Wellington Cricket Club

Our Annual Dinner and Dance will take place at the Long Room, Somerset County Cricket Club, St James Street, Taunton on Saturday 30th October with a 6.30pm for 7.00pm dinner arrangement.

Tickets will be priced at £30.00 senior and £25.00 junior and will be the culmination of a fine season that has seen the Club achieve two runners-up spots in the Somerset League and hopes are high of doing the same in the Taunton and District Sunday League; the Under 15s side were double Cup winners as well in 2010, so there is plenty to celebrate.

Please contact Club Chairman Duncan Short (Duncan.Short@towergate.co.uk) for details in the first instance.

The details of our September matches can be found elsewhere on this site and players are invited to make known their availability for matches on Saturday 4th, Sunday 5th, Sunday 12th and Sunday 19th September.

Selection for the first two matches will take place on Wednesday 1st September.

Text availability to Rob Moysey, David Derrick or Steve Symons.

This meeting will take place at The Long Hop Bar, Wellington Playing Field from 7.30pm on Wednesday 29th September.

Agendas for this meeting have already been sent out and any apologies should be sent to the Secretary.

Kit from the summer renovations needs to be moved out of the rear changing rooms in the Pavilion from 10.00am on Saturday 4th September as there will be football teams needing to use these rooms in the afternoon.

10.00am on Saturday 2nd October is the time and date for taking down and storing away the outdoor net kit.

Please add these details to your diaries.

On Saturday 4th September the Sunday XI travel to fellow SCL Division One side North Petherton for their penultimate Sunday League match and will be looking for a good result to secure second place at least and a position in Division A for 2011.
 
Sunday 5th September sees a visit to WEPL Bristol and Somerset Division side Chard for a friendly match.
 
Sunday 12th September sees the Sunday League wrap up at SCL Division Two side North Newton and the week after (Sunday 19th September) the season concludes at SCL Division Three side Langport with a friendly match.
 
The first three games in this series will start at 1.30pm and the final one at 1.00pm.
 
Details from Rob Moysey and David Derrick ref the two league games and from Steve Symons ref the two friendly matches.

As was the case with the away side in the 1st XI game, the visiting side in this Somerset League Reserves Competition Division Two match showed many changes from the previous week, but Simon Rudd’s side did what was needed of them as they collected more than fourteen points and thus secured second place and promotion one year after relegation from the top level of SCL reserve team cricket; with the restructuring of the League for 2011 into a linear structure there will be no separate reserve team competition and the team will be place where appropriate, but their second place will be rewarded with a higher new division than would have been the case if they had not ended the season two points ahead of Belvedere who took third place. Frome took the title with a forty point margin.

Mid table Purnells asked Wellington to bat first and Trevor Brooks and Kevin Crout added 69 opening wicket runs in 15 overs before Brooks fell to Jones (5-40) for 37. Richard Henwood joined Crout (29) and was instrumental in getting the Red and Blacks second string to 160-5 when he was out for 26.

That Wellington closed in on 200 and full batting points was down to Graham Sparks with 32 and some decent support from the lower order and so at tea Wellington had nine of the fourteen points they needed to be sure of second place and promotion.

Purnells started in much the same way that Wellington had with a 67 run opening stand, but Simon Rudd with three wickets in the first over of his second spell for no runs changed the game and with Chris Falltrick and Graham Sparks having a hand in reducing Purnells to 132-6 in 26 overs the points were in the bag and second place was theirs – Wellington then perhaps took their foot off the gas as the home side wrapped up a four wicket win with a 55 run stand for the seventh wicket through Casling who hit 39no and Tucker with 35no, but that is a small inconsequential matter for this has been a fine season for the side and they have provided a great response to 2009′s relegation at the first opportunity – the new linear structure will be a new venture and it will see a whole new raft of opposition on the fixture list in 2011.

Wellington secured runners-up spot in the Somerset League for 2010 following this not-so-straightforward win over mid table Purnells, but a gritty show from the lower order saw Paul Short’s side home and earnt them second place.

