Wellington Cricket Club

On a weekend of close finishes for Wellington this was the most agonising as they were edged out by Taunton in this Baker Cup first round match at home on Monday evening on the last ball.
The Western Alliance club opted to ask the Somerset League Division One club to bat first and this looked to be the right choice as former Somerset player Matt Bulbeck reduced Wellington to 4-2 in 3 overs and Taunton – who had suffered two successive relegations down the WEPL structure – were in the ascendancy, but Matt Daniel and Rob Moysey righted things with a fine 65 run stand in 9 overs as they took the attack to Taunton and found the county town team buckled a little under the pressure.
Daniel used his feet well and had made 30 before he speared Wayland high into the air.
Moysey continued and was unbeaten in the innings with 53no as he bonded the Wellington innings together. Mark Saunders – making his first appearance of the season – cracked 19 more than useful runs and looked in form going forward.
Wellington scurried to 127-5 in 20 overs – a fine effort from being 4-2 in 3 overs.

Although Taunton did not lose more than three wickets in their chase, the run rate looked as if it might undo them.
Kevin Symons bowled two excellent overs before straining a side muscle whilst delivering the first ball of his third over and he is doubtful for this coming weekend.
Paul Short picked up the attack in his place and the Wellington skipper did a good job.
Slower rather than pace was the way to go and Matt Daniel, Thom Trott and Rob Moysey all did so much good work for Wellington to get the game to the last over.
For Taunton skipper Cooper he had made it to 26 before Moysey got his wrong-un through his defence.
Gange was continuing to 48no and this was the solid innings his team needed.
Bulbeck showed much adaptability in making 37, but Alec Short stumped him from Trott and when Todd was well caught by Short off of Moysey in the last over so it came to pass that two were needed from the last ball for Taunton to win, Moysey produced a brute of a ball and it almost bowled Gange, but it evaded everything and cruelly for Wellington sped away to the boundary and Taunton were relived, Wellington heartbroken.

The Red and Blacks now move into the Terry Mockeridge Plate and will host the losers of the Brompton Ralph vs. Chard tie on Monday 19th May from 6.15pm.
Details from Paul Short.

Quite how Wellington Sunday XI did not chase down the total that Devon Premier League side Sidmouth posted is a bit of a mystery following an opening stand of 132 and a second wicket offering of 37, but a bad couple of overs at the end undid all the Red and Blacks hopes of winning this friendly fixture.

Alex Sparks opted to put Sidmouth into bat and they started well through Griffiths who made a good looking 45.
Thom Trott and Charlie Last got wickets early before Australian import Talay and Griffiths added 62 for the third wicket – this was ended by Paul Short who got Griffiths to drive uppishly to Max Capaldi who took a good catch.

Sidmouth skipper Murray worked the ball around well for 40, but Wellington’s attack kept going in the very warm conditions and Sidmouth never got away from them.

Max Capaldi with 1-26 and Rob Moysey with 2-21 reigned the home side in and a final total of 178-6 was acceptable all things considered.

James Webber bowled well with no reward.
Matt Daniel – who had taken three catches earlier – and Rob Moysey added 133 for Wellington’s first wicket and played two innings of high quality as they drove the ball with perfect timing on the immaculate outfield.

Moysey was first to depart LBW to Murray for 54.
James Dyke played a good innings of 21 that ensured that Daniel was able to carry on as he had been.
They took the score to 170-1 in the 38th over, but when Dyke was bowled by Cooke (2-28) on the second ball of the 39th over, Wellington’s problems started as two balls later Alex Sparks was bowled for two and no more runs came in the over.

Seven were needed from the last over and despite Paul Short’s best efforts only four came and the match was lost by one of the narrowest of margins.

Wellington 2nd XI posted a big total and big winning margin against Glastonbury 3rd XI in this Somerset League Reserves Competition Division One match at Courtland Road last Saturday when they dominated with the bat to record their first win of the season.

