Stewart Walters has lead by example to captain his side, Perth Cricket Club, to the top of the Western Australian premier league with five consecutive wins at the start of this year’s competition.

The Surrey man, who wrote his first blog for www.surreycricket.com last week, captained Perth in a double-header weekend, which included a match against his old club Midland Guildford.

Click here to see an exclusive interview with Stewart Walters on Surrey TV.

The fourth fixture of the season and the first match of the weekend was against Subiaco Floreat at Perth’s home ground, Fletcher Park East. Walters lost the toss and Perth were asked to bat first in some tough conditions. They lost an early wicket without a score on the board but James Benning struck six boundaries as he raced up to 29 before being bowled. Walters mentioned last week that he felt that a large score is only around the corner for his Surrey and Perth CC team mate but the powerful right hander seems to be finding life against the new ball at the top of the order tough.

Walters himself continued his fine form with the bat but could not convert a good start into another big score. He got to a dominant 43, which included eight boundaries before being caught behind off the bowling of Tim Monteleone, who picked up five Perth wickets. Once their captain was gone, Perth began to struggle until a fine 95 run partnership for the eighth wicket saw them post a competitive 252 for nine from 50 overs.

Subiaco’s reply hinged on two vital moments. The first was the dismissal of their captain, who was brilliantly caught by his opposite number Walters off the bowling of Ross Scali. The second was the run out of Tim Serjeant, who had formulated what was looking like a match winning partnership with Chris Hansberry. The pair had taken their side into contention, when Serjeant was caught out of his ground. Hansberry built another recovery to finish 81 not out, but Subiaco were never up with the rate as Perth went to their fourth win of the season.

The following day, Walters took on his old side Midland Guildford, from whom he moved to Perth cricket Club over the Australian winter. With everything to prove, Surrey’s star did the first thing right in winning the toss and electing to bat. Once again off to a slightly hesitant start, Perth were rescued by Walters, who joined forces with Anthony Barranca, who scored a fantastic century. The pair took their side from 73 for three up to 223 with the skipper scoring 81 before both wickets fell in the space of two runs. Nevertheless, Perth were able to continue the momentum to finish 247 for eight off their 50 overs.

In reply Midland got off to a strong start, but some intelligent captaincy from Walters managed to contain opening batsman Daryl Mitchell. Quick wickets in the middle section of the innings allowed Perth to relax a little and the introduction of Benning put even more pressure on Walters’ former team. The Surrey all rounder’s spell of bowling, which yielded figures of two wickets for 24 runs from seven over, all but finished off the Midland team as Perth cruised to their fifth victory of the season by 70 runs.

Click here to see an exclusive interview with Stewart Walters on Surrey TV.

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