Wellington Cricket Club

With effect from Wednesday 24th June Richard Henwood will relinquish the role of 2nd XI Captain.

To this end Adrian Lee will be responsible for all aspects of 2nd XI cricket for the remainder of the 2009 season from this date.

The Club wishes to place on record it’s thanks to Richard for all his hard work and effort in respect of the side over the past season and a half and wishes Adrian every success going forward.

A further announcement will be made following Wednesday’s Management Committee meeting.

Wellington Midweek XI got revenge for the previous week’s home defeat in this fixture with a six wicket win over Ashbrittle last Thursday evening when Steve Symons’ side got home with thirteen balls to spare.

Ashbrittle opted to bat first and were in trouble as the two Georges – Coate and Hooper – ran riot with the ball as it swung lots and gave the Wellington opening attack much reward – Coate took 3-9 in four fine overs and Hooper with 2-26 in four had the home side in a spot of bother.

Sam Murdock and Alex Troake got in on the act until a 74 run seventh wicket stand between Matt Shephard (54no) and Rob Williams (31) got Ashbrittle to three figures and with Rob Hill making 12no the home side had recovered well from a shaky start – Jake Nicol did well bowling at the death for Wellington.

Paul Short and Max Capaldi got Wellington on their way to their 130 run target before Short was bowled.

Capaldi carried on through to 20 before being caught on the boundary and when Rob Moysey was run out looking for a third run Wellington were 63-4 and in some bother – but Alex Sparks with 43no and George Coate with 33no saw the Red and Blacks home in style with a 67 run fifth wicket stand and this combined elegant strokeplay with some improvisation too as both Sparks and Coate batted well together to see their side over the line.

A good game and a win apiece over the two games.

David Derrick, Max Capaldi, Alex Troake, Adrian Lee, Alex Sparks, Steve Symons, Jake Nicol, Sam Murdock, Rowan Varkevisser, Rob Moysey and Josh Moysey.

Meet at Pavilion for 1.30pm for a 2.30pm start.

Wellington got through to final of the Terry Mockridge Memorial Shield for the second successive season and will defend their trophy against the team they defeated in the 2008 final – fellow Somerset League Division One side Taunton Outcasts at Staplegrove on Tuesday 30th June – following this tight eighteen run win over Somerset League Division Two side Watchet at home last Tuesday evening.

In what was the second playing of the match due to a washout the previous Monday evening Wellington used thirteen fielders and did not leave the field of play until gone 9.00pm, but the Red and Blacks saw the job through although they lost Kevin Symons to a knee injury and this made him a major doubt for the weekend’s visit of Ilton.

Mark Salter took charge of Wellington and was asked to bat as Watchet won the toss and saw Max Capaldi and Alex Sparks add 24 good opening wicket runs before Capaldi was caught in the covers when he speared one up in the air for 11.

Sparks had hit one six and was looking set when he bowled for 23 by the impressive Woodward (2-13 in five overs).

Marc Holloway hit his fourth and fifth sixes in two innings as he made it to 21 before being stumped by E.Martin – one of three dismissals for the Watchet keeper on the evening.

Wellington then fell away to 73-7 before Mark Salter with 22no and Trevor Brooks with 9 added 19 for the eighth wicket and Kevin Symons and Salter added 16 for the ninth wicket – these partnerships were enough in the end so it proved.

Pyne with 3-19 did a good job for Watchet who had chased over 150 against Ashbrittle in the last round to get to this stage and Wellington knew they had to bowl and field well.

James Brown bowled with fiery pace and real gusto as Watchet struggled to get him away to any real degree – he got Woodward trapped LBW for four for his efforts in taking 1-18 in five great overs.

Kevin Symons got a wicket in his first over before trying to stop a firmly hit straight drive, but he sustained a knee injury and had to limp out of the attack after 1.3 overs.

Max Capaldi picked up the attack from Symons and did a fine job with 2-19 in 4.3 overs as his off-spin settled Wellington down after losing one of their opening bowlers.

The home side chipped away at the Watchet innings and gained rewards in the end with Richard Henwood and Thom Trott wrapping up an 18 run win with one ball to spare.

Wellington now look to repeat their victory of twelve months ago and retain the Shield and ask the Club membership to attend Staplegrove’s Manor Road ground in force to cheer Paul Short’s team on.

