Wellington Cricket Club

(Although this match took place on the Bank Holiday Monday it was played as a Sunday XI game by mutual agreement between the two clubs.)

Wellington travelled to Devon Premier League side Exmouth last Monday and returned triumphant by 142 runs as a number of excellent performances were registered by the Red and Blacks.
Exmouth asked Wellington to bat first on winning the toss and the combination of hard, white track and hot, sunny conditions meant this was not a bad toss to have lost.
Exmouth’s opening attack of Tarry and Price were impressive and reduced Wellington to 32-2 in 8 overs before Rob Moysey and John Paine took charge of the situation.
They added 140 for the third wicket as Paine played the innings of his Wellington career as he smote three huge sixes on his way to 72. He timed the ball excellently and got full value for his shots as he used the excellently prepared outfield to propel the ball to all parts. He was eventually bowled by Cook who took 4-63 in 10 overs.
Moysey had played the anchor role for the time whilst Paine was dominating the Exmouth attack, but then he too took the home side on and marched on to a brilliant 69.
The rest of Wellington’s order shone as Kevin Crout, James Dyke and David Derrick all made useful late runs that took Wellington to 242 all out in 40 overs by tea.

Cook and his opening partner Grant started steadily against John Paine and Adrian Lee as Paine strove for pace and Lee maintained his naggingly accurate line just outside off-stump.
The run rate of over six per over saw that Exmouth needed to really ger away to a flyer if they were to have any chance of chasing down 243 to win, but the breakthrough would not come until Cook tried to lift Lee over the infield only to find Kevin Symons at mid-on where he steadied himself to take a good catch.
Paine then sent Cook’s off-stump cart wheeling back and Wellington knew they were in the ascendancy.
Paine and Lee gave way to Richard das Neves and Richard Short and they kept things tight and wickets came for this pairing as well.
Das Neves with 3-6 in 6 overs bowled the arm ball often and Exmouth’s batsmen never really got to grips with his bag of tricks as they played back when they should have been coming forward and swept on length rather than line.
One of the most pleasing aspects of the Wellington effort in the field was the performance of Richard Short who claimed 4-35 in 9 excellent overs. Having really worked hard on his length he passed the outside edge often and sent three of the Exmouth line-up packing with their stumps well and truly re-arranged. A sharp catch by Rob Moysey gave Short his fourth victim.
It was Moysey himself who ended the Exmouth resistance as Tarry hit the ball high into the air where Kevin Symons took a similar catch to the one that had started things off in the field for Wellington.
Wellington won by 142 runs and had put in a sterling performance all-round to ensure that the side’s unbeaten record in friendlies so far in 2005 was maintained.

The team and the accompanying travelling party made the journey in a coach supplied by Cook’s Coaches of Wellington and are indebted to Club Secretary Tony Rudd for organising and overseeing the logistical side of the day.

A run-laden pitch at Easterlands made for another high scoring draw between the two local rivals where the thick end of 500 runs were scored for the loss of only 14 wickets in just over 80 overs.
Sampford opted to put Wellington into bat on winning the toss and the run rate was immediately raised by some wayward offerings from the home side.
Thom Trott and Kevin Crout added 27 for the first wicket, but this came mostly in extras, but Jamie Cooksley produced the perfect yorker to dismiss Crout and when he had Trott adjudged LBW for 23, Wellington were scoring at a fast rate, but were losing wickets as well.
Richard das Neves made a cultured 60 as he lofted the ball cutely and arrogantly some times, much to the annoyance and exasperation of the home side. He was eventually caught on the boundary by Rob Chave off of Sean Buttle who was Sampford’s best bowler on the day with 3-37 in 11 overs.
Chris Kitto made a pleasant 24 before stopping his shot for Chave to take another catch.
Kevin Symons stole the show for Wellington with a career best 74 which wrested the initiative back. He hit four huge sixes into the trees behind the famous Sampford Arundel ‘dog-leg’ and was only removed when Vince Milton held onto a towering chance at deep mid-wicket as Symons tried for a fifth maximum.
Danny Addicott and David Derrick gave Symons some good support and made sure that Wellington used up the time available to them before tea.
Wellington’s last pair of Adrian Lee and George Coate enjoyed a riotous stand with Lee making 34 with four sixes of his own, thus matching Symons. The innings closed on 292 when Darren Winter accepted a low chance at mid-wicket from Lee, thus giving Alan Bentley 2-56.
There were two wickets for Seb Coe and one for Oliver Defew as Sampford Arundel, who play their league cricket four divisions below Wellington, knew they had to chase 293 in an hour and 20 overs after tea.

