Wellington Cricket Club

When Wellington reduced Ilton’s star-studded line up to 76-6 in 22 overs 86 were still needed and the Red and Blacks were in a good placing to take another massive scalp after the win over Minehead the previous week, but Leish and Shaffique played not one false shot and saw their side home in style.

Rob Moysey had opted to bat first and Mark Salter looked in ominous form again as he planted the pacy Masood into the next field with an imperious flick over mid-wicket for six, but he perished for 16 going for the same shot. At 22-2 Wellington needed some consolidation and it came from a 56 run partnership for the third wicket from Richard Das Neves and Marc Holloway.
Das Neves took on the spinners and won the duel pretty much as he cracked two sixes – one from Shaffique’s left-armers and one from Lee Denslow’s leg-spinners.
He was timing the ball very well before he fenced at one and was caught behind by keeper Leish off of the extra pace that Mason generated.
Holloway ground out 14 in 81 balls and gave good support to Das Neves, he was eventually stumped off of Denslow who battled back well from an expensive opening to his spell to end up with 4-66 in 11.5 overs. Rob Moysey – back down to the middle order – lashed 18 with two sixes in no time at all. he now needs just six runs to bring up 10,000 career runs for WCC.
After this juncture only Stuart Currall and Thom Trott prospered for Wellington with Currall making 29 studious and well made runs.
Trott gave the Wellington innings a late spurt with 22 in 23 balls as he took 14 from Mason’s last over, but he was caught at short third man going for a reverse sweep and this ended Wellington’s innings on 161 with seven balls left unused.
Shaffique with 3-32 in 12 overs bowled a controlled spell of left-arm spin.

Ilton’s innings was high-octane stuff from the off as Selway hit six in four balls before cutting one to gully where Rob Moysey took a reflex catch – one of three for Wellington’s skipper on the day – off of Matt Coleman.
Thom Trott conjured up a double wicket maiden that saw him york Lee and the Ilton skipper Oliver edged to Moysey and Ilton were teetering.
Masood and Leish doubled the score before another super slip cordon catch – this time from Richard Das Neves, who scooped the ball up off his boot – removed Masood and Trott had 3-13 in 6 overs.
Paul Short and Das Neves then made up a dual spin attack for Wellington and on a dry pitch this was the right way to go.
Short went for only 32 runs in his 12 overs and claimed Lee Denslow’s wicket LBW, Ilton 75-6.
This became 76-6 when Satter misjudged a sweep shot and Moysey took his third catch from Das Neves.
At this point Ilton were on the ropes and Wellington had to finish them off. They never got the chance as Leish with a match-winning knock of 58no and Shaffique with 51no saw Ilton through the difficult times and out of the woods with some excellent shots.
Leish had held the innings together and was pretty much unnoticed at the time when the wickets were all falling, but his doggedness paid off and with Shaffique’s power play Wellington went down by four wickets with a couple of overs left.
The relief of the Ilton team and their supporters when the winning runs were hit was palpable showing what a scare Wellington had given the team that many think are destined to be crowned Somerset Cricket League champions for 2005.
Wellington took 14 points to Ilton’s 35.