Wellington suffered a touch of 2014’s batting frailties in their opening match in the Somerset Division of the West of England Premier League when they collapsed to 85-9 chasing a modest Butleigh total of 136 as they too found the ball was king as, in effect, they lost all their wickets for 99 following a 37 run opening stand.

Wellington asked the visitors to Courtland Road to bat first and Parnell and Pope did well in the dreary, drizzly and murky conditions; Pope was the dominant player of the two as he made 26 before Luke Desave saw him pull one to George Hooper at mid wicket.

From then on Butleigh’s innings was one of fits and starts as Hicks with 18 and Wilkinson with 27 played well, but there was little support otherwise.

Thom Trott with 2-17 in 8 overs and Neil Hendy with 2-31 in 10 overs bowled in a controlled manner and kept a lid on any attacking intent that Butleigh may have had.

Rob Moysey wrapped matters up with 3-15 in 3.5 overs and Wian Gouws gave a masterclass behind the sticks as he took three catches and one stumping mainly standing up and would see that Butleigh only used up 34.5 of the 50 overs on offer.

Wellington’s innings got going with Paul Short and Marc Holloway each hitting a couple of good shots for four and they were settling in, but both were dismissed by time tea was taken and a third wicket fell too as Wellington went into the break at 19-3.

Wian Gouws cracked a quickfire 16 before hitting one to mid off.

Hicks with 5-24 in 10 overs was the highlight of the Butleigh effort with the ball, but with five LBW decisions going against Wellington there was a feeling that some of these needed more consideration than was actually given.

Rob Moysey with 11 and Thom Trott with 13 played well in trying circumstances, but at 85-9 the game was up for Wellington or so it seemed; Neil Hendy and Ian Hewson had other ideas however with a last wicket stand of 34 that was building momentum in favour of the Red and Blacks with Hendy making 23 good runs, however although getting a very good stride in he was swiftly given out LBW and so Wellington had lost by a small margin and took 5 points to Butleigh’s 18.