Despite losing this critical West of England Premier League Somerset Division match at Chard last weekend when the game was totally in Wellington’s hands the Red and Blacks are actually closer to safety than they were at the start of the game following Bridgwater 2nd XI’s 212 run win over Frome and there is now three points between Wellington and the Blues whereas there were six points splitting them and Chard going into this game; two home games remain this season and a visit to the batting road that is North Perrott too for Wellington and there is still every chance to retain their current status.

For this game Wellington were in control for large portions of the game and can be content with that, but they did not close out either Chard’s innings as they would have wished and it was the same when it came to their turn to bat.

Chard opted to bat first and saw their openers Glentworth and Wright post a stand of 49 before the breakthrough came through Arron Campbell’s catch off of the accurate Ian Hewson who bowled ten overs straight through taking 2-30 as first change bowler.

New ball pair Luke Desave and Jack Beal were more successful in their later spells as they collected three wickets in these passages of play – Desave in his third and Beal in his second.

Waller with 44 was Chard’s main batter on the day as he held firm and his lower order colleagues worked well with him to take their overall score from 127-7 in 43 overs to 180-9 in 50 as more runs than were wished from Wellington’s perspective were added, but, overall, this was not a total to have any fear over chasing.

Spin was again in the forefront of the Red and Blacks attack as Rob Moysey took 3-8 in ten fine overs of leg spin and Arron Campbell with 1-31 in ten overs of off spin did another excellent job for his side.

Jake Nichol put in a good effort with the ball late on too as Wellington would need 181 to win and take a big step towards WEPL safety.

Robin Davies and Arron Campbell got Wellington on their way with a seventeen run opening stand that set a base to go on from.

This was turned into a second wicket stand that saw the side get towards three figures as Campbell was joined by his skipper Alex Sparks and they added 79 together; Campbell made 38 with six fours and a six and Sparks continued his good recent form with a knock of 42 with seven fours and between them they both played elegantly in the sunny conditions.

Despite both been dismissed by the time the score had got to 103-3 in 22 overs all was loaded in Wellington’s favour and to this end 78 were needed with seven wickets in hand and with 28 overs left.

Luke Desave and Zandre Swartz added a further 47 runs in good style making 32 and 18 respectively to take their side to the favourable position of 150-3 in 30 overs before Swartz was bowled by Chard skipper J.Scott who turned matters on their head as he joined the attack in the 31st over and by the time of the 39th over he had taken 4-2 in five overs and has swept Wellington away as they lost seven wickets for fifteen runs to lose by the same numbers of runs with eleven overs left unused.

Wright with 4-41 also bowled spin well too for Chard and they had claimed eighteen points to Wellington’s six.

Heavy defeats for Butleigh keep them rooted to the bottom if the table and Frome (whose result has been already mentioned) are now in the mire too; next weekend Frome host Chard, Butleigh host Wembdon and Glastonbury visit Wellington.