Wellington Cricket Club

The club once again got together for it’s annual Club Day event on Sunday 30th July when a mix of lunch, cricket and evening festivities were on offer.

Over 120 persons took lunch when the Mayor of Taunton Deane was able to be presented as Guest of Honour, the opportunity to thank club sponsors was also taken at this time.

Tony, Simon and Chris Rudd prepared and served a lunch of ham, chicken, beef and various salads and dressings were also available. Thanks go to them and the many others who helped to prepare this vast meal.

Cricket took the form a ‘sixes’ tournament and this ran through the afternoon period.

Eventually those gathered vacated the Playing Field and took up residence at Wellington Football Club, the club’s base for home matches, where an evening barbecue was prepared by, amongst others, Amanda Hancock, Jane Trott, Paul Short, Thom Trott and Sam Cook.

A fuller report on this event will follow in next week’s Wellington Weekly News.

Wellington took 24 points from their rain affected Somerset League Division One match against Ashcott & Shapwick at the Playing Field on Saturday writes Mark Saunders.

Batting first the Ashcott batsmen got stuck into the Wellington bowling attack early on with opener Callum Haggett – last season’s Somerset League Best Youth Player – hooking the ball particularly well before he perished to the nagging line and length of Simon Rudd for a well made 24.

Villis and A&S’s South African Niedermayer then set about the bowling playing beautifully as they took the score onto 91 in only the fifteenth over before Niedermayer made the mistake of trying to take a quick single to mid off only to see Thom Trott throw down the stumps in magnificent fashion to run him out for a quickfire 34.

This then allowed Wellington to begin to peg back the run rate as 91-2 soon became 96-5 due to a ‘marathon’ eight over spell from Adrian Lee who took 2-34 and Rudd who finished with the excellent analysis of 12-5-32-2 – a great effort against one of the division’s strongest batting line ups.

However Ashcott then steadily rebuilt their innings with a partnership of 90 between D.Rudge and B.Rudge.

This was interrupted on a few occasions by rain which meant that tea was taken with 7 overs of the visitor’s innings remaining.

Once play resumed Ashcott finished on 211-8 with a wicket each for Julian Smit (1-44) and Paul Short (1-53).

The rain continued to disrupt play throughout the remainder of the game, reducing Wellington’s innings to a maximum of 39 overs in which to score the required runs.

In actual fact the weather conditions allowed only 21 overs to be bowled as Wellington finished on 89-2 with Rob Moysey (43 not out) and Julian Smit (25 not out) playing some pleasing shots before the umpires decided that no more play was possible and the match was abandoned as a draw.

Wellington stay fifth with 290 points and face a tough match at league leaders Chew Magna next time out.

The match ball for this fixture as kindly sponsored by AIS Cleaning Services Ltd (01823 272260).

Wellington 2nd XI marched on to a seventh win in a row and closed the gap on Somerset League Reserves Competition Division Two leaders Bridgwater 3rd XI to a nominal six points with this eight wicket win at North Perrott last Saturday, combined with Bridgwater losing at Chew Magna matters could have a taken a decisive turn in favour of the Red and Blacks who are also in with a shout of winning the Somerset League’s Team of the Month award for July having collected 167 points out of a possible 175 in the calendar month writes David Derrick.

Wellington arrived at the excellent North Perrott facility on the Somerset/Dorset border with the game in some doubt, for not only had rain fallen on the morning of the match, but the wicket that had been selected for the match was close to a wicket that was to be used for a midweek Somerset 2nd XI match with Gloucestershire 2nd XI and with this wicket being covered some of the accumulated rainwater had seeped off the covers and on to the wicket for this match. In the end after discussions between the two sides a start was made at 2.15pm with a full match of 45 overs per side still being on offer.

James Dyke won the toss and stuck with the formula that has brought his team the success it is currently enjoying by asking relegation-threatened North Perrott to take first knock.

Nineteen runs came off the first two overs and this looked ominous for Wellington as North Perrott’s ground is a vast expanse, but Richard Henwood and Andy Mitchell pulled things back to see that North Perrott had less than thirty on the board after ten overs. Mitchell got the initial breakthrough when he got Heard to edge behind to Julian Jones who kept wicket tidily throughout Wellington’s time in the innings.

Things then became quiet for Wellington as Bradley and James added 66 second wicket runs for the home side who have been making some good scores on their won patch recently and it looked as if Wellington would be needing between 230 and 250 to win.

