Wellington Cricket Club

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.