Yarraville Club’s Halwathurage Jayasinghe wins VTCA Paxino Medal

Former Sri Lanka international Halwathurage Jayasinghe claims the VTCA’s top honour at the evergreen age of 45. See all the award winners and Teams of the Year here.

Chinthaka Jayasinghe in action for Yarraville Club. Picture: Andy Brownbill

“He’s like a fine wine, he just gets better with age.”

Yarraville Club captain-coach Mitch Johnstone is in awe of his Paxino Medal-winning teammate Halwathurage Jayasinghe.

The 45-year-old former Sri Lanka international claimed the VTCA Senior Division’s highest individual honour on Friday night, capping a superb campaign.

Jayasinghe smashed 528 runs at an average of 52, scoring two centuries, and showed he’s still a danger with the ball, claimed a hat-trick against Sunshine United.

In a tense count, he polled 12 votes to pip Keilor’s Malith Cooray by one, with Westmeadows captain-coach Donovan Pell another vote behind in third.

It’s his third league best-and-fairest after claiming the Division 1 North Tony Isaac Medal in 2018-19 while with Westmeadows.

Johnstone said Jayasinghe was hugely influential at the club on and off the field.

“He’s been a prominent player in the VTCA for more than a decade, it’s a fair effort at 45,” Johnstone said.

“He had a really consistent season, his game was very influential in us winning.

“His batting, his conversion was better this year, he was dangerous for 30s and 40s last season but he kicked on and scored a couple of hundreds and another couple of 50s.

“He’s very quiet, humble, a real gentlemen.

“He’s hugely respected within the competition, he’s probably one of the oldest active former First Class players from Sri Lanka and there’s obviously a large contingent within the comp that look up to him as a role model.

“That’s noticeable post-game with his interactions and he’s been a great servant of the VTCA.”

Jayasinghe is locked in again for 2024-25 as Yarraville Club looks to improve on this season’s semi-final finish.

Four Clubbers were selected in the Senior Division Team of the Year, Jayasinghe joining competition leading run-scorer Michael Hill, Nandhalal Sangaran and Johnstone.

In the search for premiership success, Johnstone hoped the club could spread the load more next season.

“We had four players in the Team of the Year, we’d trade that in for the premiership,” he said.

“It means we want to spread the load a little bit more, we’ve looked to address that with recruiting.

“If we can get 10 blokes averaging 30 with the bat and making 300 rather than two or three blokes having big years.”

Meanwhile, in the night’s other awards.

Aberfeldie’s Jacqueline Wade claimed the Women’s Division medal after scoring 412 runs and helping her club reach the semi-finals.

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It was a tie in the Division 1 Isaac-Howarth Medal after PEGS’ Jordan Cook and Connor Smith of Altona North couldn’t be split.

Grand United run-machine Leniko Boucher was awarded the Division 2 McNamara Medal, while Tom Burton added to his premiership medal for Williamstown Imperials with the Division 3 Picone Medal.

Gellibrand’s Jacob McDonald also doubled his premiership success with the Division 4 Evans-Clark Medal and Matthew Leach of Williamstown Congs claimed the Division 5 Pollock Medal.

In other awards, St Francis de Sales was named the Spirit of Cricket Award recipient.