2024 Over 65 State Championship - Armidale
- pjvcc7
- Dec 14, 2024
- 7 min read
This year's Over 65 State Championships were held in Armidale from 1st to 6th December and after a qualifying round to set divisions Port Jackson Red competed in Division 1 for the Norm Stanton Trophy and Port Jackson White competed in Division 2 for the Bill and Rplh Sadler Trophy.
Port Jackson Red
Back row: Gunaratnam Kandakumar David Trewin, Joe Scarcella, Mark Ridge, Gary Whittaker, David Wright,
Front row: Wasantha Hettiarachchi, Sittampalam Ragavan, Paul Adams, Peter Rolls, Simon Lyon
PJ Red team won its opening game against Northern NSW on Monday. The 4 winners went into Div 1 (PJ White, MNC, Penrith and Hunter), our PJ White team lost to Penrith and went into Div 2.
PJ Red on Tuesday played the very strong MNC side in its first round robin game. Put in on a slightly damp wicket we lost Gary Whitaker for zero in the first over run out without facing a ball. We faced tight bowling but retained our wickets being 1-40 after 20 overs. Good increase in run rate saw us post 3-127 off our 40 with Adams (32no) and Scarcella (21no) setting the score.
MNC started strongly and were 1-43 when PJs started to make inroads. A direct hit run out by Kanda, some fine catches and 3 wkts each from Wasantha and Kanda reduced MNC to 8-92. However, further breakthrough could not be achieved and MNC reached the target with 2 overs to go.
Wednesday was the rest day and an afternoon and evening storm pushed the Hunter vs PJs Thursday game onto Synthetic. Although we bowled and fielded very well to restrict Hunter to 6/99 off the 40 overs the PJ innings was fast and furious. PJs made 0-99 in 11.3 overs, with Whitaker 75no (incl six 6s), Ridge 17no and Lyon 5no.
Port Jackson Red o65s went into its final match on the Friday against Penrith/Western Wildfires with both sides realistically playing for 2nd/3rd position. However, also pride was on the table between the City and the West.
Penrith batted first after winning the toss. As in the MNC ame on the Tuesday PJs made good in roads with Penrith reduced to 4-39 but the depth of their batting saw them recover and then accelerate to make a very competitive 6-132 off their 40 overs, Kanda again being the pick of the bowlers with 1-10.
PJs went into bat and were tied down by effective and accurate bowling, we found ourselves behind the run rate after 15 overs. Unlike against MNC the attempt to pick up the pace by the middle and lower order caused wickets to fall and PJs fell to 7-54. We made 9-93 off our 40 overs to fall 39 runs short.
I would like to thank the players, who all stayed fit, as we had to go in with the bare 11 with no reserves. We performed extremely well in the field against good batting sides (113, 8-128, 98 and 6-132 being the opposition scores) but we failed to consistently capitalise with the bat, Special mention for Kanda (who said he did not want to bowl) who took 7-39 and Raga who took 6-72 across the 4 games, and Gary Whitaker who had highs and lows, particular high was the innings against Hunter.
Paul Adams
See PlayHQ for full details of results:
Port Jackson White
A big thank you to Paul Georgiadis for his managerial duties, Doug Latto for his assistance with finding and arranging for ‘fill-in’ players, and Geoff Spotswood for his pre-game warmup and on field support.
With some players only available for days 1 and 2 or days 3 and 4, plus late withdrawals… it was not the ideal precursor to a consistent and settled side. However, we did make the best of it.
The reality was that we did not have the fire power to smash an attack out of the park or strangle a side with persistent line and length bowling and sharp fielding. Having said that, at times we showed glimpses of these cricketing attributes but were not able to put all of them together on a regular basis.
I thank all our players for their effort throughout the championship. As usual, the camaraderie and sportsmanship displayed were exemplary, reflecting the true spirit of cricket.
Qualification round - Penrith vs. Port Jackson White
Played at Rologas Field, Armidale on Monday, 2nd December 2024.
On a bright and breezy Monday, the 2nd of December 2024, the over-65s teams of Penrith and Port Jackson White faced off in a Qualification round. The match was a testament to the enduring spirit and competitive fervour of veteran’s cricket.
Penrith won the toss and elected to bowl, sending Port Jackson in on a good wicket.
The Port Jackson openers started cautiously against an accurate Penrith attack, we (PJs) were able to move the score along to 2 for 65 before a middle order collapse, losing 4 wickets for 5 runs. The PJs tail then settled in and scored where they could against line and length bowling and getting us to 10 for 103 off 39.2 overs.
Michael (Monty) Byrne [24 runs from 42 balls – not out], Stanley Jayanthakumar [25 runs off 43 balls], and Nadarajah Gowripalan [9 runs from 35 balls – retired not out], all reaching their allotted 35 balls faced before retiring.
Chasing our 103, Penrith showed no mercy to our bowling attack knocking off the runs in the 15th over, losing only 1 wicket in the process (1 for 104).
