As Tamworth's Blake Scicluna racked up the runs on Sunday against Inverell, he had a fair idea triple figures were fast approaching.
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He wasn't counting the runs in his head nor had he been given the heads up from a teammate running a message out to the middle.
No, it was a much more modern moment that gave him an inkling that he was closing in on a century.
"...I could see someone videoing so I knew I was sort of close," Scicluna recalled.
And it didn't throw the top order batsman off
"I just thought 'keep going'. I didn't think a lot of it," Scicluna said.
Shortly after, he smacked a ball back over the bowler's head to the boundary to bring up a ton.
The Tamworth Blue under 15s player said "it felt good" to notch up his first century.
It comes three years after going close against the same team.
On that day he scored 88 not out.
But Scicluna wasn't falling short this time.
He came in to bat on Sunday with the score on 2-146 and, along with Ben Murphy, went about scoring quick runs.
"Our openers set us up really well for myself and Ben Murphy to go for the hit and in that circumstance we just had to go for it," Scicluna.
And it came off.
Murphy scored 69 off 34 balls before he was out while Scicluna went on with it to score 105 not out from 61 balls.
Weather permitting, Tamworth Blue will be back on the pitch this Sunday for their second John Kilborn Shield match of the season.
It will be the local derby with Tamworth Blue taking on Tamworth Gold.
George Denton Shield (under 13s) and Col Dent Shield (under 17s) matches are also scheduled throughout the Central Northern Cricket Zone on Sunday.
Scicluna will also be one of many local cricketers keeping an eye on the skies.
The Tamworth District Cricket Association grade competitions are set to kick off on Saturday but rain on Friday doesn't bode well for the season's commencement.
Scicluna, who bowls pace as well as bats, is set to line up for Bective-East in second grade who are taking on West Tamworth at Riverside 5.
First grade will meanwhile meet at Riverside 1.
In other games Old Boys and North Tamworth will do battle at No.1 Oval while City United will clash with South Tamworth at Riverside 2.
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
