FORMER-Shoalhaven cricketer Philip Wells has established a couple of new records in the Sydney first grade competition.
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Competing in his seventh first grade grand final recently, Wells scored 95 for Bankstown against Sydney University.
The score took his first grade grand final tally to 369 runs - the highest of any batsman in first grade history.
In reaching that total, he passed test opener Bill Watson, Grant Lambert and Brian Booth.
Wells first grade grand final batting average is 52.
He established another first for the Bankstown Club by scoring 974 runs at 44.3 for the season.
That run tally took his aggregate score for Bankstown to 5407 runs in five years - an average of 1080 runs a year - understood to be the fastest ever to have achieved that place on the Bulldogs honour board.
Interspersed among the scores were 15 centuries.
“Looking back on this season, I thought personally it was a little patchy for me with the bat,” Wells said.
“I started the season well and finished it okay, but probably didn’t do enough through the middle of the season – so as a whole, it’s probably a par season in my eyes.
“As a team though, I don’t think we played that well all year but to our credit, we probably produced our best performance of the season in the final against Sydney University but they were just too good for us.”
Adding his Bankstown statistics to his career with former club St George shows him as scoring over 8000 runs, featuring 20 centuries and taking 135 wickets
He's won four first grade premierships, two one day first grade caps and four Poidevin Grey (under 21) caps.
“I don’t play the game of cricket for records and accolades – I play because I love the game, love the company of the boys and the Bankstown Cricket Club as a whole,” Wells said.
“Obviously it’s nice to have my name on awards and in the records books but there’s more to cricket than that for me.”
Wells is soon to undertake a level two coaching clinic with Cricket NSW and intends to put back into the sport by coaching - especially juniors.