About the JRR

The John Ross Robertson Trophy is one of Canada's oldest sports trophies. It is awarded annually to the top club in Canada. Currently Cricket Canada has plays an eastern and western JRR competition and names joint winners of the competition. When possible, a national JRR championship is played.

 

 

Crown Claim 2010 CDCL Elite Title

 

Crown met St John's this past Saturday in the Elite Division Final, a rematch from the 2009 title decider. That the same 2 teams would play proved to be the only similarity between the 2009 and 2010 Finals.

 

The 2009 edition was played at Riley Large on a warm late summer day. This year was played in freezing conditions at Inland Athletic Park, where the ever present wind always makes a cold day even less bearable.

St John's won the toss and batted first, and Anuraj Gupta's 66 gave them a good platform to launch towards a big score. However, good bowling in the middle and late overs by Nasir, Khurram and Yawar Abbas restricted St John's to a below par 215.

Crown's openers set about the target with aggression, with Farrukh Abbas (67) and Nasir Abbas (40) putting on 95 for the 1st wicket in 17 overs. After 3 wickets fell in a short space of time, St John's had opened the door slightly, but Parveen Saroye (51n.o.) closed this quickly with 6 cleanly hit sixes, the last representing the championship winning runs.

Congratulations to Crown CC who win their first 50 Over championship after near misses in 2008 and 2009. They have dominated 2010, winning the Elite Division 50 over league on top of the Division 1 T20 League back in August.

 

scorecard

 

Meraloma's Claim 2010 BCMCL Elite Title

 

In the Elite division the playoffs were scheduled for the weekend of September 11 and 12.  In one semi-final the first place Meralomas played fourth place Arbutus and ran out easy six wicket winners having dismissed Arbutus for a paltry 85.  Unfortunately, the other semi-final, between second place Richmond and third place Arbutus, couldn't be played due to torrential rain and Richmond advanced to the final.

 

Richmond and Meralomas have met in a number of recent finals and both finished the regular season with identical records.  As often happens in Vancouver in September the weather looked to play a role in the Final and the day dawned with a torrential downpour.  The planned eleven o'clock start time was delayed but by 11 the ground was playable and with the overs reduced to 47 a side the two captains went out to toss.  Given the wet conditions the toss was crucial and Meralomas skipper Kevin Sandher was a very popular man in the 'Lomas dressing room after winning his first toss in eight attempts.  Meraloma elected to bat.

 

Recent Finals between these two clubs have featured an early wicket for Richmond and today was to prove no exception.  Alex Earl faced up to the first over from Dion Herft and duly edged a Herft outswinger to Sanjeet Sandana behind the stumps to give Richmond another early breakthrough.  It was to prove to be their last success for some time.  Jason Sandher joined Dave McGowan at the crease and they set about steadily building a solid platform for the innings.  Richmond were quickly searching for answers as captain Dion Herft bowled three different bowlers for each of the first three overs from the City end before settling on young Amanpal Gillar to bowl in tandem with Herft. Sandher was initially edgy but settled into an anchor role while McGowan thumped anything full and was equally severe when Gillar dropped short.  McGowan's solid 46 from 59 balls came to an end when Sandher called him through for a quick single and he was just short of his ground.  The score was now 92 and the 'Lomas looked to be well set to push on to a big score. 

 

Jonathan Snow replaced McGowan and Jason Sandher began to break out of his shell.  He suddenly found his range and smashed several massive straight sixes back over the heads of Gillar and Channa Karunaratne.  Snow despite looking in good form chipped back to veteran left armer TJ Dayal and departed for 3, Karl Whatham's stay was equally brief when he chipped a drive back to Gillar, also for 3. 

 

By this stage the score was 121 with about 15 overs to go.  An acceleration was needed but with quick wickets having fallen Iain Dixon and Sandher settled for a few overs of accumulation to set up a final push.  With the total at 162, but with less than ten overs remaining, Dixon called a suicidal single and was run out.  Steven Welsh replaced him and he and Sandher began to look for quick runs.  Sandher was soon out, caught on the boundary for an excellent 84 off 142 deliveries, which brought his brother Kevin to the crease with the score on 169.  He and Welsh proceed to take full toll on the Richmond bowlers.  Welsh smashed 35 off 23 balls while Kevin Sandher contributed a even more rapid fire 28 off 14.  Sandher fell at the death and the Lomas finished with a well deserved 232 off 47 overs.

 

Richmond's elder statesmen were the pick of the bowlers with TJ Dayal managing 2 for 38 off of his ten while right arm swing bowler Herft bowled his nine overs for a remarkably parsimonious 17.

 

By the break between innings the weather conditions had cleared and Upper Brockton was bathed in sunshine.  The outfield was basically dry and the Lomas bowling attack had a hard dry ball to play with.

