Wellington Cricket Club

Wellington Sunday XI brought down the curtain on the club’s 2006 season with a thumping friendly win at WECCC (Somerset Division) side Chard last weekend when they completed a Sunday double, having won the Three Counties League Division One match between the two sides at Wellington back in June.

Chard opted to bat first and this seemed to be the right decision based on the fact that the weather was dry and hot and the pitch was dry, but Chard found it hard going as Phil Nicholls bowled a fine opening spell for Wellington. He hit the right line and length from the off and clean bowled both R.Scott and Dunn for ducks on his way to 2-13 in 8 overs.
George Coate bowled a complementary opening spell that cost only 9 runs from his initial five over burst and Chard were really up against it.
J.Scott and Clancy added 71 for the home side’s third wicket as Chard got back into the game. Scott was looking dangerous and had made a good 37 when he scooped a Julian Smit slower ball to Thom Trott at mid-off and Wellington were back into the fray.
Smit took 3-18 in 8 overs on his last match for Wellington before he returns to South Africa in mid-October.
Paul Short bowled one of his best spells of the season with 1-22 in 8 good overs of off-spin – he gated Warren and this was the least he deserved.
James Dyke bowled a useful couple of spells and had a hand in two wickets as he ran out Clancy off of his bowling for 40 and removed C.Scott after he had made 35 with some lusty blows.
Chard had totalled 177-9 at tea.

Wellington’s opening pair of Julian Smit and Kevin Crout laid into the Chard attack and were assisted by some ‘friendly’ fielding as several shots got more than they perhaps were going to.
Smit hit exactly 50 and Crout – playing for only the second time since his knee operation – made a powerful 36 as both timed and placed the ball well, adding 98 for the first wicket.
Both were out trying to hit down the ground.
This gave way to Thom Trott and Chris Nicholls to finish the match and the season with a fine third wicket stand of 69. Trott smashed a high-tempo 55no and Nicholls played around him for 19no as the match was won by eight wickets with 12.5 overs to spare.

Overall this has been a good season for the Wellington club with the 1st XI achieving it’s highest league placing in six years, the 2nd XI gained promotion, the Sunday XI had a decent league season and returned a good record in it’s friendly matches. The Midweek XI played more matches than it had for a few seasons and returned a results record on the credit side.

Wellington Sunday XI recorded their first friendly double over Langport courtesy of this 165 run win last weekend as the good times continued to roll for the Red and Blacks.
Langport – themselves celebrating a double promotion from the previous day – opted to ask Wellington to bat and this was not the worst piece of news to deliver back to the dressing room.
Julian Smit and Sam Cook put on 33 for the first wicket before Cook was adjudged LBW. This brought Thom Trott to the crease and he and Smit proceeded to add 170 excellent runs for the second wicket.
Both laid into a Langport attack that did not possess the required cutting edge – only skipper Edwards with 2-33 and Strang escaped punishment.
Trott made 56 before been caught behind.
Smit made his first century for Wellington in making an excellent 125 that was ended when he was well caught on the boundary.
Wickets fell as Wellington strove for all the runs they could get their hands on and Adrian Lee with 20 and Phil Nicholls with 16 got them to over 250.

Wellington’s attack was potent when it came to it’s time to field and Phil Nicholls was back to his best as he took three wickets in his first five over burst as he got his line and length absolutely right. He came back later on, but was unable to add to his tally and finished with 3-23 in 8 overs.
Adrian Lee’s line was perfect as well and he was a perfect foil for Nicholls.
Ben Green extracted an amazing amount of turn and bounce as he bowled some excellent leg-spin. He took 1-21 in 8 overs and could have had more success.
Grant Davey worked up good pace and induced Watts to edge behind after he had played an obdurate knock and at 22-5 Langport were in danger of folding.
But Powell and Edwards more than doubled the score and looked set, not to overhaul the big Wellington total, but to deny the Wellington attack more success, but when Edwards ran himself out going for a second run the door was open again.
George Coate bowled a controlled spell and got some good pace out of the wicket and was rewarded by a good catch by James Dyke, who made good ground going backwards at mid-on.
Dyke himself joined the attack and mopped up the tail with a spell that realised 3-9 in 2.4 overs to give Wellington a good win.

