Restall has signed on to join the Patties, leaving the Albury Cricket Club where he hit 460 runs at 46 last season — the third highest in Cricket Albury-Wodonga’s Provincial competition.

Albury claimed it was confident of retaining Restall in July but yesterday, Patties captain-coach Heath Naughton said the star batsman was set to swap clubs.

“Luke has committed to us, we’ve got his signature but we have to wait for him to get cleared now,” he said.

“We sat down with him not long ago and spelled out where we were heading as a club.

“He had a good hard think about it and luckily for us, he liked what he heard.

“We’re honoured to have him — he’s a quality player and a quality bloke and obviously one of the best batsmen in the competition.”

Naughton said he was looking forward to playing alongside Restall, rather than against him.

“I think the last two times he’s played at Xavier Oval he’s scored two tons against us,” Naughton said.

“He just gets away from you — you don’t even realise he’s scored that many runs and all of a sudden he’s on 60 or 70.

“His record speaks for itself.”

Naughton said he was certain the club’s other batsmen would learn from the elegant right-hander.

“We didn’t make one senior century last year, we had lot of blokes who scored 40 or 50 or 60 but no one went on with it,” he said.

“Luke will be able to help all our batsmen work out what they need to do to go on and make hundreds.

“We came fourth last year which was a great effort, but we probably only got that far because we had 11 contributors.

“Adding a bloke of Luke’s talent, and hopefully one or two more, should mean we’re there abouts again next year.”

Naughton wasn’t sure where Restall would bat in the line-up.

“He can pretty much bat wherever he wants,” he laughed.