Wellington Cricket Club

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.