Minehead outplayed Wellington in a closely fought encounter in the Somerset League Reserves Division Two.

Wellington lost the toss and were put into bad on a green wicket. The Red and Blacks got off to a good start with opening batsmen Chris Close and Rupert Green finding the gaps effectively in a partnership worth 33.

Green was first to depart – bowled by Azharudin for 21. Into the crease came captain Bob Trott. Trott batted well finding the boundary ropes on a number of occasions. Wellington’s situation was looking promising until Close was caught behind for a patient 18.

From that moment Wellington’s batting collapsed with only youngster Alex Sparks (17) and Julian Jones (13) putting up any resistance. Wellington went from 67-1 to 120 all out with Trott top scoring with 26.
The pick of the Minehead attack was Clark who bowled a consistently good line and length taking 6-27 with his medium pacers.

After the poor batting performance Wellington had to put pressure on the Minehead Batsmen. They turned to the experience duo of Roy Hutchings and Simon Spalding in the hope of success. Spalding was the first to strike – bowling the Minehead opener with his accurate leg-spin.

Spalding (2-26) and Hutchings (2-21) continued to bowl a brilliantly economical spell putting pressure on the Minehead batsmen who struggled to 50-4 after 24 overs.

There was some good fielding, in particular from Chris Rudd who took a difficult catch backed up the away teams bowling. With the match poised for a close finish the Minehead wicket keeper Howard came to the crease and hit a quick fire 30 giving the home team the upper hand. With Wellington looking more and more like losing, Bob Trott decided to bring himself into the attack.

After a shaky opening start, Trott bowled an effective seven overs of his off-spin picking up 3-34, all of whom were clean bowled. This wasn’t enough for Wellington though as Minehead won with seven overs spare.