Eastern Suburbs claimed their ninth successive Pearce Cup victory on Saturday after a final that was dominated by the ball in three of the four innings.

Karori decided to bat first at Barton Oval but were dismissed for 67. Only Harry Boam offered any real resistance with an innings of 31. For the second successive year Ricky Joseph wrecked the Karori batting order taking 6-14 from 13 overs. Joseph was ably assisted by Nathan Cameron with 4-22.

In reply Easts made a disastrous start being 9-3 and then went from 35-3 to 37-7 before captain Lance Dry joined opener Josh McLauchlan and they added 56. Dry top scored with 44 from 76 balls while McLauchlan carried his bat with an unbeaten 31 as Easts reached 112. Leading wicket-taker Lee Edwards bowled unchanged and took 7-56 off 21.3 overs.

Faced with a deficit of 45 Karori had another poor start losing three wickets for 10 runs, and shortly before stumps things got worse as they went from 29-3 to 32-8. Captain Simon Baker hit 28 from 24 balls before being run out and Karori were dismissed for 70. Cameron 3-27 and Dry 3-21 were the leading wicket takers for Easts.

Set 26 to win Easts were cruising at 23-0 before losing two wickets. However despite this short lived hiccup they reached their target and claimed their ninth Pearce Cup win in succession which is a Wellington record.

Meanwhile at Karori Park Wellington Collegians dominated their final to gain entry back into the Premier competition for next season.

Top qualifiers Collegians were sent into bat by Petone-Riverside and made 180 in their first innings, Prajeev Jansze top scoring with 43. Sam Blandford was the pick of the Petone bowlers with 4-37.

Their total seemed about par until some lethal bowling by opening pair Clinton Butler and Julian Brown who continued their fine form from the round robin. Brown took 5-18 and Butler 5-41. It meant both bowlers took 50 wickets for the season.

Collegians then amassed 497 in their second innings. John Peters scored 149 and James Crichton 143.  Blandford took another four wickets but the large total meant the Hazlett trophy was slipping away from Petone since, as second qualifier, they needed to win the match outright to claim the trophy.

Petone-Riverside were set an unlikely 592 to win and when rain stopped play they were 72-3 which meant Collegians, as top qualifier, were back in the Premier competition for next season.