Tom Groth has reflected on his fortune to have enjoyed the longevity he has after etching his name in the Australian Country Cricket Championship record books.
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The NSW Country stalwart became the most capped player in the history of the championships at the just-completed tournament in Toowoomba.
Playing in his 12th consecutive campaign for his beloved Bush Blues, the wicketkeeper batsmen surpassed Queenslander Sean Fitzsimmon's record of 83 games when he padded up against Western Australia on Wednesday.
Not one to covet the limelight, Groth had no idea until he was made aware by the side's management.
"Obviously it's not what you play for, it's something that just popped up," Groth said.
A "pretty cool" something though.
It's the second championships in a row he has achieved a milestone. Last year he became NSW Country's most-capped player.
"I've just been lucky enough to have been able to play for so long," he said.
"Obviously this cricket is something that I'm pretty proud of."
"It's been 12 years of good cricket."
"It's gone quickly. It feels like yesterday that I was first starting."
It is a tournament that he always looks forward to being involved in.
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"Probably my whole season revolves around this week," Groth said.
"It's something that I work for. It's a great, fun, week."
As for whether he continues on next year and adds to his now 86 caps, he is taking it as it comes.
"We'll just see where we're at," he said.
"Obviously we didn't get the result we wanted here so there's a bit of unfinished business here for a few guys."
The side also featuring North Tamworth's Michael Rixon had to settle for fourth.
Groth - the South Tamworth and Central North skipper - didn't perform as well as he would have liked with the bat, but he had a good tournament with the gloves winning the keeping award for the fifth time.
He finished with 14 catches, three stumpings and assisted in two run outs.
"I was really happy with the way I kept," he said.
"I lucky enough to get a few catches and a couple of stumpings."
"Obviously 10 games in eight days is pretty demanding for a keeper."
"But I got through it.
"I can still walk."
A 24-run loss to Victoria in their final game ended a campaign that didn't reach the heights that Groth had hoped.
"We were just not quite there," he said.
"We lost three or four games by pretty small margins."
"If those games went our way we're probably not far off winning the tournament."
He said they just probably struggled to build partnerships, and got a bit tied down by the spinners, through the middle overs.
"We got off to pretty good starts but we struggled to tick runs over in the middle overs of those one-day games," he said.
It made it difficult in the back of end, especially when they were chasing.
On a positive note, he said it was pleasing to see Rixon do well in his first campaign. He was their second top-scorer against Victoria with 47 and finished with 173 runs for the carnival.
"Obviously it's his first tour and I think he's realised it's pretty tough cricket," Groth said.
"But he did well and I think was pretty happy to be part of it."