Wellington Cricket Club

Wellington were in some bother when the final game of the season was abandoned at Chard on Sunday as heavy rain swept in and flooded the square.

Chard had opted to bat on winning the toss and lost a wicket almost immediately as Adrian Lee bowled Clancy off of his pad as it deflected onto the stumps. Richard Short, playing his first game for exactly a year, bowled tidily at times, but Wellington were suffering at the hands of N.Crew who made a sparkling 73 before being well caught by Dan Addicott who flung himself far forward at square leg to remove a real dangerman.

This was off of Paul Short, who together with Rob Moysey, got through a mighty workload on the day. Between them they bowled 35 overs as Wellington sent down 48 by the time that the last wicket was taken.
Moysey claimed a five wicket bag taking 5-44 in 18 overs and Short 4-59 in 17. Chard were all out for 162 just before tea.

The rain was not far away and Wellington’s innings was conducted in heavy drizzle and they were reduced to 32-4 when stumps were drawn, the match abandoned as a draw.

A fifth win out of six was enough to give Wellington the Three Counties League Division Two title in their first season in the competition.

Honiton put Wellington into bat on a cool, showery day and after a delayed start Rupert Green, who has had a good debut season for the Red and Blacks, was launching into anything remotely off line or short. He hit two huge sixes in his knock of 80 that set the foundation for the Wellington total.

Stuart Currall added 76 for the third wicket with Green and these runs were scored at the right tempo as far as Wellington were concerned. But with the weather always threatening to wash the game out it was a relief that the game was able to be concluded with having to ‘engineer’ a result.

Rob Moysey cracked 58 in no time at all and Alec Short made sure that maximum batting points were secured as Wellington rounded off their home season on 205-7.

Honiton had no answer to John Paine’s pace and Paul Short’s guile and were reduced to 58-5. Paine and Short gave way to Charlie Last who made a good impression with two useful wickets and Ben Green bowled tidily enough.
Despite P.Beighton and Jennings making good fifties for the Devon side they were well short at the end of the game and Wellington can look back on their first season in this competition with some delight.

Wellington had to work for their second win of the weekend when Somerset League Division Three side Langport made them have some uneasy moments with the bat, but in the end the resilient qualities of Rob Moysey saw them home by four wickets.

On a scorching day Langport opted to bat first and were never at ease against Adrian Lee and Andy Mitchell who bowled ten overs between them for only 16 runs going against the bowlers.
Strang was first to go as he planted a long-hop straight into the hands of Alec Short at mid-wicket from Chris Kitto.
Woolston, who scored heavily at Wellington back in June, was farcically run out as neither he or his partner called and both were left stranded.

John Paine again bowled a tidy spell that was fearsome at times and he got his reward when he trapped Baber plum in front.
On such a hot day spin was the dominant mode of delivery employed by Wellington and Alec Short bowled with plenty of variety to take 2-24 in 7 overs and he has bowled well when given the chance.
Rob Moysey continued his great weekend with 2-5 in 8 overs and David Derrick rounded things off with 1-8 to see Langport all out for 124. Credit to Sam Cook who kept well in both games in trying circumstances.

The pitch was beginning to play tricks and Moysey was the subject of a close LBW shout in the first over as Langport skipper Edwards, with his skiddy action, posed problems for Wellington.
However it was Baber with his left-arm spinners into the rough that was causing the problems. He yorked Sam Cook and when Kevin Symons shouldered arms to one that came back and took his off-bail Wellington knew that this run chase would not be easy at all.

Andy Perry played a pleasing hand as he added 27 for the third wicket with Moysey, but he got a real snorter from Davies who bowled his brisk medium-pace to good effect and nicked one that moved as it passed the bat and Langport keeper Woolston made a great catch after having to re-align himself.
Stuart Turner, back after travelling the world, supported Moysey at a crucial time with a knock of 10 before falling to a creeper that caught him right in front of all three sticks.

John Paine and Alec Short did their bit as Moysey kept the innings together with a supreme knock of 59no that won the game for Wellington.
Adrian Lee was with Moysey at the end as the game was won with 10.5 overs to spare, but it was not plain sailing by any means.

On Saturday the team travelled to Weston-Super-Mare to take on a composite Uphill Castle side that was composed of players drawn from their 2nd and 3rd XIs.

Wellington opted to bat first and Rob Moysey and Stuart Currall gave the Red and Blacks a great start with a stand of 69 for the first wicket.It was ended when Moysey planted one into the hands of Simms who was waiting just behind square, he made 29.

Paul Short joined Currall and pushed the score onto 121 before Short (19)offered a return catch to leg-spinner Baxter, one of four victims for this bowler.Currall made it to 75 before spearing one up into the air and keeper Davidson, the one Uphill 1st teamer to play on the day, made the catch.

Wellington struggled after this as a slow pitch and accurate Uphill bowling made it tough to score at any rate, but Alec Short, James Mayes, Dan Addicott and skipper David Derrick managed to get the score to 163-6 at tea, but felt that this was not enough.

It shouldn’t have been enough as although Uphill lost Hodder to a great George Coate yorker with the score on 21, Cook and Davidson added another 47 runs without bother.
Cook played the anchor role to allow Davidson to flourish, but when Cook spliced one to James Mayes at point the game took on a different complexion.

Paul Short had joined the attack and, as had been the case in the Wellington innings, the slower the ball came the harder it was to play and he wheeled away for 10 overs and returned the excellent figures of 3-27 including the wicket of Davidson caught by brother Alec at deep mid-wicket for an excellent 54.

Uphill Castle then went into their shell as Kuht and Hill struggled to get any change out of John Paine’s swift left-armers and all of sudden the rate was rising and the overs were diminishing.
The home side’s tail did try and improve their situation, but the rate was too much and any danger of an away win not happening was snuffed out by Rob Moysey who tore through the tail with 3-4 in 4 overs and the end came when Froud was run out for 0 after a complete mix-up for a single left Sam Cook with the easy job of taking the bails off.

Wellington had won by 20 runs in what had been a good game.