Wellington Cricket Club

Wellington Sunday XI recorded an eight wicket win over Devon League Division B side Axminster last weekend when a fine hundred by team vice captain Max Capaldi was the highlight.

Steve Symons asked Axminster to bat on winning the toss and saw Wellington spill several chances to allow Wakely and Kiy to add 84 for the home side’s opening wicket – Wakely did play well though as he made 69, although he should have been back in the hutch much earlier than he was, he was eventually caught behind by James Bath from Adrian Lee (2-39).

Rob Moysey got the other three Axminster wickets to go down and 3-28 in 8 overs represents good work from the leg spinner.

Earlier Jake Nichol, George Hooper and Sam Murdock had got some life from a dead pitch as their combined medium pace only went for 56 runs in 17 overs.

Wellington needed 176 to win and Max Capaldi and James Bath went at it from the off as they added 62 in 9 overs with Capaldi playing a range of driven shots very well, Bath made 17 before he was bowled.

Steve Symons played an energetic little knock of 12 as he and his deputy added 45 for the second wicket to give Wellington a great platform to go on from and this they did with Capaldi bringing up his century near the end and making 105no all told, Alex Sparks made 36no to polish off a good win for the side.

Wellington 2nd XI completed a perfect May with this fifth win in five as Winscombe were beaten at home by four wickets over the long weekend in Division Two of the Somerset League’s Reserves competition to give Simon Rudd’s side an eight point cushion over Frome.

Winscombe were asked to bat first and found Tom Baycock and Ross Brayley in good form with the ball as they whipped out an opener each, Brayley exercised good control in taking 1-20 in 8 overs and Baycock generated good pace in taking 1-29 in six overs.

Rutherford with 34 and Andow with 42 saw Winscombe past the hundred mark for the loss of three wickets as Sam Murdock got the third breakthrough for Wellington, but Kevin Symons broke the back of the away side’s batting effort with 4-16 in 9 overs of quality medium fast bowling, that and four catches for the all rounder made this a top effort for a player who missed most of last season with injury.

Vice captain Richard Short wrapped things up for Wellington with 3-13 in 4.5 overs as Winscombe had lost their last seven wickets for just 27 runs.

With rain never far away and it having fallen hard enough at Ashbrittle to see their match in Wellington’s first team division washed away the Red and Blacks second string were anxious to complete the job – Kevin Crout moulded the side’s successful run chase with 56 as he hit five good fours.

Thom Trott with 22 also made good runs at the top of the order and the job was sealed by that man Kevin Symons as he made 27no and had Tom Baycock at the other end when the win was secured.

Wellington have an away match with Butleigh next weekend.

The rain had the final say in this Somerset League Division One match at Staplegrove last weekend when the sides took a draw in the end and perhaps Wellington were the happier side as they were nearly undone by a blistering show of attacking batting from the home side who rose to the challenge of making 203 in 30 overs.

Rain washed away an hour of the game with not seven overs bowled and this saw that 22 overs were lost in the game, but with Wellington having started their innings having lost the toss they could still use up 45 of these overs.

Paul Short and Michael Gill added a good 44 runs for the opening wicket with Gill making 24 as Wellington were always looking to get to a declaration score and thus add overs to what they could bowl in the field.

Short made an attractive 47 and with Alex Sparks making 37 at 109-2 in 2 overs Wellington were going in the right direction, but a middle order flurry saw the Red and Blacks dip to 142-6; Neil Hendy, Max Capaldi and Mark Salter applied themselves and got Wellington to over 200 and a declaration in 37.4 overs meaning 30 overs were available to bowl Staplegrove out – Hendy made a fine counterattacking 41 and Capaldi ended the Wellington innings with a six.

When Adrian Lee bowled Rowe for a duck Staplegrove were a wicket down in the second over and after the first five of their allocation were 8-1, they proceeded to hit 180 in the next 25 and give Wellington some hairy moments as their skipper Sizer hit a clean and crisp 92 as his personal run rate was around 4 an over – he hit the ball long and handsomely until he picked out his opposite number Paul Short just eight short of what would have been a classic century.

Read with 29no and Parsons with 50 all played their part too for Staplegrove, but the 203 target was just a little out of reach for them as they ended on 188-4 with there been wickets for Wellington bowlers Michael Gill, Adrian Lee, Paul Short and Max Capaldi.