Bradley made it to 51 before splicing one to Richard Short at point off of Marc Holloway, who was making his first appearance since June 17 when he suffered a hand injury at Peasedown St John whilst playing for the 1st XI.

Holloway’s nagging medium pace took 1-44 in 8 overs as he maintained a good line and length in the second half of his spell in particular.

Bob Trott provided Wellington’s spin option on the day and his figures of 0-31 in 10 overs represent excellent work by the vice-captain at a time when North Perrott’s top scorer James (86no) was looking to push things on as he played a fine knock for the home side.

Along with Hodgkins (32) the threat of North Perrott making 230 plus was still there, but Dave Hewitt, playing a league game for Wellington for the first time in some three years, showed all his old class with a spell of 2-30 in 8 overs as he ensured that North Perrott did not get past the psychological 200 mark.

The only aspect of Wellington’s time in the field that could have been improved on was their catching as some chances to gain more bowling bonus points were spurned.

Wellington forgot any such lapses when they took up the challenge of making 198 as they chased down the total with 4.1 overs and eight wickets in hand, indeed on this seven match winning run only seventeen wickets have been lost out of a possible seventy.

Phil Nicholls again anchored the innings with a fine 73no that saw him work the ball around the field well, combining this approach with shots for boundaries when the opportunity arose. Nicholls is fast becoming a rock at the top of the Wellington 2nd XI order as he is racking up an impressive haul of not out innings.

Julian Jones played the aggressive role at the other end to Nicholls and he had made 26 in no time and looked like he could do some serious damage to the North Perrott bowlers figures, but having taken Heard (2-21 in 12 overs) for a four over mid-wicket he tried again and presented the keeper with an easy catch.

Richard Short joined Nicholls and he again did a fine job in tandem with Wellington’s remaining opener as he made 23 good runs. Short was dismissed at 68-2, but from this point on Wellington did not look back as Nicholls and Marc Holloway added an unbroken 143 for the third wicket.

They tamed and then took on and won the duel against a North Perrott attack that tried all available options open to it, but none worked.

Holloway crowned his return from injury with 59no as Wellington won at a canter to take 30 points to North Perrott’s eleven.

This was another good day at the office for Wellington 2nd XI and they have now lost just three of their last 22 league matches.

The Journeymen recorded their first win over Wellington since 2001 when they won by six wickets last Monday afternoon with only two balls to spare as Wellington pulled things back well following a barren first hour in the field before the last twenty overs were called.
Rob Moysey with 93 marshalled the Wellington innings and was supported by opening partner Julian Jones who made 31 in a 63 run opening stand.
Julian Smit with 34 aided Moysey to continue the Wellington innings in the way that it had started.
Dave Hewitt, back from his teaching post in Lancashire, showed all the quality that he has shown with the bat down the years as he made 32. All the time Moysey was bearing down on a ton, but he was denied it by just seven runs as Wellington rattled up 210-6 at tea.

Bloch and Jeffrey added 77 in 13 overs at the start of The Journeymen’s innings as Wellington’s bowling was not accurate enough at times.
A good breakthrough was gained through Ben Green who induced Jeffrey to loop one to Tom Baycock at mid-on and the first wicket was down.
Green was unlucky to sustain two cracks on the leg during the innings and had to leave the field of play each time for ice treatment.
The last time The Journeymen won at Wellington Bloch hit an unbeaten ton and he did so again, making a fine 114 before having to retire with a hamstring strain.
Wellington had fought their way back into the game through Rob Moysey getting two stumpings courtesy of Julian Jones and the last over dawned with four still needed by The Journeymen.
It should never really have got this close, but Rupert Green was equal to the task as he delivered three dot balls that Hayes tried to smash to the boundary and the pressure was building, but Hayes swung hard to leg and got enough on the ball to squirt it through the closely-packed Wellington infield and give The Journeymen a six wicket win.

Wellington Sunday XI lost by 27 runs to Barrington in their fourth of six Three Counties League Division One fixtures last weekend when they perhaps let the visitors off the hook somewhat having reduced them to 38-5.
Wellington opted to field first and Julian Smit and Bob Trott formed an effective opening partnership as good wickets were taken early on.
Chris Kitto showed a trusty pair of hands in taking the catches that saw the end of French and overseas player Doss as Trott took 3-32 in his eight overs.
Smit bowled T.Towill all ends up and with 1-16 had had a good weekend with the ball.
Dan Thorne took 2-36 in 7.3 overs as his left-arm over style of bowling proved effective, sadly he had to retire from the attack near the end of his spell as he incurred a side-strain.
Rob Moysey took over from Thorne and bowled another teasing and accurate spell of leg-spin that realised 2-15 in 5.3 overs.
Barrington recovered from 38-5 and 95-6 through Redwood’s 52 and Baulch’s hard-hitting 56no.
James Dyke (2-20) eeked out two wickets late on to ensure that Wellington claimed full bowling points whilst denying Barrington full batting points.

