PETER BURGE MEDAL 2005-06

BEN LAUGHLIN 

April 2006

Going into the 2005-06 summer, Ben Laughlin admits he didn't consider himself a first-grade bowler. After all, he'd missed a lot of cricket with two stress fractures of the back, and had only played "four or five" senior games.

So, it's not overstating the fact when the Wynnum-Manly quick says he was massively surprised to win the Peter Burge Medal as the No.1 player in the XXXX GOLD Grade Competition.

Not so much on the night of the presentation dinner because votes released during the season had given him a fair pointer that he was going to be right in contention. But going into the 2005-06 season all he wanted to do was get through unscathed and maybe get a couple of games in open company.

Not now. Having re-assessed his long-term goals midway through the season, the right-arm fast bowler and handy lower-order batsman was looking at pressing for inclusion in the QAS squad and maybe playing some 2nd XI games next summer.

"It made me realize that maybe I can make something more of my cricket," he said before effectively being ruled out of contention for the QAS squad because he was too old.

Still, so keen was he when the season finished there was no rest. He was straight back into the gym, and he s playing warehouse cricket with the Grange Warriors to work on his batting.

It's all part of a meteoric rise in which the 23-year-old son of former Victorian and Australian Test all-rounder Trevor Laughlin, who became the first Wynnum player since Adam Dale in 1995-96 to win the Burge Medal.

Laughlin, who considers himself a Queenslander after moving from Melbourne in 1991, polled 19 votes to beat Nathan Hauritz (16) and Lachlan Stevens (16). Then followed Chris Swan (15), Duncan Betts (15), Jason Voros (14), Nick Kruger (14), Aaron Nye (14), Gavin Fitness (13) and Lance Kahler (12).

It capped a marvelous season for Laughlin in which he topped the grade cricket wicket-taking list with 43 wickets at 12.23, including a hat-trick against Norths in January and a season best of 7-44 in the final round against Souths to clinch the medal.

His hat-trick in a haul of 4-17 was only the second hat-trick taken for Wynnum-Manly in first grade, with former Queensland speedster Denis Schuller claiming the first back in 1978.

"It was (batsmen) 8-9-10 so it wasn't anything special," Laughlin said modestly. "But I'll take it."

Indeed he should, having trapped his first victim plumb LBW, had the second caught at mid-on from a bad show to a slower ball, and cleaning bowling the third.

"Most might say the third one was from a full toss but I say he missed a yorker," quipped the personable carpenter, who had never previously taken a hat-trick in any form of cricket.

It's appropriate that Laughlin has followed in the Dale footsteps to win the medal because the former Test swing bowler has played a key role in his career.

"He (Dale) was club coach at Wynnum back when I started as an 18-year-old and he was a big influence on me," said Laughlin, who credits a mindset change for his success.

"I used to just try to bowl flat out all the time but that was never going to work for me because I'm a bit challenged in the height department. So I tried to working on bowling more like Adam Dale, with a good out-swinger and a couple of change-ups. I got the out-swinger going and a nice little off-cutter," he said.

But has father is still a big influence, too. "I don't live at home any more, which has probably helped our relationship, but we still talk a couple of times a week and catch up regularly," Laughlin said honestly. "He stays out of it unless I go to him with a problem he doesn't interfere but he ll always help."

Laughlin gets to most Wynnum games after his Saturday morning game of golf at Pacific. And that's one area he's still got it over his son. He's a big-hitting six-marker; Ben is a steady 18.

And mother Jan? "Mum parks in a spot where she doesn't think I can see but I always know where she is," quipped the younger of the two Laughlin children, behind sister Jody.

Laughlin's Burge Medal adds another chapter to the family sporting cupboard - his father won the Victorian equivalent, the Ryder Medal, in 1983-84.