 

Keshav Khanna and Sajiv Fernando opened the innings and Khanna was soon groping at Steven Welsh's outswinger.  After a maiden from Welsh from the City end the 'Lomas were feeling well on top as Andrew Downs prepared for his first delivery from the Burrard Inlet end.  Fernando quickly quashed that optimism by smashing a decent delivery from Downs over midwicket for six.  That shot set the pattern for the early going.  Khanna doggedly played and missed while Fernando sought to, and generally succeeded in, dominating the bowling.  Welsh finally found the breakthrough in the tenth over when he induced an edge from Khanna which was held at first slip.  At 38 for one and with the ball ten overs old Richmond appeared to be in a strong position with Fernando looking ominous.  Matt Obst and Iain Dixon replaced the openers but neither produced much and both gave way to the spinners when the Richmond score climbed to 72.  In what was to prove an inspired move Kevin Sandher brought off spinner Karl Whatham on from the Burrard Inlet end and himself on from the City end. 

 

Whatham was immediately on target and ended Fernando's innings of 45 from 41 balls by inducing an edge to the keeper Snow.  Richmond 72 for 2.  Sanjeet Sandana had been keeping Fernando company but after a useful 16 runs he clipped a Whatham off break to midwicket where Downs took a good low catch.  89 for 3.  Whatham then ripped the heart out of the Richmond batting.  Channa Karunaratne fell lbw to a top spinner, Thanna Kurooparan drove one into his foot which cannoned back into his stumps,  Haninder Dhillon was bowled and TJ Dayal edged to slip.  Whatham's devastating spell won the game for the 'Lomas as he finished with 6 for 29 off 10 overs and reduced Richmond to 118 for 7.  The remaining Richmond batsmen put up little resistance as Downs picked up Parminder Gillar and Kasun Perera while Kevin Sandher grabbed Dion Herft's wicket.  Richmond all out for 133 in 33.3 overs.

 

Meraloma CC will play United Victoria at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria for the Tomalin Cup and the right to play for BC in Western John Ross Robertson on Saturday September 25.

 

 

scorecard

 

Day 2 Results

2010 John Ross Robertson Final

Richmond CC 260 all out H.Dhillon 74 H.Fernandes 52 S.Sadana 32 G.Dhillon 3 - 50 V.Grewal 3 - 45 (49.1 overs)

Abbotsford CC. 162 all out S.Gainder 80 V.Grewal 25 T.Kurooparan 3 - 40 T.Dayal 2 - 25 ( 33 overs )

Losers final

Elites CC 166 all out K.Abdullali 32 N.Nagpal 26 E.Sinnathamby 3 - 26 S.Darain 2 - 25 ( 46.2 overs )

St.Johns CC 170 for 5 S.Darain 51 R.Karval 30 no. A.Gupta 28 S.Narula 25 no. Y.Ul-haq 3 -31 ( 38.1 0vers)

Day 1 Results

St.Johns CC Calgary 135 all out
P.Patel 38 S.Thapliyal 33 T.Kurooparan 4 - 36 P.Gillar 3 - 16 ( 45.4 overs )

Richmond CC. 136 for 4 K.Khanna 63 H.Dhillon 26 ( 37.5 overs )

Abbotsford C.C. 151 all out D.Dhillon 27 G.Grewal 24 ( 42.4 overs )
Elites CC Edmonton 122 all out A.Anand 36 D.Dhillon 4 - 25 ( 40.3 overs )

2010 John Ross Robertson

The 2010 John Ross Robertson Trophy (West) will be contested between Cricket BC Champions Richmond Cricket Club, Cricket Alberta Champions (Elites), as well as the respective runners up Abbotsford (BC) and St. Johns (AB)

Richmond Cricket Club : 2009-2010

Sajiv Fernando
Hensen Fernandes
Channa Karunaratne
Dion Herft
Tanjinder Dayal
Kasun Perera
Keshav Khanna
Haninder Dhillon
Sanjeet Sadana
Amanpal Gillar
Satvinder Banayat
Ali Haq
Thanenthiran Kurooparan
Gurwinder Sidhu
Parminder Gillar

 

Elites Cricket Club : 2009-2010

Kaizar Abdullali
Aqeel Chaudhry
Jacob Ramkalawan
Drupad Shah
Ahzum Ali

Nafiz Chowdhary
Amit Anand
Ronak Mehta
Nikhil Nagpal
Yasoob Ul-haq

Senthil Gururatnam
Zaheer Sheikh

 

St. Johns Cricket Club 2009-2010

Sumit Thapliyal (Captain)
Easan Sinnathamby (Vice Captain)
Samarth Narula
Rajesh Patel
Anuraj Gupta
Pratik Patel
Shajib Darain
Nadeem Sheikh
Rajat Karval
Rajeev Nair
Daniyal Fahim
Sudeepta Aurko
Veenu Goswami

2010	Richmond CC (BC)
2009 2008 2007	United CC (AB) Meralomas CC (BC) Predators CC (AB)