Rob Moysey and Chris Kitto engineered a 64 run opening stand for Wellington and this looked to be a good base to go on from for the Red and Blacks, but this fell away rather to 98-5. Kitto was caught behind for 21 and Doss took 3-20 in 8 fiery overs, including Moysey for 37.
But their was a sliver lining for Wellington in a fine unbroken 62 run partnership for the sixth wicket between Julian Smit (37no) and David Derrick (21no) as they ensured that Barrington were denied bowling bonus points.
Both players worked the ball around well as Barrington went on the defensive and singles and twos were collected at will.
Despite defeat Wellington took eleven points to Barrington’s sixteen.

Wellington 2nd XI travelled to Bridgwater 3rd XI at the weekend for a top of the table clash and returned victorious in what could turn out to be the crunch match of the season writes James Dyke.

After been asked to take the field Wellington struck in the very first over with the ever impressive Richard Henwood getting the batsman to fence at a ball outside off stump to be caught behind by keeper Chris Nicholls. This early success spurred the Bridgwater batsman to dig deep and a solid 2nd wicket partnership of 74 followed with Wood and Whitemore making good use of the short boundaries and fast outfield.

Once again Andrew Mitchell bowled an impeccable line and it was he that finally made the breakthrough that Wellington were looking for as he induced Whitemore into skying one to Henwood at mid on.
Veteran run scorer Kit Barrington continued the healthy run rate for Bridgwater and at 150-2 after 32 overs they must have been looking for around 250.

However the introduction of Bob Trott began to restrict the number of runs being scored and this pressure led to Bridgwater losing their 3rd wicket as he brought the crucial dismissal of Bridgwater’s best player Andy Wood, clean bowling him through the gate. With Henwood been reintroduced at the other end Bridgwater were now struggling to score at anything like the rate they had been doing mid-innings. Sensing a turn in fortune, both bowlers continued to ask questions of the Bridgwater batsmen and Henwood didn’t need asking twice when a sharp caught and bowled chance came his way.

Trott struck again 2 overs later clipping the top of off stump with a superb turning delivery to get rid of the dangerous Barrington.
Wellington continued to dominate the rest of the innings and with a run out on the last ball Bridgwater ended up with what they must have felt was a below par score of 205-9.
Trott who bowled his best spell of the season ended up with figures of 8-1-28-3 and Henwood, bowled his heart out to return excellent figures of 12-3-43-4.

Wellington’s reply was once again emphatic as the opening pair of Julian Jones and Phil Nicholls mixed sound defensive play with some ferocious strokes to build a marvellous platform for the rest of the team to build on. Jones, who was particularly savage on anything in the ‘slot’ hit 7 fours and a wonderful six over extra cover in his innings of 43 and when he was out the score was a healthy 98-1. His partner in crime – Phil Nicholls – was out 5 overs later for a cultured 38 including 8 glorious boundaries. However, Bridgwater were not about to roll over and die and some good away-swing deliveries from Skidmore sent Richard Short and James Dyke back to the pavilion in relatively close succession to leave the Red and Blacks on a precarious 133-4.

This brought Chris Nicholls and Rob Hunt to the crease and together they began to get the Wellington innings back on track.
Hunt hit 3 good fours in a useful knock of 16 until Skidmore clean bowled him with the score on 170. The maths was simple. 6 overs left, 36 runs needed. Could Wellington hold their nerve and pull off a famous victory?

With Trott departing in the 40th over Wellington found themselves needing 25 runs off 4 overs. The 41st over proved to be the crucial one for James Dyke’s men, as Nicholls and Rudd cleverly worked the ball into the gaps and Rudd hit the last ball of the over for a monster 6.

This meant that Wellington only needed 10 off the last 3 overs which, despite the loss of Rudd in the 43rd over they got with ease. Chris Nicholls remained unbeaten on 26no in his first innings for the club.
This intelligent knock under extreme pressure was the icing on the cake in what was a top performance by everyone in the team. Wellington took 34 points to Bridgwater’s 17 and now have a great chance of winning the league if they continue in the same vein.

