Wellington Sunday XI will feel they should have won this friendly match at Devon League Premier Division side Sidmouth last weekend, but Steve Symons side just fell short by 16 runs in the end.

Sidmouth opted to bat first and had nearly 50 on the board in six overs when Michael Gill joined the attack and trapped Gingell LBW for 22 and then bowled Griffiths all ends up for the same score.

A good catch by Sam Murdock gave Gill 3-20 in 6 fine overs.

Adrian Lee with 1-14 in 8 overs did much with the ball and he is another who can be most pleased with his start to 2010.

Murdock and Paul Short were into the attack and were posing their own issues to the home side as Murdock got good pace up and Short bowled his off spin with accuracy and control to take 2-10 in 5 overs – Murdock had a spell later on and took 2-34 in 8 overs.

Jake Nichol bowled a better second spell for Wellington as Sidmouth were glad to have had Chaplin with 41no, Goodwin with 13 and Bess with 17no add 83 runs for their last two wickets as they made 102-7 look better from their point of view.

Rob Moysey and Marc Holloway got away well for Wellington as Holloway was strong on the square cut and he hit four nice fours before been caught in the covers.

Aks Latifi hit a number of positive shots in his 22, but he was caught too and Wellington – at 79-3 – needed a hundred or so to win.

All the time Moysey was guiding the Wellington innings with Michael Gill and Paul Short lending a hand, but 103-3 became 126-7 as Wellington did not keep up with the rate.

Moysey made a crucial 65 before been bowled by Gingell (3-21), but Jake Nichol, George Hooper and Adrian Lee added good late runs for Wellington as the Red and Blacks closed on 169-9 and saw out their full allocation of 40 overs.

Next week sees a home league match with North Petherton.