Casey Cardinia cricket: Devon Meadows seconds opener Anthony Brown scores 102

A Devon Meadows cricketer on the comeback trail after 25 years on the sidelines scored his first-ever hundred in a stunning run-chase victory. Here’s his story.

Devon Meadows seconds batter Anthony Brown made his maiden century, at 46.

The ups and downs of cricket, eh?

Devon Meadows seconds opening batter Anthony Brown knows all about it after scoring his maiden century — at the age of 46 — on Saturday.

He described the feeling as euphoric.

Three weeks ago, Brown — on the comeback trail after 25 years out of the game — was batting at six in the third XI.

With the seconds short of payers last week, Brown was brought up.

Grabbing his chance, he made 102 off 223 balls to put Devon Meadows on the path to a stirring run-chase win over local rivals Clyde at Glover Reserve.

And he did it in front of a big crowd, with Devon’s firsts and thirds players gathering to watch after their games finished early.

Chasing 306 for victory, Brown’s Panthers got there with three overs to spare, making 4-306 off 77 overs.

A mighty roar went up when left-handed Brown clipped one off his legs to reach triple figures for the first time, a lifelong ambition realised.

The man of the moment was in disbelief of what he’d achieved.

“Two weeks ago I was saying to my wife, ‘it’s a bloody shit sport, I don’t know why I’m playing’,’’ he said.

“I’ve done alright in the last couple of weeks. Now it’s a bloody good sport.”

Anthony Brown made his maiden century at 46.

Bill Loudon made 72 in a 102-run opening stand with Brown. Picture: Facebook

Brown never thought he’d make a century after giving the game away as a kid — for a quarter of a century

He made a comeback last year when his son Lucas, 13, started playing.

“Look I’ve surprised myself to be honest,” Brown, a teacher, said.

“My batting, I can stay out there for long periods of time, I don’t have a great range of shots.”

Devon Meadows seconds captain Mick Floyd described the win “one of the best home and away wins I’ve been a part of’’ and said Brown was “universally liked, a great clubman and teammate’’.

“That ton is one of the most popular individual achievements of the last few years,’’ he said.

“His son was in the team and his wife there for the whole innings too.’’

Floyd also revelaed Brown was a reluctant opener.

“Because we were chasing 300 at a fast Glover Reserve…I said to him on the Thursday night ‘are you interested in opening the batting’, and to be honest he was a little bit reluctant, he wasn’t sold on it,’’ he said.

“But he said, ‘if you think it’s going to help us win the game I’ll do it’.”

Floyd said Brown showed grit and determination throughout his marathon knock.

“We got to the tea break and we were 1-100 off 40 and he came off saying ‘I think we’re going too slow, I’ve got to do more’,” Floyd said.

“I said ‘just relax Browny’. I think he would have been maybe 20 at the tea break.

“Then he got a couple out of the middle and then they all came out of the middle

“He batted really well, it was the perfect innings for what we needed from him.’’

From fourths to thirds and now seconds star… Brown doubted his rise would continue.

“I don’t think so, in our ones we’ve got a pretty good left hander there already in Lucas Ligt,” he said.

Indeed. Ligt is the run machine of Casey Cardinia cricket; on Saturday he scored his seventh century in his past 20 innings for Devon Meadows’ first XI, a brilliant unbeaten 125 in the Panthers 0-192 in reply to Clyde’s 8-156. William Halton made 60 not out.