Hinkley's rise a huge boost for rebuilding Factory

Lachlan Hinkley's emergence as a bona fide division one bowler is one.

The 17-year-old has nine wickets from nine matches after earning promotion from division two in December and is expected to feature more prominently in the looming two-day cricket fixtures.

"The quality is just a lot better. I know when I'm bowling, you can't really afford to bowl a bad ball," Hinkley told The Standard.

"You just notice the quality of the batsmen a bit more. If you bowl something bad, you'll get hit for four. In division two, you can get away with it a bit more.

"One hundred per cent (I'd like to keep bowling in two-day cricket). You have the chance to keep bowling to a batsman and see if you can wear them down."

Factory coach Alex Strauch said Hinkley was "one of the most improved" players at the club.

Warrnambool and District Cricket Association clubs were scheduled to start two-day cricket a fortnight ago but poor weather meant play was rained off, forcing clubs back to one-day games.

It means just three two-day fixtures will take place this season.

Hinkley said the longer format was more favourable to bowlers.

"You can get into a rhythm more," he said.

He said Nestles' batting woes - Factory has failed to register more than 100 in their last four matches - was its biggest area of improvement.

"Our bowling has been pretty good," he said.

"We've pretty much restricted teams to under 150 in the one-dayers we've played.

"Our batting has just needed a couple of players to get that 40 or 50 runs. We haven't had that lately."

But Hinkley pointed to Nestles' youth and said this season - despite Factory's last place ladder position - had been a learning curve.

"We don't have a lot of experience. Wizz (Geoff Williams) is a great captain and is doing a good job," he said.

"It's been good fun to play with some of the guys I was playing under 17s with this past season. Guys like Sam Loveday and Will White were in that team."

And the goal before the end of the season with finals out of the equation?

"Probably just to get a couple of wins and finish the year well," Hinkley said.

"We just want to try to knock off a few teams and beat a few times around that finals mark.

"We've got (sixth-placed) Dennington in a two-dayer this weekend. We played them earlier in the season and bowled well but we couldn't get the runs."

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