St Patrick's recruit says he left junior club for more experience

The 19-year-old stunned New City over winter by joining the Patties.

“It was obviously a tough decision, I’d been at New City since dad (Andrew) re-started it all, I’d been there 11 years,” he said.

“I think I needed to move on, freshen up, get myself around a bit more experience and help improve my cricket, there’s been a lot of pressure at New City.

“There’s Kane (Arendarcikas) and Luke Restall and those guys with that experience and to surround myself with that will better my cricket.”

New City was the surprise packet last season, breaking a finals drought.

“At St Pat’s it’s different, you’ve got Eddie (Keogh) and myself at five or six (wickets) down and you’ve still got Kane to come in, young Liam Parkinson, Pat Parnell, Ben Jones, Kieran Cowan, they can all hold the bat down to number 11.”

The teenager has made an instant impact at Patties, playing match-winning roles in successive weeks.

St Pat’s were struggling in Saturday’s game against Raiders, who posted 144.

The home club was battling at 6-85, but he combined with Arendarcikas in an unbeaten 60-run stand.

The previous week, chasing Albury’s 146, the visitors were again facing defeat against a winless side, but Keogh and Kilby put on 54 for the seventh wicket.

Kilby showed his composure last season in guiding New City to a shock win over Belvoir.

“Batting down the order, coming in at (number) seven or eight, if you’re batting first you’ve got a big job to do in trying to get a big total, while if you are chasing, like we have the last couple of weeks, it’s been good to be able to get the win,” he said.

“I just look at it that there’s plenty of time to go, you’ve just got to bat time.”

Kilby’s performance was even more important given he was batting with Arendarcikas in his record-breaking 300^th first grade match.

“When he came out to the crease we felt pretty comfortable and just looking to bat the overs,” he said.

“Obviously it (the win) means a lot, we didn’t want to lose the game for Kane.

“To be there at the end to finish it off and to walk off with him, it was good for him and I think the boys were pretty proud of that.”

The Patties are third with a three-one win-loss record.

The club will fancy its chances of grabbing successive wins over Belvoir and East Albury, before a brutal run to Christmas.