Wellington Sunday XI 133 – Knapp Sunday XI 73
The Sunday XI entertained West Somerset League Division One side Knapp and shaded a low scoring contest as the ball won the day.
Wellington opted to bat and soon Thom Trott and Marc Holloway were into their stride as they put on a scintillating 94 run opening partnership. Trott pulled the ball with venomous power and Holloway drove the ball sweetly both on the straight and through the covers, making 47 and 51 respectively.
But Knapp’s Indian player Gurban trapped them both LBW and from then on the Wellington innings collapsed spectacularly with eight wickets going down for 27 runs after Trott and Holloway had gone.
The match was played on the same strip as the 1st XI had used the previous day and with spin being the decisive factor in that game so it came to be the same here as father and son combo of John and Sam Wadham tied Wellington up in knots. Wadham Snr with his clever variety of off-spin snared 6-42 in 8.1 overs and the left-arm spin coming from the other end realised 2-3 in 4 overs as Wellington were shot out for only 133 some 7.5 overs short of their allocation.
However Wellington were mindful of the spinning qualities that the pitch was offering and that Knapp had been struggling in their league cricket with cohesive run-scoring being their Achilles’ heel as such and so it came to be that Wellington took the spin option from the off as Richard Das Neves bowled ten quality overs from the Football Club end for only 11 runs, but as he got the ball to spit and turn close fielders were put in place and in the end Knapp succumbed.
But it was not all spin that did the job for Wellington as Adrian Lee took 2-12 in 5 overs as he bowled a tight wicket-to-wicket line that brought his natural swing into action. The crucial wicket of Sam Wadham came through a good catch by Andy Perry at mid-off and Wellington were glad to have taken this one.
Grant Davey bowled a useful spell and he gave way to Thom Trott who bowled a great spell of fast-medium pace bowling that saw that Knapp had no room for manoeuvre as the run rate steadily rose. Trott took 4-12 in 8 overs.
Chris Kitto kept the spin going from the Football Club end and he bowled a tidy six over spell that saw him take the wickets of A.Coles who played on and he took a steepling chance off of his own bowling to see the back of Knapp skipper Bentley for 33 – the top score of their innings.
Andy Mitchell needed just two balls to wrap things up as a James Dyke catch gave Wellington a handsome 60 run win and so keep up the Sunday XI’s unbeaten record in friendlies in 2005.
Match ball sponsorship for this match came from Webber’s Estate Agents – The club are extremely grateful for their support.
