Ollie Brincat awarded Orange Junior Cricketer of the Year

Pouring himself a cup of tea, the talented junior sits back and relaxes, accompanied by a biscuit.

Sometimes he might go crazy and make it a pot of tea if his good mate Morty Hamling is around.

So with that considered, there's no prizes for guessing how Brincat celebrated after he was named Orange District Junior Cricket Association junior cricketer of the year and under 14s player of the year on Friday (March 24).

"I had a few cups of tea watching the footy, with a Monte Carlo and shortbread cream," he laughed.

For him that combination is the secret to success.

Along with plenty of hard work.

The 2022/23 season has involved more cricket matches than you can imagine for the youngster.

While playing for Orange City in under 16s and seniors is his bread and butter, there's been numerous appearances for Orange on the under 14s representative stage in Greg Griffith Shield and Max Shepherd Shield. Along with that he played for Central West Cricket Council in the under 14s southern conference, Orange under 15s in the Western Junior Cricket Carnival and Country Lions in the under 14s male state challenge.

Over 51 matches this season, Brincat scored 1147 runs at 57.35 and took 37 wickets at 15.16. His highest score for the under 16s Orange City Crusaders was 51.

Despite an impressive campaign, the modest youngster wasn't certain he'd come away with the award at Friday's Wade Park presentation.

"Nah no chance," he said when asked how he thought he'd go.

"I wasn't even going in thinking I had a chance."

Understandably, he was pleased when his name was read out.

"I felt good, I was surprised ... I forgot it was even a thing and they said my name and I was like 'ah righto'," he said.

It wasn't just juniors where Brincat impressed though.

Starting out in third grade, the all-rounder had a plan to move up the grades, and was determined to let his statistics do the talking.

Brincat topped the wicket-takers list for Orange City in thirds during the regular season with 13 at 8.77 while earning his first call-up to seconds in December 17. He then returned to third grade before finishing the season with a semi-final appearance in seconds.

"I had a goal of trying to play the back half of the season in second grade ... I had a good back half of the year with the ball in thirds and got a wicket in seconds," he said.

Brincat removed Cavaliers captain Max Pearce for 26 in the semi-final while he beat the bat of seasoned campaigner Stuart Middleton on numerous occasions to finish with 1/39 from eight overs.

The off-spinner said plenty of work went into his craft over the season.

"Before the season started, I did work with (Lachie) Skelly, he's helped me a lot this year and it's obviously worked," he said.

The other award winners for Orange Junior District Cricket were Angus O'Brien who claimed under 12s player of the year and Cooper Pullen who took out the under 16s title.

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