens trust that you have an enjoyable winter and get ranks. Like other years it was great to see these out and play your sport of choice, and we will see youth players putting there hands up to play in you all back in the spring when we will do it all mens/womens teams when they had no youth again. cricket and being embraced by the club teams. Best wishes. A special mention for Erika Oda, the Japanese Graham Harris, President women’s player who came out for the season. She came out under her own steam to play for the club and increase her knowledge of the game. She had a great attitude for always CLUB CAPTAIN’S wanting to learn more and her dedication to the REPORT game was amazing. Always willing to help out and the first to put her hand up when a team was Andrew Chisnall, short when Prems were not playing. She had a Club Captain game in the mens Div 1 side and even helped with sub fielding after her own games. Hopefully It was a pleasing end to the we will see her back next season. We wish her season for the club with luck in the upcoming ICC T20 world cup several outstanding team qualifiers. and individual efforts on the final day. A big thanks to all the captains for their hard work over the season supporting the club, from The Div 6 Cardinals winning their final on getting teams on the field, supporting social Sydenham Park to go along with their first events, and to ensuring club stats were kept up placing in the round robin competition. The to date. Also thanks to the committee and Goats wrapped up their season with a third helpers for all their hard work over the season. placing in the finals after winning the round There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to robin competition. The Prem women won there keep the club up and running especially with the playoff match to finish 3rd in the one day size of our club. competition. Well done to all the other teams for their efforts over the season. Special mention to Remember to stay up to date with the club scene the Tamil team only in their second season of on the club website and Facebook. Have a great playing club cricket (and this year playing 40 over winter and look forward to seeing you all back comp) who showed they have the ability to play next season. at this level with some good wins thru the season. Individual highlights on the last day included PREMIER MEN’S Chad and Ryan for the Prem men both getting SQUAD REPORT unbeaten centuries. Chidambaram Palaniappan for the Tamils getting the clubs best bowling Gary Gardner, figures for the season with 7 for 9. The last day Premier Manager of the season saw five more trophies for batting and bowling for individual efforts. Always an At the Christmas break the interesting time of the year when sorting Prem men would have felt trophies with these last minute achievements. pleased with their efforts to And a good turnout at the prize giving with all date having narrowly missed making the 1-Day sides being represented even with the winter semis, and sitting comfortably in 2nd place in the sports code under way. 2-Dayers. That good form initially carried through into January when the side again It was good to be back on Sydenham Park this performed very well in the T20 competition, season and I think everyone certainly enjoyed managing to get through to the semi-finals only that opportunity both on and off the field. And to miss out on the final when they were well Beyond the Boundary April 2019 beaten by Lancaster Park. The stand-out in that stood out as one of the few who could bat time, T20 run was TJ Johnston who relished the and was the pick of the out-fielders with seven opening role and clubbed 245 runs to sit 2nd in run-outs. Ryan Wallace had a disappointing run the competition’s aggregates. by his standards after Christmas until that last match yet still finished the season with 500 runs. Attention then Mitch Gardner was again the top performer with turned to the the ball with his 37 wickets at 17.8, but in many balance of the ways it was the slower bowlers that impressed. 2-Day TJ’s first season for Sydenham with 30 wickets, competition backed by the accurate leg-spin of Connor but Marshall and Jamie Hunt, the latter who shone in unfortunately the short form games, finally gave us a balance from that to our attack that had been very much medium point our pace focused in recent years.