SECA Woolnough Shield: West Bentleigh upsets Omega
West Bentleigh defied home-and-away form to come from fourth and win the premiership in the second tier of SECA.
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Before the finals, fourth-placed West Bentleigh had not defeated the three teams above it on the ladder.
Then it went bang, bang, bang to win the Woolnough Shield premiership in the South East Cricket Association.
The West completed a stunning finals series on Saturday when they upset flag favourite Omega in the grand final at Bricker Reserve.
They held the Ommies to 7-156 off their 40 overs and ran down the target in the 34th over, with six wickets standing.
It was the club’s first flag since its Woolnough success in 2013-14. It played in the Longmuir Shield grand final in 2017-18, lost the preliminary final in 2018-19 and was relegated in 2019-20.
Now West Bentleigh is back in SECA’s highest grade.
A 73-run partnership between second-wicket pair Chris Fidler and Jayce Morgan propelled it towards victory as both batsmen continued their outstanding seasons.
Fidler – who lives two houses away from the West ground at Victory Park and played juniors for the club – made 53 (off 85 balls, with 5 fours and 1 six), giving him 543 runs for 2020-21.
Morgan laced 58 not out off 64 deliveries, with 4 fours and 3 sixes, taking his aggregate to 634 runs, as well as a competition-high 29 wickets.
He was judged man of the match. Morgan also went through the juniors; in fact, his father, David, started the Milo introduction-to-cricket program at West Bentleigh.
Opener and first-year captain-coach Tom Watson made 14, and he finished the season with 685 runs at an average of 45.7, with two centuries.
Watson is in his third season with the West; he previously played grade cricket in Adelaide and with Edinburgh Cricket Club.
It was a third First XI premiership for West Bentleigh legend and multiple club champion Marc “Chopper’’ Reid, now 43 years young.
Reid opened the bowling with Morgan and had 0-20 off seven overs of tidy medium pace.
Josh Mackie and Jason West both took two wickets, with Mackie breaking through with the good scalp of Harry Wardlaw (12), sharply caught by Watson in the slips.
He then had Omega captain Glenn Beckett LBW for four.
Omega president Ivan Delac opened the batting and hit 34 before being run out – he’d survived a trenchant run-out appeal earlier in his innings.
Former VFL player Brayden O’Toole batted resolutely for 38 for the Ommies and Patrick Burnell got things moving in the late overs, clipping 33 not out off 18 balls.
But a team that lost only match all season and finished 12 points clear on top ultimately found itself a few runs short.
West Bentleigh’s president, Jack MacLeod, also played in the grand final.
West Bentleigh ran four senior teams this season and all made the finals, with the fourths going through to the grand final.
The Under 16s also progressed to the decider, losing to a strong Ormond team.
Club stalwart Simon Poll – whose son Brett figured in the flag – said the season “exceeded all expectations’’.
West Bentleigh premiership team
Tom Watson (c), Chris Fidler, Jayce Morgan, Jack MacLeod, Ben Lydster, Brett Poll, Marc Reid, Jason West, Adam Wakeling, Joshua Shawel, Josh Mackie
EAST SANDRINGHAM WINS SECA LONGMUIR SHIELD GRAND FINAL; 12TH FLAG FOR LUKE DALLAS
East Sandringham captain Guy Martyn called it the “homegrown flag’’.
As he took in happy scenes at Chisholm Reserve after the club’s 12th Longmuir Shield premiership in the South East Cricket Association on Saturday, Martyn noted that every player in the XI had come through the juniors.
“I don’t think too many other teams in other comps would be able to say that,’’ he said.
“It’s phenemonal.’’
And he highlighted that eight of the players were under the age of 23, suggesting East Sandy have a few more grand final victories in them yet.
Minutes earlier they were singing the song in the rooms, spraying drink and welcoming more players to the “premiership club’’ after getting the better of Bentleigh Uniting.
It was a first flag for Billy Phelan, Jack Munnings and Tim Edwards.
Another trio is more used to success the East Sandy way: it was a 12th premiership for apparently ageless offie Luke Dallas, a tenth for Martyn and a ninth for Mark Devereaux.
Phelan joined his father, Glen, in playing in a winning grand final team.
When it was pointed out during the celebrations, Phelan senior’s smile could have lit up the bayside suburbs.
Set 171, East Sandy achieved victory six wickets down and with more than four overs left, Ben Pryor (16no) raising it with a boundary through point.
No sooner had the ball hit the fence than jubilant teammates were running on the ground to get around Pryor and Dallas (4no).
