Wellington Cricket Club

Wellington’s indoor side were first on show last weekend at Wellington School for the second round of matches in the Cougar Cricket Indoor League and came away with a win and a loss from matches with local rivals Up The Grove (Staplegrove CC) and Sampford Arundel writes team skipper Marc Holloway.

Wellington v Up The Grove

Wellington won the toss and adopted the scoreboard pressure approach and batted first.

Wellington racked up a fine 146-4 thanks to an intense and hard working opening stand between Marc Holloway and Richard Henwood; both made the score board tick over rapidly and Wellington were going at 13 an over for the first four.

Henwood was out trying to force the pressure and this bought Paul Short to the crease who worked the angles well.

Holloway made it to 25 and Wellington was 50-1 off 4 overs.

Thom Trott and Aks Latifi both worked the ball well with both playing an array of expansive drives and strong hitting to gain maxima from the back wall.

Wellington was more than happy with this total and felt sure they could defend this.

Up The Grove replied with a spirited chase which saw both Gary Bishop and Brendan Craggs attacking the bowling from the off; they both raced on to retirement after 4 overs and this caused Wellington to reassess their bowling options.

Trott was bought into the attack and bowled some super lines just outside off stump and he was rewarded with fine figures, picking up a wicket for his efforts.

Adrian Lee bowled his three straight off with his third over causing particular trouble for the new batsmen.

Grove needed 36 from three overs with 4 wickets in hand; positive batting from Simon Cutler and their number three saw that they got this down to 26 off the last two.

Short came back into the attack and bowled a great penultimate over just going for six and combined with brilliant fielding from Trott and Lee this aiding him to pick up a wicket and a run out occurred too. 

With 20 required from the final over Grove’s returning openers Bishop and Craggs looked to run everything; eventually Craggs ran himself out thanks to a smart piece of work from Henwood and they could only muster six, thus handing Wellington a second consecutive win.

Wellington v Sampford Arundel

Wellington again won the toss and batted first.

Paul Short and Thom Trott opening up found it tough going against Seb Coe and Neil Hendy with Hendy conceding just two runs in his first over and Wellington was 13-0 after two.

Short was the first to go while trying to work the evergreen Hendy off his hip only to feather through to the keeper.

Trott and Aks Latifi went about rebuilding the Wellington innings which to be fair was not easy as Sampford hit their straps straight away with some excellently disciplined bowling which turned out to be the difference between the two sides. 

Trott – again looking comfortable with driving the ball to the back wall – was again playing well until he was caught off the wall within one of his retirement.

Wellington at this stage was 50-1 off 7 overs.

Latifi continued to flow, but perished on 22, three short of retiring, this left Wellington needing to accelerate and keep wickets for the final onslaught, this came in the form of Adrian Lee who continued his love for the straight drive by scoring the best part of twenty runs down the order whilst Richard Henwood recuperated at the other end.

Wellington just about crawled to 100-5, a below par score.

Sampford started their reply in fine style with Neil Hendy working the ball round well to all parts, he was batting particularly well as Thom Trott again found his line with the ball and was sending down some absolute beauties.

Hendy made his 25 and all the time Dave Kittow was also working hard to reach his 25 which he did and Sampford had amassed 60-0 off 5 overs.

Lee bowling better than his figures suggests.

Henwood came into the attack and quickly found his length and bowled really well in combination with Paul Short who applied a stranglehold on the Sampford scoring.

They did this to such good effect that they got Wellington right back into the game.

Sampford needed seven runs off the last two overs and Paul Short and Adrian Lee hit a purple patch; Short first clean bowled Coe, looking to finish it one ball and then he then tempted Andy Childs and Jamie Cooksley into making similar mistakes and had picked up three wickets for just one run.

Adrian Lee had obviously found a new lease of life and took two exceptional catches to help Short in this over.

Sampford needed six from the final over which they did thanks to Vince Milton and Hendy who worked the ball again into the gaps to finish with three balls remaining.

Thanks also go to both sets of players for an intense, but most enjoyable game of cricket.

Thanks go to David Derrick for umpiring both games for Wellington and to Bill Townsend for umpiring the Sampford Arundel game, also to Cougar Cricket for hosting.

