Lake View opener Matt Carter upstaged the Eastern Goldfields Cricket Association’s greatest post-war batsman, Merv Hosking, with a scintillating 167 not out on Saturday that powered the team’s A-grade victory over Hannans at Wallace Park. In just his 13th match with the Viewers after switching this season from North Kalgoorlie, Carter flayed nine fours and 16 sixes off just 82 deliveries among the side’s 245. Carter’s knock went into the record books as Lake View’s highest individual A-grade score — eclipsing the 150 not out compiled by Hosking, a Goldfields Sporting Hall of Fame inductee, in 1959. The magnitude of Carter’s innings is reflected by the fact Hosking still holds five spots among the Viewers’ top-10 highest scores and racked up more than 30 centuries during his stellar career in the EGCA. At the 1968 annual country week carnival, Hosking led Goldfields to the A-section title with three centuries — including 129 in the final — to emerge with an average of 149. Hosking had already notched 26 centuries, including eight at country week, by the age of 30. Lake View have won their past three matches, largely on the batting of Carter whose past four innings have produced scores of 167 not out, 58, 25 and 52. Carter, 29, said he wasn’t fully aware that he’d set a new club record until after the game. “I wasn’t sure, but I was aware of (former North Kalgoorlie all-rounder) Brett Mais’ 172 (not out),” Carter said. “It (Carter’s aggressive batting approach) is very much a plan that (player-coach) Dave Roberts and I agreed on when they (opposition teams) are only allowed two fielders outside the inner-circle and I can hopefully go over the top (because) there’s no one out there. “That’s my role — to have a go and do that. “Obviously batting aggressively like that means that it can end at any moment, with the ball flying in the air a lot, because all it takes is to miss-hit one and get caught. “Fortunately, I didn’t mishit too many yesterday (Saturday) because batting that way, you live-by-the-sword and die-by-the-sword. “It could mean you’re out for 10 , but other times it comes off and I’m glad it did. “I think I was dropped once, when I was maybe 115 or 120. ” The start of the match was delayed due to some dampness on the pitch, but Carter said it held no fears once play got underway. “By the time we got out there, it was absolutely fine,” Carter said. “The middle of the pitch looked as good as anything we’ve batted on all year and played accordingly. “When you’re living in desert conditions and water is an issue, I think they (local ground staff) do a pretty good job. ” Carter said he was enjoying a new lease on life after joining Lake View. “I don’t have any regrets (leaving Norths) because it wasn’t a personality thing,” he said. “It was more a case of me just having quite a few mates at Lake View and I fancied a fresh start (because) I was losing interest in cricket a little bit. ” While Carter’s ton generally took centre stage on Saturday, co-opener David Forrest struck 10 fours among his 50, off 39 balls in 57 minutes. Carter and Forrest put Hannans’ bowlers to the sword with an opening stand worth 139 runs. The opposition attack, however, did well to haul in the damage on the back of Ash Malec’s 5-16 and Stuart Kennedy’s 3-50. In reply, Hannans’ opening combination of Pat Gorman and Graham Kennedy put on 43. But the side promptly lost 3-13 and later slumped to 6-96 – despite various batsmen getting decent starts. They included Graham Kennedy (23 off 18 balls), Anthony Babic (21 off 26 balls) and Shasa Molgaard-Angel (24 off 30 balls). But after the last four wickets tumbled for 15 runs, Hannans were restricted to 149 in 36. 3 overs. Despite the loss, Hannans are guaranteed a berth in the elimination final on March 11. Sign up for our emails.