Wellington Cricket Club

At this evening’s SCL Management Committee meeting the structure that will be used for the 2011 season in respect of league divisions was signed off and passed into the League’s constitution – a linear structure of twelve divisions will operate in 2011.

For example this change would see the 2nd XI playing in SCL Division Four in 2011 – all teams will be free flowing and are to be allowed to find their own levels in time.

The exact mechanism is that the 2010 season will finish on Saturday 28th August, promotions and relegations will be calculated as if there was to be no change and then the new twelve division continuous structure will be applied.

More exact details will follow in the autumn.

The 2nd XI were joint with Street 2nd XI from Division One of the SCL’s Reserves Competition in respect of the number of SCL match day points achieved in May 2010, thus both were eligible for consideration for that month’s Team of the Month award.

At this evening’s SCL Management Committee meeting lots were drawn to determine the winner and Street 2nd XI were the team who were allocated the winning lot and so win the prize.

It is disappointing not to win the prize, but this is an acknowledgement of the good season that the 2nd XI are currently experiencing.

Steve Symons (Capt), Max Capaldi, Michael Gill, Paul Short, James Dyke, Rob Moysey, James Bath (Wkt), George Hooper, Aaron Chugg, Jake Nichol and Sam Baycock.

Meet at Pavilion at 1.45pm for a 2.30pm start.

Contact Steve Symons for details.

The August Management Committee meeting will be held at The Long Hop Bar, Wellington Playing Field Pavilion from 8.00pm on Wednesday 18th August.

Agendas will be sent out by the end of the week.

Due to our having taken part in the Nat West Cricket Force event back in March we became eligible for an allocation of fifteen free tickets for a home SCCC Clydesdale Forty Over Competition match.

We selected the match with Surrey on Sunday 29th August as the match we would be present at.

To this end these tickets will be allocated as follows,

A written request for a ticket must be made to Club Secretary David Derrick and sent to him at 2 Park Villas, Waterloo Road, Wellington, Somerset, TA21 8JG to be received by Sunday 15th August at the latest.

Should excess ticket applications be received by the closing date then a ballot will be held to determine the successful applicants.

Applications must be made by post to the Club Secretary – no other method of application will be accepted.

For details contact David Derrick.

Wellington Midweek XI completed their 2010 season with this 51 run win over old friends The Journeymen last Monday when a polished all-round team performance saw Marc Holloway’s side home.

The London based tourists asked Wellington to bat first and a fierce opening burst and a wicket from Hayes saw that The Journeymen started well.

Aks Latifi and Marc Holloway added exactly fifty for the second wicket with Latifi playing the power game and Holloway working the ball around the ground well, but both were dismissed with the score on 67 when Latifi was caught at mid off for 33 and Holloway was caught low down in the next over for 22.

Wellington needed to regroup and Paul Short and Michael Gill did so with a 70 run opening stand for the fourth wicket – Short did as his skipper had and worked the ball around the field well and Gill played a good knock too with great running between the wicket coming from the South African – they made 37 and 34 respectively before falling to more good Journeymen catching.

Rob Moysey with 31, Simon Rudd with 15 and an unbeaten sixteen run ninth wicket effort by Chris Rudd and Richard Short saw Wellington to 218-8 at tea with Dixon’s 3-34 been the best offering with the ball from The Journeymen.

Journeymen skipper N.Bloch and Keenlyside added 58 opening wicket runs and they found Wellington not at their best in the field as too many singles were leaked and with these runs taking only 13 overs to compile The Journeymen had a good chance of victory, but the desire of Bloch to get the quick single at every opportunity was the undoing of this partnership as Marc Holloway threw down the stumps at the striker’s end to remove Keenlyside for 19.

Thirty-eight runs came for The Journeymen’s second wicket, but the run rate had dropped and overs were used up and the required rate was getting higher and higher and the introduction of Paul Short and Rob Moysey saw things swing decisively in Wellington’s favour as Short took 1-22 in 7 good overs of off spin and Moysey took his sixth five wicket bag of the season as a magical spell of 5-16 saw the back of the cream of The Journeymen’s line up – with Aks Latifi keeping wicket well once more the job was nearly done.

Simon Rudd and Marc Holloway got a wicket each and Dixon (22no) and Chalke (6no) saw the overs out for The Journeymen and thus denied Wellington all ten of the tourists wickets.

It is very much a case of  ‘as you were’ in Division Two of the Somerset League’s Reserves competition after the top three all secured maximum points wins last weekend as each of Frome, Wellington and Langport all won by large margins to leave Wellington second in the table – twenty points ahead of Langport and forty six behind Frome – the big games left this season are on Saturday 14th August when Langport visit Frome and the week after when Frome visit Wellington, no other game is any less important naturally, but based on current evidence these are the games that will decide the final order in the division this season.

As for this game Wellington were asked to bat on losing the toss and saw a healthy 35 run stand develop between Trevor Brooks and Kevin Crout in nine overs before Brooks was bowled by his son Nathan who plays for his father’s old Club for 18.

