Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Some athletes seem destined to make the top from an early age, while others put in just as much hard work below the radar before emerging in their mid-twenties.

One such local cricket player is Otumoetai Cadets and Bay of Plenty all-rounder Sean Davey, who has signed a professional contract with Northern Districts for the 2018/19 New Zealand domestic cricket season.

Sean first caught the eye of the NZ Cricket selectors when he made the cut for the New Zealand age-group team that competed at the 2012 Under 19 World Cup in Australia. New Zealand had a very good tournament reaching the semi-finals, before being beaten by India in an encounter where 18 wickets fell in the match.

Like a number of talented Bay of Plenty youngsters, the Western Bay of Plenty all-rounder embarked on playing in the Northern Hemisphere during the New Zealand off-season. However, injury troubled him and several seasons were spent on and off the sideline.

Sean earned Bay of Plenty player number 505 when he debuted for the Bay of Plenty senior men's team against Waikato Valley, in February 2011. His breakthrough came in the 2012/13 season after a handful of Bay of Plenty appearances in the intervening years.

Fifteen wickets in the 2012/13 season and another fifteen bowling scalps two seasons later, gave little hint of the devastation that Sean would wield with his willow batting weapon. The 2015/16 cricket year saw the emergence of Davey as a genuine all-rounder, as he struck 186 runs to accompany his 25 wicket tally.

Sensational is the only way to describe the Sean Davey batting blitzkrieg during the 2016/17 season, on his way to rewriting the Bay of Plenty all-time batting-history record book. A total of 629 representative runs and the first Bay of Plenty batsman to blast three centuries in a season told the tale of Davey's dominance at the batting crease.

February 2017 belong to the Bay of Plenty master blaster who went on a batting rampage. First up was long-time ND rivals Hamilton, with Davey blasting 113 in a game where Bay skipper Peter Drysdale also produced a three figure, 118 score.

A week later, the Bay of Plenty batting attack again roared into action, with Davey and visiting Yorkshire professional Alex Lees producing identical scores of 141 runs, as the home team repelled a stern Hawke Cup Direct Challenge from Hawkes Bay. The second Davey ton produced a rare as hens teeth back-to-back centuries.

A further Hawke Cup defence against Nelson in late February, resulted in Sean Davey becoming the first Bay of Plenty batsmen to smash three centuries in a season in the 85 years since the Bay of Plenty first representative game in 1932.

Davey's 111 off 189 balls, showcased his approach to batting where he is patience personified as he works the ball around the field to accumulate runs, rather than trying to belt the leather of the projectile.

Sean will enter the up-coming cricket year, with the rare double of one thousand runs (1059) and fifty wickets (66) in 46 NZ Cricket minor association matches to his name.