As a 17-year-old, Pyke played a match for the ACT First XI against the touring West Indian cricket team at Manuka Oval.
[1] In the 1984–85 season, Pyke toured India and Sri Lanka with the Australia Under-19 cricket team, which featured future internationals Tom Moody, Paul Reiffel and Gavin Robertson.
He was also a member of South Australia's McDonald's Cup winning side that summer and at the end of the season joined the team in a tour of New Zealand.
[3] In the second List A fixture against the Ian Smith led Central Districts, at Fitzherbert Park in Palmerston North, Pyke scored 177 off 159 balls with five sixes.
[4] This bettered his previous best limited overs score of just 19 and set a record for the highest individual innings for a List A match in New Zealand.