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The cracking Ashes debut of Australian cricket's rising star, Ashton ‘Ralphie' Agar, comes as no surprise to the University Cricket Club, for whom the gangly young left-hander scored a memorable century last year.

With his natural style and easygoing nature, the Melbourne-raised youngster impressed his teammates during the 10 first-grade matches he played for the University of Western Australia-based club in 2012-13 - none more so than when he salvaged a match against top-ranked opponents Claremont-Nedlands last December 15 by scoring 108 before getting out, leg before wicket.

"It was a similar situation to the one he was facing last night, a bit of backs-to-the-wall retaliation, and he was just fearless," club captain Josh Mangan said.  "He took the game to the opposition.  It wasn't a carbon copy - a slightly longer innings and more of a match-saving innings rather than a match-defining one."

He said UCC, which celebrates its Centenary this year, was proud and delighted to have a young man of Agar's calibre at the club.

"His cricketing success comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has seen him play, or his demeanour and the way he has carried himself," Mr Mangan said.  "There's been no shock or surprise as to anything he's done for the people who have seen him at close quarters."

For club president John Hogg, the only surprise about Agar's maiden outing at Test level was perhaps - even though he was selected for his spin bowling prowess - that he wasn't ranked higher in the batting order.

"He can hit the cricket ball," Mr Hogg said.  "I have seen him bat and he knows how to bat.  It wasn't surprising for me to see him go as well as he did - I was more surprised to see him in as low as that.  I can understand though, he's the new kid on the block, 19, the 12 ^th youngest player for Australia.  They may be just sheltering him, trying to protect him, but he's better than that."

Mr Mangan said it was Agar's attitude as much as his ability which had won over his new legion of fans.

"What you see is what you get with Ralphie (so named for his penchant for Ralph Lauren shirts)," Mr Mangan said. "What you see with the way he plays is exactly how he is as a person.  He's relaxed but committed when he needs to be, and he's pretty determined.

"He's a good young bloke.  If he had have gone about it in a different fashion and got the same number of runs I don't think it would have captured the nation's attention the way it has.

"It's not only the number he got, it's how he got them - his persona, which has caught everyone's attention as much as the score, and how humble he has been, how well he's spoken in the media when required, all that sort of stuff.  I think people have been captured by the youthful enthusiasm but also the maturity."

"He is obviously a man of great talent," Mr Hogg added.  "But I think more importantly he's a good young fellow.  He's been brought up well."

Mr Hogg said Agar's performance - along with the presence of two other UCC players, Australian opener Chris Rogers and Ian Bell (playing for England) in the Ashes sides - was sweet icing for the cake as the UCC celebrated its 100 ^th year and reflected on a roll-call of big cricket names to pass through the club.

Those names include current chairman of selectors for Australian cricket, John Inverarity; current Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards; former Australian Test cricketer Rod Marsh; and renowned cricket writer and UCC Vice President John Townsend.

"There's a fair bit of cricket history in that lot," Mr Hogg said.  "And we have another young kid in our club who is really highly respected in Cricket Australia.  We could have another success story on our doorstep soon."

As for Agar, should his suddenly full dance card become empty, he's welcome to pick up the bat and ball for UCC any time.

"We'd have him back in a heartbeat," Mr Hogg said.

Media references

John Hogg (University Cricket Club)  (+61 4) 19 422 819
Josh Mangan (University Cricket Club)  (+61 4) 31 095 097
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783