Wellington Warriors – the Red and Blacks Under 19s squad – won a thrilling Somerset Cricket Board Under 19s T20 Blast Group Six game away to Taunton St Andrews Saints last Friday evening when Ben Evett slammed the penultimate ball of the game for six to secure five points for Arron Campbell’s side and top spot with two games to come in their group.

Wellington asked their hosts to bat first and they were in trouble against both Dom Drew’s tidy off spin and Jack Beal’s left arm pace bowling as the TSA top three was despatched for a combined total of 4 runs.

Tom Knott – with 32 – and Travis Green with 10 very nearly doubled the TSA score with their fifth wicket stand of 27 that was ended by Sam Whitefield who now has nine wickets in three games in the competition.

Wickets for Nick Crossing and Arron Campbell reduced TSA to 65-7 in 12 overs and Wellington – sponsored by 3D Fire Defence Systems in this competition – were in command, but as the previous week against Taunton Deane Diamonds a lower order stand got in the way of Wellington chasing less than 100 as Sam and Jamie Woodland added 54 for TSA’s eighth wicket to get their side to 119-7 in 20 overs as they made 24no and 25no respectively.

Wellington would need around the total they needed seven days earlier and they started well through Jack Samuel and Arron Campbell who posted 56 opening wicket runs in under nine overs as Samuel played well along the ground and over the top to on his way to 39 before he was caught at long on.

Campbell and Sam Whitefield took the score to 80 before TSA worked their way back into the game as the Wellington score slid from 80-1 with Campbell out LBW for 22 to 99-7 as Sam and Jamie Woodland added two wickets each to their earlier runs and, as Ed Byrom and Toby Williams-Thomas took three wickets between them, with three overs to go Wellington needed 21 to win; Nick Crossing and Ben Evett added ten crucial runs to get the score into three figures, but when Crossing was run out the Red and Blacks were back in a bothersome situation and the last over needing nine to tie and ten to win with Dom Drew having joined Evett at the crease and the pair rose to the challenge as Drew scored seven in four balls to leave Evett needing two to tie or three to win with two balls left – he needed only one as he smashed a six to give Wellington a two wicket win that sent their good number of travelling fans home happy.