Joel Robinson belted 118 not out a couple of Saturdays ago, his highest score in well over a decade of first grade cricket in Wagga.

It must've felt brilliant out there on McPherson Oval, accumulating runs like never before (apart from an unforgettable 156 as a 19-year-old at Skegness in Lincolnshire, England, back in 2007).

"I still think the best feeling playing cricket is taking a wicket," Robinson says.

"If I could be reborn as a cricketer, I'd definitely be a fast bowler. I don't think there's a better thrill than taking a wicket.

"Obviously batting-wise, your milestones and things are great. But I still think that moment of taking a wicket is so good.

"You may work hard for so long and it might be a plan you've had in place as a whole team for an hour and it finally comes off... you get that enjoyment there."

That says something about the game of cricket. It also says something about Robinson - a 31-year-old club president at South Wagga with a passion not for a simple game but for the complexity of competition, and the culture of club cricket.

"It goes quickly out there. You look back, you may have played a few good shots in a row. But you definitely need luck to score runs. It's very rare you go through and have a chance-less innings," he says, with a reminder he was dropped on one.

Of more value was a 195-run partnership with rising star Blake Harper.

"I also enjoy being out there batting with someone else and working together. That's just as important as hitting a hundred, you have to work together. And it was really good to have Blake (77*) out there, he's a young bloke but batting older than his age."

As for competitiveness, Robinson says his brain never stops ticking over with plans and strategies. And clever sledges when he can come up with them.

"Absolutely. And I was probably more competitive in years gone past. Sledging can go over the top but I think, kept within the lines and done well, it can help you take wickets and win games," he says.

"Cricket is a mental game and sometimes it can help you win the mental battle. It doesn't have to be untoward, it can be quite witty."

Robinson is captain again at South Wagga with Jeremy Rowe injured.

He skippered the Blues to a grand final win in 2010-11. Last year's premiership (under Rowe's captaincy), he celebrated as president as well as player. It's partly why he finds the efforts of teammates as rewarding as his own.

"I get as much enjoyment out of someone else doing well in the team, taking wickets," he says.

"We've had a young team for so long, I guess some of them start off feeling like your little brother but you become really good mates with those blokes. It's probably the good thing about cricket. You have good mates that are 20 years older and good mates who are 10 or 15 years younger than you as well. There can be such a range of ages."

Robinson played junior rugby league at Turvey Park Wanderers, and helps Rowe as an assistant coach at Riverina League club Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes. But cricket is his game. And South Wagga is home - where both parents are life members, and he grew up also learning from the likes of Terry Willis.

"There's so many blokes that Dad played with that are still involved to some extent, or their family's involved, or they're around the club only once a year and you're still good mates," he says.

It's why last year's success, as president, and having endured five grand final losses himself, meant so much.

"Massive, and in a centenary year as well. It was something we'd put a lot of work into for a couple of years.

"The amount of people we had there was the really good thing... it wasn't what you'd get for a footy grand final but the whole grandstand was full of old South Wagga boys and family and friends.

"We did trip a couple of times in the run chase but as we got closer, every run you could hear the crowd. And in the sheds after, there so many people in there. It was really rewarding for the years that those people were involved and for the committee and everyone."

Two years at Lake Albert in his late teens, to pursue an opportunity to keep wicket, is a move Robinson regrets now purely because it costs him the claim to being a one-club man.

But that too was just the fixation with the sport. This former opener, former leg-spinner, one-time off-spinner, returned and retired leg-spinner, now second-drop batsman bowling medium pace, wanted to be a wicket-keeper.

Robinson has also led Wagga in representative cricket, including to consecutive blemish-free O'Farrell Cup seasons five years ago.

He says former RSL all-rounder Ethan Bartlett is "probably the pick" of opponents who is now at another level, as well Jon Nicoll ("He was a teammate. We hit our first hundreds together in an under 14s rep game in Yass. We played all juniors together. His consistency, there's nothing comparable to his consistency.").

As for teammates, Mitch Sykes is up there for his ability with the ball, and his work rate.

But the joy really is for South Wagga as a whole, Robinson points out repeatedly that it's still early in the season, but seeing young blokes living up to their potential at a club you head, on and off the field, that's what satisfies a fondness for the game.

"It's a combination of a lot of things. It's the mates you make and friendships you build - I saw that as a young bloke," he says.

"But then also I'm a bit of a cricket nuffie... just working out strategy and putting together plans. Not so much on how I can improve but how we can improve our club and help out other players.

"I get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing our younger blokes do well. If you've done work with them or you've coached them from a young age to all of a sudden now (they're established, successful first grade players) - it is pretty rewarding."

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