AN elite representative showing and an amazing ambidexterous talent - Bathurst products Nic Broes and Blake Dean have both had their efforts from the 2019-20 season recognised by Cricket ACT.
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While Dean has long played in the ACT Premier Cricket competition - he's represented the Comets and was the 2014-15 player of the year - last summer was Broes' first in the nation's capital.
Both played club cricket for Western District and while the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from contesting the Douglas Cup grand final they had qualified for, were declared the champions given the side was the minor premiers.
Now further accolades have come for the pair. Dean was named in the 2019-20 Premier Cricket team of the year and Broes named the elite 19s player of the series.
Broes lined up for Canberra West in the elite 19s competition which ran over three weekends. He averaged 53 with the bat, and blasted an unbeaten 62 off 51 deliveries in the final to help his side be crowned champions.
He also finished that competition with nine wickets at an impressive economy rate of 2.89 across four T20 matches and two one-dayers.
"It was something at the start of the season that really probably helped me settled in to Canberra and really helped me get my name out there a little bit," Broes, who went on to play at the under 19 nationals for NSW-ACT, said.
"So it was nice to do that and nice to get the award on top, it's nice to get the accolades after a bit of hard work.
"I'm a bit surprised because there were a couple of talented cricketers in that squad."
While there are more Cricket ACT award winners to be announced this week and Broes said he is "hoping I can possibly get the rep cricketer award", for him last summer was more about proving himself in a new competition.
"The 19s one was nice to get, but I'm not really one to love individual awards. My focus has turned from a few years ago when it was performing to try and get some awards, now I'm trying to earn higher selections and the awards are just bonuses on top of the rest of it all," he said.
Dean earned his place in the team of the year for his efforts with the bat for the Western District side he also coaches.
He hit 609 runs at an average of 50.75, the highlight of which was hitting 132 off 150 deliveries opening the batting against Queanbeyan.
Dean is now just 16 runs away from scoring 7,000 career runs in ACT Premier Cricket.
Broes was full of praise for Dean and especially impressed by his ability to bat both right and left-handed.
"He had a cracking year," Broes said. "He just amazes me whenever I watch him with just the way he hits the ball and then to still hear that he wants to train more because he wants to bat a bit more left-handed this year - it's just incredible.
"To think he can probably make that amount of runs he did left or right-handed is unbelievable. It's crazy.
"Watching him, and I've trained with him a fair bit as well, just the way he does it looks so effortless and it looks natural both ways. It's definitely something special, I don't think you come across players like that too often."
