WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

 

GRAND FINALS
14,15 & 21st March, 2009

THE MISSEN STATEMENT
Mark Missen's review of the Grand Finals

EAST FEAST AGAIN

East Sandringham completed their seventh premiership in the past eight seasons when they blasted past West Bentleigh in the Longmuir Shield Grand Final at Hurlingham Park on Saturday.
West Bentleigh resumed at 3/61 after 39 overs were completed last Sunday and under a controversial ruling both teams were allocated 55 overs to bat.
West began behind the eight ball after such slow going last week and needed to make quick progress in order to set East a tough target but such was the discipline of the bowling they made little headway and the early removal of two of West’s most dashing players in Damien Holmes and Chris Fidler early made rapid progress difficult and although Danny Frew (39) remained steadfast his runs flowed like treacle as he laboured for 50 overs before being dismissed. Nonetheless it was a gutsy display by the veteran but with none of West’s other bats firing the scoring remained tardy.
Anthony Reid (26*) supplied a late flurry and left onlookers wondering why his hard hitting approach was not used earlier and West had to settle for 8/116 with Luke Manders outstanding with the ball as he added a further three wickets tote two he had collected last week to finish with 5/44 in a marathon display. Luke Dallas (2/38) provided fine support at the other end and left their batsmen with a relatively simple task.
Mark “Cracker” Devereaux lived right up to his nickname and cracked a breezy unbeaten 82 to take the man of the match award. Devereaux played every shot in his repertoire to totally dominate the West attack which had little chance of defending the paltry tally their bats had provided. Glen Phelan (21) and Anton Duddy (15*) wer both happy to play second fiddle as the Gold Caps romped home.
Woolnough Shield looked like providing a much tighter contest after Kingston Heath resumed their innings at 6/171 and were allocated a further six overs in which to make hay. Daniel Schwarze resumed on 49 and took his total to 69 before the innings closed whilst Matt Reid (18) and captain Leroy De Alwis (25* off just 13 balls) blasted off at the other end and The Heath managed 7/220.
Moorabbin West lost a couple of early wickets but Steve Worker (48) and Darren McConville (28) got the score to 80 at the tea break and the game was evenly poised but both were run out in mix ups shortly after the resumption and the Westers innings fell away under the pressure of some brilliant Kingston Heath fielding and the innings was wrapped up at 140. Callum Rayner (3/35) took the figures but James Bourke was ultra impressive in a long tight spell of leg spin grabbing two wickets but rarely bowling a bad ball.
Bentleigh Uniting restricted Washington Park to 117 in C Grade and their powerful batting cruised past with ease.

In D Grade Kingston Heath made it a great day all round with a 9 wicket victory over Bentleigh Uniting Nathan Sheehan making 43 not out and Williams the Wrecker taking 4/32.

In other grades Bentleigh ANA were too strong for Omega in E Grade while Kingston health made it 3 from 3 in F grade with young gun Josh Manning making an unbeaten 66.

Moorabbin West won a thriller in G grade with Alex Jones doing the damage taking 4/12. Carnegie Sth were comfortable winners in H Grade thanks mainly to Alby Mihulkas performance of 5/51, whilst Bentleigh Uniting took the honours in I grade with a 48 run win over Aspendale Edithvale

 

ADDITIONAL REPORTS

In H grade, the undefeated Carnegie South brought home the club's only flag this year with a hard fought win over Omega. In the rain last week, Omega crawled to 154, with Marty Lyons top-scoring with 41 and John McAlroy 30. Some great catching by South's Ray Halsell saw the end of Omega's strong batting line-up relatively cheaply. A superb bowling effort by South, lead by Andy Muhulka (19-3-6-51) saw Omega restricted to their lowest total in a while, in very difficult conditions. Faced with 45 minutes to bat last Sunday evening, South threw in Lance Crittenden, elevated from number 8 to open the batting. As the club trip away was scheduled for day 3 the following weekend, Lance was going to be faced with a tough choice if he didn't bat on the 2nd day. Fortunately a rapid 19 and a dismissal from a typically great Marty Lyons stumping enabled the trip away to proceed with all attendees. On day 3, Carnegie South battled hard against some fine swing bowling from Mick Krull and John McAlroy with Phil Taranto claiming the wickets (3-24). But South's Peter Kemp, with an opening effort of 44 followed by youngsters Will Nash (28 no) and Riley Houghton (27) enabled South to chase down the total for the loss of only five wickets. Andy Mihulka's fine 6 wicket haul saw him named man of the match.

               SENIORS                          
                        

LONGMUIR SHIELD

East Sandringham B C               1 / 119  Mark Devereaux 82*                                                          def
West Bentleigh                             8 / 116  Dan Frew 37, Luke Manders 5/44, Luke Dallas 2/48

 WOOLNOUGH SHIELD

Kingston Heath                          8 / 220    D. Schwarze  69*, M. Morel  38            def 
Moorabbin West                             142    S. Worker 48, C. Rayner 3/35
            
 C GRADE 

Bentleigh Uniting                         4 / 141  Alex Zaia 55*             def       
Washington Park                              140  Tim Doherty  5/50  

D GRADE

Bentleigh Uniting                               90  A. Williams 4/32   lost
Kingston Heath                          1 / 103   N. Sheehan 43*                              

E GRADE

Bentleigh ANA       7 / 113  P. Bishop 37, J. Wilson 2/18, Bourne 2/19, M. McCartney 2/37      def                                                    
Omega                         109  Matt MCCartney 31, J. Coyne 6/27

F GRADE                 

Kingston Heath      7 / 156  J. Manning (Jnr) 66*, D. Speed 5/48                def
Carnegie South             88  J. Fisher 31, H. MacLean 4/17, T. Reid 3/3

G GRADE        

Moorabbin West               8 / 125   Beazley 3/31              def
East Bentleigh Central          124   Alex Jones 4/12

H GRADE                     

Carnegie South                  5 / 159    Peter Kemp 44, Phil Taranto 3/24                             def
Omega                                      154    M. Lyons 41, J. McIlroy 30, A. Mihulka 5/51         

I GRADE                   

Bentleigh Uniting                       127   John Halliday 42, Steve Croiuch 35, Nick Halliday 24, M. Guinea 5/57   def
Aspendale Edithvale RSL          79   Ben Humphrey 5/19, Shekar 3/29
                   
1 Day Grade               

Hampton Central                      140   N. McMillan  60*, Rombotis 3/22, Booker 3/23       lost         
Omega                                 5 / 142   J. Cloke 50*, J. Rombotis 28, G. Magaw 24, N. Murray-White 3/33