HAVING played one of the leading roles in Strathdale-Maristians' Twenty20 premiership last season, Chris Sole is joining the Suns full-time in the BDCA in a massive boost for the club.
Sole, 25, brings with him the experience of playing 11 one-day and four Twenty20 internationals for Scotland and showed in January's Twenty20 grand final against Kangaroo Flat with his pace just what a handful he will be for opposition batsmen.
Sole earned the grand final player of the match for his 2-9 off four overs as the Suns held off Kangaroo Flat by six runs to capture their fifth BDCA Twenty20 title.
Sole, who lives in Bendigo, was the Suns' T20 marquee player while he was playing his club cricket with Seddon.
But having had a taste of what the BDCA has to offer, Sole says he is looking forward to experiencing it on a weekly basis with the Suns.
"Living in Bendigo with my partner obviously makes it a fairly easy decision to play cricket in Bendigo as well," Sole said this week.
"I played for a team in Melbourne last season and the commute was a bit of a pain, and I had a good time with the Suns training there and playing a bit of T20.
"So it's a bit of a logical choice to play with them this summer. From what I've seen, there's a lot of good cricketers and some up-and-down results in Bendigo, so it seems a very competitive competition that I'm looking forward to playing in."
Sole's inclusion adds another weapon to the Suns' bowling department that was last summer heavily reliant on leg-spinner Cameron Taylor (49 wickets) once Sam Johnston's season ended after round 10 with a foot injury.
Having spent the bulk of the season outside the top four, the Suns hauled their way into fourth spot at the last minute for their 14th-consecutive finals series before they copped a 130-run hiding from Golden Square in their semi at Wade Street when they were bowled out for 175 chasing 305.
"We're really excited that Chris is coming to join us full-time. He has been fantastic around the club for the past 12 months training with us and playing some Twenty20s," Suns captain Ben DeAraugo said.
"We're fortunate in that we've seen what he can do in the Twenty20 matches, but also the work ethic that he puts into his training and we know he is really motivated to help develop our younger players. He's going to be a great asset for us."
While the Suns have Sole joining them, they have lost top-order batsman Andrew Chalkey, who will play with Kew in the Sub-District competition.
Chalkley rejoined the Suns from the Monash Tigers five rounds into last season, scoring 286 runs.
The aggressive left-hander was also a part of Bendigo's successful campaign at Melbourne Country Week when it won the division two title in February to earn promotion back to Provincial Group.
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