The margin behind League Champions Westlands was 35 points - in other words one win – and the side will look back on two matches in June against Watchet and Ashbrittle amongst the pivotal points of the season, but as you will read elsewhere in this WWN edition there is a technical chance of promotion to the Somerset Division of the WEPL, so there may be a little more mileage in this season for the side, but for now second place is a fine return and one to be proud of.

As for this game Purnells travelled to Wellington with a makeshift side in some ways as winter sports enticed several of their number away and Wellington themselves showed three changes since their derby outing at Ashbrittle – Paul Short asked the Paulton side to bat on a soft pitch that had received much rain in the week and he was rewarded when Jake Nichol got rid of Brooks in his first over before N.Crocker and M.Hewish got to grips with things and added 32 for the second wicket before Michael Gill got Hewish for 17 with a crunching yorker and Adrian Lee got in on the act with a wicket in his first over to see off Crocker.

This and the introduction of Paul Short and Rob Moysey saw Purnells slide to 57-6 in 19 overs and their stand in side was in danger of been demolished, but Gregory with 65 did a fine job for his side until Paul Short got him LBW as he and P.Hewish with 18 added 59 for the seventh wicket; 22 runs came before the end of the innings with Short taking 4-40 in 12 overs and Adrian Lee’s second wicket of the innings was the tenth and final one of the season for Wellington and they would need 139 to win and be sure of second place.

Nine overs were delivered by Jones and Gregory for Purnells before tea and they had Wellington in a spot of bother with a score of 16-2 at the break; after tea it got no easier for the Red and Blacks as their score dipped to 51-6 and things were not easy at all – Jones with 2-31 and Gregory with 4-34 bowled excellently for Purnells, but as they bowled their twelve over allocations on the reel this showed there was not a lot left in the locker and so it proved as Michael Gill remained resolute to the end as he made 70no – an innings of grit, determination and class that ensured Wellington got over the line in the end.

Julian Jones with 10 added 38 for the seventh wicket to relieve some of the pressure on Wellington and Jones was hitting the ball crisply when he was caught at short mid wicket after hitting a nice pull shot and been outstandingly caught by Brooks; had the game swung back to Purnells?

Scott Davey joined Gill and saw the job was done in fine style and for no further loss of wickets – Davey was rock solid in defence and ran well between the wickets as he and Gill approached the 139 needed and with Gill taking 12 from the 39th over six were needed and Davey hit the first ball of the fortieth for six to spark scenes of jubilation as second place was secured with 35 balls to spare.

A fine season for Wellington and a fine comeback from the 2009 season; news as to whether the technical path to WEPL cricket will be trod will be with the Club during September.

The outdoor nets need to be taken down and put into storage for the close season – the date for this will be Saturday 18th September from 10.00am; many hands make light work and if as many as possible can give up just one hour of their time then we can get this important job done and dusted!

Further details to follow on this site.

The meeting of the top two in Division B of the Taunton and District Sunday League at the Wyvern Club last Sunday served up an absolute corker of a game, but Wellington will feel they should have inflicted a first defeat on Taunton St Andrews as they had the WEPL Premier One side at 144-9 with just four overs left and this should have been the platform for the Red and Blacks to have the unbeaten record and not the other way round – Wellington have a game in hand over Taunton St Andrews who complete their programme of eight games against North Petherton at home next weekend and this fall of the fixtures will see Wellington have two games to play and they can achieve a maximum haul of 180 points if they win at North Petherton and North Newton in September, Taunton St Andrews can end on 186, so it is still all to play for.

Paul Short opted to bat first and although Wellington lost a wicket in the first over Taunton St Andrews were wayward with the new ball as Chandler and Clatworthy sent down an assortment of wides and no balls to boost Wellington’s run rate – Marc Holloway was the foundation of the Wellington innings as he made a capital 67 with ten fours and a six during his time at the crease; he received excellent support from James Bath (23) and Aks Latifi (11) as three figures was approached by Wellington – Michael Gill with 31 was the main contributor as the innings continued as Taunton St Andrews regained some of the ground that had been lost early on – T.Poole with 4-41 in seven overs and Brice with 3-20 also in seven did good work for the home side as Wellington were bowled out for 172 with 4.1 overs left – a factor that was to come into play later.

