BENDIGO United's Riley Treloar is confident his winter stint playing in England has helped him become a better cricketer.
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And that was on display last Saturday when the left-hander churned out his maiden first XI century for the Redbacks in the Bendigo District Cricket Association.
The 24-year-old No.3 made 108 from 178 balls as the Redbacks answered Bendigo's 191 with 3-194 at Atkins Street.
"I've been working for a long time to get an A grade hundred, so to get one on the same day as we had our club Ball on Saturday night was really good," Treloar said this week.
"It was good to be able to play my role. As a No.3 you want to be able to anchor the innings and get some runs, so it was good to help set up a good result."
Treloar's maiden first XI century came in what was his 73rd career innings for the Redbacks, with whom he made his first XI debut with in 2014-15.
It was Treloar, together with 17-year-old opener Wil Pinniger, who scored the bulk of the runs in the successful chase for the Redbacks against the Goers.
With Pinniger making 59, the pair added 165 for the second wicket as they took the Redbacks from 1-9 to in sight of victory as they pushed the score to 174 before Pinniger's dismissal.
"I've had a few years experience now and learning off the likes of Heath Behrens in my early days; he was big for me when I was coming through at Wil's age, so you then try to teach Wil some of the same lessons to keep it filtering through," Treloar said.
Treloar is Bendigo United's leading run-scorer through four rounds with 203 at an average of 50.5, while he also started the BDCA's Twenty20 tournament in impressive fashion with 77 off 40 balls in the Redbacks' round one win over Kangaroo Flat.
Treloar's solid start with the bat this season follows an Australian winter spent in England where he played for the Abbotskerswell Cricket Club second XI.
It's the same club Strathdale-Maristians' Jack Neylon also played at during winter and is part of the South Devon Cricket League.
"I had about five months over there and really enjoyed it," Treloar said.
"It was obviously a challenge adapting to the different conditions... the pitches were a lot slower and the ball was swinging around quite a bit.
"I think I got 590 or so runs from around 20 games, so I was happy with that.
"It was my first time overseas, so it was a big move, but I had a blast. I was able to meet up with a few mates from here who were travelling through Europe and then I did a couple of weeks travel after the cricket season as well, which was unreal."
Bendigo United has been one of the early season surprise packets in the BDCA.
With the competition back to 12 rounds banking early wins is imperative and the Redbacks have done just that, winning three of their first four games, including beating reigning premier Kangaroo Flat in round two.
"We hadn't won a game at this stage last season, so it's really good to get some early wins on the board," Treloar said.
"Clayto (captain Clayton Holmes) is all about us having fun and enjoying our cricket and the wins have come on the back of that, but the boys put in a lot of hard work during the pre-season.
"To be honest, it's not really a surprise to me that we're in the position we are because we have put the work in."
The Redbacks continue their season this weekend with another of the BDCA's teams that are 3-1 in Strathfieldsaye at Harry Trott Oval.
Treloar is one of three players already this season to make their inaugural BDCA first XI centuries along with Strathdale-Maristians' James Barri and Kangaroo Flat's Daniel Barber.
