Wellington will be back in the Somerset Division of the West of England Premier League in 2019 following confirmation of their having achieved third place in the Premier Division of the Somerset League and that WEPL, due to their structural needs for 2019, need to receive three teams from the SCL and not just the SCL champion side and runners up; in this case Taunton Deane 2nd XI, Street and the Red and Blacks will be at this level next season.

Wellington were already well placed to get third having beaten Street the previous week and knew that any sort of win over Temple Cloud combined with ten bonus points of some sort would secure their return to WEPL after a season away.

With a bus load of support to egg them on Arron Campbell opted to bat first at what is usually a high scoring ground near Bristol, but the team found the early exchanges tough as the score was 55 when the fourth wicket was lost despite each of Tom Chambers, Neil Hendy, Sam Whitefield and Arron Campbell getting into double figures.

The telling stand came from Mark Bray and Aks Latifi who added 102 fine runs for the fifth wicket as Bray made 58 with seven fours in 71 balls and Latifi 62 with seven fours and two sixes at a run a ball.

This dented the Temple momentum and saw it shift towards Wellington as the lower order carried things through with Ben Evett’s 16 and Jack Beal’s 17 adding vital late runs to see that Wellington had posted 234 all out; for Temple Head, with 2-18 in 8.1 overs was immaculate in his bowling, but some of his colleagues less so as Hamblin took three wickets, but went for nearly seven runs per over.

Temple were rushed out in 30.2 overs as they scored at pace, but were always losing wickets as only Mahoney with 44 really made an innings of substance.

Will Derrick with 4-45 and Neil Hendy with 3-26 were Wellington’s main bowling stars on the day and with wickets for Luke Desave and Arron Campbell backing these efforts up it was a Wellington win by 71 runs and a regaining of a place in WEPL.

The team valued the great support that was on offer on the day and say a big ‘thank you’ to all those who have followed the side home and away in 2018; Shellie Jarman organised the logistics of the day and her hard work in this respect and in scoring for the side on a weekly basis is noted by a great many people.

The hard work to prepare for a successful return to WEPL will start in earnest very soon, but, for a little time at least, the team and the wider Club can reflect on a job well done by a young and vibrant captain and team and savour the moment.