Wellington’s batting let them down in this Somerset League Division One fixture and they can only be left to rue the fact that just three got into double figures.
Wellington put the visitors into bat and they made this look a good decision from their point of view as D.Penny and Prescott lashed exactly one hundred runs for the first wicket and this looked ominous for Wellington as this pair played pretty much flawless innings.
The breakthrough came when Penny hit a rocket of a shot to Adrian Lee who was positioned at deep mid-off and he held onto a blinding effort off of Julian Smit.
Bird with 23 added 30 second wicket runs for Staplegrove before he spooned one up to Mark Saunders from Gary Tillett’s off-spin and this precipitated a collapse in which nine wickets went down for just 52 runs as Smit bowled fast, straight and true and with a wicked yorker at his disposal took 7-48 in 11.4 overs.
Wellington were delighted to remove Staplegrove for just 182 and they must have felt that they had thrown things away badly after being 100-0.

At tea Wellington would have felt that they were in the ascendancy, but this was shattered as they were reduced to 32-4 in just nine overs.
Alex Sparks kept his head while all around him were departing the scene and he doubled Wellington’s score with Mark Saunders who made 13. They looked settled before Saunders helped a full-toss into the hands of deep square-leg and 64-4 became 64-6, then 70-7 and the game was up for Wellington.
Kevin Symons with a positive 23 and Sparks with a mature knock of exactly 50 got Wellington past 100, but Staplegrove with W.Penny’s 4-41 and Pantling’s 3-20 had been the better side in the second half and the end came when Staplegrove skipper Dunn bowled Adrian Lee with 5 overs to spare to give the visitors a 59 run win and 34 points to Wellington’s 16.
Wellington stay fourth and face the top two back-to-back over the next fortnight.

The match ball for this fixture was kindly donated by Roger Nunn Driving Services (01884 841314) and the club are most grateful to them for their support.

This was a fine win by Wellington Midweek XI over Buckinghamshire tourists Great Brickhill last Monday as a match that was played in intense heat throughout brought the Red and Blacks a 14 run win when they thought they had not posted enough of a total against a talented batting side.

Rob Moysey and Alex Sparks added 49 for the second Wellington wicket and this looked to be the launchpad for a total in excess of 200, but when Sparks was bowled for a fine 31 and Moysey (43) edged to slip with the score on 90, Wellington were losing impetus.
Phil Nicholls and David Derrick got the score into three figures, but Wellington’s skipper lofted to mid-on and another wicket followed soon after and at 102-6 Wellington were in a spot of bother.
Phil Nicholls – who is in good touch with the bat currently, and Sam Cook added exactly fifty for the seventh wicket and this gave Wellington renewed hope.
Nicholls made it through to 38 before one popped on him and he edged to slip. Cook made 21no with a great pulled six and some nicely hit straight drives, but on the breaking of this stand Wellington’s innings caved in again as the score went from 152-6 to 155 all out on the last ball of the last over.

Great Brickhill, who play their league cricket in a four counties structure encompassing Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire, had done a good job with the ball as they pulled things back when it counted to see that Wellington did not make their desired 200 plus total.

Their openers Holloway (23) and Carter (25) made an early impression on the Wellington total so as to make it look little inadequate as they played some good shots all round the wicket.
The breakthrough came when Grant Davey trapped Holloway LBW and Kevin Symons (who took ten wickets over three games on the weekend) induced Carter to drive once to often and Thom Trott accepted a great low chance at first slip.
Great Brickhill overcame this double setback through a stand between two Northamptonshire Colts players in Tubb and D.Aris and they virtually halved the score required by their side to win when they fell to a double dose of catching from Alex Sparks who took three in total in his varying infield position.
This gave Symons his second wicket of the game and a first for Guy Murray.
Julian Smit conceded 22 runs from his first three overs, but then only eight from his next seven as he bowled at an impressive pace and showed great stamina in the intense heat of the day, a quality shown by all Wellington’s bowling attack.
Murray bowled an impressive spell as he took up the attack from the Football Club end and he did a great job for his team as he probed away and got wickets at just the right time for Wellington.
Sam Cook’s excellent leg-side keeper’s catch was a fine effort and was part of the fine comeback that Wellington were putting together.
Great Brickhill were 113-5, but collapsed to 136-9 as Rob Moysey’s leg-spin not only kept things quiet in run scoring terms, but posed many questions of the visitors lower order.
Moysey took 2-4 in 4 overs as he took a caught and bowled chance and Julian Smit carefully took a chance at deep mid-wicket.
The end came with 3 overs left as Copeman ran himself out going for a single that was not there and Wellington had a fine 14 run win to go home and enjoy.

