UTS North Sydney Fifth Grade 2025-26 season wrap
UTS North Sydney District Cricket Club | April 08, 2026
It was another ‘almost’ season for UTS North Sydney’s Fifth Grade in 2025/26, being in the hunt for finals right until the last day of the season. Skipper, Alex MacGill, gives his review of the year.
Fifth Grade is an extremely difficult team to manage; balancing blooding young players with an eye to field the strongest team and rewarding performance in our Roseville Shires team. Not to mention that changes in higher grades can also lead to half of the team being either in or out and 11th hour changes; thank you to Head Coach Simon and Selector Craig for being on call. We were able to hand 16 players their North Sydney Grade debuts this season, and I hope that it's the first of many games for the Bears for all these players.
The season kicked off with two T20s, a welcome change to the fixture list. First, a gritty win over Parramatta, anchored by Henry Lester’s 34, followed by a clinical demolition of Hawkesbury where Vivek Jain and Chris Lloyd made light work of the chase. While Round 3 brought a tough loss to Manly, Max Palmer shone scoring 50 and taking 2 wickets.
Henry Lester
The team showed incredible determination in Round 4 at Raby. An inexperienced batting lineup managed to guts it out for 89 overs to secure a draw. Marcus Yagnamurthy on debut came in at 5/71 and scored 41 from 131 balls. Equally important was Kabir Yadav’s 21 not out off 90 balls which he backed this up the next week with 5/36, tearing through the Western Suburbs lineup.
Kabir Yadav celebrates a 5-wicket haul
In Round 6, we continued to showcase that never-say-die attitude. Losing the toss, we endured another long stint in the dirt at Kensington Oval, where Randwick Petersham piled on 381 in 80 overs. Daivik Sahni toiled away, sending down 26 overs, whilst Eesa Omar gets a special mention for his dominant 87 before both teams shook hands for the draw, closing our innings at 6/259 with only eight overs remaining. A clinical win against Mosman seemed to kickstart some form; Junaid Nizamuddin leading a strong bowling performance with 4/19, before we briskly chased their total, earning a bonus point.
In Round 8 against St George, a solid 182 was anchored by an assured 50 from Green Shield skipper, Ryan Sood. After a hot start by the opposition, our spinners got on a roll. Tom Geyer was finally handed the cherry for the first time this season and he gave the fans exactly what they wanted, 4/26 to secure an important win.
A crucial collapse in a top six showdown against Penrith saw us drop out of the finals places and join the chasing pack, where we unfortunately remained for the last three rounds. There were still some great highlights with Liam McCarthy’s maiden hundred underscoring a dominant win over Sutherland, before Michael Lloyd pummelled Gordon’s attack on the way to his second ton of the season; a commanding 115 not out.
Michael Lloyd in full flow
It wasn’t ALL about the on-field performances though. During a rain delay against Easts, Tom Roussac vanished from the sheds during a heavy downpour. He re-emerged a while later drenched head to toe, but proudly clutching six golf balls he’d scavenged from the nearby Northbridge golf course.
Behind the stumps, Shanaq Hasan’s chatter was ever-present, gracing us with his revolutionary new sledge, "don't get out." It was simple, refined, and remarkably effective at distracting the cordon more than the batters! Michael Lloyd also showed us a new way to stay cool during the innings break: taking a fully clothed splash in a water fountain next to Ryde Oval (in front of perplexed cafe patrons).
Whilst we finished with a heartbreaking 5-run loss to Sydney Uni, the season was far from a failure. Our performance against the eventual premiers, Fairfield-Liverpool, proved our quality. Falling just 9 runs short against a Jarrad Burke-led side showed that on our day, we were a match for anyone.
I would like to thank Chris Lloyd, Michael Lloyd, and Henry Lester for captaining in my absence, particularly over the first five rounds as I recovered from yet another injury. I’d also like to extend thanks to the other senior players - Rashie Hasan and Jacob Graham - not only for their strong on-field performances, but their leadership and assistance guiding our younger players.
Go Bears!
