Wellington Cricket Club

Wellington secured their third win in this campaign with a convincing 5-wicket victory over Brent Knoll to bring a maximum 35 points. Brent Knoll took 11.

The visitors struggled against the opening Wellington bowlers and lost their first wicket in the 10th over with the score on 21. Phil Nicholls then bowled Vowles before the burly Tim Lewis and his Indian batting partner Mondana put together a stand of 48. Dave Hewitt, in his first game of the season claimed Montana (15) LBW at the half way point. Matt Colman took a great diving catch at slip to give Roy Hutchings his second wicket with the final ball of his opening 12 over spell.

Chris Rudd then claimed 2 wickets in successive balls; both well caught by James Dyke fielding at silly mid off to reduce the visitors to 80 for 6. He then took the important wicket of Lewis. The majority of his scoring shots in an innings of 40 were to pull the ball to leg and this proved his undoing. Guy Murray pulled off an excellent catch on the deep mid wicket boundary to reduce Brent Knoll to 85 for 7. This was a welcome wicket for Wellington as Lewis had hit 138 in the opening fixture between the two sides.

Gooding (18) and Gilpin played sensibly and Wellington seemed to lose their way a little as a couple of chances were missed and the pair added 38. However the reintroduction of Nicholls brought immediate success as he captured the final 3 wickets in 15 balls. Barry Salter accepted a difficult chance at deep mid on as the innings closed on 133 in the 44th over. Gilpin was 24 not out at the end Nicholls returned 10.3-4-21-4 Hutchings 12-5-24-2 Hewitt 4-0-19-1 and Rudd 8-0-24-3

Wellington made a cautious start aware that they needed just runs an over. Runs came slowly against the accurate visitors’ skipper Ken Morgan who ended wicketless but conceded only 25 from his 12 overs. Surprisingly the Indian spinner Mondana also failed to take a wicket

The score reached 49 at the half way point with all wickets intact. Eventually Matt Colman hit a long hop to the square leg boundary and was caught for 35 (4 boundaries) with the score on 65. Five overs later skipper Bob Trott made an uncharacteristic advance down the wicket to be bowled and in the same over James Dyke hit another long hop to be well caught by Mondana at deep mid wicket. Alex Sparks joined Dave Hewitt (22 not out) and they added 23 before Julian Jones hit a quick dozen to bring the Wellington victory. The visitors spilled several chances including 3 off the bowling of Mondana as Wellington won in the 42nd over Chris Morgan returned 8.4-0-50-4 and Tim Lewis bowled well with figures of 12-1-32-1

Wellington will feel that this is one that got away as Evercreech completed a Somerset League Division One double over the Red and Blacks in a game that ebbed and flowed as much as the weather did on the day.

Mark Salter opted to ask the second-placed side to take first knock on a damp wicket and when Matt Coleman removed Harding with the score on 35 the visitors had a foothold in the game, but then the usual happened as the home side put their foot down and scored at a high rate as the Wood brothers – Martin and Darren – added 72 for the second wicket in classy style. Martin made 76 and looked on course for a second successive century in this fixture until a wonderful Stuart Currall at long-on catch removed him.

This dismissal came at the end of a passage of play that saw Gary Tillett and Simon Rudd really reign in the Evercreech innings as they crumbled from 107-1 to 134-6.Rudd claimed four key wickets in this period of play and Tillett, despite only taking one wicket, played a pivotal role in quelling the threat.But with overs 38 and 39 costing 34 runs the home side reasserted their place in the game as Harris lashed 39 in 34 balls. Evercreech skipper Holdway made amends for running Harris out with a knock of 23no that saw his side to 220-9 at tea. Matt Coleman took 3-45 as he claimed late wickets and Simon Rudd with 4-41 and Gary Tillett’s 1-55 were the other main offerings from Wellington in the field.

In 2003 Wellington had successfully chased more than this and came away victorious and they started their innings with this notion.At 45-2 Wellington were in need of some consolidation and they got it and more through Rob Moysey and Stuart Currall who added 90 for the third wicket.Moysey played his usual sheet anchor role as he made a composed and careful 55, while Currall blazed away for 56 at the other end with four almighty sixes.Evercreech saw a repeat of the Wellington win of twelve months or so earlier occurring, but the craft of former Castle Cary and Glastonbury seamer Cawley (4-35) undid Wellington as eight wickets tumbled for 44 runs.

Harding’s innocuous medium pace accounted for three Wellington victims as the home side won by 41 runs with nearly three overs to spare to end a game in which Wellington had high hopes of getting something out of it.

A haul of 17 points is not bad and with it being likely that only one team will be relegated from this division again due to the geographical anomalies of the WECCC Wellington will view the second half of the season without trepidation as squad numbers increase and competition for places hots up.

League leaders Street will provide tough opposition next weekend. Wellington played two games on Sunday afternoon as the Three Counties League XI travelled to Exmouth for their second such fixture and came away with a tie, whilst the friendly XI lost narrowly at home to Knapp for the second time in a month

Wellington 2nd XI recorded their second win of the season at bottom of the table Bishops Lydeard and in a low scoring match picked up 30 points.

