Former Big Bash League star Jon Wells reflects on breaking record for most hundreds in WA Premier Cricket

In Perth’s WA Premier Cricket first-grade clash with Rockingham-Mandurah at Lark Hill last month, Jon Wells did something he has done dozens of times before. The prolific veteran drove fluently through the covers to bring up a century he celebrated in understated fashion, simply removing his helmet and raising his bat before sharing a handshake with his partner. His reaction belied the significance of the occasion. The hundred was Wells’ 25th for the Demons — not including those he has managed in Twenty20 games — and made him the player who has reached triple figures more than any other in the competition’s history. Wells moved west from Tasmania in 2015 to revive his flagging State cricket career with WA and emerged as a Big Bash League star for Hobart Hurricanes, Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades over the ensuing years. The 37-year-old played a total of 242 top-level games over the course of a professional career spanning the better part of two decades and was particularly effective in the shortest format, figuring as the BBL’s eighth all-time leading scorer with 2999. All the while, he has unquestionably been the dominant batter in WA’s top level of club cricket and the central figure in Perth’s golden run of six premierships across formats in the past four seasons. Wells told The West Australian he looked at the milestone somewhat wistfully given many of the centuries were made when he would rather have been in the State side, but he also was proud of his consistency. “I guess it’s something you don’t really think about too much along the journey, but I think once I finish up and sit back and look back on it, it’ll be a nice thing,” he said. “I suppose it shows I’ve made some good contributions over a long period of time to the Perth Cricket Club. “There’s some very good cricketers who would’ve played a fair bit of Premier Cricket over the years.” Wells revealed the early seeds of his move to the Demons from Tasmania were sown years before it unfolded, when he played a State Second XI game at their home ground of Fletcher Park as a teenager. “I was familiar with the ground and definitely back then, it was a very nice cricket wicket,” he said. “I was coming over to try and reinvigorate my State cricket career and play State cricket again and make a career of it, so to come over, it was important I was making runs to have an opportunity to do that.” Perth claimed their first two-day premiership since the 1948-49 summer in 2023. They defended their title the following season, which also marked the start of a hat-trick of one-day competition victories to go with T20 success in 2024-25. Wells said the club’s breakthrough red-ball flag figured prominently among his proudest achievements. “That was a huge drought and something that everyone, not only the playing group, but off the field, past players, the committee, everyone involved, it was such a big thing for the club to tick off,” he said. “We’d come close a fair few times, we’d been thereabouts, but we hadn’t been able to do it. That was an incredible feeling and that finals series in particular, the way I performed throughout that is something I’m really proud of.” As well as his own exploits, Wells has taken on the role of mentor to a pair of the State’s best young batting talents in Sam Fanning and Joel Curtis, who he counts among his teammates at the Demons. Fanning has already accumulated 15 Premier Cricket hundreds since making the move from New South Wales to take up a WA contract in 2019, while Curtis looked on track to break former England international Robin Smith’s long-standing single-season runs record last year before securing a spot in WA’s Sheffield Shield side. Having served as Perth’s captain for several seasons, Wells said he was proud to see how the pair had grown. “As a leader, leading by examples and with actions is something I’m really strong on. Hopefully, I’ve been able to play a small part in their development and journey,” he said. “Captaining a club team has its ups and downs, it can be challenging and it does take time and effort outside of just turning up and playing.” Wells was delisted by WA in 2019 and did not hold a BBL contract in the recently completed season, despite making 45 from 31 balls in the only game he batted in for the Renegades last summer. But he has shown no signs of slowing down for Perth, with his 785 runs across the two and one-day formats this season — including four centuries — having him as the firm favourite to claim a second Olly Cooley Medal as Premier Cricket’s best player. When asked whether retirement was on his radar anytime soon, Wells said he was unsure what his cricketing future would hold. “I’ve had plenty of opportunities and it’s been a really long career,” he said. “If it drags out a bit longer, that’d be great, and if it doesn’t, I’m sure I’ll be pretty happy to sit back and know I’ve given it everything.”