IT'S been a long time coming, but City Colts' all–rounder and legendary clubman Kent Braden will play his 300th game for the club tomorrow at the Bill O'Callaghan Oval.

Given the Colts' past two weeks of cancelled matches due to weather, Braden has been stuck on 299 games for a fortnight, much to the quiet amusement of his teammates.

Braden's journey with the Colts begins in the mid '90s, when he joined the club as a junior before making his A grade debut at the age of 17.

"I started in under 14s back in 1994 I think – I played school cricket and then joined the Colts around '94 because the old man (Maurie Braden) was playing there and it started from there," Braden said.

"A lot of time's passed since then."

While his career stretches back before the beginning of recorded online cricket history, Braden's stats are impressive nonetheless – with 6552 runs, 521 wickets, four A grade centuries and even an A grade hat–trick, Braden's all–round prowess with both bat and ball were instrumental in establishing the City Colts as one of the premier sides in the competition, culminating in their premiership success in the 2018/19 season.

While accolades are all well and good, Braden said the best thing about his 300 club matches was the people he was able to play with.

"It was more just who you're playing with – playing with my father, Gary Lidgerwood, Mick Lappin, the guys who are legends of the club and just trying to learn off them," he said.

"Playing with a bunch of mates like Jeremy Carr, Simon Hill and a few others, just trying to be as good as you possibly could.

"For those who know me, I enjoy the social side of the cricket and that's probably the best part.

"Obviously winning the premiership in 2018/19 (is a highlight), but it's just the mates you play with along the way – players like Brian Craig, Sandy Waters, Mitchy Glover – I've definitely missed a few names like Jesse Smith and (Mitch) Giggins now, and Rory O'Keefe back in the day.

"Obviously 'Slima' (Justin Solimo), I've played a lot of cricket with Slim, I think he's on about 370 club games now but I've played a lot of A grade with him.

"That's the thing, just playing with your mates, going to Country Week, and just enjoying being out on a Saturday."

With the WDCA slowly recovering from the impact of the pandemic, Braden said there was a marked change from what cricket used to be about to what it is currently.

"There doesn't seem to be old blokes playing – they sort of get to 25 or even earlier and pull the pin on it, whereas when I started there were probably four or five or more older guys in the side with a sprinkling of kids, where now it seems to be a couple of old blokes with a lot of kids, and that's most sides," he said.

"It's at an interesting point and I'm not quite sure what the answer is, to be honest.

"You're getting older and older guys filling in, there just seems to be a massive age gap between the 22 year olds to the 33 year olds, there just seems to be a massive drop off and not a lot of those playing at the moment.

"It'd be nice to get them reengaged in the sport, and that probably goes for a lot of sports to be honest.

"I think with the pandemic and the rest of it, people have probably realised there's other things to life and they've decided to go other ways, but hopefully over time they realise they miss it and we can get them back."

Braden and the City Colts host Delatite in their A grade clash tomorrow at the Bill O'Callaghan Oval from 1pm – round seven WDCA match reviews on page 46.