Wellington Cricket Club

A young and vibrant Wellington Midweek XI recorded a good win over The Journeymen at home last Monday when the edged home by a margin of 18 runs in this 40 overs a side friendly that was played in further hot and steamy conditions.

Alec Short won the toss and opted to bat first to avoid having to bowl in the heat of the day and saw George Coate – promoted up the order make a quick 16 with a big six to boot, but Wellington’s openers had been dismissed for 27 and the home side needed to consolidate, that it did through James Dyke and Max Capaldi who added 56 for the third wicket as Dyke made a composed 29 and Capaldi went through to his first Wellington half-century with a fine 61.

Great high-tempo knocks from Paul Short (29) and Richard Short (38no) saw that Wellington had posted a fine 226-6 at tea.

Jake Nicol made a useful 11no too.
For The Journeymen Tuffill with 2-38 in 10 overs and Chalke with 2-52 were their most successful bowlers.

Bloch (72) and Keenlyside (33) added 84 for The Journeymen’s first wicket, but it took time and although the visitors had wickets on their side, the overs were diminishing.

Jake Nicol and Lee Nicol opened up for Wellington and bowled well – quick and straight.
Alex Troake – on senior debut – bowled a nice variety as his leg-spin obtained two victims and he enjoyed an 8 over spell that went for only 41 runs.

By the time Max Capaldi had joined the attack the overs were seriously running out on The Journeymen and they had to attack, but this gave Capaldi two wickets and James Dyke was on a hat-trick as the game ended with the visitors some 19 short of victory.

Wellington had done a good job in the field and thanks go to Alec Short and James Dyke for overseeing this one.

The quality of the surface at Gipsy Lane was underlined for all to see as this match between the winners of the respective Baker Cup competitions produced a feast of runs and hard toil for the bowlers as Wellington ran out winners by 69 runs.

David Derrick opted to bat first on winning the toss and through Rob Moysey and Matt Daniel the runs flowed as they racked up 173 runs in no time with Daniel cracking five sixes on his way to a retired out 101.

The quality of the batting surface at the WEPL (Bristol and Somerset) division club is well known on the circuit and so it proved once more with full value been gained for shots on both sides of the wicket.

Moysey was joined by Alex Sparks and the runs flowed further as Sparks cracked a quick fifty for his side and then chose to retire too.

Moysey was in sight of a ton too when he was the only player to fall in the Wellington innings as he was caught on the boundary for 97.

Thom Trott and James Dyke finished the innings off for Wellington and the Red and Blacks had posted an almighty 291-1 at tea.

Taunton had toiled hard in hot, steamy conditions, but only Barrett with 1-60 had anything to show for his efforts.

Although Taunton weren’t going to chase down the 292 they needed they gave a good display and were only 70 short in the end as they batted with ease.

Adrian Lee with 0-16 in 5 overs kept a lid on matters early on and Paul Short bowled better than figures of 1-48 in 10 overs show.

Max Capaldi was Wellington’s most successful bowler on the day as he took 4-43 in 10 good overs of off-spin.
Good safe catching by James Dyke was a highlight for Wellington in the field.
The bowling personnel was changed often and there were wickets for Lee Nicol, Rob Moysey and David Derrick as the game drifted to a close with Shaikh playing some outrageous shots on his way to 47no.

Wellington 2nd XI moved up to fifth in Division One of the Somerset League Reserves competition after safely seeing off bottom side Winscombe at home last Saturday by a massive 159 runs, thus completing the double over the Mendip side and with a game in hand on the rest of the division their thoughts are definitely on moving further up the table as they have six matches to play compared to most other teams having five.

Winscombe, who are having a torrid season, were delayed by traffic on the M5 and the match did not get going until 2.15pm and even then the visitors were forced to field with nine men to start with, so it came as no surprise that Richard Henwood opted to bat first on winning the toss and his batsmen made hay.

Trevor Brooks and Julian Jones had 22 on the ball in four overs with Brooks hitting three good boundaries before he hit a full toss to the leg side and was caught off of Mayne.

This brought Matt Colman to the wicket and he and Jones proceeded to grind Winscombe down as they added 187 for the second wicket with Jones hitting his second ton of the season against Winscombe as he crafted 139 to go with the 113no he hit away back in May.

He hit 21 fours and was in a fine groove.
Colman was the anchor for Jones’ exuberance and he played well for 64 with six fours.
The partnership was finally broken by Hoyle who bowled better than figures of 1-65 in 12 overs may suggest.
After Wellington got past 200 the bat was thrown and some wickets were lost, but the total was well in excess of what Winscombe were going to be able to make and 251-7 in 45 overs was what the Red and Blacks second string had posted by tea.

Rutherford with 5-34 profited with the ball late on for the visitors who were just glad to get into the changing room after their afternoon of toil and bother.

After such an arduous time in the field Winscombe’s early set backs with the bat was no surprise as they dipped to 9-4 with two wickets each for Richard Henwood and Adrian Lee – indeed Henwood was on a hat-trick.

Both returned figures of 2-8 and the damage was done.
James Webber collected the wicket of Mayne as he tried to hit the cover off the ball and was bowled, before some solidity was shown by Searle and Rutherford who made 23 and 25 respectively – they added 57 for Winscombe’s sixth wicket and had got their side to a fourth batting point when they fell away again, losing their last five wickets for just 12 runs as Chris Rudd and Bob Trott wrapped things up sharing the five wickets in question as Winscombe were all out for 92 in 33 overs.

Lee Nicol was quite outstanding in the field and deserves credit for this.

Wellington 2nd XI took a full 35 points and Winscombe 2nd XI 11 points and a visit to ninth placed Staplegrove next Saturday looms for Wellington now and they will be looking for another win to keep their climb up the table going.

Wellington’s away day problems struck again as they lost, for the third time this season on the road, by less than twenty runs when seeing out the full amount of overs would surely have seen them over the line and in first place in Division One of the Somerset League.

As it happens with Butleigh having overwhelmed Ilton the gap is now 38 points and Paul Short’s side need to really got full tilt in their five remaining matches to take the title and that means taking Butleigh at home in a fortnight.

Westlands presented Wellington with a great track to play on – hard and fast – and the home side made first use of it and Tipler and Davis got going with contributions of 30 and 49 respectively, but Simon Rudd’s nagging line and length was not got away for the second week in a row as he reeled off 12 overs, taking 2-30 in the process.

Rob Moysey extracted bounce and turn from the shiny surface and his return of 2-50 represented a good afternoon’s work in, for once, hot conditions.

Paul Short with 3-51 in 12 overs got through a fair workload in the hot and steamy conditions and Wellington had Westlands in check as their innings reached it’s close, but Musson with a belting 32 got his side up towards 200 and this was more than Wellington should have been chasing – Westlands ended on 193-9 in 45 overs.

Wellington were reduced to 69-4 with Mark Salter been the mainstay of this early effort with 29 (five fours), but no-one other than Rob Moysey went on – he carried through to 69no with six fours and a six.

Paul Short with 23 was going well until he was run out – one of two such dismissals that Wellington suffered in their innings.

The Red and Blacks entered the 42nd over with their last pair at the crease and 17 were needed for victory at a run a ball, but Montacute with 4-48 in 11.4 overs ended matters and gave the home side 34 points to Wellington’s 17.

A win over old rivals Staplegrove at home next week is a must and in all reality five wins from the five matches remaining is Wellington’s best chance of taking the title – quite possible, but the away form could be the thing that denies them this season at least.