The way that Rob Chave and Seb Coe started it was more than a possibility that Sampford would be intent on making a real chase of the massive total they needed as this pair added 116 in under the first hour of their side’s innings. Chave played some excellent shots and rotated the strike well to ensure that his big-hitting partner could attempt the seemingly impossible and chase down the near 300 they needed to win.
But the fun couldn’t last and Chave was first to depart for 47 as he chopped one on to his stumps to give Wellington vice-captain Adrian Lee a wicket. Lee then removed Kevin Price LBW in the same over and the Sampford Arundel game plan had to change to take account of the state of the game.
Coe was eventually out for 59 as he skied one to point where Danny Addicott took a steady catch off of Kevin Symons (1-56 in 10 overs).

From this point on the home side opted for safety and ground out a draw. Only one more wicket was forthcoming for Wellington such was the benign nature of the track, Adrian Hearn bowled his steady medium pace and removed the leg bail of Vince Milton. Hearn took 1-9 in 5 overs. Mike Jarman and Steve Windsor saw out the last few overs and again the local derby was drawn.

Wellington held sway overall and Sampford have now won just one of the last eleven derby matches that have been played, going back to 1993 (cancellations not included).

The battle of the top two sides in Division Two of the Somerset League Reserves Competition went in favour of the visitors, but this was a game that Wellington could and should have won as they let it slip from their grasp in the final stages.
James Dyke’s luck with the toss continued (three games, three tosses won) and he opted to bat first again, but things went wrong as the score slipped to 60-5 with young seamer Osmond (more of him later) making inroads to an impressive looking Wellington line-up.
It was left to Chris Rudd with 50 and Julian Jones with 43 to pull things round for Wellington 2nd XI and their excellent partnership did this as both recorded maxima in the course of their innings.
Adrian Lee with a rapid 24no late on saw that Wellington just missed out on maximum batting points for the third game running.
[img_assist|fid=11|thumb=1|alt=Wellington 2nd XI 199-9 - Staplegrove 2nd XI 200-9]
Lee and Phil Nicholls, playing his first game of the season, saw to it that Staplegrove would struggle to make any impact on the 200 they needed for victory. Lee took 2-26 in 12 overs and Nicholls 3-56 in 12.
But Wellington had not banked on Osmond making 118no and basically winning the game on his own.
With only one other double figure score it is not hard to see where the Staplegrove win came from.
Wellington were chipping away at the other end, but could not remove him as he swept aside all that came his way.
Bob Trott with 2-60 in 10 overs and Chris Rudd with 2-30 in 8 did all they could, but in the end Osmond held firm and saw his team home with 2.3 overs to spare and to 34 points.
Wellington 2nd XI took 18 from the game and drop to fourth in the table with Staplegrove taking over on top.

On winning the toss Wellington elected to bat first and through a new opening partnership comprising of Mark Salter and Rupert Green they forged a stand in the twenties of runs before Green was removed for six.
Salter was cutting and pulling the ball well and had advance to 22 before getting an LBW shout go against him.
Richard das Neves amassed 13 in 17 balls and was looking in good touch before a direct throw from Phil Parsons saw him short of his ground and Staplegrove had a gift of a wicket. At 51-4 Wellington were looking down the barrel somewhat.
Stuart Currall, with his best innings of the season so far, and skipper Rob Moysey righted the Wellington innings with a fifth wicket stand of 81 that gave hope of a real total to bowl at.
Currall worked the ball around well and had totalled 40 by the end of his knock. Moysey made a more than useful 45, but one wicket brought two and Wellington had to build again on the departure of this pair.
Mark Saunders injected good late tempo into the Wellington innings and with 30no in 15 balls he ensured that Wellington had something to bowl at.

Wellington reduced Staplegrove to 56-3 with Kevin Symons bowling delightfully in his role as opening seamer with John Paine.
He delivered 12 overs for minimum cost and got rid of Dave Penny for only 11, ensuring that he had no chance of repeating his 157no in this fixture last August.
But this was to be Wellington’s last real look-in in this match as Rowley Craddock (97no) and John Hodge (34no) held firm and swept their side to a massive seven wicket victory with time to spare. Both these batsmen gave little in the way of chances and ultimately took the game away from Wellington.
Staplegrove took 32 points and Wellington 11, thus leaving the Red and Blacks one off the bottom of Somerset League Division One and looking forward to a visit from bottom side Evercreech this Saturday, neither side has won so far this season so something has to give, Wellington just hope it is in their favour.

