SUNDAY may not have brought with it yet another ACT Premier Cricket crown to add to his impressive resume, but as Blake Dean's playing career came to an end he still had more highlights to add.
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The Bathurst cricket product and Western Districts player-coach was the star for his beaten grand finalists as he hit 117 runs in the loss to Western Creek Molonglo.
That knock, which was the top score of any player in the three-day grand final, confirmed his status as the leading run scorer in ACT Premier Cricket for season 2020-21.
Dean belted 640 runs in what was his final season at an average of 58.18, his top score 180. Impressively, his strike rate stood at 89.3.
It was a season which also further enhanced Dean's status as one of the ACT competition's all-time great players.
In his 142 first-grade matches for Wests, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek and Queanbeyan, Dean crafted 5,548 runs, including 11 centuries and a top score of 291.
That Dean made that amount runs batting both right and left-handed means he will forever hold a special place in the competition's history.
In addition to Dean's efforts with the bat, he also finished his ACT Premier Cricket career with 173 wickets to his name, two of which came in the grand final. His career-best figures were 7-48.
The weekend's grand final was Dean's eighth title shot in the ACT Douglas Cup (two-day) competition while he's played in - and won - Twenty20 and one-day deciders too.
On top of that, he and his older brother Jono helped Queanbeyan to win the prestigious SCG Country Cup in 2012. It was the first Canberra team to win take out that competition.
Dean's Western Districts team-mates, who include fellow Bathurst natives Luke Powell and Nic Broes, had hoped to send him out a winner on the weekend, but it was not to be.
Creek made 262 batting first and in reply - despite Dean's almost four-and-a-half hour occupation of the crease - Western Districts was all out for 203.
Creek then went in to bat for a second time and reached 0-87 before stumps were pulled on Sunday and they were declared victors.
Though Western Districts fell short of defending the premiership they won in 2019-20, Dean said "playing against and alongside kids I have coached for a long period of time" still made it a fitting end for him.
"I would rather just go out on my own terms and I loved playing for Weston Creek. So it's two clubs I have had a lot to do with and I respect both sides a lot," he said.
Dean now plans to concentrate on coaching - something he has already proved successful at. Since signing as Western Districts' head coach three seasons ago he has helped deliver 15 titles across all five grades.
"At the time [he joined Wests] we only had two junior players under the age of 18 playing at the club and now we have got up to 20, 25 if not 30 infiltrated from first grade down to two fives teams," Dean said.
"It's time to move on and keep moving forward in that full-time personal coaching role that I have been doing for a fair few years now."
Not surprisingly, Dean has received plenty of praise from both team-mates and rivals.
Western Districts captain Joe Cooke said he was one of the all-time greats in ACT cricket history.
"He's in the top handful of players I've ever played with or against," Cooke said.
"His ability to deliver on the big stage, unfortunately I've been on the receiving end of it more than on the same team. He's a standout, anyone who can do what he does with the bat and the ball he's an asset to any team."
Western Creek's John Rogers, a former team-mate of Dean, spoke about what he has achieved as part of his coaching program.
"He is a really impressive player and he has contributed a lot to the Canberra cricketing community in general," Rogers said.
"He has done a lot for Weston Creek. We had a lot of success together in the short time we played together and he carried that on at Wests.
"But as I said in the [grand final] presentation, the biggest contribution he has made to Canberra cricket is what he is going to continue to do, which is developing the youngsters.
"Long may it continue that he looks after the next generation of Canberra cricket."
Dean's farewell season also included helping the ACT Aces to their maiden Regional Bash Twenty20 crown, beating Lake Mac Attack in the decider at the SCG.
He was the clear choice for the player of the final as he finished unbeaten on 70 runs off 55 deliveries.
Dean's overall career also includes one Big Bash game for the Sydney Thunder, a stint with Welsh club Bangor and English teams Hambledon and Carlton plus time in the University of NSW first XI.
While in Bathurst he played his club cricket for Rugby Union and was a member of Bathurst District representative outfits.
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