Wellington Cricket Club

Paul Short (Capt), Thom Trott, Aks Latifi (Wkt), Luke Desave, Michael Gill, Indika Weerawarna, Rob Moysey, Sam Murdock, James Bath, Marc Holloway, Alex Sparks

Meet at Courtland Road Car Park promptly at 11.00am.

Details from Paul Short.

Wellington top the Somerset League following this 34 run win over Watchet who were the bottom side going into the game, but Paul Short’s side were frustrated by an obdurate display from Watchet’s lower order having earlier blown a 147 run opening stand to be all out – in effect – for 48.

Paul Short opted to bat first on winning the toss and it was he and Marc Holloway who took the visiting attack apart to the tune of 147 glorious runs in 30 overs; Short cracked 80 with nine fours and a six as he was the dominant factor in the stand early and as it developed Holloway stepped up a gear and made 57 good runs of his own.

Watchet were bereft of ideas having conceded 257 and 237 in the two previous games and were on course for the same result, but the run out of Holloway saw Wellington collapse in spectacular style as they were all out for just 48 more runs and thus dropped a batting bonus point.

Alex Sparks with 28 was in good touch, but the Red and Blacks were all out with 3.3 overs left.

Watchet showed excellent spirit as Lovell with 5-38 and R.Strong with 4-14 gave Wellington a nasty surprise and they would need 196 to win.

Thom Trott and Luke Desave throttled the run rate to see that Watchet would not really threaten the required total, but they batted with a steely resolve that would see Wellington claim only seven of the ten wickets on offer.

James Bath was electric in the field as he ran out both Manley and R.Strong with direct hits and he generally was a real live wire in the field.

Sam Murdock bowled with good pace and zip to take 2-24 in eight overs delivered in two spells and the teasing spin of Indika Weerawarna realised 3-20 in 10 overs and at 65-6 with only Bishop’s 24 being an innings of note for Watchet Wellington were closing in on a big win, but C.Strong with 42no, Lovell with 20 and Jones with 20no saw that only one more wicket fell in 17 overs and this was frustrating for Paul Short’s side who took 31 points to Watchet’s 18.

Wellington are top by 13 points from Temple Cloud who suffered a home defeat to Ashbrittle last weekend and are off to last season’s Division Two runners up Kilmington and Stourton on Saturday and it is they who now prop the division up.

Paul Short (Capt), Thom Trott, Michael Gill, Aks Latifi (Wkt), Sam Murdock, James Bath, Rob Moysey, Indika Weerawarna, Luke Desave, Marc Holloway and Alex Sparks.

Meet at Pavilion at 12.30pm for a 1.45pm start.

Details from Paul Short.

Wellington and a Taunton Deane team met in one of the two Baker Cup related competitions as has been the case often in the past few seasons last Monday evening and it was the County Town team who made it to the first round proper of the Baker Cup for 2012, but only by one wicket with just three balls to spare and Wellington had chance to have won the game too.

Paul Short was the mainstay of the Wellington innings as the skipper made a capital 41 that saw some great running between the wickets and with some hard hit boundaries thrown in for good measure; he was well supported by Aks Latifi and Charlie Davies.

Luke Desave and Neil Hendy made more useful runs and at 88-5 Wellington were hoping for around 100 as a final score, but the loss of five wickets for just one run in the last over to Thomas who took 4-17 saw that Taunton Deane 2nd XI would need 90 to win.

They did not start well as Luke Desave and Thom Trott made them 13-3 and then the Deane were at 44-7 and in all sorts of bother; Trott took 3-11 in 4 overs and Desave 4-29 in 5.

Rob Moysey and Paul Short bowled well, but the 29 that Squire made always kept Taunton Deane in the game and although two wickets were taken when the Deane’s score was in the eighties they were always just ahead of the game and their last man Thomas hit a six from his first ball to end the game and earn Taunton Deane 2nd XI a home match with Chard on Monday 28th May.

Wellington now enter the Terry Mockridge Memorial Shield and their opposition will be known at the end of the month.

Wellington made it two wins out of two in Division One of the Somerset League when they battled to a fine 22 run win at Purnells last weekend on a ground that has never been a happy hunting ground for the Red and Blacks.

Having lost the toss and been put in the going was tough as after a dozen overs the score was 35-3 and the home side were on top.