Looking at the pre-match weather forecasts there should not have been much play in this match that was crucial to Butleigh’s chances of staying up, but Wellington arrived and found the covers protecting the pitch and play was able to start on time.
Rob Moysey called correctly and backed his team to chase down a total once again by asking Butleigh to bat first.
No breakthrough came early on for Wellington although Thom Trott and Kevin Symons did bowl a good line and length as Trevis and Dean repelled all that Wellington threw at them.
A reward came when Symons forced Dean to fence at a ball that was only guided to Matt Colman at slip and he took a great reaching catch.
Trott got in on the act as he yorked Hooper on his way to the excellent figures of 1-31 in 12 overs.
Trevis was all the time marshalling his team’s innings and he played the pull shot extremely well to deliveries that were really not that short.
He had made 62 when he hit Gary Tillett to Thom Trott at cover and he was out caught.
This saw Wellington apply a stranglehold on the game as Gary Tillett and Julian Smit complemented each other well with spin at one end and seam at the other.
Tillett took 2-60 in 12 overs – he showed good resilience after been hit early on during his spell.
Smit with 4-41 in 11 good quick overs was good value for his wickets, but Butleigh took 28 from the last two overs as Bartlett smashed 36 in 20 balls with three sixes.
Wellington had bowled the last few overs in sheeting rain and there had to be doubt as to whether they would be able to complete their reply.

Rob Moysey and Mark Salter duly did so and they added 26 for the opening wicket before Moysey got a decent ball from Hicks and was put LBW.
Salter was joined by Alex Sparks and they got Wellington going in the right direction with a 42 run stand. Salter played the lead role and on his departure Sparks took over. Salter made a capital 34 with two large sixes been great to watch, he was looking well set when he was stumped from left-armer Sheppherd, who was Butleigh’s best bowler on the day with 2-41 in 12 fine overs of orthodox spin.
Sparks, who has enjoyed a great first season of 1st XI cricket, made a top quality 66 as he drove and cut to excellent effect and in tandem with Matt Colman who creamed 27 in 49 balls took Wellington towards a seventh away win of the season.
Mark Saunders played the match-winning knock as he and Marc Holloway took the score to within three of the 190 required before Holloway was out bowled. The last over dawned with the scores level – one needed from six balls – four dot balls followed in the last over bowled by Durston, but Saunders calmed any Wellington nerves by cover driving the fifth ball for four and securing 33 points for the Red and Blacks to give them a guaranteed fourth place.
Butleigh took 14 points from this match and are left sweating on their status for next season as they occupy ninth place, but with Ashcott and Shapwick winning the Somerset League title for 2006, thus pipping long-time leaders Chew Magna, it could be that they get a reprieve as A&S will be duly promoted to the Somerset Division of the WECCC and Chew have signalled their intention to move into the Bristol and District Division to reduce their travelling on match days, if all this comes to pass then only one side (Peasedown St John) will be relegated to Division Two of the Somerset League – watch this space.

The same weather equation was in action at Wellington as the 2nd XI knew that they had to get thirteen points from their last Somerset League Reserves Competition Division Two match of the season to be absolutely sure of promotion as third placed Wembdon 2nd XI would surely get a full quota from their match at Ilton, provided it was played. As it was this was the case, so Wellington were glad to have got enough play in and points on the board before the rain poured down and saw the match abandoned as a draw.

James Dyke asked Butleigh to take first knock on winning the toss and was confronted by a stubborn opening pair in the form of Foyne and Andrews as they added 94 for the first Butleigh wicket.
None of the first four bowlers employed could break through, despite having respectable enough figures.
The introduction of Chris Rudd was the spark that got the game going for Wellington as he removed Foyne caught by Julian Jones for 29 and with just one more run added Andrews was run out for 62 by Richard Henwood.
Wellington now had a way into the game and had to exploit it. Rudd was explosive with the ball taking 4-41 in 11 overs as Butleigh began to lose momentum.
Had Greenwood (40no) been removed when the chance came Wellington may well have been chasing less than 150, but he took his chance and got his team to 177-7 by tea.
Andy Mitchell took a couple of late wicket as Wellington found that they had just over half the points they needed to be sure of going up.

The Wellington reply was always in danger of not going the distance as the rain clouds gathered and it was a case of trying to ascertain exactly when the heavens would open.
Two wickets were lost by the time the score had reached 23, but Chris Rudd and joined Phil Nicholls and settled things down. Rudd had made 18 when he pulled a hamstring going for a quick single – he made his ground, but was unable to carry on.
James Dyke replaced Rudd and with 12no was at the crease with Nicholls (34no) when the rains came with Wellington needing 99 from 23 overs to win.
The match was called off as a draw at 6.30pm and both teams took 22 points from the match which was enough to give Wellington second place by a margin of ten points over Wembdon and they can now look forward to playing at the top level of Somerset League reserve team cricket for the first time since 2003.

The match ball for this match was kindly sponsored by LJ Irvine & Sons Ltd (01823 429123) and the club are very grateful for their input in this respect.