David Hicks was our only wicket taker, finishing with 1 for 17 from 3 overs. Nadarajah Gowripalan bowled well and without luck completing 6 overs, finishing with none for 25.
In conclusion, we were beaten by the better side! We let ourselves down by not consolidating our batting start, and not bowling tight lines and length.
Division 2 Round 1 - Port Jackson White vs. Chairman’s XII
Played at Harris Park, Armidale on Tuesday, 3rd December 2024
Another beautiful day in the Highlands for our first match in division 2. We needed to improve all facets of our game if we wanted a positive outcome. Our resident player/coach took us through a warmup to inspire our PJs side to start well.
Port Jackson won the toss and elected to bowl, the pitch looked OK, except for a rather large area of carb grass short of a length and outside the right handers of stump at the northern end.
The Chairman’s XII started slowly because of some good line and length bowling from Nadarajah Gowripalan and Paul Georgiadis. Our change bowlers continued the tight lines, and an exceptional catch behind the wickets by Sabaratnam Thirukumar help restrict our opposition to 8 for 112 off their 40 overs.
Stanley Jayanthakumar [3 for 14 from 6 overs] was our standout bowler. But all our bowlers did well, Ajoy Roy [2 for 21 from 7 overs], Nadarajah Gowripalan [1 for 17 from 7 overs], Jeff Loomes [1 for 22 from 7 overs], Paul Georgiadis [none for 15 from 6 overs] and Steve Cass [none for 20 from 7 overs] backed up by some solid fielding.
We started our run chase steadily, whilst still keeping our 113 target in mind. Geoff Spotswood [15 from 35 balls] and Micheal (Monty) Byrne [29 from 35 balls] set our innings foundation. Stanley Jayanthakumar [31 from 35 balls] and Ken Gilson [29 from 20 balls] did all but the rest of the work to get us home in the 24th over.
Our first win! All was right in the world, a solid bowling, batting and fielding effort helped the post-match beer taste better! Things looked up for the rest of the carnival.
Division 2 Round 2 - Port Jackson White vs. Central Coast Cyclones
Played at Lambert Park, Armidale on Thursday, 5th December 2024
A rest day and some overnight rain brokered in a humid and hot Thursday. Can we continue our good form? Geoff Spotswood took us through another warmup, and with spirits high from our win in the last game we set about to bring down Central Coast.
Port Jackson won the toss and elected to bowl, a tried and successful formula… right!
Central Coast lost an early wicket… let’s get into them, unfortunately Central Coast had other ideas and proceeded to hit our bowling to all areas of the park finishing with 3 for 216 from 40 overs. Nadarajah Gowripalan was our best bowler with figures of 1 for 25 from 7 overs. Other wicket takers were Ajoy Roy [1 for 39 from 7 overs] and Stanley Jayanthakumar [1 for 48 from 7 overs]. On a positive note, we did not give up in the field and continued to chase the leather, highlighted by an exceptional effort by Neil Brodie.\
Surely, we can chase 216… Tuesday wasn’t that long ago!
The rest day must have wiped out all batting technique from our minds, 5 ducks, a top score of 15 by Doug Latto from 34 balls, plus the next best score of 10 not out by Peter Harrison from 35 balls, and the loss of early wickets says it all. All out for 45, what an awful batting performance… all credit due to Central Coast, they did to us what we did to the Chairman’s XII 2 days ago.
I must have missed the memo about batting first at Lambert Park! There is still tomorrow’s game.
Division 2 Round 3 - Northern NSW vs. Port Jackson White
Played at Harris Park, Armidale on Friday, 6th December 2024
Back to the happy hunting ground of Harris Park where we put the Chairman’s XII to the sword. We were missing our player/coach (Spotty), but we did use some of his pre-game warmup routines to get in the mood for cricket.
Northern NSW won the toss and elected to bowl, the pitch hadn’t changed much, the crab grass was still there… we know this pitch!
Oh dear, we started poorly 1 for none, then 2 for 3… no not again! Phew, 3, 4, 5 and 6 steadied the ship before contributions from a later order moved us along to 10 for 123.
Contributors were Doug Latto [18 from 31 balls], Stanley Jayanthakumar [12 from 27 balls], Peter Harrison [17 from 27 balls], Jeff Loomes [19 from 37 balls… I finally contributed with the bat], Paul Georgiadis [15 from 33 balls], and Neil Brodie [17 from 24 balls].
Northern NSW did bowl well, but they didn’t bowl like Central Coast did… we should have done better!
Come on PJs let’s get some wickets put them under pressure.
We started well getting an earlyish wicket by Paul Georgiadis [1 for 21 from 4 overs], trapping an NNSW opener LBW… we had them 1 for 18.
Nadarajah Gowripalan was his usual economic self [none for 11 from 7 overs]. The wicket takers were Ajoy Roy [1 for 37 from 6] and the aforementioned Paul Georgiadis.
Unfortunately, we just could not contain them and they passed our score in the 27th over.
Jeffrey Loomes
See PlayHQ for full details of results:
Comments