The answer, it seems, is make runs.

Having spent the winter season playing Premier League Hockey for St Pat’s men and coaching the Saints women to glory, Ekert is now spending his Saturday’s lining up for City Colts in the Bathurst District Cricket Association first grade competition.

Ekert has played a number of seasons with City Colts after Daniel Casey convinced him to sign up, but a renewed focus on cricket for 2018-19 has seen him enjoy his best run with the bat thus far.

Having made just one half century in the previous five seasons, so far this campaign he is averaging 60.3.

READ MORE: Ekert hits first century of the season in loss to Redbacks

READ MORE: Colts scrape home against St Pat’s Old Boys

READ MORE: Bathurst falls just short in Presidents Cup opener

“I’m just enjoying it. Because I did’t play much hockey this year it is good to 100 percent commit to cricket this year,” Ekert said.

“I’ve put a fair bit into it, so it’s nice to see something come out of it.

“I played a fair bit of cricket [in Queensland], but I had five or six years off when my hockey was pretty flat out. It wasn’t until I moved back here Case wrangled me into playing.”

Ekert belted 107 in the season opener, 70 the following week and while falling for four last Saturday, cracked 80 off 74 deliveries for the Bathurst representative side on Sunday.

As well as sitting on top of the first grade leading run scorers’ list, Ekert’s batting has also featured aggressive hitting.

From his three club knocks and representative innings, Ekert has clubbed 37 boundaries and 13 sixes. 

“I guess I get a licence every week – a controlled licence they tell me – which is good because that’s how I bat. If I can see it and can hit it, I’m going to have a crack at it,” Ekert laughed.

His representative call up last Sunday for the Presidents Cup match against Blue Mountains was the first time he had played cricket for Bathurst. Though it did not result in a win, it was an experience Ekert enjoyed.

“It was unexpected, I got a phone call then another phone call from Case to ask if I’d play and I thought ‘Why not?’. It was good fun,” he said.

“I haven’t played rep cricket for a long time, since I was under 21s maybe, so it had been a fair while, but it was enjoyable. They are fantastic guys.”

This Saturday Ekert will once again look to keep the runs flowing as part of City Colts’ top order when they take on competition leaders Rugby Union at the Sportsground.

Rugby is the only side yet to taste defeat in the one-day portion of the season, having downed St Pat’s, Centennials Bulls and Bathurst City thus far.

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Ekert made 33 runs in the corresponding one-day clash between the sides last season which Colts won, and is looking forward to meeting Rugby once more.

If Colts win it will lift them to three wins from four rounds, a season-opening loss to Bathurst City the side’s only blemish.

“It’s always good against Rugby, even last year we played two absolute cracking games against them, both down to the wire,” Ekert said.

“I honestly believe this year we’ve got potential with guys like Wayne Sellers and Angus Daymond coming across, they just make us so much stronger, so it’s going to be interesting.

“We should’ve beat Redbacks, that was our own fault, we just didn’t bowl well enough. But since then it’s been really good.

“Sport’s always good when you’re winning, but I guess our team has a different goal. If we lose we can just go down to the pub and have a beer and that’s the end of it, we all get along and that’s the great thing about our club.”