Last year many people from the Cricket Club, and some from other clubs, had a great time at the Cleve for the Summer Ball, run by the Cricket Club, with the Federation.

We are doing it again this year, and hoping to make it a great success, getting more people to turn up, and having an even better time.

It’s on the evening of Friday 10th June (only a couple of weeks away!) with live band, Bedrock, and buffet food.

Tickets are £12 each, availible from several of the Cricket Club members. If you would like to come along, please speak to someone like myself, Duncan Short, Tony Rudd, Simon Spalding, David Derrick or Andy Perry to name a few. Tickets are being offered round the other clubs as well, so if you’re part of the Rugby Club for example, there should also be someone within the club with tickets.

The fun starts from 7:30pm on the Friday evening, so why not come along, have some food, have a dance, and lets all have a great time!

This coming Bank Holiday Monday the Cricket Club has a friendly match away at Exmouth.

As it’s a great ground, and a nice place to visit, we’re taking a coach down this year and inviting others to come along with us.

There are still a few places left at the moment, so if you’d like to join us in Exmouth (the weather is supposed to be getting a lot better for the weekend!) please contact Tony Rudd on 01823 664406.

Details:

Coach to Exmouth
Monday May 30th

Exmouth CC
Vs
Wellington Sunday XI

Leaving North Street car park at 11:30am
Returning 11pm

Cost £8

Wellington were despatched by the large margin of ten wickets in this the only cricket they managed over a rain soaked weekend when WECCC Premier One side Taunton visited Courtland Road on Monday evening for a Baker Cup quarter-final fixture.

Taunton asked Wellington to bat first and after losing a wicket at 9 Mark Salter and Richard das Neves added 60 for the second wicket in under ten overs. das Neves used his feet well to the spinners and made it to 36 in 30 balls before Bradbury got one through his defences. Had he carried out Wellington may well have had 120 runs or so to bowl at, but as it was this signalled the decline in Wellington’s innings. Salter too made 36 before being run out as off-spinner Hart with 4-21 in 5 overs and Bradbury with 2-10 in 4 saw that the Red and Blacks only made 93-8 in 20 overs.

Keates and Bradbury gave an excellent performance with the bat as they negotiated all that Wellington could through at them. John Paine was fiery in his five over burst and Richard das Neves exercised good control, but last season’s runners-up weren’t going to make any mistakes and although Stuart Turner and Kevin Symons bowled tidily enough, Wellington did not have the penetration to make the county town side’s time in the middle anything other than routine and they recorded a ten wicket win with two overs to spare and progress through to the semi-finals next month.

Taunton Outcasts vs. Wellington
Wellington 2nd XI vs. Wembdon 2nd XI
Wellington Sunday XI vs. Holford Sunday XI

The weekend was a total washout for Wellington CC’s senior sides as atrocious weather conditions saw that not a single ball was bowled.
The two league sides each take twelve points from the cancellations.

The Sunday fixture at home against Holford had already been cancelled as Holford were struggling for players. The weather would mostly likely have claimed that game as well anyway.

Next Weekend’s Fixtures

Saturday 28th May
1st XI – Away to Staplegrove in a Somerset League Division One fixture. Depart from Courtland Road Car Park at 12.30pm for a 1.45pm start.

2nd XI – Home to Staplegrove 2nd XI in a Somerset League Reserves Competition Division Two fixture sponsored by The Cleve Hotel and Country Club with match ball sponsorship from Wyn Welsh Plumbing Ltd.
Meet at Pavilion by 1.00pm for a 2.00pm start.

Sunday 29th May
Sunday XI – Away to Sampford Arundel in a friendly fixture. Depart from Courtland Road Car Park at 1.30pm for a 2.30pm start.

Monday 30th May
Sunday XI – Away to Exmouth in a friendly fixture.
Coach departs from Courtland Road Car Park at 11.00am. Contact Tony Rudd or David Derrick for details.

[update]Unfortunately this fixture has now been cancelled, so no game this Sunday. Next week is a long weekend though, with a game on the bank holiday Monday on the trip to Exmouth. [/update]

This Sunday’s friendly match against Holford may be off due to Holford having problems getting a team together.

DD is going to get a decision from them one way or another tomorrow (Thursday), and is also attempting to see if another team are willing to play instead. This is obviously unlikely due to the short notice.

Will update when I have a deffinate answer.

Download the Wellington Cricket Club Match Return sheet – for use in all youth and senior fixtures. To save on your PC, use ‘right click’ and ‘save target as’.