Alex Sparks with 27 was the steady hand at the top of the Wellington order, but at 92-7 with less than ten overs to go something was needed to inflate the score of the away side and Rob Moysey with a typically robust 58no with seven fours and a six and Sam Murdock with 18no added 69 for the eighth wicket to raise Wellington to 161-8 in 45 overs.

Jones with 2-16 in 10 overs was economical for Purnells.

Nolan with 41 and Crocker with 14 flayed their way to 55 for the opening Purnells wicket and Wellington were made to think and think hard, but the spin trick worked as Indika Weerawarna and Rob Moysey turned the ball and the game to Wellington as 78-1 became 79-5 as a dusty track paid dividends as they took 2-32 in 9 overs and 4-36 in 12 overs respectively.

Although the Purnells lower order had a go they had too much to do and this saw Wellington seal the game with Luke Desave taking two wickets on his way to returning figures of 2-32 in 11 overs and Simon Rudd sealed 33 points when he bowled Jones for 14.

It is home to Watchet this weekend and a third win in three is the aim.

Paul Short (Capt), Thom Trott, Neil Hendy, Luke Desave, Rob Moysey, Scott Davey, George Hooper, Charlie Davies, Sam Murdock, Aks Latifi (Wkt), Marc Holloway

Meet at Pavilion at 5.45pm for a 6.15pm start – please note this match is 18 overs per side and not 20.

Details from Paul Short.

Thom Trott (Capt), Luke Desave, Simon Rudd, Marc Holloway, Charlie Davies, Aks Latifi (Wkt), Indika Weerawarna, Sam Murdock, James Bath, Alex Sparks, Rob Moysey.

Depart from Courtland Road Car Park at 11.00am SHARP for a 1.45pm start.

In one of only two Somerset League Division One games to be played following the atrocious weather of the previous week Wellington started as they mean to carry on in 2012 when they beat last season’s runners up North Petherton at a cold and breezy Courtland Road last Saturday.

Club groundsman Simon Rudd and his team did so much hard work in the lead up to the game to get things on and it was a testament to these efforts that there was a game at all.

Petherton – with Ali Bunce who played for Wellington in 2011 back in their ranks – asked Wellington to bat first and it was hard going for Paul Short and Neil Hendy early on as Knight and Gibbs bowled a tight line and length that made run scoring hard work, but the opening Wellington wicket came when Hendy was run out after a call for quick single was aborted and he could not make his ground in time.

Skipper Short and Alex Sparks got their heads down and added 57 patient runs for the second wicket as run scoring opportunities were limited – only six boundaries were hit in the entire Wellington innings – Short had made it to 23 before he went to hit over the top and Bunce (3-38 in 12 overs) had a wicket.

Charlie Davies with a workmanlike 19 gave Sparks (48) fine support in a fifty run third wicket stand.

From 111-2 to 126-6 Wellington saw their score dip somewhat, but Rob Moysey and James Bath with 23no and 16 got the Red and Blacks to over 150 and Sam Murdock was with Moysey as Wellington pulled up one run short of an eighth batting point to leave North Petherton 160 to win.

The only time when they seemed to be in charge of the chase was when O.Irish and Gibbs were adding 55 for their fourth wicket as earlier Thom Trott and Luke Desave had reduced Petherton to 29-3 in 12 overs.

Irish made a fine 42, but was dropped once and made some profit from this drop, but other than Gibbs with 27 there was not really anyone to support this effort.

Indika Weerawarna was a handful as his bag of spin tricks came to the fore and he bowled better than 0-33 in 9 overs suggests.

Desave came back and took 4-15 (5-28 all told) in his second spell as he ran through the Petherton tail and this is such a potent weapon to have access to, this and Rob Moysey’s 3-34 in 10 overs delivered 32 points to Wellington.

The only other game to survive was Temple Cloud’s match with Watchet and the Bristol side took 34 points from a 65 run win.

Wellington trek north to Purnells next weekend.

Paul Short (Capt), Thom Trott, Luke Desave, Aks Latifi, Rob Moysey, Sam Murdock, Alex Sparks, Charlie Davies, Indika Weerawarna, James Bath and Neil Hendy.

Meet at Pavilion at 12.30pm for a 1.45pm start.

Details from Paul Short.