Wellington Cricket Club

If you’re free Good Friday morning, please try and come down to the ground to help get the nets ready and the ground generally tidied up ready for the upcoming season.

The first game is 3 weeks on Sunday!

So if you can come down, please join the rest of us at the ground at 9:30 for a couple of hours.

New concrete for a new net surface has been laid as well, so come and how what it’s like!

Wellington’s winter season at the county ground came to an end when they were bundled out of the Knockout Cup at the quarter-final stage last Sunday afternoon by a Sampford Arundel B team who played much the better all-round game.

Sampford Arundel B, who boasted a much more robust team that had been the case when the teams met in the league three weeks ago, opted to ask Wellington to bat first and this decision was shown to be the correct one as Derek Greenway trapped James Dyke in front to the third ball of the innings.

It got worse for Wellington as Greenway and Andy Wells reduced the Red and Blacks to the depths of 33-5 with only Stuart Currall left for Wellington.But Currall was equal to the task with a perfect knock of 54no as he single-handedly carried the Wellington innings to a more respectable 89-5 in 12 overs. Currall has been the shining light with the bat and his winter has been worth 476 runs, which is a new club record for an indoor season, beating by five runs Simon Rudd’s previous record of 471 in 1995-1996.

Kevin Symons bowled in an exemplary fashion for Wellington as he yorked Simon Allen with as good a leg-stump delivery as you could expect and Adrian Lee picked up the wicket of Andy Wells as Kevin Crout accepted a sharply dipping chance on the back wall, but Wellington simply did not have the runs in the bank to seriously threaten anything other than a Sampford Arundel B victory and Bill Townsend with 25no and Seb Coe with 12no sealed their team’s semi-final place.

Wellington had two good chances to record a second double of the 2004-2005 SCCC indoor league season when they had last winter’s champions Creechcombe at 67-3 in 9 overs, but a remarkable 59 runs were then added in the last three overs of the Creechcombe innings as the Red and Blacks play become ragged and wayward. They had a magic start with the bat as 52 came in 4 overs, but after this there was no substance to the innings and the team were dismissed for a disappointing 89 in just 9.3 overs.

John Paine and Thom Trott had started things so well for Wellington with the ball as left-arm pace bowler Paine started with a maiden and let only 13 runs go in total. Trott induced N.Holley to drag the ball onto his stumps as he attempted a lavish drive. Adrian Lee started his spell effectively and after he had bowled his second over, the ninth of the innings, Creechcombe were 67-3, but ragged and wayward bowling saw 59 runs added to the total in only three overs and this pushed the game away from Wellington, having bossed it for three-quarters of the match so far.

Stuart Currall and Thom Trott seemed to be making up for the way that Wellington ended their time in the field as they added 52 in 4 overs through some excellent running and this pair have had a good winter batting together, but disaster struck when Trott, within one run of retirement, was stumped and Currall, four runs away from this point, popped one into the hands of Piper and two well set batsmen were gone and Wellington would have to get going again.

This was not the case however as only last man Adrian Lee got into double figures after Currall and Trott. He was out for 14 with 2.3 overs remaining as Wellington subsided to a 37 run defeat.

Wellington’s final league record for 2004-2005 is six wins and nine losses in fifteen matches, the bowling has been good overall, but the batting has lacked application at times, particularly when chasing totals and this was another of those.

Wellington could not produce the quality of performance that lead them to double wins last weekend when they went down to Barrington by four wickets at the County Ground on Sunday.

Only 39 runs were on the board after seven overs and the Red and Blacks were in need of some impetus.
Stuart Currall made it to the retirement mark of 25 once again and with assistance from Mark Saunders and Gary Tillett made things look a little more respectable for Wellington as he powered to an excellent 52, with a good mix of shots off the wall for threes and power shots for six to the back wall.
Unfortunately Wellington had only mustered 81 against some miserly Barrington bowling.

After blazing a trail to 52 in five overs Barrington were reigned in by Gary Tillett who delivered another three excellent indoor overs of off-spin for figures of 2-16 as the likely runners-up to Bridgwater hesitated a little and had Wellington had a three figure total on offer perhaps things may have been different, but Barrington won by four wickets with three overs to spare.