Glastonbury put Wellington’s second string into bat and they lost vice-captain Kevin Crout to a thumb injury as early as the third ball of the match – he had to retire hurt, but was able to keep wicket later.

This brought Matt Colman to the wicket and did not leave until the 45th over as he stroked an effortless century that contained 10 fours as he totalled 103no and bonded the Wellington 2nd XI innings together.

Support came from Julian Jones who made 14 and Simon Rudd with 19, but at 71-4 in 19 overs there was some uncertainty about, but skipper Richard Henwood joined Colman and they added 107 for the fifth wicket with Henwood making 55 with seven fours and a six.

They scored their runs at a good rate too as the young Glastonbury side tired as the innings came to a close with Chris Rudd making an unbeaten 21 to power Wellington to 249-5 at tea.

Glastonbury skipper Odam was easily his side’s highest contributor with the bat as he made a good 51, but only two other players made double figures – S.Williams with 22 and Crees with 29.

Wickets were shared out amongst Wellington’s bowlers with Richard Henwood taking the first wicket to fall – that of Smith, there was one too for Simon Rudd before Bob Trott came on to snare four victims in taking 4-36 in 9.3 overs and Chris Rudd more than assisted with 3-3 in the same number of overs as Glastonbury were despatched for 136 in 37.3 overs.

Wellington 2nd XI collected 35 points and Glastonbury 3rd XI 11.

Having disposed of newly promoted North Newton’s innings for a respectable 179 Wellington failed to close the deal and fell 12 runs short in this Somerset League Division One match last Saturday.

Paul Short won the toss for the second week in a row and asked last season’s Division Two runners-up to bat first and E.Stone and Barrington had 44 on the board in 12 overs when Thom Trott claimed the first of three wickets when Stone played on.

Lambert was bowled nick and crop and Barrington edged behind to Alex Sparks for 37 and at 92-4 North Newton were in a spot of bother, but dropping Habberfield on 1 had ramifications as he went on to make 34 and added 53 fifth wicket runs with Cordery who lashed 29.

Rob Moysey with 2-46 and Matt Daniel with 4-9 did an excellent job to wrap things for Wellington in the 44th over.
The Wellington catching effort was good as John Paine, Kevin Symons and James Dyke all accepted good chances.

Mark Salter played with grace and style in making 45 with 10 fours as the Wellington score progressed to 68 before he was dismissed driving one uppishly to mid-on. 68-1 then became 90-5 as medium pacer Barrington snared Rob Moysey and Paul Short too.

Alex Sparks and James Dyke rebuilt things with Sparks timing the ball well to make 32 before he was trapped LBW.
Thom Trott joined Dyke and a 28 run seventh wicket stand seemed to have brought Wellington back into the game, although they were making heavy weather of things.

All was going well until Dyke was run out going for a second run.
Trott was playing well and totalled 28no with one six, but he ran out of partners in the end as the Red and Blacks ended an agonising 12 runs short of North Newton’s total.

The home side collected 33 points and Wellington 18.

The Sunday XI’s opening Three Counties match of the new season was washed away when heavy rain hit the South Coast on the morning of the match.
Although the team had left in cloudy, but dry conditions it soon became apparent that the nearer they got to Dorset all was not well with the weather and the Weymouth ground was found to be under water in places and very wet in others.
The match was formally abandoned without a ball being bowled and both sides take ten points.
The return match is at Wellington in August.

Starting their second season in Division One of the Somerset League’s Reserves competition following 2006′s promotion at Street was always going to be a test for Richard Henwood’s men and so it proved as the Red and Blacks second string went down by 55 runs at the Victoria Club last weekend and collected eleven points in the process.

Street 2nd XI – one of the division’s established sides – batted first and got away to a 76 run opening wicket stand as K.Wall made 52 and home skipper W.Wall 38 as it looked like it could be a hard afternoon’s work for Wellington.
However Jake Nicol got a double breakthrough as he removed W.Wall caught by Richard Henwood and elder brother Lee then held on to a chance from J.Linter and Street were now 89-2 and perhaps in a position to be exploited, but through Davey’s 38 and D.Wall’s 26no the home side got through to 184-5 at tea.
There were wickets for Richard Henwood, Simon Rudd and Chris Rudd.
Martin Short bowled well for no reward.

