Wellington Cricket Club

Wellington go into the last round of Somerset League fixtures next weekend in second place and will be determined to hold on to this after their home match with Purnells; although Westlands claimed the title for 2010 following their five wicket win at Taunton Outcasts this has been a great second half of the season from Paul Short’s side with only one defeat in the last eight games and had the reverse fixtures of the last two weeks gone Wellington’s way back in June it would be the Red and Blacks who were at the summit and not Westlands.

Wellington avenged their home defeat to Ashbrittle with this 51 run win that brought them 34 more good points; Wellington were put into bat and got away well on a slow, low pitch as Paul Short and Michael Gill added 63 runs up top, both dealt with the short ball well as both pulled very well and it took a soft dismissal of sorts to break the stand when Short popped a catch up and Sam Franks took it, the Wellington skipper was gone for 38, but had passed 600 league runs for the season.

Gill was joined by Mark Salter and they got Wellington to over 100 with Gill doing it in the grand style by bringing up his fifty and Wellington’s team ton with a six, but he was out the very next ball for 53 and so it was time to build once more – Salter had been initially cautious, but he broke the shackles to make 33 in good style as he hit over the top very well.

At 148-3 with fourteen overs left Wellington were looking at a score of 230 minimum, but Ashbrittle came back into things and saw Wellington record five ducks with only Max Capaldi who was last out for 46 and Marc Holloway with 14 who added 46 for the seventh wicket making any impact for the Red and Blacks.

Ashbrittle shared the wickets out evenly with Andy Hill, Ben Rose and Jack Bradbury each taking two wickets to see the Appley Cross side would need 210 to win.

Andy Hill and Rob Hill started very well as Wellington were wayward with the ball and the brothers had 57 on the board in just 13 overs and they had made a most confident start, but Rob Moysey is in such fine form with the ball this season you always feel he will take wickets and he did in his first over as he nicked through to get Rob Hill’s off bail and in his next over he bowled Luke Williams and Ashbrittle were in trouble – added to Moysey’s threat was Neil Hendy who bowled twelve fine overs of medium pace taking 3-18 as the home side crumbled from 57-0 to 80-7 in 12 overs; good play came from Chris Hill who made a sterling 65no for his side as he added 31 for the eighth wicket, 29 for the ninth and an unbroken 18 for the last wicket to see that Ashbrittle saw out their full 45 overs – Michael Gill and Paul Short each took a wicket as Wellington just failed to take maximum points.

Wellington will be determined to hold on to second place and will do so with a win over Purnells at home on Saturday from 1.15pm.

Please make arrangements, where appropriate and necessary, to remove all tools and associated items from the Wellington Playing Field Pavilion by the end of the Bank Holiday Weekend.
 
As the Pavilion will be used for football from Saturday 4th September we need to make the two back changing rooms good for those who will use this facility for winter sports.

Players should note the following playing arrangements for the four senior section matches that we have scheduled for September,
 
The playing schedule is
 
Saturday 4th September – Sunday League XI v North Petherton (a)
Sunday 5th September – Sunday Non-League XI v Chard (a)
Sunday 12th September – Sunday League XI v North Newton (a)
Sunday 19th September – Sunday Non-League XI v Langport (a)
 
Start times will be 1.30pm for the first three games and 1.00pm for the last one.
 
Match day captains will be Steve Symons for the two non-league games and the league games will be overseen by Michael Gill, Rob Moysey and David Derrick – please contact Steve or Rob if you need to.

Wellington Sunday XI kept up their own title winning ambitions in Division B of the Taunton and District Sunday League with this fine 74 run win over SCL Division Two club North Newton at home last weekend and will travel to Taunton St Andrews next weekend with a title decider of their own to contest.

North Newton asked Wellington to bat on a soft track that was still recovering from the poor weather the 1st XI had suffered from the previous day – although the weather was now warm and sunny the Newton opening attack of Sellick and Barham were hard to get away early on, but Max Capaldi and James Bath saw them off and then grew in confidence to post a 95 run opening stand for Wellington that was made in 20 overs; Bath was out caught in the deep second ball after the drinks break for 38 and with Newton getting another wicket soon after the near three figure stand was in danger of been frittered away, but James Dyke – in his last game before going back to Thailand – aided Capaldi to get the Wellington score going once more with 34 runs been added for the fourth wicket; Dyke made 13 and Capaldi was homing in on a second Sunday ton of 2010 when he was caught for a fine 83, but he had done a great job for his side.

Paul Short with 25 and Michael Gill with 28no saw that Wellington achieved full batting points and as is the case on Saturdays every point is required as the season reaches a climax; for North Newton Barham with 3-41 and White with 2-34, both from seven overs, bowled well for their side as they caught very well too and needed 210 to win after tea.