A second wicket fell and at 45-2 in 13 overs Wellington were not dominant – yet at least.

Simon Rudd joined Crout and added a pivotal 73 run third wicket stand for the home side – Rudd made 31 with four fours as keeper/batsman Crout developed his innings to the tune of 79 excellent runs that contained eleven fours and was made in 40 overs as he was the backbone of the Red and Blacks innings.

Tom Baycock had joined Crout with the score on 118 when Rudd was out and he made a debut Wellington fifty as he compiled 57no with eight fours in an innings that gave Wellington’s innings an added depth late on and with Kevin Symons making 20no Wellington had 224-5 on the board at tea.

Temple Cloud skipper Newmarch had pulled a leg muscle during his side’s time in the field and he was unable to bat, so leaving the Bristol side having to bat a man light.

Ross Brayley made that job even harder when he removed Campbell for a duck and Tom Baycock added to his good day with the wicket of the other opener Head for six.

R.Appleyard with 27 and Veater with 23 added some useful runs for Temple Cloud, but there was not impetus in their play to really trouble Wellington – they got the score to 90-4 before Adrian Lee bowled the telling spell of the innings from a Wellington perspective as he claimed 5-14 in just six overs and this signalled the start of the end of the Temple Cloud effort.

George Hooper got a wicket for his efforts and Wellington had a 90 run win with 4.1 overs left to bowl.

A tenth win of the season was recorded and a trip to Winscombe is next up.

Wellington batted second for only the second time this season and carried off a fine, if a little nervy, four wicket Somerset League Division One win at second placed Westlands last weekend to regain third place in the division and Paul Short’s side are now 69 points behind leaders Taunton Outcasts with five games to go and a visit to the Civil Service Club side beckons on the first weekend in August.

As for this game Westlands opted to bat first on winning the toss and were well served by their numbers two, three and four after Scott Davey had held a chance with the score on 27 to get rid of Davis – who had made a ton at Wellington back in May – off of Michael Gill (1-26 in seven overs).

Boucher with 33, Gundry with 35 and Dyer with 42 all played good hands, but none of them went on to play the decisive innings that the home side needed to get to the 230 run mark that they set themselves, but at 122-2 with 15 overs to go, a strong, deep batting line up and a fast outfield on offer they should have done better than 172 all out – as it was Wellington’s fine spin attack dismantled the Westlands side as they added only another fifty runs for the loss of eight wickets as Paul Short, Rob Moysey and Max Capaldi spun their way through – Short with 1-28 in 7 got things going when he induced Boucher to tickle one behind to Aks Latifi – who kept wicket well for Wellington – and then Moysey took a fourth five wicket bag of the SCL season with 5-35 in 10.1 overs as he weaved his leg spinner’s web to great effect, an Aks Latifi stumping and fine boundary catches by Max Capaldi and Jake Nichol rounded off a fine effort from Moysey.

Capaldi with 3-37 in 8 overs gave a lesson in classical off spin as he bowled two with great deliveries that dipped late and another Aks Latifi stumping did the job for Wellington as they saw Westlands off for 172 with eleven balls to spare.

Westlands knew they had to win to maintain their push for the SCL title and came at Wellington hard, but Paul Short and Michael Gill resisted and then dominated with a stand of 83 in 22 overs that was ended when Gill – who had cover driven very well once more – was LBW for 45.

Mark Salter joined Short and played well to the off side until he was a second LBW victim for 17.

Short made a capital 65 and so nearly saw the job done when he was fourth out on 150.

Then a wobble set in as Wellington saw their score dip to 166-6 with two overs to go and tenacity was required in large doses and it came through Max Capaldi who whipped two fours off of Dyer to calm the Red and Blacks nerves, but he was run out for 11 and it was still nip and tuck, but Marc Holloway and Neil Hendy got the scores level and then saw Wellington home by four wickets with two balls to spare when Holloway came down the track and drove Dyer over the top for four.

This was a great comeback from the defeat at North Petherton last time out and has given the side a chance of exerting title style pressure in the latter stages of this season.

A home match with Staplegrove is next up.

Paul Short (Capt), Mark Salter, Rob Moysey, James Bath, Neil Hendy, Max Capaldi, Scott Davey, Aks Latifi (Wkt), Michael Gill, Jake Nichol and Marc Holloway.

Depart from Courtland Road Car Park at 11.45am for a 1.45pm start.

Contact Paul Short for details.

The following dates see our new bar facility needing to be staffed between now and the end of the season,

Saturday 24th July, Monday 26th July, Saturday 31st July, Sunday 1st August, Saturday 7th August, Sunday 8th August, Saturday 14th August, Sunday 15th August, Wednesday 18th August (MC meeting), Saturday 21st August and Saturday 28th August.

Some of these dates have already been filled, but others have not been so please contact Bar Manager Mark Saunders (01823 660180) if you can work any of the above shifts and Mark can sort from there.