STAR batsman Jeremy Brown plundered the highest score in the 161-year history of Eaglehawk on Saturday.
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Brown produced a batting masterclass at Canterbury Park as he crunched 215 in the Hawks’ mammoth 404 against Bendigo United.
Remarkably, Brown faced just 131 balls in his innings that surpassed the Hawks’ previous record score of 206 set by Dennis Bice against Bendigo in 1990-91.
The Brown-inspired performance may prove to be the day the BDCA sleeping giant awoke given the reigning premier Hawks had gone into round four winless.
Brown’s start to the season had mirrored that of the Hawks – scratchy, with his first three innings producing scores of just 12, 13 and four.
But from the moment he strode to the wicket in the 29th over with the Hawks 2-96 in reply to the Redbacks’ 232, the day belonged to the classy left-hander.
“I hadn’t been hitting the ball well this season, but I’ve had a heap of throwdowns in the nets during the week and just trying to work as hard as I can,” Brown said.
“It was one of those days where you hit a good shot and get away early, whereas I hadn’t been able to do that before today.
“It was good to spend some time at the crease and get a few runs. Bernie Fitt has done a great job with the wicket and the outfield was nice and quick.”
Of his tally of 215, Brown only had to run 43 after he blasted 25 boundaries – one of which brought up his 200 – and 12 sixes.
At one stage he scored a block of 34 runs purely from sixes (three) and fours (four).
His innings ended when caught in the deep by Jake Thrum off Chris Howgate – who followed up his 109 last week with 5-75 – in the 70th over with the tally at 370, meaning he scored 215 of the team’s 274 runs while at the crease.
In the first XI history of the BDCA, Brown’s score has been bettered only by Bendigo United’s Heath Behrens (249 n.o. and 219 n.o.), North Bendigo’s Andrew Price (237), Harcourt’s Ron Porter (225) and Sandhurst’s Nick Scullie (225 n.o.), placing his innings on Saturday sixth on the all-time list.
Brown joins Bice, Matt Ford (205), Wayne Walsh (202 n.o.) and Barry Findlay (200) as the only players to make first XI double-centuries for the Hawks, whose history is traced back to 1856.
The Hawks – who had captain Cory Jacobs (46) and Anthony West (34) lay the foundation with a 77-run opening stand – amassed 404, despite still having 8.2 overs left unused.