Through Broughton who played the pull shot very well indeed North Newton raced away and it took some good left arm medium pace bowling from Will Hinchcliffe (1-11  in 5 overs) to break the Newton openers up as he bowled Marchant for seven with the score on 35.

Paul Short saw the end of Broughton for 27 with his first ball as he shouldered arms to his cost as he was bowled by the Wellington skipper.

Earl with 17, Stone with 23 and Sellick with 21 all made good starts for North Newton, but none of them went on to play the telling innings that was needed; Michael Gill with 1-15 in seven and Rob Moysey with 2-19 in seven overs as well did a great restraining job on North Newton in the middle part of their innings; Paul Short claimed a second wicket and Patrick Jarman was much better in his second spell.

Sam Baycock with 3-12 delivered some nice left arm spinners and Scott Davey ended the game with the wicket of Barham as Wellington won by 74 runs with 4.2 overs left.

Taunton St Andrews will go into next Sunday’s game as divisional leaders as they beat North Curry on Sunday, but Wellington have a game in hand over the County Town club and by the time that TSA will have completed their eight match programme the Red and Blacks will still have a couple of games to play and that may be to their advantage.

Wellington 2nd XI were denied the chance to further benefit from the recent slip ups that have beset leaders Frome in Division Two of the Somerset League’s Reserves competition when their away match with lowly Wedmore was a victim of Saturday’s poor weather.

The side had assembled for an 11.30am leave, but they only ever got as far as the Courtland Road Car Park when the call came through to say that the match had been called off.

All this means that Simon Rudd’s side collected twelve points and proceed to their home match with Frome this weekend on a title shootout footing – as it was Frome’s home match with third placed side Langport also went the way of Wellington’s in that not a single ball was bowled and the gap is now eight points in Frome’s favour.

Rain had the major say over the weekend as the race for the Somerset League title for 2010 ticked over another set of fixtures; all of the top three sides – Westlands, Taunton Outcasts and Wellington – saw rain wash their games away with no positive result been recorded by any of the contenders.

Westlands game at North Petherton saw the Yeovil side get seventeen points and Outcasts obtained twenty points at Staplegrove and with Wellington getting the most from the draws on offer with a haul of 27 points from this match the difference that the Red and Blacks need to overcome is 37 points and with Westlands and Outcasts meeting in Taunton next weekend there is still scope for a twist and a turn before the season wraps up on 28th August.

On a day when storm clouds, thunder and lightening were never far away Watchet – fighting relegation – put Wellington into bat, but this was a decision that did not faze the home side as Paul Short and Michael Gill added 76 runs first up in 19 overs; a decent run rate was needed from Wellington’s point of view as the weather was always closing in and it was provided once again by a pair of batsmen who have enjoyed a fine season together.

The introduction into the attack of R.Strong and Pyne saw that Watchet did better in the second half of the Wellington innings as Pyne’s off spin went for just 48 in 12 good overs and Strong’s decent medium pace cost only 14 runs in seven overs, but Mark Salter with 28 and Michael Gill cashed in on the later spells from opening bowlers Bowden and Dellow who were expensive – 1-74 in 12 and 2-56 in 10 did not offer the level of control that Watchet either needed or desired; Gill made a fine 86 and was closing in on a ton when he was bowled and further good positive play from Neil Hendy who hit 41no with two sixes and Thom Trott saw Wellington close on 221-5 in 45 overs and had benefited from a poor Watchet fielding performance that saw the Seasiders shell several chances.

By now the weather was closing in and after only one ball of the Watchet reply the players were off and having used up the twenty minutes grace period any more time lost would see the overs left start to reduce.

Play was started again at 5.05pm and Wellington were soon busy in the field – Neil Hendy removed A.Martin when he played on and a great turn and throw from Michael Gill at short fine leg saw E.Martin depart run out.

Watchet skipper P.Milton dropped anchor and ground more time out of the game, but spin pairing Rob Moysey and Max Capaldi reduced Watchet to 48-5 in 18.3 overs, but that was the last action of the game as the rain came back and with thunder and lightening doing the rounds too the umpires formally abandoned the game as a draw at 6.30pm.

Wellington travel to Ashbrittle next weekend and simply have to win and see what comes out from the game between the top two in Taunton.

Belvedere 2 v Purnells 2

Temple Cloud 2 v Wells 2

Butleigh 2 v Winscombe 2

Frome 2 v Langport 2

Wedmore 2 v Wellington 2

Staplegrove v Taunton Outcasts

Barrington v Ashbrittle

North Petherton v Westlands

Wellington v Watchet

Purnells v Belvedere