Their reply was built around the stylish innings of opener Matt Harris, who hit 75 off 86 deliveries, with 8 fours and 1 six, sweetly struck high over mid-on.
The umpires judged the right-hander man of the match.
At 3-79, and with Devereaux (4), Chris Diggle (16) and Matt Blunden (7) dismissed, East Sandy had work to do when Martyn joined Harris.
Before he had scored the East Sandy captain attempted to cut paceman Brad Dolman, setting off a raucous Uniting appeal for caught behind.
The umpire turned it down, leaving Uniting captain Luke “Moose’’ Russell and his team aghast.
In the same over Martyn slapped Dolman for four through mid-wicket to get off the mark.
He and Harris quickly ate into the target, but Uniting persisted.
Harris hit part-timer Trent Cody straight to Buddika De Alwis and Martyn (30 off 33 balls) was superbly stumped by Craig Short off Afan Sheriff.
Munnings fell for 19, but East Sandringham continued on through Pryor.
Earlier, Bentleigh Uniting had established a strong position after opting to bat, reaching 2-86 after a blast of 34 off 32 balls from Russell.
But some brilliant fielding slowed Uniting’s progress.
At light-switch speed, Martyn pulled off a leg-side stumping to remove competition best and fairest Malin Silva for 13.
Sixteen runs later Short (4) was spectacularly caught by Diggle at mid-wicket: diving high to his right, he hit the ball up with his right hand and took it in his left, a classic catch to decorate the grand final.
Without a run added to the score, Uniting lost young Josh Bragazzi, run out for a duck when he and Tom Backman ended up at the nonstriker’s end.
Backman had called his partner through for a single to mid-on that looked a bit optimistic.
And then one run later Backman (31 off 44 balls) was out to the off-spin of Munnings, leaving the Lions 6-103 and struggling to raise a competitive total.
That they got to 171 was thanks mostly to No 7 Hugo Ferdinand, who caned 43 from 50 balls.
The right-hander took a fancy to Munnings, twice thrashing him over the fence at mid-wicket.
Sheriff chipped in with a useful 20, but East Sandy quickly docked the tail and denied
Bentleigh Uniting its full 40 overs, bowling it out with eight balls to be bowled.
Dallas bowled craftily for his 2-30 off eight overs, Munnings took 2-39 and medium pacer Patrick Inglis pocketed 3-22 off six. One of them came from a catch from Martyn, diving to his left to take a cracker and send No 9 De Alwis on his way for one.
After the match Martyn just as gratefully accepted the Longmuir Shield from SECA president Phil Cox, who praised East Sandy and Bentleigh Uniting as the competition benchmarks.
He said the clubs had forged a great rivalry.
East Sandringham has now won 12 of the past 20 Longmuir Shield grand finals.
Union has won five of the past 12. And in a mighty achievement its top three teams made it through to the decider this season.
South East Cricket Association grand finals
Longmuir Shield: East Sandringham 6/175 (M Harris 75, G Martyn 30; A Sheriff 3/24) def Bentleigh Uniting 171 (H Ferdinand 43, L Russell 34, T Backman 31; P Inglis 3/22)
Woolnough Shield: West Bentleigh 4/157 (J Morgan 58*, C Fidler 53) def Omega 7/156 (cc) (B O’Toole 38, I Delac 34, P Burnell 33*)
Quiney Shield: Kingston Heath 9/188 (N D’Rozario 73; H Zaia 3/26) def Bentleigh Uniting 5/187 (cc) (H Zaia 69, A Zaia 50)
D Grade: Cheltenham Park 9/203 (cc) (L Haig 100*; M Jukes 4/23) def Washington Park 133 (B Middleton 39; A Weiss 3/17, P Reaby 3/19)
E Grade: CUCC Kings 8/205 (cc) (S Puri 76, A Mada 39; M Bhatt 3/29, B Patel 3/31) def Southside East Caulfield 9/198 (J Dhimmar 56, B Patel 54)
F Grade: Bentleigh Uniting 8/193 (cc) (C Manakis 77*) def East Sandringham 116 (M Martinez 3/28)
H Grade: Chelsea Heights 8/183 (cc) (D Du Bruyn 53, P Jacobsen 47; L Daniels 3/22) def Cheltenham Park 102 (S Jackson 32; M Nicholls 3/20)
I Grade: East Sandringham 5/142 (cc) (M DeKretser 41, D Martin 33) def Cluden 126 (L Pilcher 3/14, H Ryan 3/30)
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