Young Tim Seifert has shown that he has great potential, writes Aaron Goile.

St Peter's School 1st XI captain Tim Seifert has reminded everyone of his potential.

The 17-year-old last Saturday broke two of the school's 1st XI records when he smashed an amazing unbeaten 217 in a one-day match against Hamilton Boys' High School Development.

Coming in at No 4 on his home ground, the year 12 skipper faced 141 balls and smote 21 fours and four sixes in his knock, which led his team to 302-6 from their 50 overs and eventually a massive 177-run win.

Remarkably, it was Seifert's third ton in the space of eight days, with him having smashed 157 off 105 balls the previous weekend against Cambridge High School, then following that up midweek with a crucial 108 not out against HBHS 1st XI which guided St Peter's to the Gillette Cup tournament.

With his double century, Seifert bettered the previous individual high score for the school 1st XI of 203 not out, which was set in 1999 by now Olympic javelin thrower Stuart Farquhar.

Farquhar also held the record of most centuries with nine but Seifert has surpassed that and still has another year left at his Cambridge school.

"We have an honours board in the pavilions about how many hundreds people have got and what's their score," Seifert said. "I've always been looking at that 203 not out he got, always wanting to beat it."

The wicketkeeper/batsman's first ton for the school came when he was in year nine, in the Waikato secondary school competition final.

Since then the inventive right-hander, who commonly plays the reverse sweep and scoop shot, has gone on to blitz numerous bowling attacks.

"I'm pretty attacking," he said of his game. "I like to score the runs quick but not do anything silly as well. I just like to put pressure on the bowlers, make them kind of crack and then you get the bad balls delivered."

Seifert puts his recent run of success down to his off-season, as he's focused on converting his starts into big scores.

"I've just been working hard over the winter, just with my technique and how I go about playing my game.

"When I made starts I didn't really make them into big scores.

"It's probably just mental to be honest," he said of the key to batting.

"You just kind of cut out those risky shots that you play and just work the ball in the gaps. If you stay at the crease, then the runs will come, then you can go big in the last five or so overs.

"If you're in the pavilion you can't score many runs.

"It's been work in progress and it just shows that hard work pays off overall.

"So it's been good."

Seifert has been in the sights of several selectors and has been doing plenty of training with the Northern Knights, who he hopes to play for in the future after already featuring for them in a warmup Twenty20 match against Wellington this season.

This week Seifert played for the Waikato Valley men's side at the Brian Dunning Cup one-day tournament in Taupo, before missing Tuesday's match to sit his NCEA English exam.

He was a reserve for the New Zealand Under-19 World Cup side this year and is aiming to be at the next tournament in 2014 in the United Arab Emirates.

Seifert has also been a prolific hockey player, last year featuring for the New Zealand under-18 team, though cricket is now his biggest focus.

"I'm not going to stop playing hockey completely because it's a good thing to have, it helps the hand-eye and the fitness and all that," he said. "I'll just cut down on the teams that I play for.

"Just hopefully play a bit of Midlands under-21s and a bit of club hockey and that's probably about it."

Next month Seifert will lead St Peter's at the Gillette Cup tournament at Lincoln and be involved in a few NZ U19 camps, before looking to be in the Northern Districts U19 team at the national tournament in January.

- © Fairfax NZ News