Such decorated roll calls are an expected adornment on the walls of cricket clubrooms.

For the previously nomadic Coronet City, hanging up honour boards is an important step of settling into the club’s new shared base by the baseball diamonds at Prince of Wales Park.

Nearby are four newly constructed cricket nets, bustling for training.

There was plenty of excitement about – for the first time since the club’s merger of Wendouree City and Coronet-Invermay, 17 years ago, Coronet City will play finals in the Ballarat Cricket Association.

City’s finals debut comes in the club thirds, where Linahan plays.

His unbeaten 305 runs against Ballarat-Redan last week was the second highest score in Australian country cricket this season.

Linahan has demolished City’s previous batting record of 162 runs and sets one of the highest individual scores in BCA history.

It also marked his first ton.

“I didn’t know what to think with my century, it came up pretty quick, so I just kept batting to see what I could do,” Linahan said.

Linahan worked with his teammates, forming a 191-run stand with Rob Jaruga for the fifth wicket, and a193-run seventh wicket partnership with Billie Leskosek.

They have formed a team catching the competition by surprise – Leskosek nabbed a double hat-trick against East Ballarat on January 18 – especially for a club that has traditionally floundered at ladder bottoms.

“Our club merged 17 years ago and in all that time, that’s a lot of thrashings,” Linahan said.

“We’ve made finals ... we’ve won four of the past five since Christmas after initially hoping to get two or three wins after the break.

“We’ve got a bit of a mix of young and experienced players – three or four of us have played together a long time, since primary school, and we’ve got a few good players aged 18 to 21.

“It’s exciting for the club’s future.”

melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au