Western Suburbs District Cricket Club

Western Suburbs Grade Cricket Club Celebrates 113^th Year at Presentation Night

More than 150 past and present cricketers of the Western Suburbs District Cricket Club (WSDCC) and their parents/supporters attended the 113^th presentation night. The event was held on 22 May 2008 at The Lounge, Wests Ashfield Leagues, Ashfield, NSW.

Many awards, trophies and medals were presented to the outstanding players of season 2007-08. Mr. John Hardgrove, Vice President of WSDCC, welcomed guests and chaired the enjoyable evening.

Geoff Laing a Life Member of the club introduced the new club coach Peter Jackson for 2008-09 and in turn Peter outlined some of his goals for the upcoming season and thanked the club for the opportunity he has been given.

The next part of the program commenced with the presentation of awards, starting with the hard working bowlers who took more than 5 wickets in an innings. The successful players were presented with their awards by Mr Peter Hardgrove:

· Mitchell Starc- 7 for 74

· Gavin Dennett- 6 for 18

· Ryan Beattie- 5 for 13

· Ross DiBartolo- 5 for 35

· Prince Bedi- 5 for 47

· Grant Roden- 5 for 40

· Marc Seymour- 7 for 32

· Emmanuel Parmakellis- 6 for 30

· Matt Day- 5 for 44

· Ash Squire- 6 for 58 & 5 for 75

· Vishnu Sarpeshkar- 5 for 40 & 5 for 79

A Special Bowling Award was presented by Tom Brown, who is a Life Member of WSDCC, Hall of Fame Member and 1^st player to achieve 5,000 runsardgrove.HhhHH. This prestigious award was presented to first grade captain, Colin Barry who took 6 for 39, 10 for 50 & also took two Hat Tricks.

Always encouraging youth the Wests cricketers who have played five or more First Grade games were then presented with First XI caps by Tom Brown and he was assisted by David Woods, WSDCC from 1992-2005.

The announcement of the Mal Gorham medal points to the end of Round 11 and 12 was given by Mark Russell, a Life Member of WSDCC.

Mr. Geoff Laing, a Life Member of WSDCC and David Woods (1992-2005), who scored 1780 runs and took 5 or more wickets on five occasions, presented the Centurions of 2007-08 with there trophies. These players were as follows:

· Nirmalan Thanabalasingam- 179 runs

· Vinayak Sasitharan- 169 runs

· Manjot Singh- 149 runs

· Phillip Hughes- 130 runs

· Adrian Neligan- 126 runs

· Matthew Baden- 119 runs

· Simon McInerney- 113 runs

· Daniel Smith- 111 runs*Not out

· John Rogers- 102 runs

· Marc Seymour- 142 runs

· Matt Day- 104 runs

· Jason Hughes- 121 & 115 runs

The Highest Score was in 5^th Grade and this award was presented to:

· Nirmalan Thanabalasingam for 179 runs

After these awards were acknowledged Mr. Geoff Laing also spoke about the spectacular Sports Lunch which will be held on the 22 August 2008.

The awards for Club Record Partnerships were presented by Gavan Twining, who holds the record for Most Runs in a Season in Third Grade, which was 1,149 for WSDCC and he was also SCA First Grade Captain of the Year. To present these awards he was assisted by Dennis Burgess, Board Member of Wests Ashfield Leagues Club. The partnership records were as follows:

· 5^th Wickets Partnership 4^th Grade- Adrian Neligan and Vishnu Sarpeshkar- 158

· 10^th Wicket Partnership Poidevin-Gray- Shariful Islam and Will Sackville- 46

The presentation of the most catches taken in the season was carried out by Shaun Vose who played for WSDCC from 1995-2005, and was past captain of 2^nd and 4^th Grade. The award went to the fine first grade fast bowler, Grant Roden with 7 Catches.

The announcement of the Mal Gorham points for Rounds 13 was once again given by Mark Russell before club assistant coach, John Hurley presented the Poidevin-Gray Finalists to the audience. The Poidevin Gray squad has basically been together for some 3 years and has developed into a fine cricket team with the ability to apply pressure at the right moments. John praised the team’s leadership group and paid tribute to their dedication and application. The side included:

· Shariful Islam

· Matthew Day (C)

· Ross DiBartolo (VC)

· Nick Carruthers

· Emmanuel Parmakellis

· Simon McInerney

· Farran Lamb

· John Rogers

· Will Sackville

· Paul Donovan

· Manjot Singh

· Nick Pryde

· Simon Watson

· Mitchell Starc

Then Mr Brian Ashmore, Green Shield Manager, presented the Green Shield qualifying Finalists. Brian spoke of the wonderful cricket played by the boys after an uncertain start of two defeats and then an unbeaten run into the finals before being ultimately knocked out of a very strong competition. Brian paid tribute to coaches Neil D’Costa and Jeff Warland for their tremendous assistance throughout the season. The squad included:

· Isaac Taylor

· Justin O’Neil

· Chamath Samarasinghe

· Jordon Mast

· James Winder

· Sachinpal Singh

· Ben Royall

· Geoffrey Ashmore

· Michael Stead

· Prince Bedi

· Nathan Brown

· Chris Bateup

· Harpreet Singh

· Justin Rankmore

· Vic Thamarajah

One of the most significant awards of the night is the Bob Simpson Trophy for the Most Runs of the Season. Mr. Bruce Sacre, the Western Suburbs Leagues Club Sports Secretary, was assisted by Gavan Twining. The award was won by NSW representative : Daniel Smith with 511 aggregate runs.

Another important award is the Wal Walmsley Award for the Most Wickets of the Season and this was presented by Andy Timbs, a General Manager of Western Suburbs Leagues Club, and he was assisted by Shaun Vose. This award went to G. Roden for 36 wickets

Another award was the Ewen MacPherson Award for the Most Wickets in the lower grades and it was presented by Ron Powell, a Board Member of Wests Ashfield. The award went to Vishnu Sarpeshkar who captured 25 wickets – an exceptionally promising legspinner.

Then the announcement of the Mal Gorham points for Rounds 14 and 15 was presented by Mark Russell. Sue Gorham announced Marc Seymour was the successful player for 2007-8..

The award presentation session was followed by refreshments and drinks. The players and members were reminded that the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on the 24July 2008.