DDCA: Jayde Herrick joins Turf 1 club Springvale South

Jayde Herrick is going back to the competition where he once took nine wickets in an innings in a Turf 1 match.

Jayde Herrick goes up in an appeal for Victoria.

Former Victorian paceman Jayde Herrick is going back to the competition where he first played senior cricket.

He’s going back to the DDCA.

Herrick, 36, came through Cranbourne juniors and then moved to Buckley Ridges, where at the age of 17 he took nine wickets in an innings in Turf 1.

Last night he agreed to terms with Buckley’s great rival Springvale South, giving the Bloods a formidable attack.

They’d already picked up former Casey South Melbourne paceman Josh Dowling to partner quickie Matt Wetering.

Herrick had announced his retirement from cricket in March after playing the season with Langwarrin in the Mornington Peninsula association.

“It’s just pain,” he said at the time.

“Pain and other things now. It’s just all got too much. It’s been a pretty long and arduous sort of career and bowling fast has taken a toll on the body.”

Jayde Herrick bowling for Somerville.

Three months on he’s had a change of mind, telling Springy South he’s eager to go back to playing turf rather than bowling on hard wickets.

“Thrilled to have a player of Jayde’s experience and calibre join our club,’’ Bloods president Jason Quirk said this morning.

“He’ll work with all our bowlers to make them into better players.

“We think he can be classed as a bowling allounder. He made two centuries in District cricket.’’

The right-armer made his first-class debut for Otago in New Zealand in 2010, taking 4-83 off 36 overs in the second innings.

It led to an action-filled stint with the Vics in Shield cricket. Sporting tattoos, wearing a headband and running in hard, he took a few bags and hit out down the list with the bat.

He had 19 first-class matches, collecting 77 wickets at 31.55, with a best of 7-103. Herrick also played 10 List A matches and had a Big Bash League stint with the Melbourne Renegades.

At Premier level he had a total of 114 matches, spending time at Frankston Peninsula, St Kilda and Casey South Melbourne.

There were 201 wickets at 25.90, as well as 1817 runs at 20.41, with two centuries.

He later had a stint with University of Tasmania.

More recently Herrick has been playing in the MPCA.

Last season he took 16 wickets and made 241 runs for Langwarrin, and in 2019-20 he starred for Somerville with 51 wickets at 9.43 as well as 373 runs. He joined Somie in 2016-17.

Herrick is the second former first-class fast pace bowler to return to the DDCA, after Andrew Perrin accepted a two-year deal with Berwick last month.