IT was a cricket season to remember for Golden Point Blue's Lillee Barendsen as she took out the Ballarat Cricket Association's women's cricket best and fairest. But she's already turning her attention to her other sporting passion, football.
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The 18-year-old was a one-vote winner from Golden Point Blue's Jayda Wright, having led the count for most of the night.
Barendsen scored 212 runs across the season, incredibly only dismissed once, giving her the almost unheard of average of 212 for the season.
"I had a good year, I was trying to contain my consistency all season, I've been playing cricket for a fair while now, so my goals as well have been to stay in and do everything I can for my team," she said.
"It's a bit of a shock to win this, I didn't get to play as many games as I would have liked this season."
Having been a key member of the Ballarat Bolts in previous years, Barendsen said it was a new feeling heading back to club land, but a premiership win had made it all worth it.
"It was a little bit of a difficult transition at first, but I didn't find the competition too different. I think it was good to go back to the club and enjoy playing the game a bit more.
Barendsen accepted the the best and fairest medal from last year's winner and teammate Maddy Ogilvie.
"We've got a great thing going at Golden Point, the standards are very high, the training is really good. I think we're building a club culture."
For Barendsen the sporting pursuits never stop as she now gets ready for the Ballarat Football Netball League women's football competition with Ballarat and also looking at VFL opportunities.
"I've played Premier Cricket previously for Carlton, but I was keen to get back into the local level due to travel and things, I think at the end of the day, cricket is a great fun thing for me, but I'm heavily involved in footy.
"I'm a little bit involved with the VFL down in Geelong. I could have been drafted last year, but I wasn't there, but I'm keen to see what I can make of that."
BCA WOMEN'S BEST AND FAIREST LEADERBOARD
16 - Lillee Barendsen (Golden Point Blue)
15 - Jayda Wright (Ballarat-Redan 1)
13 - Cindy Chettleburg (Brown Hill)
11 - Ella Jeffrey (East Ballarat), Maddy Ogilvie (Golden Point Blue), Jane Hodge (East Ballarat)