Wellington Sunday XI got in on the act by completing a friendly double over Street at home last weekend and can be proud of their efforts, but as well as Wellington bowled and fielded you just couldn’t help feeling that Street’s batting strategy was just all wrong for the type of surface that the match was played on.

Street, who play their league cricket one level above both of Wellington’s teams, opted to bat first and found Kevin Symons in the same sort of form that he had been in at Evercreech the previous day as he took a five wicket bag in 10 overs – again all delivered on the reel.
He maintained a great line and length and was assisted in no small measure by some top quality catching measured by the fact that eight of the ten wickets to fall were to catches.
George Coate gave Symons good support at the other end as he bowled with good pace, his wicket came through a good reaction catch from Grant Davey.
Davey took over the attack from Coate and the teenager did good work in very hot conditions as he took 1-9 in 6 overs with a good Phil Nicholls catch at gully doing the trick.
Guy Murray, who took a nasty crack on the wrist, recovered sufficiently to bowl a good spell and got his reward when Julian Smit made good ground running backwards. Murray himself had taken a fine one-handed catch earlier when Symons was in full force.
Julian Smit bowled at express pace and saw that the Street tail did not prosper as they found themselves all out for 105 in 31.1 overs.
Street seemed to want, as a team, to force the ball away and it simply was not the sort of pitch to do this on.
Evely with 24 and D.Wall with 18 did some damage, but there no real consistency from the away side.

It took Phil Nicholls and Thom Trott just 22.3 overs to seal a ten wicket win for Wellington Sunday XI as they bided their time and then picked off the bad ball.
Both innings were pretty much flawless, the only ‘fly in the ointment’ was when Nicholls was dropped as he speared the ball high.
Trott made 65no and Nicholls 33no and this match too finished early as Wellington had a third victory of the weekend to savour.

This was Wellington’s last home Sunday friendly fixture of the season and grateful thanks go to all who have assisted with the preparing and serving of the excellent teas that have accompanied these matches. Those who fall into this category are Penny Hartnell, Karen D’Amori, Amanda Hancock, Dennis and Margaret Fullstone. All who have played for the team in these fixtures record their thanks for services rendered.

Wellington well and truly got the monkey that manifests itself as an away match at Evercreech off their backs as they crushed the home side by six wickets in this Somerset League Division One match with some sixteen overs left to win there for only the second time in sixteen years.

Evercreech opted to bat first and the usual trend of such matches was there to see as Chinnock cracked 36 in just 26 balls, but a canny spell from Kevin Symons who delivered 12 overs straight off saw that this energetic start was not to last for Evercreech.
Simon Rudd’s shy at one stump ran out Davis and Symons then trapped Chinnock LBW.
Ingram fenced at one and when Harding too was adjudged LBW and at 67-4 the home side were subsiding, much like the pitch this match was played on.
Agutter with a fine knock of 44 held Evercreech together a best he could, but Rob Moysey (2-30) and Gary Tillett (3-33) joined forces to make a potent spin combo and they took five wickets between them.
Moysey found his line and length and made several balls spit and pop and was a handful not only for the Evercreech batsmen, but also for Wellington keeper Sam Cook who deserves a mention for keeping well on a poor playing surface.
At 134-9 with nine overs to go Wellington were looking forward to a break from fielding in conditions that bordered on 90degF, but Atkinson and M.Ough had other ideas and they added 59 last wicket runs for Evercreech as they showed their higher-order colleagues how it should be done.
Wellington closed the innings out on the last ball of the 45 overs.
Simon Rudd took the other wicket to fall.

Wellington made a mockery of the troubles and tribulations that this fixture has given them down the years as they chased down the 194 needed in under 30 overs and what was really nice was that all who batted made a telling contribution to the overall Wellington effort.
Rob Moysey and Mark Salter left the result in no doubt as they added 79 for the first wicket in under 10 overs.
Their run feast was halted when Salter cut uppishly to backward point for 40.
Moysey was done by a grubber for 38.
Alex Sparks played a wristy innings of 30 that saw him play well all around the park and Julian Smit applied the final burst with a high-octane 46 with two large sixes.
Mark Saunders and Thom Trott were at the crease when the winning runs were hit and Wellington had won by 6.30pm and took 35 points to Evercreech’s 13 and go up to fourth in the table.