The highly respected former Bay and Basin allrounder played for the Philippines  in the ICC East Asia Pacific event.

Hill who sadly had to leave the area said the tournament was a wonderful experience.

“Going into the week we were very confident of a third place finish because of the inclusion of Daniel Smith a first grade opening bowler from Gordon and Henry Tyler - a second grade top order batsman from Melbourne,” the former Vincentia High School teacher said.

“However, we underperformed against Samoa and consequently finished the tournament in fourth position.”

He said the standard of cricket was high and the bowling fast.

“Vanuatu were incredibly strong and were the deserved winners and their attack featured some very lively pace, similar to that of Justin Weller at full speed and their fielding was in another class altogether,” he said.

“We were happy with our wins over Indonesia and Japan and  played to our strengths of bowling first in these matches and it paid dividends in the end.”

The weather can alway have a bearing on a cricket match.

The conditions were hot but not too humid and earlier in the week there was a light bit of rain which interrupted some play,” Hill said.

“The wickets were generally flat and lifeless so the bowlers had to work extra hard to extract any movement early on.  

“The ovals that we played on all had beautiful pavilions whose walls were adorned with honour boards dating back to the early 1920s.

“It was obvious that the community of Bendigo has a strong love of cricket and all the volunteers made the players feel extremely welcome.”

Hill’s last few seasons with his beloved Bay and Basin have been hampered by injury but he was happy with the way he played in the CC East Asia Pacific event.

“During the Indonesian match I was fortunate enough to be named player of the match with an innings of 41 runs and 3/30 with the ball,” he said

“Over the course of the tournament I top scored for the Philippines with 126 runs at 31.5 and chipped in with four wickets at 20.

“I was very pleased to get through the whole week without injury, especially after the disastrous torn hamstring that sidelined me during the 2014 tournament in Lismore.”

He thinks cricket in the Philippines is on the rise.

“There were some big positives to take away from the week.,” he said.

“Our leg spinner, Ruchir Mahajan, was leading wicket taker for the tournament - with 13 wickets at 14 and our top order batsman  Karweng Ng was one of the leading run scorers of the tournament with a very impressive 74 against Fiji.

“A massive thanks has to go out to Iain Sinclair and Faisal Khan, the coach and manager of the team, for the tireless efforts they put into organisation and training, leading up to the week.”

He wishes the Shoalhaven cricket community all the best for the future.