Next week (Sunday 7th February) the team play Curry Rivel at 10.30am before a month’s break.

The Chairman and Secretary wish to extend their thanks to all who attended the 2010 AGM on Thursday evening.

A great number of excellent points were raised and discussed and there is a superb ‘buzz’ around the Club now that our plans and hopes for 2010 are fully appreciated.

A full report and press coverage of the event will follow.

The Arts Centre, Eight Acre Lane, Wellington, Somerset

All Welcome, please see attached agenda.

AGM 2010 Agenda

The 2010 Club AGM is to occur a week tomorrow, so here is a final call to ask all to attend if at all possible.

The 2010 season is set to be one of the most vital in the history of the Club – both on and off the field of play – and it is pivotal that as many as possible are present to have their say on the issues raised.

Thanks go to Richard Henwood for hosting an enjoyable poker night at his house last weekend when Richard, Kevin Crout, Trevor Brooks, David Derrick, Andy Perry, Marc Holloway and Karen Holloway played two games of the Texas Hold-’Em variety of the card game with Richard winning both games overall, Andy Perry coming second in the first game and Kevin Crout second in the second game.

This was a lead-in to a Club Poker Night that will take place at the Dolphin Inn, Waterloo Road, Wellington on Saturday 13th March from 7.30pm till late.

All are invited to attend and join in playing, socialising and generally getting back into the swing of Club life as the 2010 season approaches.

Richard Henwood (01823 661353 or 0777 820 5093) and David Derrick (01823 660687 or 0751 648 2923) are your contacts for this event and will be asking for playing numbers soon, so keep checking this site for more details.

The indoor side started their Cougar Cricket Indoor League season at Wellington School with a good win over Queen’s last Sunday morning – here’s Marc Holloway’s match report.

Wellington totalled a very competitive 134-4; their innings was built on a solid start from the two openers, Thom Trott and Paul Short, who compiled the best part of 40 runs before Short, who was looking well set, feathered one off the glove to the keeper. Trott went on to retire with a fluent 26 not out.

Aks Latifi came in and worked the ball around well with some good aggressive stroke play, he was dismissed in the final over for 24.

Richard Henwood meanwhile at the opposite end was powering the Wellington innings towards a very respectable score of 134 including a huge six off the final ball.

The Queen’s innings got going well with threes being taken at every opportunity – George Hooper bowled a great line and length and certainly deserved better than 0-35.

Adrian Lee got the first breakthrough, bowling the Queen’s opener for 14.

Lee – a stalwart of indoor cricket – showing how great line and length bowling can work in this game.

Short came into the attack in the fifth over with Queen’s still going well at 55-1, with flight and guile he accounted for two quick wickets in successive overs with the aid of some fine fielding from Lee with a diving catch off the wall. 

A quick thinking Short and Henwood combination accounted for an excellent run out; this leaving Queen’s at 84-4, needing 50 off the last 4 overs.

Further tight bowling from Trott and Latifi saw that Wellington had this one in the bag and start their indoor season with 19 points out of a possible 22.

Thanks go to David Derrick for umpiring the game and also Cougar Cricket for getting this type of cricket back up and running in Wellington. 

The Midweek XI will play Kent tourists Sturry CC on Bank Holiday Monday, 31st May, in a match that will begin at 2.30pm, this is likely to be the last senior fixture accepted for this season.

Michael will be arriving in the UK on Wednesday 31st March.

This is an ideal arrangement as it means Michael will be with us for Easter and this will give him time to settle in to and experience his new surroundings before we start the 2010 season on Saturday 10th April.

The weather caused the SCCC indoor event to be postponed today, so it has been re-scheduled for a fortnight’s time with the same timings and fixtures.

Paul Short is taking charge of this event.

The Management Committee meeting will still take place on Wednesday 13th January at The Arts Centre, Eight Acre Lane, Wellington from 7.30pm, but if anyone is unable to travel due to the current adverse weather conditions then please advise the Secretary via e-mail (david230275@googlemail.com) as soon as possible.

There is another potential bout of snow falling over the Wellington/Taunton area on Tuesday and Wednesday.