Wellington Cricket Club

A mixed side travelled to Tiverton Heathcoat on the Saturday and came away with a well deserved seven wicket win over the former Devon League Premier Division side.Indeed this was the first time that this game had been played fully since it reverted to being a Saturday game in 2000, so poor had the weather in the intervening four years been.

Mark Salter opted to ask the home side to bat first on a pitch that was a little tacky, still showing the effects of the heavy rain that had fallen during the previous week.Heathcoat started solidly if unspectacularly as Cridland and Pengelly saw off the first seven overs without any alarms, but Adrian Lee prized open this partnership with what was his 100th wicket for Wellington as he got through Cridland’s defence. Lee later added a smart caught and bowled chance to end with the commendable figures of 2-6 in 5 overs.

Roy Hutchings opened his account for the season with a solid seven over spell that cost only 18 runs, a good James Dyke catch gave Hutchings his reward.
Simon Rudd served up a bag of tricks in his four over burst and gave the Heathcoat line up plenty to think about.
It was very pleasing to Guy Murray turning out for the senior side and adding to the promise he showed last season.
He delivered a useful seven over spell and, after his first over had cost 11, his next six went for only nine – a splendid effort.

Wellington’s spin triplet of Paul Short, Bob Trott and Rob Moysey spun the home side out as they collapsed from 80-5 to 91 all out, following the dismissal of Head for a painstaking 25.
Short took 2-6, Trott 3-17 and Moysey 2-7 as Wellington had a good day in the field.

A fifty run opening partnership was posted by Mark Salter (38) and Rob Moysey (23). Salter was in particularly good form as he pulled and cut to six fours in his 61 ball knock with Moysey helping himself to 3 boundaries.

Wellington lost two wickets for one run in the 80s, but Stuart Currall lashed 13no in 10 balls and ended the game with a perfectly straight six to give Wellington victory with a ton of time and overs to spare.

The Sunday XI did not have such a good day as had been had at Tiverton on the Saturday, as they were soundly beaten by Uphill Castle at home by the margin of 85 runs as the Weston-Super-Mare based side recorded their first Sunday win over Wellington since 1995.

Uphill elected to bat and their innings was based on the 88 run opening partnership that Cooke (30) and Davidson (42) put together, but they should not have got anywhere near this as both were put down in the field at least a couple of times each – Wellington gifting each lives that the home side could ill afford to do.

Debutant Robin Cleverley broke the stand when he induced Davidson to go over the top, but he spooned it to Adrian Lee who, thankfully, took the chance well as he made good ground.
From then on Wellington’s out cricket improved markedly as the fact that Uphill Castle lost all ten of their wickets in effect for 93 shows.Gary Tillett settled into a nice rhythm and reeled 11 overs straight off and took 3-29 in the process as he got his line and length just about right.Rob Moysey’s leg spin also realised 3-29 and his brute of a faster ball did the trick, it might not have always got him his wickets, but it set him up to claim the scalps that he did.

Tom Trott, unluckily in his first spell, came back at the end and helped clean up the Uphill tail and his figures of 1-39 in 9 overs don’t do him justice.
Denis Fullstone, a week or so short of his 71st birthday, claimed his 1101st Wellington victim when he castled Disney, and Wellington had Uphill at 145-9 and they had high hopes of finishing their resistance, but a nuisance of a last wicket partnership between O’Sullivan and Dewar added 34 valuable runs to the seasiders total.
Adrian Lee (1-26) finished things off as Andy Perry stooped low to take the chance well.

Wellington’s assault on the 182 required was blown apart by the unrelenting pair of Blackaller who claimed 6-14 in total and the metronomic O’Sullivan – a Glenn McGrath clone – who reduced the Red and Blacks to the depths of 21-6 and an early finish beckoned. There was fight however, and it came in the form of a gritty 58 run seventh wicket partnership between Tom Trott and David Derrick.The pair batted together for the best part of 20 overs and there were only five overs of the final twenty left when their resolve was finally broken.

By the time it was Trott had made a maiden Wellington half-century and in total he a made a brilliant 53. Derrick had supported him well with another exhibition of ‘stonewalling’, but once Trott had departed the end came quickly for Wellington, although the home side were only three full overs away from drawing the game.

Uphill Castle won by 85 runs, but Wellington will know that they had the chances to have never had to have chased such a total in the first place. There were some useful performances nonetheless and with the Somerset League season starting this coming weekend players have had the opportunity to blow away the cobwebs and get back into the groove in the two games under consideration in these reports.