Playing his first game in nearly a year, Dean was brought into Centrals Black's third grade side for their Orange and District Cricket Association clash against CYMS due to a large number of players being unavailable.

"I'd just wanted to focus a bit more time on work and to have a bit more time to myself on a weekend," he said.

"They've been struggling for numbers for a couple of weekends now, so I thought I'd go out and have a bit of a run."

And everyone was happy that he did. Centrals Black scored 127 batting first thanks in large part to a quick-fire 31 from Gareth Faul.

"We actually thought our total was down a little bit," Dean added.

"We were hoping to hit a couple more runs so we knew we had to bowl tight."

Dean was told he would be coming on to bowl first change and by the time he got the ball in his hand, CYMS were already 3-21.

He took a couple overs to warm up before the carnage started. CYMS were quickly reduced to 7-32 after Dean and Roshan Eiseman (2-4) dismantled the middle-order.

Into his fifth over Dean went and he quickly claimed the wickets of Ben McNiven and George Eleftheriou in consecutive balls. So in stepped CYMS' Matthew Culverson to face the hat-trick ball.

"Everyone was trying to tell me what ball I should bowl," Dean said.

"I'd bowled an outswinger, but with a bit of a cross seam for the two previous wickets, so I just went with the same ball."

He's glad he stuck to his guns as he rattled Culverson's stumps to not only bag the ever-elusive hat-trick, but a five-wicket haul and the win as well.

"I've had a couple of messages saying 'make sure you start signing up and start playing with us'," he said of his teammates.

A former CYMS player himself, Dean (5-8) praised the green and golds who also showed him "a lot of love afterwards."

The other second grade game saw Centrals Red (0-60) beat Cavaliers (10-59). Luke McEvoy (4-7) was best with the ball for Centrals Red.

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