Wellington Cricket Club

Everyone should be well aware of the bar we set up last summer, a good number of you have used it quite a bit already!  Over the winter/spring some improvements have been made ready for the new season and we hope to see everyone enjoying the cricket and making use of the new facilities.

As part of our license, we can only sell alcohol to members of the club, or people with the travelling opposition.  This means that anyone in the club wishing to buy alcohol from the bar must be a fully paid up member.  This is why we have a new social membership level for supporters who do not play but it also means players have to pay their membership as well.

Please read my post about membership costs for 2011 and make sure you are paid up before you try and buy a drink…

We will be issuing membership cards to people once they have paid and you may be asked to produce this card when buying alcohol.

Membership fees have been relatively stable for a number of years. In order to fund development in the club, we are looking to change our subscription fees and make use of our Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) status to bring in more money without any additional cost to members.

As a CASC, we can claim Gift Aid on donations from UK tax payers who have signed an appropriate form. As an example, this makes a £20 donation worth £25 to the club.

Donations can take various forms and we are looking at ways we can make use of it to help fund the changes that you have no doubt noticed happening to the club.

For 2011 we will be trialling a change to our membership fees that we hope will be supported.

Fees will be as follows:
Senior players: £10
Junior players: £20 (includes all junior match fees)
Social members: £5

We will also be asking senior player over 18 to make a voluntary donation of £20 and to sign a Gift Aid form if they are eligible. This donation is optional and will not affect membership in any way.

We hope players will support the club and see the extra value which can be used to improve facilities available to all. In 2010 senior membership was £30, in 2011 a senior player paying their £10 membership fee, and donating £20 will pay the same as 2010, but the club will receive £5 more through the Gift Aid scheme.

Multiply this extra £5 by the number of senior members we have and the club could make an extra £200 a year to be used to improve the club and its facilities.

You can download and print off membership forms and Gift Aid declarations from the Forms and Documents page of the WCC web site.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please speak to Adrian Lee or Marc Holloway.

Wellington completed their Cougar Indoor League season with a win that saw them complete the double over Sampford Arundel for the 2010-2011 season when they won by 22 runs last weekend.

Wellington played pretty much a complete game with both bat and ball as Paul Short and Neil Hendy worked the ball around the arena well and combined this play with some hard hit back wall shots too; both retired at 25no having played well in tandem.

James Bath was narrowly run out to be first man out for Wellington with the score on 73 and this brought Aks Latifi to the crease, he too worked the ball round well until he was bowled.

Marc Holloway and Adrian Lee got Wellington to full batting points and the Red and Blacks had posted a testing score.

Adrian Lee and Paul Short opened up for Wellington and applied a tight rein on Sampford’s effort with the bat – Ian Oliver and Seb Coe were looking for the back wall and maxima, but were unable to find such; Oliver was first out LBW to Short as he tried to work the ball round the corner and got in to a bit of a tangle.

Darren Burns arrived at the crease and batted through for his side being not out at the end and he played a good knock with deft glides off the walls and some good back wall shots.

Wellington fielded well as Neil Hendy’s low catch to remove Bill Townsend showed and in the end they took 21 points to round off a season that realised nine wins and three losses from twelve matches.

Wellington suffered their first Cougar Indoor League defeat of the second half of the season when they went down by 29 runs to Ashbrittle last Sunday afternoon against the side who had been defeated by Bridgwater in the Somerset Section Final of the ECB National competition the day before.

A meaty over costing 23 runs was the difference between the two sides in the end pretty much as Ashbrittle batted flowingly all innings; Wellington were made to work hard in the field throughout as Neil Hendy and Sam Murdock were Wellington’s successful bowlers.

The Red and Blacks needed to go at 14 an over all innings and that was going to be tough, but Neil Hendy hit two sixes on his way to retirement and Paul Short was working the ball around the arena very nicely until he was well caught on the back wall – one handed in fact.

Aks Latifi joined Hendy and played an energy packed innings, but he was run out and that made the job all the more harder for Wellington; Thom Trott too worked the ball off the walls well and James Bath with 29 always gave his side hope and he was there until the very end, but Wellington were always chasing the game and when Bath was caught in the last over Ashbrittle had a 29 run win.

Wellington have a month off from Cougar League action and end their season on Sunday 6th March with a double header against South Petherton at 2.30pm and Sampford Arundel at 3.30pm.

Wellington batted first and Paul Short and Neil Hendy got away to a good start with a 26 run stand, but the swift Bridgwater fielding saw that run scoring opportunities were hard to come by and this stand took four overs to compile; the WEPL side had a good awareness of each other and where the ball was throughout the Wellington innings.

Hendy was first to go, bowled by Higgins for a good 14.

Another wicket was lost with the score on 30, but Thom Trott joined Short and got Wellington into the fifties and with Short angling the ball around the arena and Trott (13) hitting two straight driven fours Wellington were coming back into things; Short made it to 27no and retirement.

