By Grace Jones | posted on February 9, 2019
ALBANY leg spinner Patrick Butler has heeded the call of Scarborough Cricket Club scouts and made the move to Perth to pursue first-grade cricket.
Butler has a number of milestones under his belt this season including playing in the winning Western Australian Country XI side last month and being part of the Albany team that won Country Week.
His efforts with the ball at both carnivals caught the eye of Scarborough’s top brass, not least his 16 wickets for the WA Country XI side.
Following his move to Perth, Butler spoke with The Weekender and said the opportunity to edge towards top-level cricket in Perth was too good to pass up.
“I was playing with Midland Guildford pretty casually while I was working fly-in fly-out,” he said.
“I haven’t been taking cricket too seriously over the past few years, so when I got a call from the coaches at Scarborough after Country Week it got me interested.
“I had to weigh a few things up, but I decided to give cricket another serious crack.”
Butler said he would need to do more than his circa-20 average with both bat and ball that he had notched up with Albany side North County to break into first grade cricket in Perth.
“It would be a super high achievement to play in first grade,” he said.
“Albany has some good players but it’s a whole different competition in Perth.
“It’s fairly strong up here and up to the same standard as Country XI cricket.”
Butler said his move to Scarborough would offer more opportunities to improve as a player.
“Living in Perth means I can concentrate more on my training and participate in some programs,” he said.
“It’s a big commitment to get into first grade and I would have to put in a few good games in the seconds to be considered.
“I want to give it a real crack though.”
Butler didn’t claim any wickets in his first match for Scarborough’s second-grade side against Mount Lawley, but he did make a handy 48 runs from just 45 deliveries, adapting quickly to the step-up in competition.
Scarborough beat Mt Lawley by 251 runs in a nice little sweetener for Butler.
