Wellington Cricket Club

The Sunday XI supplied the hat-trick of wins for the weekend when they won their second Three Counties League Division One fixture of the season by six wickets at home to WECCC (Somerset Division) league leaders Chard.
Despite the excellent scoreline in favour of Wellington overall, the start of their time in the field was ragged and wayward as Chard merrily went along at a fast run rate as Wells-Burr and Crew latched on to some fast, but misdirected deliveries.
Kevin Symons was relatively untouched during these times as his seven overs cost just 30 runs.
Julian Smit was the valve that stopped this spree as he delivered 8 overs for just eight runs and took 3 fine wickets in this time.
He held on to a top caught-and-bowled effort to remove Wells-Burr for 39 and then Crew played on for 40 and Wellington could see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Bob Trott joined the attack and his eight over spell of off-spin realised figures of 3-33 in 8 overs as he too reigned in the Chard batting assault.
At 155-6 Wellington had done some fine work to pull the visitors back to this sort of position, but Cleal with 20no and Fussell with 40no got away from Wellington again as they got Chard to over 200 by tea.
A long tea break was taken so as to fit in the England v Ecuador World Cup match and when Wellington started their innings the cloud had descended and obliterated any brightness, but Wellington started their innings brightly as Kevin Crout hit two early fours to show that the pitch was still a good one to bat one, but he was bowled through the gate by Chard skipper J.Scott and Wellington had lost a wicket at 16.
This was the cue for Thom Trott and Julian Smit to add 142 fabulous runs for the second Wellington wicket and give the Red and Blacks a real chance of victory.
Trott played the steady hand as he drove for singles and twos often and this is what kept Wellington in with a shout of chasing down the 213 needed.
Boundaries were not that much to the fore, not that there were not any to speak of, but this pair played so well ‘along the carpet’ that having to hit lustily was not called for.
Trott was well caught on the boundary for 56 and the Wellington skipper had done his work for the day.
Smit carried through to 79, a great knock that showcased his full range of strokes in that he could play the deft shot and then follow it up with a powerful one.
He too was well caught as Chard took their chances when they came although they were few and far between.
Alex Sparks played a bright innings that totalled 32no and gave Wellington the chance to push for victory as he followed Trott and Smit by applying pressure to Chard by looking to pinch singles and twos whenever possible.
James Dyke got in on the act as well and he took the score to 175-4 which brought Kevin Symons to the crease and he did well by adapting to the match situation immediately as he rotated the strike with Sparks.
The telling moment was when Symons was caught at deep mid-wicket, but the ball was carried over the line and cost Chard six runs.
The winning runs were scored from the first ball of the last over of the match and Wellington had a fine six wicket win to be proud of and sixteen points to Chard’s twelve.