THE phenomenal figures of 5-4 to go with a half century - it was certainly a good weekend for Scott Traves but that's not the only reason he was smiling on Sunday afternoon.
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The experienced St Pat's Old Boys campaigner also got plenty of enjoyment in seeing the delight on the faces of his younger team-mates as they qualified for the Bathurst District Cricket Association's Presidents Cup grand final.
Traves and his St Pat's White side beat Bathurst City McKay by 176 runs at Cubis Oval.
"Wickets are very nice and to have a good win like that is really good, and the kids, you could see the excitement on their faces," Traves said.
"As soon as we had them five down you could see they were really bubbly and up and keen in the field.
"The kids that we have this year, a lot of them go to school together and have been mates for a fair while. That camaraderie, it makes us feel good seeing these young blokes wanting to play cricket.
"These young guys like to learn and love their cricket, it's been great to watch them improve."
While the young Saints have certainly improved as the season has gone on, Traves has long been a threat on cricket fields across the region.
He was there when the first Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket Association grand final was played - he took 3-4 for Orange City in that decider - and played representative cricket too.
But his 5-4 off 7.2 overs, which included six maidens, against Bathurst City McKay still stands as one of his finest efforts with the ball.
It helped dismiss the Redbacks for 108 after they'd been 3-30 at stumps on Saturday in the two-day contest in pursuit of the Saints' 284.
"I actually didn't realised I'd done that until I came off," Traves said of his haul.
"I have taken a five for five before, that was in a second grade game quite a few years ago now and I thought that was pretty good too.
"I just happened to get the ball moving away from the bat a little bit and just put it in the right spot I suppose.
"The opposition also tried to go after the bowling a little bit, so if you've got the ball moving a bit it helps me when they go hard at it."
While Traves did most of the damage with the ball, Brett Roach took 3-22 off nine overs while developing talents Harry Fearnley and Riley Goodsell chipped in with a wicket apiece.
As for Pat's batting card on day one at Cubis, Traves again was impressive as he belted six boundaries on his way to 58.
But there were other good contributions too.
"We batted really well on the first day. Richard Sharp, he's come to play with us this season and he's fitted in really well with our side, he batted really well for his 63 not out," Traves said.
"But all the young blokes chipped in too. Riley Goodsell got 19, Ben Eardley got 21, and these guys are only 14 years of age. Even down at number 10 and 11 we got a 15 and an 11, and it all added up.
"If us old blokes can do our job, these young blokes can top it all off."
While the Saints advance to the grand final off the back of that win and naturally are hoping they go on and clinch the premiership, Traves sees bigger rewards coming from Presidents Cup as well.
He can see junior talents across all clubs getting better and enjoying their cricket. He knows some of them will go on to play first grade.
"I'm old enough that I was around when they first started thinking about doing a Presidents Cup competition to try and get kids involved in grade cricket," he said.
"There was a bit of a hole between say 15-16 to grade cricket, they were really dropping off, and a lot of them were playing cricket for their schools as well.
"So this was a great concept at the time and it's still working really well. Now there are a lot of 15 and 16-year-olds and some of them are playing first grade.
"It's been incredible. There was a kid we played against on the weekend, Charlie Croaker. I remember when he came in to Presidents Cup last year and he has improved out of sight, his batting is so much better.
"He held us up for awhile and maybe even showed some of the other guys in his team how you should bat.
"So these kids are coming into grade and all of a sudden they're playing against men, but they also have these experienced guys helping them out. They improve so quickly, it's really phenomenal."
The grand final will be played on April 1-2.
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