Glenelg batsman Joel Garrett scores century in first two-day Grade Cricket match in 18 months

GLENELG batsman Joel Garrett's aim at the start of the season was simply to get back playing regularly again - now he has a Grade century under his belt.

GLENELG District Cricket Club batsman Joel Garrett's aim at the start of the season was simply to get back playing regularly again.

Runs were a bonus.

But in his first two-day match in 18 months - and just his fourth overall since a shoulder reconstruction in December last year - the 21-year-old scored his second A grade century.

His knock of 144 against Tea Tree Gully at Pertaringa Oval on November 16 helped Glenelg to a first-innings win and surprised him.

"I wasn't expecting it," Garrett says.

"I wasn't concerned with that (making runs), I was more concerned with getting back playing.

"Before I was given the all clear I thought I might have played twos to ease back into it.

"I was pretty knackered at the end of the innings ... but I was pretty happy obviously."

Garrett was seemingly on a fast path to first-class cricket when he was struck down with the shoulder injury after his debut season with the Seahorses.

The former Southern District player had represented Australia at under-15 and under-18 level and was also in a string of junior SA squads, as well as the emerging Redbacks.

Garrett says if he had a run of big scores in the Grade competition he may have been considered by SA selectors.

Instead he tore his supraspinatus at the end of the 2011/12 campaign and missed the whole of the following season, including Glenelg's first A grade flag in 39 years.

"Wear and tear brought it down, I dove one game and it crunched and that was it.

"It was disappointing to miss out on the flag but I was so happy for all the boys."

Garrett returned to the field in September when he played three Premier League games for Southern Force.

But he got bursitis in the shoulder through "doing too much too quickly" and was sidelined again until the match against the Gullies.

Now Garrett, a boarding master at Prince Alfred College, is determined to stay injury free for the remainder of the season.

He says he will worry about getting back to his best and aiming for higher honours down the track.