Wellington’s Sunday XI drew this friendly match at West Somerset League Division Two side Holford last weekend when they ended up some 30 runs short of victory.

Wellington opted to put the home side into bat and Holford romped away with Dray and Searle putting on 94 for the first wicket. George Coate and Andy Mitchell bowled well for no reward as Coate again suffered the agony of seeing a slip chance going down after he had done all the hard work.

Mitchell whipped up good pace and again deserved more than was on offer. Adrian Lee settled down after his first couple of overs had been costly, but the breakthrough came through Rob Moysey’s leg-spinners that realised 3-36 in 9 overs. Moysey obtained some sharp spin from the benign surface and got some real ‘rip’ at times.

Wellington were happy to restrict the home side to just over 200 after they had seemed all set to make around 250. Adrian Hearn kept things tight and Chris Kittow’s useful off-spin saw wickets fall late on as the teenager took 4-25. Holford settled on 218-7 after 42 overs.

Rob Moysey and Chris Kittow added 39 for Wellington’s first wicket before Moysey was bowled by Smith with a real creeper, Moysey made 21. Kittow carried on his promising start to his Wellington career with a composed 23 before spinner Stone found a way through his defence.

Alec Short, on the ground where he made 143 two years ago, made a more modest 29 this time round, but still found time to loft one out of the ground and into the corn field. At 120-5 Wellington were listing rather, but Adrian Hearn and Andy Perry got the bandwagon rolling again with a blockbuster stand of 65. Hearn made a career best 76 with four large sixes and Perry made a confident 18. Both hit the ball cleanly and solidly and had they kept going then who knows, but Hearn was caught and one ball later Perry was run out and from then on Wellington preserved their remaining wickets.