Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association Team of the Season: Crudeli, Clarke, Wilson among best of the best

The Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association saw one of its biggest ever influxes of top-end talent ahead of this season and so many of them delivered. Journalist Jackson Barrett has taken a look at some of the best performers from the summer and put the best of the best together for this year’s team of the season. 1. Ben Clarke (Marist) After a lean run last season, former Melville gun Ben Clarke was dropped to the twos. He finished that season — his third in the BDCA — with a first grade average of just over 13 and only one half-century. But this summer, a shift to the top of the order, where he batted in every single game, turned out to be a shrewd move which would shape Marist’s season. Clarke led the competition for runs, averaged 36.3 and scored a brilliant century and a 98 along the way. An early dismissal in the club’s semifinal loss to Eaton was one of only four times he was dismissed in single figures this season. 2. Steve Denison (Leschenault) Steve Denison is fearless. He takes risks other don’t dare — but when it all comes together, it’s damaging. It’s an approach that makes for a rollercoaster season, but his final month of the season meant he was the perfect opener to fill a void in this side after an otherwise quiet year for the league’s top order batters. Denison finished the season with a rapid 67 off just 42 balls in a famous win over Marist, which secured his club’s finals position, scored 49 in another upset win over Eaton in the final round, and then very nearly ruined the hopes of the eventual premiers with a wild 26 which — if it went much longer — would have set them on a path to victory. His best innings were in wins, which shows how important he is to the Green Caps at the top. He finished the year with an average of 32.4, was predictably caught eight times from 12 knocks, and finished as his team’s leading run-scorer. 3. Haydn Slodecki (Marist) The Marist batter narrowly edges out the likes of Bevan Bennell, Shawn Gillies and Tim Bowen (who held it at the halfway mark) for this spot, after what is best described as a solid and dependable campaign. His two scores in the 80s, and a critical half-century in the late-season win over Colts at Forrest Park, made him a critical part of the top order, batting anywhere from four to seven. But the reliability and consistency make him the best candidate for a number three spot in this side, with a renegade opening pair and some prolific run-scorers around him. Slodecki finished the season with 418 runs at 32.2. 4. Julian Crudeli (Eaton) (C) This season’s headline recruit could hardly have lived up to the billing any better. The country cricket star simply dominated. He finished second to Clarke in the run-scoring charts and led the competition for wickets — sweeping the season’s awards on grand final day, including the Goodwin-Dehring Medal for cricketer of the year. And he so nearly led his side to back-to-back premierships, scoring 35 on day one in an innings that can’t be undervalued, before storming through Colts’ top-order in a stunning display of new ball bowling on the biggest stage. He finished the season with the eye-watering average of 71 and took 34 wickets at just 9.4 in one of the best seasons Bunbury cricket has ever seen. 5. Riley Miguel (Colts) The leading run-scorer in a premiership side, Miguel’s cameo appearances in a finishing role last season this year became a fully-fledged position as the club’s most important middle-order batter. And his best work was done when his team was in a bind, with two of his half-centuries coming in defeats, and one against Marist as part of an undermanned team. His importance was on display when a Colts side without him was trounced by Donnybrook in a shock round 12 defeat. He finished the year with 407 runs at 33.9, including three half-centuries and only two scores in single digits. 6. Brayden Clarke (Marist) It was no surprise that Marist superstar Clarke was again around the mark with the best player’s in the competition, and it could be argued that with an influx of talent at other clubs, he found another gear. His four half-centuries had him third in the run-scoring charts, but it was his 25 wickets that defined his season. Clarke is still the most deceptive spinner in the competition and has the league’s best wrong-un, but his economy rate of less than four, bowling pretty well exclusively in the latter overs is also a feature. In tandem with fellow tweaker Corey Fitt, who is also in this season, Marist are guaranteed 20 overs of frontline spin every week. 7. Bradman May (Donnybrook) (WK) It has been a summer for young ‘keepers. Brian Hughes, Cooper Dehring and Nico le Roux have all been mainstays behind the stumps at their clubs and almost all contributed with the bat. For May, his first year as Donnybrook skipper might not have been his most impressive, but he did finish as the leading run-scorer among wicket-keepers and wasn’t far off the pace for dismissals. In this team, he slides down the order to number seven, despite batting in the top three all season, simply because of the strength of the batting line-up. He finished the season with 15 catches, three stumpings and 310 runs at 25.8. 8. Cruize Ciallella (Colts) It wasn’t as dominant a season as some of his others with the bat, but Ciallella still finished as the leading wicket-taker among spinners and was Colts’ Cricketer of the Year. In a new role as a late-order batter, he scored 164 runs at an average of 13.7, but it was his 27 wickets at the incredible economy rate of 2.1 that saw him earn a spot in this side. The left-arm off-spinner was called upon to bowl inside the first 10 overs at times this year, including once with the new ball, and was again the competition’s best at tying a team down in the middle overs. 9. Corey Fitt (Marist) The enigmatic Marist bowler is another who stepped up a gear this summer and became a genuine star of the competition. He is also the quintessential big game player. In three games against Colts, he took 11 wickets and has a pair of three-wicket hauls to his name from the club’s two regular season meetings with grand finalists Eaton. This is a side stacked with spinners, and only three seamers, but that is reflective of how the top sides — with the exception of the Bobtails — structured their sides for most of the season. Fitt finished with 27 wickets at 13.5. 10. Josh Topliss (Colts) (VC) For years a Colts stalwart and a nagging opening bowler, Topliss is now a premiership captain. And the second-year skipper was fairly comfortably the best player of the finals series. His five-wicket blitz of Leschenault defending a meagre total was the highlight of his season, before he took an incredible 4-23 from seven overs to book his side’s spot in the grand final. Then he took six wickets, three on each day, and was batting at the end as Colts won the premiership. Topliss finished with 30 wickets at 12.2, with a handy 124 runs as well. 11. Jack Wilson (Marist) The genuine surprise of this season, Wilson transformed himself from a sporadic first-grade player to one of the most dangerous opening bowlers in the competition. A seamer-friendly wicket at Forrest Park quickly became his playground this year, as he took four three-wicket hauls and two bags of four. His 3-31 from 10 overs, including the crucial wicket of Arron Quartermaine, was Marist’s best performance in it semifinal defeat to Eaton. He finished the season with 29 wickets at 12.8.