HE headlined Bathurst's clean sweep of the Central West Cricket Council's cricketer of the year awards and now Nic Broes has an impassioned message to offer his fellow winners.
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Broes has advised them to make sure they enjoy their cricket while playing, but also their time off from the sport.
Enjoyment was one of the main focusses Broes carried into the 2021-22 season as he returned from Canberra and again linked with St Pat's Old Boys.
It was an approach which saw him pick up the Central West CC's senior cricketer of the year award, with fellow Saint Angus Parsons picking up the colts trophy, Callee Black the female honour and Cooper Stephen the junior crown in a Bathurst sweep.
"You see a lot of kids getting to the nets in June, but my advice would be just relax a bit and enjoy your time off. In junior stuff you play a lot of rep cricket and have zero weekends off throughout October through to April," Broes said.
"When you're actually in it give it 100 percent, but in your time off just relax and try not to worry about what people think and just back yourself.
"They're obviously all very talented, but that's where people can get lost, when you're always trying to perform you can get lost of who you really are. So be true to yourself, that's one of the main things I'd say to them."
As Broes acknowledged, Black, Stephen and Parsons are all hugely talented cricketers who have impressed at both club and representative level.
Amongst their highlights this season, Parsons played for the NSW under 17s, Black competed at the Under 19s Female National Cricket Championships and Stephen at the Under 14s State Challenge.
Broes himself played at the Country Invitational Tournament as he represented a NSW Country open age team for the first time.
But for Broes the key wasn't about who he played for, but rather the way he approached games.
"This year, and I've said it a few times, it wasn't really about performance, it was just about having fun, playing with my mates and not really caring too much about what other people care about or think," he said.
"I think getting a couple of personal awards is nice, but at the end of the day it didn't really faze me if I didn't get a million runs, it didn't worry me at all.
"If I could enjoy it without worrying about performance, that was the goal, that was what I set out to do so it was nice.
"It had just got into a cycle of people are watching me at training, people are watching me before I even play, people are watching when I play and after I play, so it was pretty taxing.
"I'm not 100 percent sure what next year holds or further on, but I had some fun this year, I certainly enjoyed it."
Though his focus wasn't on runs or wickets, playing without that pressure did lead to good numbers.
In the Western Zone Premier League Broes ranked third in both the batting and bowling statistics. He made 128 runs in that competition at an average of 64 and took seven wickets at 11.7.
On a club level with St Pat's Old Boys, Broes won the Twenty20 Bonnor Cup and Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket grand finals.
In the BOIDC he scored 432 runs at an average of 39.9 while he took 20 wickets, including a remarkable 5-5.
There were other highlights too.
"Playing with Brad [brother], that was very nice because top level we hadn't played together before, and those first few games back and playing with guys I hadn't played with for a few years was fun too," he said.
"For Bathurst, I enjoyed that, playing with Peakers [Ryan Peacock], Jameel [Qureshi], Imran [Qureshi], those sort of guys who helped me when I was coming through the ranks. It was nice to play with them and have some input this time instead of being the young one.
"The Country stuff probably topped it all off in the end, but there were a lot of moments that were really, really enjoyable.
"That's the main thing, enjoy your cricket."
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