Bentleigh Uniting takes third consecutive Longmuir Shield

BENTLEIGH Uniting has accounted for Mackie in less than a day to capture its third consecutive Longmuir Shield in the South East Cricket Association

Bentleigh Uniting made it three premierships in a row and four out of the past five flags when it took only a day to sweep aside Mackie in the Longmuir Shield grand final at Beazley Reserve in Chelsea Heights on Saturday.

Mackie captain Dale Park won the toss in perfect conditions but that was the last win of the match for Mackie.

The Lions took control from the opening over when Park himself was removed without a run on the board when he edged veteran Uniting paceman Simon Surridge through to keeper Liam Hard, who took a brilliant full-length diving catch.

Josh Simon (1) followed, giving a much easier catch for Hard with the score on 5 and the rot had set in early for Mackie.

Elliott Bradley (20) looked in good touch but after getting the Machine’s score to 38 he gloved a hook off Luke Manders to Hard for his third catch.

And when Manders bowled Roshan Lakmal for a duck and Damian Britt crashed through Charlie Coulson’s defence to remove him for 21 the Mackie innings was in tatters at 5-52.

James Cooke and Chris Pearson steadied things for a while but in the final over before the tea break Surridge returned to the attack and removed Cooke (11) and Craig Park (0) both via low catches to Uniting skipper Glen Lalor at first slip to have Mackie 7-77 at the break.

Surridge continued on his merry way upon the resumption, bowling Ziggy Arshad (0) and having Dean Bott (0) caught behind off the next ball.

And when “Weird” Al Gurevich (7) was well caught at mid-off by Tom Backman, again off Surridge, the innings was done and dusted and Mackie had been routed for just 92 with Pearson stranded on 13.

Surridge had the extraordinary figures of 7-20.

Uniting’s response was authoritive and mercifully brief. Michael De Iacovo (68no) and Tim Brisbane (25no) were untroubled as the Lions passed the Mackie total without losing a wicket in a anticlimax to an interesting season.

Uniting clearly remains a couple of notches ahead of the rest of the competition and is to be commended on the way it goes about its business.

Mackie was exceptional in reaching the big dance but was simply outclassed by a superior opposition.