What Wellington needed was a good start, but they were reduced to 14-3 as P.Linter had figures of 6-4-1-3 at one stage.
New recruit Trevor Brooks – who had played for Temple Cloud – made a steadying 13 and with Simon Rudd applied 29 runs and a level of control to the Wellington 2nd XI innings.
Brooks was fourth man out and this saw another mini collapse to 55-6, but Simon Rudd was still there and recorded a second successive half-century in this fixture.
Bob Trott with 15 helped Rudd to add 48 runs for Wellington’s seventh wicket and this got the team into three figures, but three wickets fell for two runs and although Martin Short and Jake Nicol added a breezy 24 runs for the last wicket Wellington were beaten by 55 runs with 4.4 overs left when Short was LBW for 13.

Street 2nd XI took 34 points to Wellington 2nd XI’s eleven.
The team now has two home matches when the entertain Glastonbury 3rd XI on Saturday and then entertain another 3rd XI in Bridgwater the week after and need to use home setting to their advantage.

After Paul Short had won the toss and elected to ask newly-promoted Belvedere to bat, Kevin Symons got the breakthrough by bowling Chadwick for four.
Progress was slow for the Weston-Super-Mare based side as they took only 19 runs from the first eleven overs they faced as Symons and Thom Trott bowled accurately.
This was a good effort having lost Adrian Lee to a hamstring injury after he had bowled only two overs.

But, after being mighty close to being LBW to Symons, R.Tasker and Gullick got going for the team who finished third in Division Two of the Somerset League last season and they added 86 for the second wicket and were not parted until the 30th over when Alex Sparks made a good turn and throw from short fine-leg and Alec Short had little difficulty in running Gullick out for 36.
Tasker was joined by his skipper and brother I.Tasker and they added 71 runs in under a dozen overs as the momentum seemed to be with the visitors, but the re-introduction of Kevin Symons got rid of R.Tasker stumped by Alec Short and Matt Daniel claimed two wickets as he re-joined the attack later – a good boundary catch by Rob Moysey removed the Belvedere skipper for 35.
Belvedere rather stuttered to 183-6 at tea, but this was still a good effort on a trying pitch.

Wellington openers Mark Salter and Matt Daniel added 51 good runs in 15 overs to give the Red and Blacks a solid platform to go on from, but Salter drove to I.Tasker at deepish long-off for 30 having done all the hard work and he was disappointed to be out.
Alex Sparks joined Daniel and they took the score into the high sixties before Sparks was done by a grubber for 12.

Daniel was the steadying influence on the Wellington innings as he made 32 in 26 overs before being the second wicket of the best Belvedere bowler Loud (2-35 in 12 overs).
Rob Moysey was all the time building an innings to push Wellington on to victory with and with Marc Holloway (15) added 41 for the fourth wicket, but Holloway was run out and when skipper Paul Short joined his predecessor there were 60 needed and only 8 overs left to Wellington, wickets in hand were there, but a rate of eight per over was perhaps against the Red and Blacks – not so as Short powered to 27no and victory with nine balls to spare.

His first scoring shot was a six and this set the tone for him to hit three more fours and run the ball around well as Belvedere lost their way and with it the match.
Leaving the crucial 40th and 42nd overs to youngster Whittle was the pivotal moment in the match as he went for 25 in these two overs and sent down a wayward mixture of deliveries with six of them being wides – a bonus over in many ways for Wellington.
Moysey was unbeaten on 48no as he showed all his experience to seal a first opening day win for four seasons and a first home opening day win since 1999.

Wellington took 31 Somerset League Division One points and Belvedere 13.
Another of the promoted sides awaits Wellington next weekend as they travel to North Newton.