Page 20 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club Yearbook 2016-17

A sight not to behold
Those who have played at Gilroy College will know that facilities are scant – there is no cover, no taps, no bins and most importantly no toilets. The brave players may wander into the bushes when no one is looking and the shy ones just cross their legs. Then there’s Ray Khamis (C1). At the fall of a wicket late in the day, we noticed Ray absent himself from the team huddle. The nearest obstacle he found was a soccer goalpost on the boundary. What amused the team most during this exercise was watching a local walking his greyhound around the boundary in Ray’s direction.
Now Ray is not a little fella, weight-wise. Dumb-founded by the sight in front of him, the dog’s owner heeled his pooch 20 metres prior to the goals, and had a bit of a time controlling his dog from making a dash for ..... well, you can guess.
The team watched in utter amusement as the stand-off continued – neither party budged for minutes until Ray eventually finished and returned to the team huddle, with a look of relief on his face. We’re not quite sure if the relief from Ray was due to his satisfied bodily function or due to the greyhound not using his assets as live bait. Perhaps NSW Premier Mike Baird’s ban on greyhound racing has run long enough to wipe the dog’s memory of its training practices.
It’s in the numbers
Joel Behlevanas
How about this one for an alignment of the planets. Joel Behlevanas (C2 Blue), one of our emerging stars, was on 99 at Tea and on his way to his first Seniors ton. The match before Joel was run out for 99. Joel ended up getting his richly deserved ton but when he was out the partnership with Gopy Parathan was 99 runs!
The Behlevanas family and Thornleigh Oval
Now this is scary. As mentioned, Joel scored his first Seniors ton at Thornleigh Oval. It is also the Oval where he scored his first Seniors 50. It doesn’t stop there. Joel’s brother, Riley, also scored his first 50 and also his first ton (Juniors) at the same Oval.
Space Cadets
Eric Junkkari
Eric Junkkari (C1) had one of those senior moments. We have all had the experience of putting up one of those shade tents you see at the beach
or BBQ’s. The boys were playing at an Oval with limited coverage from anything actually so Eric brought along a shade tent. After struggling with the wind, the photo is on the website photo Gallery, tells a great story – it all become too much for the great man with the tent in pieces and unable to be used again. What isn’t widely known is that Eric also runs a very successful business for Office design and fit-out – the mind boggles.
Taki Manolelis (B1)
After taking a wicket the boys gave the ball to the Umpire for safe keeping. Taki was bullet-proof at this stage and nothing was going to stop him from going after the new batsman. He started his run-up for the new batsman but the only problem was that half-way through his approach Taki realised that the ball was still with the umpire.
Rick Turner (B2 Captain)
Rick is one of our outstanding Captains and players but he had a moment that has rocketed him into Space Cadet status. Making the toss at the start of the match Rick lost the toss and decided that we would bowl first. Anyway, the boys did their warm-up and started to take the field until the Opposition Captain reminded Rick that we were actually batting and not bowling.
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