SECA 2018-19: West Bentleigh paceman Nick Huttley takes Longmuir Shield award

The night after winning the Knight Sports player of the year award in the South East Cricket Association, West Bentleigh star Nick Huttley trained with a Premier club.

After being crowned the premier player in the South East Cricket Asociation’s Longmuir Shield this season, fast bowler Nick Huttley is setting his sights on Premier Cricket.

The 24-year-old West Bentleigh star trained with Melbourne University last night and is eager to test himself at a higher standard.

He will also play cricket in England, linking with a club in the Staffordshire league over winter.

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Huttley polled 14 votes in Wednesday night’s Knight Sports player of the year award, three more than second-placed Clint Tomlinson of Bentleigh ANA.

Stuart Bell (Brighton Union), Stuart Clarke (Elwood), Trent Cody (Bentleigh Uniting) and Waqas Hussain (Mackie) were equal third on nine votes.

Right-arm and sharp, Huttley nabbed 37 wickets at 11.5 this season, including three bags of five.

He was in his second season with West Bentleigh, having crossed from Kingston Heath, where he started in the Milo program.

Nick Huttley took 37 wickets for West Bentleigh this season.

He transferred clubs when the Heath were relegated to Woolnough Shield.

Huttley said he was pleased with his season, which ended when the West lost to Brighton Union in the preliminary final last Saturday.

“That was disappointing. It’s a team sport and you want to do the best you can for your team,’’ he said.

“Personally, it was one of the better seasons I’ve had. I felt I bowled the best I have.

“I’ve never had an accolade like this.’’

Huttley said he enjoyed his trial at Melbourne University and was keen to play Premier Cricket.

“The aim is to move on and test myself at higher levels and see how capable I am,’’ he said.

“I’ve got a couple of mates who play there (Uni) and I think they put my name up as a potential player for next year. I got contacted a couple of weeks ago and asked to go down for a training session. Really good experience, something I really enjoyed. Hopefully I get that opportunity again and it’s onwards and upwards for my career.’’

Huttley, who is studying at the Australian Catholic University and works part-time as a bar tender, said he expected Tomlinson to win the award.

The former WA Grade player blitzed three centuries in Longmuir on his way to 535 runs at 76.4.

“ I thought I’d poll all right, but I thought he (Tomlinson) would poll too many votes before Christmas for me to be able to catch him,’’ Huttley said.

“He’s one of the best batsmen I’ve bowled at. I watched him in the rep game we played (against Cricket Southern Bayside) and it was a pleasure.’’

Meanwhile Omega’s Leigh Dawkins (15 votes) was the Woolnough Shield player of the year. Gary Slaughter of Kingston Heath was runner-up with 11 votes.