Broes’ mammoth score against City Colts is the largest recorded by an Old Boys player in Bathurst District Cricket Association top grade, which he constructed with 25 fours and three sixes.

The knock from the stand-in captain pushed St Pat’s along to 6-329 at stumps.

It wasn’t until the closing stages of the day when Broes was stopped just short of his double century.

He was caught at cover off a Matt Stephen spin delivery to snap a 98 run stand with Brendon Cutmore, who remains unbeaten on 61 heading into the second day’s play.

“The last month has been poor in terms of scoring but during the week I’d been working on playing straighter for longer and yesterday it paid off,” Broes said.

“The deck was in great condition considering the rain we’d had. It was great to win the toss and bat and the outfield was very quick on the drying ground. You were getting great value for shots.

“It’s the highest score of my career so far and considering that last month I’ve had it’s been nice to score some runs.”

David Cant (22) played a useful supporting role alongside Broes to reach 87 for the opening wicket before he was caught off the bowling of Dan Casey.

Ben Mitchell (14) and Tanvir Singh (17) couldn’t hang around with their fellow BDCA representative who showed no signs of slowing up on an outfield getting quicker throughout the day.

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Angus Daymond’s dismissal of Connor Slattery (0) gave the Colts a glimmer of hope but that was quickly smothered when a controlled Cutmore arrived at the crease.

Daymond was the best of the Colts bowlers with 3-61. Casey (2-67) and Stephen (1-116) were the other wicket takers.

Broes’ chance-less innings drew praise from both corners.

His skipper Adam Ryan, watching on from the sidelines with illness, called it “sensational” while Colts captain Stephen said it was “one of the greatest knocks” he’d ever seen in a Bathurst match.

“He never got carried away. It was beautiful to watch,” Ryan said.

“He was consistent and he never gave them a chance throughout. The instructions were to bat his game with no pressure to score quickly and he just found the boundary every couple of overs and kept the strike ticking over.”

Stephen said his team didn’t have a game to remember in the field but that mattered little in regards to Broes’ performance.

“He did everything right and he only played one false stroke the whole day. We were lucky enough that we caught that one because we dropped plenty off the others,” he said.

“He was flawless. He just waited. Left the good balls, hit the bad balls, timed it well and it was pretty special to watch.”

Broes’ 186 is the second-highest individual innings recorded in the past decade behind Max Hope’s 265 for Rugby Union in December 2012 and the biggest by a Pat’s player since Adam Ryan’s 135 towards the end of last season.

It’s Broes’ second century in the top flight following his 111 against Rugby Union during last season’s opening round.