Wellington 3rd XI maintained their good form in Division Seven South of the Somerset League last weekend with their fourth win in a row and with having pushed the top two sides all the way before this run began they are now in a fifth position with six to play; this was the side’s first win at Sampford Arundel CC since it became the side’s default venue too…

On winning the toss Wellington opted to bat and had 15 on the board before the prolific Richard Henwood was caught behind off the glove, but this did not deter Oli Beale and new recruit Sam Nelson who has arrived via Fitzhead and Staplegrove.

They added a cool 136 for the second wicket that set the tone for the Wellington innings as Kilmington and Stourton found themselves in the field after another fifty mile plus journey from their base on the Somerset/Wiltshire/Dorset border.

Beale cracked eleven fours and two sixes in making a capital 85 and he was bearing down on a first league century when he was caught at square leg; a fine knock from the sixteen year old all the same.

Nelson made 79 on debut as he worked the ball around well before taking advantage of a tiring K and S attack to hit the bulk of his ten fours toward the end of his innings.

Des Campbell with a powerful 48no contained three sixes and this cemented the good total of 260-4 that Wellington’s third string had made by tea as Vellacott with 2-42 in eight overs was the best of the K and S attack on a hot and steamy day.

Ryan Henwood took the new ball for Wellington and obtained some good bounce at times and one of these saw Cassidy was caught behind by Callum Hendy who kept well and let through not one bye as all the batsman could do was to parry it upwards and it was a simple catch for the keeper.

Tyler Fyfe bowled seven overs of left arm over medium pace and beat the bat on several occasions.

Reid with 58 and Heard with 28 took K and S to within two runs of three figures as their general play was that of having a real go at the 261 needed to win and with Wellington’s profligacy in catching terms aiding their good play the game was in the balance.

But with Richard Henwood joining the attack he saw that Reid gloved one down the leg side and Callum Hendy (four dismissals overall) accepted the chance and he trapped Heard LBW and so at 106-3 Wellington were pulling things back.

P.Hutton with 23, Stanfield with 28 and Harvey with 22no did well in the K and S middle order, but Wellington kept on chipping away as wickets came for Oli Beale, Des Campbell and another member of the Club’s youth section who made his senior section debut in this game as James Weymouth bowled his off spin with good flight to take 1-24 in five overs.

Megan Beale joined the attack late and bowled two tidy overs.

K and S got to full batting points before Richard Henwood rejoined the attack and took his second five wicket haul of the season against K and S’s second string to end with 5-20 in 7.1 overs to go with his 5-18 in the reverse fixture back in May.

Thanks go to Julie Beale for serving tea and all that goes with that and to Oscar Milton for his excellent work in keeping the scoreboard going on day of much run scoring.

Next week sees the team set for an away game with Yeovil 3rd XI and this game will be played at a new venue for Wellington’s third string in Bradford Abbas CC whose postcode is DT9 6RN.