Bentleigh ANA batsman Tim Scott blasts 174 on day one of the new season
The right-hander smoked 14 sixes and 14 fours against Mackie as his team ran up 7-278 in Longmuir Shield.
South East
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What a dreamy start to the cricket season for Bentleigh ANA star Tim Scott.
The 28-year-old had a day to remember, blasting 174 to power his team to a Round 1 Longmuir Shield win over arch enemy Mackie as the South East Cricket Association season got underway on Saturday.
Scott was scintillating after Mackie had given the Natives first turn at the creases.
He dominated partnerships of 39 with Luke Forrest (19), 32 with Clint Tomlinson (15), 71 with Bryce Jansz (22) and 49 with James White (32) as he took to all of the Mackie bowlers.
The right-hander cracked 14 boundaries to go with 14 sixes in his epic knock before being dismissed with the score at 4-242. It enabled the Natives to post an imposing 7-278.
Scott, who works in sales at Bowen’s Timber, faced only 121 deliveries.
“It was just one of those days, when everything I was doing came off,’’ he said.
“I was seeing them like a beachball. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it again but it was a nice feeling to get off to a good start to the year.
Scott gave a chance when he was on 60.
“On the boundary. It went straight through the fielder’s hands. It was a sitter,’’ he said.
“When I hit it I thought, ‘I’m done here’. When he dropped it I thought I’d better make the most of it.
“It was just nice to bat some time. I know if I can bat time I can score quickly. That’s the thing I have to focus on, not getting out early.’’
It was a fourth Longmuir century for Scott, the son of prominent former suburban cricketer Gary.
Two years ago he was the Longmuir Shield player of the season.
Mackie started badly in the reply with two wickets falling in the first couple of overs but Nick Suppree played beautifully, passing 50 in quick time.
His departure for 51 with the score at 4-85 halted the chase as the batting team lost three wickets in eight balls and Mackie fizzled out for 142, losing its last five wickets for just five runs.
Scott (5-13) did the job with the ball as well in a near-perfect all-round performance.
Elwood edged out reigning premier East Sandringham in a close tussle. The Woods began well with Sammy “Jasmine” Tee in ominous form but Vinod Bhendigiri (3-35) grabbed wickets in consecutive deliveries including Tee for 39 and got East back in the contest.
The Woods innings looked like it might peter out but valuable knocks from their tail steadied them and got them up to a competitive 165.
Hamish McCartney (3-30) also impressed for East, whose reply was measured.
But they always seemed to be just behind the eight-ball with the required run rate thanks to Chris Phillips (2-28) and Adam Howard (2-26).
But it was Rob De Haan (3-19) who provided the matchwinning spell for the Beach Boys as East came up just short at 9-153.
Brighton Union had an easy win over West Bentleigh as the two clubs played for the inaugural Danny Frew Shield.
Tom Watson (40) and Jayce Morgan (32) had the West Bentleigh innings in good shape at 1-68 but it turned pear shaped after that in the face of some disciplined Union bowling and West could only muster 9-115.
Rob Blair grabbed late wickets to finish with the figures (4-28) and Stuart Gara (2-20) complemented him nicely but it was Matt Vorbach’s eight-over spell (1-19) that put the breaks on.
The Hoops had no trouble chasing the modest target, losing only Weerasingha Dilranga (29) as Tom Matson (45no) and Darian Kuzma (32no) took it all the way home at 1-117.
Bentleigh Uniting (9-205) started the season in winning style, accounting for Le Page Park (156). Campbell James (47) made a dashing start for the Lions and Craig Short (44) and Josh Breggazzi (61) followed up his good work to post the winning score despite the efforts of Oshan De Silva (3-24).
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In reply, Le Page recovered after some early trouble thanks to a fine stand of 65 between Pete Mentiplay (43) and Roshan Perera (35) and at 3-113 it looked like being a race to the wire.
But the duo were dismissed in quick succession and Hugo Ferdinand (3-26) returned to rip through the rest of the Panthers line-up.
Woolnough Shield matches saw demoted Washington Park 8-189 defeat last season’s premier Omega (9-155) thanks to Ben Middleton (62), Kingston Heath (7-164) with Luke Schwarze (61) leading the charge defeated Cluden 132, Moorabbin West (3-83) trounced Carnegie South (77) with Dhanuska Ranaweera taking 4-14 whilet CHAG (8-196) defeated Melbourne Hellenic (8-193) in the game of the day with Jack Simpson (26no) steering them home after Aaron Gregory had blasted 80 for Hellenic.