AN up-and-down season for Dubbo's Tim Armstrong ended on a high last week when he was announced as the Olly Cooley Medallist for the Perth first grade competition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The award came a little over two months after he was suspended from first class cricket as a result of an incident which also saw his Western Australian team-mate Tom Triffitt sacked
The 23-year-old was the favourite for the medal heading into the event at the WACA Ground's Boundary Room and was confirmed as the winner by round 14, triumphing by seven votes.
Armstrong finished with 23 votes overall, ahead of Tom Beaton and last year's winner Craig Simmons in equal second with 16 votes, and polled in 11 of a possible 14 matches.
The former Australia under-19 international was the competition's third top scorer with 779 runs at 51.93, including two centuries, and took 32 wickets at 16.81 during the 2013-14 season.
"I really feel like my cricket progressed through the season and I was quietly confident I'd poll well going into the night," Armstrong said.
"There was obviously that one off-field indiscretion which has been spoken about a fair bit and I'll learn from, but on the field I really feel like I had my best season.
"But I can't hang my hat on that. I want to have those kinds of seasons at first class level and Test level down the track so I need to keep improving."
With a taxing season behind him, Armstrong has recently started a new job and later this week will embark on a 10-day holiday to Singapore with his partner Giselle.
But when he returns he is keen to get back into the swing of things with his support network.
"Over here I'm really lucky because I have a one-on-one coach I work with and a good network of people around me that I never felt I had in Sydney," he said.
"I'll probably start hitting balls again in June or July, and keep my fitness up before that.
"I'm still learning my game but I'd like to think that next season, if I keep going, I can be a regular member of the WA side - maybe play a handful of Sheffield Shield games and also play more regularly in the one-day and Big Bash sides as well."