After the weekend’s washout against Sutherland, First Grade will enter the semi-finals for the eleventh time since semi-finals were introduced to the competition in 1954-55. It’s University’s tenth visit to the semi-finals since 2002-03.
After snaring four wickets against his old club, Sutherland, on Saturday, Devlin Malone now has 61 First Grade wickets this season. That equals the sixth-highest total in the club’s history, Eric Trennery having taken 61 wickets in 1919-20. Ahead of Devlin are Peter James (71, 1973-74), Jack Massie (69, 1913-14), Andrew Staunton (65, 2002-03), Stewart Smith (64, 1945-46) and Nigel Cowell (64, 2013-14).
Second Grade now proceeds to the semi-finals for the 18th time in the club’s history.
Third Grade will appear in the semi-finals for the 22nd time in the club’s history.
Jack Hill took his total of runs in Thirds this season to 513, passing Tim Lester (512 in 1997-98) to record the seventh-highest total of runs in any Third Grade season for University.
Hayden Storey, with 64 against Northern District in the Third Grade qualifying final, recorded his sixth score above fifty for the club (including two hundreds).
Tom Kierath, in the Third Grade qualifying final against Northern District, reached his third score above fifty in Thirds (with one hundred) and also passed 500 career runs in Thirds and 5500 runs for the club in all grades. He is the only player to have reached both 5000 runs and 500 wickets since the Grade competition commenced in 1893-94. Tom Garrett, a member of the first ever Australian Test team in 1876-77, scored 5017 runs and took 622 wickets for the club between 1873 and 1898.
Fourth Grade has reached the semi-finals for the 13th time in the club’s history.
After the washout against Blacktown, Sydney University now advances to the Metropolitan Cup semi-finals for the 14th time since the club entered the competition twenty years ago.
