Wellington suffered a carbon copy of their home loss to Staplegrove last weekend at Somerset League leaders North Petherton when they had the home side in deep trouble at 130-8 as their bad run with the bat stretched into a fourth week, but late tail end runs saw the score Wellington required was more than it should have been and it proved too big a hurdle to overcome as Petherton recorded a seventh win in nine matches this season and are now 59 points clear of the Red and Blacks as the season enters its second half.

Wellington asked Petherton to bat first on winning the toss and they found Luke Desave and Thom Trott in pacy, fiery fettle as they ensured that the home side did not get away as Bowditch with 19 and Tottle with 15 did not develop their innings.

Only T.Williams with 42 well made runs and Hucker with 30 really got going for a North Petherton side who had not made a big total for some time; Ali Bunce – playing against his old side – was exemplary with 2-31 in 12 overs of darting off spin and all was going well with Petherton having been reduced to 130-8 with five overs to go, but Knight with 28no hit hard and long to have a part in the fifty runs that Petherton gathered in their last thirty balls to leave Wellington needing 181 to win.

The Wellington innings did pick up from 5-2 through Marc Holloway and Aks Latifi with 28 and 12 respectively, but Petherton were always taking wickets and meaningful stands did not form until late on as Thom Trott with 35 and Ali Bunce with 25 meted out their own lower order potency, but Knight with 4-40, K.Williams with 2-22 and Gibbs with 2-46 saw that Wellington were caught short as had been the case against Staplegrove seven days earlier and lost vital ground in the race to get to the WEPL Somerset Division; North Petherton took 33 points and Wellington 15 with Purnells the visitors to Courtland Road this weekend.