Staplegrove took 28 points and Wellington 26 with Taunton Outcasts visting Courtland Road this weekend.

Marc Holloway (Capt), Aks Latifi, David Derrick, Rob Moysey, Sam Murdock, Ross Brayley, Tom Baycock. Alex Sparks, Michael Gill, George Hooper and Richard Short.

Meet at Pavilion for around 1.30pm, match starts at 2.00pm.

Contact Marc Holloway for details.

Wellington Midweek XI made it two evening wins in two when they beat Kent touring side Newington last Friday by 12 runs in what was another good game of 20/20 cricket that went down to the wire.

Marc Holloway opted to bat first and saw that Rob Moysey and Tom Baycock got Wellington to a good position with an opening wicket stand of 54 that was ended when Baycock was stumped for 15.

Moysey continued to mould the Wellington innings as he made 59 and with Holloway and his 30no as well Wellington had a decent enough 135-6 to defend.

Newington were never really allowed to get away as they would have liked or needed to as Ross Brayley did great work for the Red and Blacks and got some good bounce and pace from the Tennis Courts end and a Max Capaldi catch behind the sticks gave him a wicket.

Aaron Chugg shared the opening bowling duties and he did a good job too.

Adrian Lee with 3-19 in 4 overs kept up the good work and when he made Clark’s middle peg go back it was a good sight to see.

Wickets for Michael Gill and Alex Troake continued Wellington’s good work with the ball despite Newington opener O’Donnell making 51.

Tom Baycock bowled well at the end and got good pace up too in taking 1-15 in 3 overs to seal a 12 run home win.

Tenacious batting by Wellington’s eighth wicket pair of Michael Gill and Rob Moysey saw that the Red and Blacks Midweek XI won with an over to spare in this evening friendly match last Thursday after their batting had subsided somewhat at a crucial stage.

Mallards won the toss and opted to bat and found George Hooper in fine form as he took 2-8 in 3 good overs and with two good catches too he was prominent in the field for Wellington, Ross Brayley also did good work for Wellington in his four overs.

Will Hinchcliffe with 2-27 had a hand in reducing Mallards to 45-5 and with Mark Saunders also bowling a great spell of 4-3-2-1 the visitors who play at Taunton Deane CC were in trouble, but from 76-7 they got to 119-8 all told as Gale cracked a fine 39no; Wellington skipper Marc Holloway got the last Mallards wicket to fall.

Adrian Lee and George Hooper got 26 on the board before Hooper was dismissed for a fine 22.

Julian Jones and Marc Holloway got Wellington towards the fifty mark, but then lost their way somewhat as Jones was caught for 22 and at 69-6 there was work to do, Paul Short batted with purpose, but was caught on the boundary and this made it look difficult to win for Wellington, but Michael Gill (26no) and Rob Moysey (12no) darted between the wickets to such good effect that they took their side over the line with one over to go in a thrilling end to a good evening match.

Steve Symons (Capt), Max Capaldi, Alex Sparks, Rob Moysey, James Bath (Wkt), Sam Murdock, George Hooper, Adrian Lee, Jake Nichol, Michael Gill and Alex Troake.

Depart from Courtland Road Car Park at 1.00pm.

Contact Steve Symons for details.

Thursday 27th May – Midweek XI v Mallards (H, 6.15pm, Skipper – Marc Holloway)

Friday 28th May – Midweek XI v Newington (H, 6.00pm, Skipper – Marc Holloway)

Saturday 29th May – 1st XI v Staplegrove (A, 1.45pm, Skipper – Paul Short)

Saturday 29th May – 2nd XI v Winscombe 2nd XI (H, 2.00pm, Skipper – Simon Rudd)

Sunday 30th May – Sunday XI v Axminster (A, 2.30pm, Skipper – Steve Symons)

Monday 31st May – Midweek XI v Sturry (H, 2.00pm, Skipper – Marc Holloway)

Tom Doyle, Joe Fox, Adam Johns, Sam Ogilvy, Ryan Henwood, Jacob Evans, Callum Vernon and Brad Rowlandson.

Depart from Courtland Road Car Park at 5.00pm.

Contact Mark Salter for details.