MORTLAKE all-rounder Clinton Baker secured the South West Cricket’s division one player of the year award at the associaiton’s awards night on Monday.
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Baker has been pivotal with both bat and ball in the Cats’ journey to this Saturday’s grand final.
He has scored 659 runs at an average of 47.1 batting at number three, while with the ball he has taken 26 wickets at an economy rate of 2.9 runs an over.
To demonstrate his prowess with both areas of the game, Baker finished in the top five of both the batting (fourth) and bowling (fifth) averages for the 2017/2018 season.
The Cat’s opening bowler said he was pleased with how his season had gone after the Christmas break.
“I had a slow start and I felt I didn’t do too much before Christmas,” the 36-year old said.
“After Christmas I began to hit the ball a lot better and and it gave me some confidence in my game, which I took into the bowling side of my game, which I felt I thought I was pretty consistant and did my job for the team.”
In a dominant season with the bat Heytesbury’s Simon Harkness took out the association’s division one batting average award.
The Rebel’s opener scored 821 runs at an average of 82.1 this season, which included four centuries.
Harkness was pleased to recieve the award, but said Mortlake’s Tyler Schafer was unlucky to have missed out after scoring over 700 runs. He also mentioned that a slight nudge from coach Jeff Rosolin helped kick start his form this season.
“Jeff has been big on us keeping our head downs and to keep going, turning those good starts into bigger scores, espcisally at the top if the order,” he said.
“Going from scores of 40-60 and turning them into centuries has been really pleasing for me.”
Bookaar’s Fraser Lucas was the SWC’s top bowler, taking out the association’s bowling average award.
He claimed 36 wickets at a economy rate of 3.3 runs an over this season, with his best figures of 7-28 coming against Camperdown in round seven.
“It’s nice to take consistant wickets and to do it for a young side is good and I felt I led the way for those guys this year,” Lucas said.
Baker, Harkness and Lucas were also included in the associaitons team of the year, which included Tyler Schafer, Shane Slater, Todd Lamont (c) (Mortlake), Eddie Lucas, Simon Baker (Bookaar), Paul Vogels, Travis Brown (Heytesbury), David Murphy (wk) and Brad Hillman (Pomborneit).
The association confirmed that its top-grade grand final between Mortlake and Heytesbury Rebels will be played at Camperdown this Saturday.