As a result of the Managment Committee meeting held on Monday 15th June the Club Day for this season has had to be brought forward a week from Sunday 19th July to Sunday 12th July.

This means that the Sunday XI’s match with Street is – at the moment – deferred.

Street may visit us on Sunday 19th July, but if their fixture schedule does not allow this an alternative match will be sought.

Please contact the Chairman for details of the new version of Club Day 2009.

In a high scoring and exciting fixture, Wellington produced an excellent performance to defeat newly promoted Temple Cloud by 26 runs. Tension was evident from both sides in this relegation battle and Wellington’s bowlers held their nerve superbly in the latter stages to ensure a second victory of the season.

The day started promisingly with Captain Paul Short calling heads correctly and without hesitation, opted to bat first. After a nervous and somewhat fortuitous start, Moysey (34) and Short (35) accelerated the innings perfectly with the latter stroking the ball effortlessly to all parts of the ground. Looking set for a big innings, Short was needlessly run out with a direct hit by Perkins. Wellington stuttered briefly at 97-3 losing Moysey and Sparks in quick succession.

However, under pressure to set a commanding total Wellington’s middle order responded beautifully. Holloway (82) led the charge favouring the leg side with a number of lusty blows – a six into a nearby farmer’s field was a memorable highlight. Salter (48) must not be forgotten and restored calmness to the middle order rotating the strike at will. Temple Cloud fought back with opening bowler S Curtis (2-53) removing Holloway looking for three figures. From this point wickets fell quickly, but Wellington rallied and posted a respectable 257-7 with Saunders, A Short and Varkevisser contributing invaluably.

With rain threatening the start of the Temple Cloud innings, Wellington started brightly and sensed a collapse when K Symons produced a beauty to remove Sheppard early. With the small ground difficult to defend, Wellington bowled inconsistently and Temple Cloud capitalised. K Curtis (61) and Hayne (41) dominated the opening twenty overs batting intelligently racing to 115-1. A refreshing drinks break proved to be the catalyst for Wellington sparking a flurry of wickets with the ever impressive P Short (3-44) dismissing both batsmen. Temple Cloud never regained momentum and failed to keep up with the increasing run rate with T Trott ably supporting his skipper with accurate full pitched bowling. Excellent fielding accounted for both McPhale (38) and Iles (19) as Temple Cloud did their utmost to ruin Wellington’s day. Varkevisser (1-34) deserves special mention for his economical twelve over spell as he removed any chance of Temple Cloud victory restricting the home side to 231 all out. A rejuvenated Wellington took maximum points and look forward to facing league leaders Ilton next week.

Wellington’s good weekend continued with a third win on the spin as the Sunday XI secured a 119 run win over Devon League Division C side Seaton on their own patch in a match that saw all who wore Red and Black play an active role.

With David Derrick taking a break and Max Capaldi having other commitments Paul Short captained the side on the day and was asked to bat first on Seaton winning the toss and at 17-2 the home side were in business, but Kevin Symons and Adrian Lee repaired matters with a third wicket stand of 121 as Lee hit his career best innings of 67 with nine fours and a six as he made hay after been dropped three times.

Symons made a classical hundred – his career best score too and his maiden ton – as he batted all innings to make 118no with 14 fours and a six as he combined power and grace in equal measures.

Rowan Varkevisser added impetus to Wellington’s innings with 55 and Steve Symons joined his brother in getting Wellington to a fine 262-4 in 40 overs.

Seaton were unlikely to really challenge the 263 needed to win and this allowed Wellington to dictate the pace of the home side’s innings.

Marc Holloway and Alex Sparks took up the attack for Wellington and this pairing did a steady job with Sparks getting the opening wicket when Seaton skipper Bray chipped one to George Hooper at mid-on from Sparks.

Davis took a long time to make 23 and was dismissed when he followed his skipper in chipping one up – this time Alex Troake was the fielder and Paul Short was the successful bowler.

Troake bowled his leg-spin to good effect and it was leg-spin that ran through the Seaton innings as Rob Moysey with 4-13 in eight fine overs did the trick for Wellington.

George Hooper bowled with good pace and vigour as Seaton’s innings ran it’s course with Lawson being out on the last ball of the game as Hooper trapped him LBW to take 1-10 in six good overs.