The home side elected to bat on a damp wicket with rain threatening (as it did all afternoon). This enforced two short breaks in play later in the day. Dave Wood played out a couple of overs before being surprised by a ball that lifted and his edge was parried by keeper James Dyke before being held with a good reflex catch from Alex Sparks. Phil Nicholls, playing his first match of the season soon had his first success, as Whitmore was leg before.

Skipper Andy Sadey survived some early appeals and gradually played himself in. Barry Salter took a great catch at point from a ferocious shot off a long hop and the home side found themselves at 24 for 5 from a painstaking 20 overs. Sadey and Stanley brought some stability to the innings and managed a few boundaries on a slow wicket. After a partnership of 41 Chris Rudd induced Stanley (24) to edge the ball onto his wicket. Sadey (49) was eventually well caught by 14 year old Guy Murray from a steepling shot and Salter ended on 10 not out as the innings closed on 111 for 8.

Wellington produced some impressive bowling figures with Phil Nicholls 11-3-23-3, Roy Hutchings 12-9-13-2 and Chis Rudd 12-2-27-2. Guy Murray picked up the other wicket with a caught and bowled.

Wellington lost an early wicket but Kevin Crout with a well-struck 20 and Barry Salter (17) added a comfortable 39. The visitors then lost 5 wickets for the addition of 17 as the middle order collapsed.

However James Dyke with 3 boundaries and, in his highest innings of the season for the 2nd’s , found good support with Phil Nichols as the pair slowly edged Wellington to their winning total. In 13 overs they added 41 and looked set to see the visitors home. However Dyke (32) was caught and 2 wickets fell in the 36th over to give Lydeard hope of victory.

Just 10 runs were required and some stout defence from Guy Murray and a final boundary from Phil Nicholls (17 not out) brought the victory following some tense final overs

Lydeard bowled economically with Sadey 12-4-20-2, John Salter 12-2-35-2 and Matt Mason 12-1-29-3.

Wellington won this crucial basement battle in Division One of the Somerset League last weekend when they crushed Burnham-on-Sea by eight wickets to leave the seasiders in a lot of bother at the foot of the table.

Wellington opted to send Burnham into bat and the visitors never really got going at all as all of Wellington’s attack bowled a tidy line and length throughout. Matt Coleman delivered 11 overs in two spells as he dismantled Puddy’s castle and late on came back to remove the obdurate Coombes, he took 2-23 in all.

Gary Tillett and Simon Rudd did good work in the middle of the Burnham innings as they got through 24 overs between them for a combined cost of only 51 runs. Tillett took 3-25 and Rudd 2-26 as Wellington strangled Burnham’s run supply. Kevin Symons with his clever slower ball bowled well at the death and let nothing go.In all Wellington needed 121 to win at less than 3 runs per over.

Ben Rogers gave the innings a kick-start with a feisty 18 before Mark Salter joined Rob Moysey and they carefully built the foundations of what was a critical win for Wellington.
Salter chipped one to mid-on having made 12, but this did not faze the Red and Blacks for Moysey and Mark Saunders added 74 for the third wicket to see Wellington home with a ton of time and overs to spare.

Whoever lost this match would have a hard second half of the season to come, but thankfully Wellington rose to the challenge and came out with the right sort of result, but they know that the next two games – away to Evercreech and home to Street – will be harder than this and they must play to their full capacity to gain anything from them.

Wellington’s first midweek game of the season was a tight draw in which the home side fought back well from a position where the Sussex tourists looked to be heading for a first ever win over the Red and Blacks.

Holmbush Park opted to put Wellington into bat in cool showery conditions and there were frequent stoppages for rain, but this did not stop Bob Trott and Rob Moysey adding a solid 70 for the first Wellington wicket as both overcame the inclement conditions.
Moysey made 29 and Trott 33 and neither seemed in much trouble, that was until a call for a regulation single was refused and Trott was left stranded at the non-striker’s end and was duly run out.

This signalled a tame period for Wellington in terms of run scoring as the score limped over the 100 mark.Tom Trott and Paul Short added some impetus to the proceedings and Short ended with 41no, a fine effort in difficult batting conditions.
Chris Kitto aided Short at the end as Wellington made 138-5 by tea.

Adrian Lee took two quick wickets before Barten and Doidge put together a good third wicket stand for the tourists that looked as if it had set the base for a victory push by them.
Doidge made a composed 21 that supported his partner’s knock of 60 – his third successive half-century in this fixture – Barten hit the ball hard and cleanly and had he stayed in the visitors would have been mighty close, but Simon Rudd snared him as he tried for a lavish drive and with this the bottom fell out of Holmbush’s innings as Rudd took 4-15 in 9 overs in tandem with Denis Fullstone who bowled a tidy spell of left-arm medium pace, taking 1-21 in 7 overs.

Survival was Holmbush’s only choice after this and they negotiated this successfully despite Rob Moysey taking a late wicket through that cricketing rarity – a David Derrick catch.
Honours were even at the end of a good game despite the weather.