Taunton St Andrews should have been one down in the first over, but J.Poole survived and he and Davis added 26 first wicket runs until Paul Short joined the attack and with his first ball got Poole to chip one to Michael Gill at short mid wicket, Wellington then began chipping away at the Taunton St Andrews line up as George Hooper got rid of home skipper L.Poole as he was cutting loose.

Taunton St Andrews first team player Alley threw the kitchen sink at a delivery from Max Capaldi and found Paul Short taking a blinding catch as Wellington became the dominant force in the game; Michael Gill’s excellent 3-15 in seven overs with a great caught and bowled effort to see off Wyatt seemed to have done the trick for Wellington as he also got rid of Dimond and Clatworthy in one over and allied to Aks Latifi’s clever catch to remove Brice as he tried to reverse sweep left arm spinner Sam Baycock Taunton St Andrews were 144-9 and had subsided and only had Chandler and Baldock left; Wellington strangled the run rate and were pushing for a great win over the County Town side, but Chandler and Baldock hung around although the runs needed were in Wellington’s favour, but four byes and a couple of wides in the last over meant the game was still alive just and it then went wrong for Wellington as Baldock hit a four that reared up and over the boundary after seeming to be a straightforward carpet shot that was destined to be fielded simply so seeing that Taunton St Andrews needed one to tie and two to win and having tied the game at Wellington back in June could such a rare result happen twice in one fixture in one season? A nudge for one off of the last ball of the game brought the scores level, but Wellington went for broke and the win and tried to negate the run by running out Baldock, but it went through for a second and Taunton St Andrews had got out of jail in spectacular circumstances and Wellington were left to wonder how.

The battle for the divisional title in Division Two of the Somerset League’s Reserves competition saw Frome make the long journey to Wellington on the back of two losses and a cancellation in three games and their fifty point advantage had become eight going into this game, but it was the leaders who took most from the match as they completed the double over Wellington and are now 25 points clear of Wellington with one to play – eleven points next weekend for Frome at Wedmore will see them win the division and a dozen points for Wellington at Purnells will see them finish as runners-up whatever Langport do.

As for this game the toss was going mean insertion and this is what happened as Wellington asked Frome to take first knock and theirs was a slow effort in many ways as Wellington’s attack did not let Frome get away at all really – Adrian Lee took 4-35 in 12 fine overs; he was particularly potent against the Frome tail as four of their last five made ducks.

Tom Baycock and Ross Brayley deserved more than just one wicket for their combined efforts of 19 overs that went for just 52 runs as Frome relied on L.Dredge with 24 and Stonell with 49 to keep their innings going - this pair got Frome to 143-4, but Simon Rudd with 3-22 and Lee in his second spell saw only eleven more runs were added and when Copp was run out on the last ball of the Frome innings 155 was required by Wellington to win and go into the lead as such.

Wellington’s reply started disastrously as Neal (7-27 in 10 overs) took a third over hat trick to reduce Wellington to 5-4; Richard Short and Simon Rudd addressed this matter by adding 34 for the fourth wicket with Short making a fine 22 at a time of great need for the side; Rudd, whose first scoring shot was a six, played a real captain’s innings and made 55 all told, but wickets fell too often and with the hat-trick to contend with too it was always too much for Wellington to make the 155 required – George Coate with a three sixes knock of 28 got Wellington to 99-6 before he was out and Neal came back to seal the deal for Frome by taking two wickets in two balls to end the game with Wellington forty one short of their target – thus he will be on a hat trick with the first ball he bowls next weekend.

Wellington would have had high hopes of making the required runs, but they were dealt a mortal blow early on and never recovered from it, but they go to Purnells next weekend knowing that a dozen points will secure second place and after suffering relegation in 2009 that would have been a gladly taken finishing position at the start of the 2010 session.

Next week’s game attracts a 1.30pm start.