Josh Moysey kept wicket well again and can be pleased with his efforts behind the sticks over the past two games.

Wellington 2nd XI climbed out of the relegation zone in Division One of the Somerset League’s Reserves competition for the first time in over a month by virtue of this 82 run win over reigning champions Frome at home last weekend – a win that makes it three wins in a row in this fixture for the Red and Blacks second string and brings Wellington closer to the seventh placed team – Cheddar – and this is who they visit this coming weekend.

Frome are now in the relegation zone as a consequence of this result.

Frome won the toss and asked Wellington to bat first and they were made to pay for dropping Liam Kubicki in the second over as he and Kevin Crout added a capital 73 for the first wicket – both played very well indeed and gave Wellington their best start of the season so far.

Kubicki made 27 with three fours and was looking set for a longer innings when he offered a simple caught and bowled chance to Sanger (4-20 in 12 fine overs).

Wellington skipper Richard Henwood made 19 before he checked the shot and was caught by his opposite number Penny.

All this time Kevin Crout was making his best offering of the season as he crafted an excellent 63 with seven fours that saw him bond the Wellington innings together.

From 137-2 to 144-6 Wellington were falling away somewhat, but Graham Sparks with a rumbustious 69no and Sam Murdock with 13no transformed the latter stages of the home side’s innings as they added 66 eighth wicket runs in eight overs as Frome fell apart in the field with basic errors coming into play – Wellington closed on 233-7 and had posted a score of over 200 for the first time this season.

Frome started their innings better than they had ended Wellington’s as Leonard with 51 (four sixes) and Croker with 12 added 63 good runs, but Wellington stuck at their task and two fine catches by Kevin Crout behind the sticks saw them back in the hutch, but with Simpson (39) and Smith (27) adding 72 third wicket runs for Frome the chase was still on for the side who travel more than any other on the circuit.

But their innings fell away in a massive way as 143-2 became 151 all out as Martin Short (3-58 in 12 overs) and Richard Henwood (3-20 in 8 overs) embarked on second spells and wiped Frome away with eight wickets falling for 8 runs.

Alex Troake took the final wicket to fall and this capped a wonderful performance by Wellington’s second string and they are now looking upwards.

A splendid unbeaten 83no from Alex Sparks was not sufficient to give Wellington Midweek XI a victory at home in this local derby match with Ashbrittle last Thursday evening when the team from Division Two of the Somerset League crept home by the slim margin of two runs.

Steve Symons asked the visitors to bat first and Rowan Varkevisser opened up with a maiden and George Hooper did a great job in the couple of overs he sent down to start with.

The breakthrough came when Rob Moysey held on to a low catch at deep gully – another great effort to go with the two he took the previous Sunday.

Ashbrittle steadily accumulated through their twenty over allocation and got to 145-6 at the end of it – all Wellington’s bowlers had performed well and there were wickets for Rob Moysey, Alec Short, George Hooper and Sam Murdock.

Ashbrittle bowled well at the start of the Wellington innings, but Paul Short (12) and Alex Sparks got things going with a 29 run offering.

Julian Jones crashed one to the cover boundary, but was run out by a direct hit and a great boundary catch saw another Wellington wicket go, however all the time Sparks was consolidating matters and he then launched into the Ashbrittle attack and planted the ball over the boundary five times as Wellington closed in on the 146 needed.

Rowan Varkevisser added 47 runs for the fifth Wellington wicket with Sparks and had they stayed together then Wellington would have won, but Varkevisser was caught and Alec Short was run out to leave Wellington needing six from two balls and although Sparks and David Derrick ran two on the penultimate ball, Sparks was unable to find the boundary from the last ball and could only get a single to leave Ashbrittle winners by two runs.

A good game as these matches invariably are and the two teams do battle again at Appley Cross tomorrow evening (Thursday 18th June) with a 6.15pm start.

Contact Steve Symons for details.

Paul Short (Capt), Rob Moysey, Josh Moysey, Alex Sparks, Kevin Symons, Steve Symons, Marc Holloway, Adrian Lee, George Hooper, Alex Troake and Rowan Varkevisser.

Depart from Courtland Road Car Park at noon for a 2.00pm start.