Allansford-Panmure champion Ben Boyd snares first career hat-trick in WDCA division one match

Yet for the WDCA great, one specific personal accolade had eluded him - until Saturday's division one clash against Northern Raiders.

Amongst a mountain of wickets for over two decades at Russells Creek and Allansford-Panmure, representing South Melbourne, captaining Vic Country to an Australian Country Cricket Championships title and winning flags along the way, the pace bowler had never taken a hat-trick.

But with his tail up, the right-arm veteran ticked the achievement off with a match-winning spell for the Gators at Peter McDonald Oval.

He snared figures of 4-27, finishing off the innings after the Raiders at one stage looked to be cruising in their chase of 199.

"It's been a long time coming. It's one of those ones where I just didn't have it," he told The Standard.

"They're harder to get than everyone thinks I guess, but it was nice to finally take the opportunity and to get it caught-and-bowled too.

"I've probably been on a hat-trick a couple times a year - unfortunately there was a dropped catch a couple years ago and can probably move on now. I finally got one."

MORE SPORT:

The paceman said it was a strong performance from the team, praising skipper Chris Bant's 80 with the bat and Simon Richardson's dynamic spell of 4-36 with the ball as crucial in the end.

"The Raiders were definitely on track, they were with the run-rate all innings, it was going either way, it was all on the line," he said.

"Simon Richardson was a key part getting those top order wickets in slowing their run chase up.

"It was (an) important (win) - they were 1-100 and had the chase under control, we just had to hang in there and finally wore them down and put a bit more pressure on them I guess.

"Can't underplay Simon's wicket haul at the top either."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.