With league leaders Taunton Outcasts losing to Purnells and Westlands overwhelming Watchet the Yeovil side are the new leaders of the Somerset League, but with Wellington pulling out all the stops to win their local derby with Staplegrove the Red and Blacks are now just fifty points off the summit and as they travel to Outcasts this weekend they have a gilt edged chance to put themselves right in the mix for honours as the last month of the 2010 season plays out.

Paul Short opted to bat first and saw that it was he and Michael Gill who added an untroubled seventy runs for the opening Wellington wicket as they played well together once more – Short hit ten fours and a six in his class knock of 59 and Gill played well for 18, but the run out was the mode of dismissal that separated them once more when in no real trouble, but this dismissal – Gill was the player to go – saw that Wellington lost three wickets for sixteen runs to be 87-3 in 22 overs and the innings could have gone either way at this stage.

Rob Moysey and Marc Holloway had other ideas as they added sixty-four for the fourth Wellington wicket to take the home side towards full batting points as Moysey conjured up a counterattacking sixty at a time when Staplegrove’s spinners were getting good value out of a pitch that offered assistance to this style of bowling as Pantling with 3-50 and Hodge with 2-24 showed.

Holloway with 23 gave great support to Moysey and they got the score over 150 for Wellington; when Moysey was out at 182-7 Wellington had only three overs left to get to the 200 mark and secure full batting bonus points; this was achieved by Tom Baycock and James Brown who added twenty for the ninth wicket to secure what was required with Baycock cracking 15no with a six and Brown hitting a four from the penultimate ball of the innings before been stumped off the last ball – in the end the four that Brown hit was invaluable to Wellington’s cause and they had 202-8 on the board at tea.

Wellington were ragged with the ball early on as Staplegrove’s openers Richards and Pantling raced away at seven an over and although Michael Gill (4-52) bowled Pantling the arrival of Staplegrove skipper Sizer who has scored a stack of runs in the SCL this season saw that by the time the next wicket fell at 91 the visitors needed just over one hundred to win with wickets and half their overs in hand – the breakthrough came in double doses as Max Capaldi got rid of Richards for 32 and Hodge for a single as both chipped the ball back to Capaldi for him to accept two caught and bowled chances.

Sizer had played a great knock once more and had a second fifty of the season against Wellington when he too fell victim to a caught and bowled dismissal as he chipped back to Paul Short (1-25 in seven), this was the big wicket for Wellington to get, but Staplegrove had more in the tank as Bird with 22 and Bishop with 13 got their score to 156-4 in 37 overs; by this time Michael Gill had rejoined the attack and got through Bishop’s defence with the last ball before drinks, this got even better for Wellington as Bird then hit the first ball after drinks – from Rob Moysey – straight down Thom Trott’s throat at deep mid wicket and the ‘Grove had two new batsmen at the crease.

Gill bowled with pace and was cleaning up the tail and at 163-8 with four overs left Staplegrove had run out of steam or so it seemed, but with Dunn cracking 25 and Horton, Brock and Tacchi giving support a 24 run ninth wicket stand gave Wellington cause for real concern; Max Capaldi (3-45 in 11 overs) got Dunn in the end, but there was still time for ten more runs to leak out against Wellington and see that with two balls left seven were needed, the penultimate ball of the game was hit straight to long off and on going for two Tacchi was run out to leave Wellington victorious by five runs and still third in the division, but with more than half an eye on the two sides above them as the last month of the season starts.