Aks Latifi made a fluent 13 before being stumped to leave Sam Murdock and Paul Short to bat out for Wellington, who had posted 87-4 in 12 overs.

Davis with 2-20 in 3 overs was Bridgwater’s best bowler.

Bridgwater batted solidly throughout and waited rather than engineered run scoring opportunities; Coles with 28no hit the ball very hard and gave his side the early impetus to go on from; although Thom Trott and Neil Hendy did bowl some very good deliveries and Hendy was left wondering how he did not get at least one LBW shout to go his way.

Paul Short was Wellington’s wicket taker on the day with 2-30 as he caught and bowled Davis and saw Marc Holloway catch one to get rid of Halleran and when Sam Murdock saw his first over cost just one run Bridgwater were being pegged back, but they got over the line when their keeper Standerwick glanced one for three leg byes and Bridgwater were over the line, but not without a Wellington giving them a real test and maybe had Wellington had 110 on the board it would have been even closer.

This was a comfortable enough Cougar Indoor League win over Curry Rivel that saw Wellington complete the double as well, but six points were dropped as the Red and Blacks bowling was tight and accurate and the fielding was of a good quality too, but did not have the potency to run through the Curry line up and to take ‘only’ 16 points from the match was slightly disappointing after a powerful batting show.

Paul Short and Neil Hendy got the Wellington innings going well as both worked the ball well off the walls and punished the Curry bowlers who started to bowl short for some reason to give away no ball extras. Hendy retired and Short was the only casualty of the Wellington innings when he was run out off a no ball, but both had played well.

Aks Latifi and Thom Trott ensured this was a polished batting performance and could even afford to play out a maiden from the impressive left arm spinner Higginson as they got to within four runs of full batting points as Wellington totalled 116-1 in their 10 overs.

Curry Rivel were going to have to go at a dozen runs per over for ten overs to overhaul Wellington and Sam Murdock ensured that they did not get away to anything like that sort of start as he bowled a fine line and length and did work with the ball too, Thom Trott is looking the bowler he did a couple of years ago and he bowled well with a good amount of bounce been extracted – he is crucial to Wellington’s outdoor aspirations this summer.

Curry Rivel batted well enough and although they were not up with the run rate they were always denying Wellington bowling bonus points as they lost just the one wicket as Thom Trott took a simple caught and bowled chance off of Wilkes.

The game petered out with Curry needing 32 from the last over, they got nine only, but had denied Wellington five bowling points too.

The next indoor appointments for Wellington are on Saturday 5th February at SCCC when they take on Bridgwater at 1.00pm in the Somerset section of the ECB National Indoor Sixes competition and on Sunday 6th February at Wellington School when they take on Ashbrittle in a Cougar League match that starts at 2.30pm.

Indoor net sessions have been arranged at SCCC on each of the following dates – Monday 21st March, Monday 28th March and Monday 4th April; each session will take place between 8pm and 9pm.

Details from Paul Short.

A clinical indoor performance was delivered by Wellington in their first game back in Cougar League action at Wellington School last Sunday when they avenged their pre Christmas defeat by Rackenford with this 54 run 21 point win.

Wellington – with Marc Holloway back at the indoor helm – opted to bat first and saw Paul Short and Neil Hendy both get to the retirement level of 25no in good time as they worked the ball well around the arena and profited from what had let Wellington down when the teams before the festive period – extras and too many of them.

Wellington rattled along at ten an over for the first half of their innings and Thom Trott and Holloway added to this as the Red and Blacks closed in on full batting bonus points.

Now that an indoor innings is only ten overs long Rackenford had to go some to make the near 120 required – Sam Murdock, Thom Trott, Neil Hendy and Paul Short did not let the Devon side prosper with the bat.

Trott got some good lift and bounce from the matted surface and did not let anything go – Hendy saw good fielding occur in his spell as a run out and a stumping came about in two balls and a further run out when Short was in the attack saw that Marc Holloway had the honour of sealing the game for Wellington with Aks Latifi took a good leg side catch from the only ball he had to deliver.

As said before this was a clinical response by Wellington and they have a double header of Cougar action this Sunday (23rd January) with Curry Rivel at 11.30am and Stogumber at 12.30pm.

• Wellington have an extra indoor appointment soon when they play Bridgwater in the Somerset section of the ECB’s National Indoor Sixes competition at SCCC on Saturday 5th February from 1.00pm; also taking part are Wellington’s local rivals Sampford Arundel and Ashbrittle and they meet each other after the Wellington v Bridgwater match. Paul Short has details of this competition for the Red and Blacks.

Our indoor side to play Rackenford on Sunday 16th January at 1.30pm is as follows,

Marc Holloway, Paul Short, Neil Hendy, Aks Latifi, Sam Murdock and Thom Trott

Meet at Wellington School at 1.15pm.