Wellington Cricket Club

Wellington 1st XI rose to fourth in Division One of the Somerset League with this win over Staplegrove at Manor Road, but they had to manage the weather as much as the total that the home side had posted.
Wellington won the toss and Rob Moysey had no hesitation in asking Staplegrove to bat first, but after a delayed start only eight balls were bowled before the players trooped off for a two hour rain break.
Staplegrove had the option to bat for the full allocation of 45 overs as the match had started and this would leave Wellington with a lesser amount of overs to bat for without a reduction in the total they would need to win – the match in effect becoming a draw match.
On resumption around 4.00pm a great spell of seam bowling from Thom Trott and David Marshall kept the home side tied down.
Marshall reduced Staplegrove to 17-2 as he bowled Hodge and trapped Phillips right in front in what was to turn out to be a good time in the field for Wellington’s South African – he later took four catches in the outfield and wrapped up matters by taking the final Staplegrove wicket to end with 3-14 in 9.3 overs.
Trott nagged away on the off-stump and 1-23 in 12 overs was a good set of figures for him.
Kevin Symons took up the attack and took 4-53 in 10 overs, acting Staplegrove skipper Prescott won the duel with Symons for a while at least as he made 32 – his team’s highest score – before Symons bowled him.
Gary Tillett applied a good level of control to the Staplegrove innings in taking 2-21 in 8 good overs – how well Tillett bowled is exemplified by the fact of the runs he conceded twelve came in boundary maxima hit by former Wellington player Luke Fishlock, who tried to see that his side used up their 45 over allocation, but he ran out of partners and Staplegrove were dismissed for 118 in 39.3 overs.

Wellington had done well with the ball with great fielding backing up the efforts of the bowlers, but time was of the essence as the rain could intervene at any time and the Wellington innings was reduced anyway and a run chase was on.
Rob Moysey and Mark Salter took up the challenge and they added 29 before Wellington’s skipper was caught for 13, another wicket was lost at 40 and the jitters could have set in, but Mark Salter reacted to his team’s requirements by cracking a capital 72no that sealed Wellington 1st XI’s first away win of the 2007 season.
Marc Holloway gave great support to Salter and they got the score to 83 before Holloway was caught for 19 with some seven overs left and nearly forty runs required.
Mark Saunders was the ideal man for this situation and he and Salter got Wellington over the winning line in 24.5 overs and to a full 35 points to Staplegrove’s eight.

A win that takes Wellington to their highest position of the season and they complete the first half of the season with a match at bottom side Evercreech next weekend – a win here could open the door for an easier second half of the season than looked to be the case just a fortnight ago.