Wellington Cricket Club

We have two non league games at Sidmouth and Staplegrove on Sunday 6th May and Sunday 13th May respectively and then we take a break from match action until Sunday 10th June.        

• Sunday 20th May – We were due to be hosting Uphill Castle CC on this date, but the match was pulled from the schedule pre-season as the Weston Super Mare based club has a National KO Cup match on that date and that is the higher priority all round. This is now a free date.        
• Sunday 27th May – Somerset are playing at home to Hampshire on this date in the National 40 Over a Side competition and already some WCC members have purchased tickets for this game; it would be good to turn this date into 2012’s Big Day Out as we did for the match with India last year. Go to www.somersetcountycc.co.uk/tickets for details and to purchase your tickets.        
• Sunday 3rd June – We have another event involving the County Club when the SCCC Dragons side come to WCC to play a match; help will be required on the day and details of this will be issued when available.        
• Sunday 10th June – We resume match action with a Sunday League game at home to North Newton CC.

Wellington’s opening home game of the new season saw Somerset League Division Two side North Perrott come to Courtland Road and leave with a five wicket win that Wellington’s nicely mixed team made a more experienced side work for all the way to the end.

The match was in doubt as heavy showers made their presence known and Wellington were put into bat on Perrott winning the toss and through Charlie Davies and Aks Latifi they faced a great opening burst from Hawes who brought one back to get through Davies defence after 33 had been added.

Latifi was the dominant factor in the Wellington innings as he made 75 – he smashed three sixes and worked the ball around well on an outfield that was slow through the rain of earlier in the week.

Downing with 2-21 and Whorlow with 2-24 did best with the ball for North Perrott as they found themselves needing 127 to win.

Whorlow and Spurway added 25 first up for Perrott before Tom Hawkings got a wicket on senior debut as he trapped Spurway LBW – Paul Melville, another newcomer to Wellington bowled Clark when he went back instead of forward and when Robin Davies and his hard to pick left arm chinaman saw Marshall-James was plumb in front North Perrott were in trouble with the overs running out, but Whorlow played a skipper’s innings of 58 and saw his team home and although Paul Short and Paul Melville each claimed a wicket when the scores were level a scrambled bye saw North Perrott home with nine balls to spare.

Good effort levels were put in here by both sides and a close game resulted – Wellington now move on to hosting Bridgwater in a Taunton and District Sunday League Division A game on Saturday 28th April and Street in a non league match on Sunday 29th April.

This was a decent workout for Wellington as they recorded a win over Devon League Division A side Exeter last Saturday in a 30 over a side match.

Choosing to bat first in windy and blustery conditions Paul Short and Sam Murdock opened up for Wellington and had to weather a decent opening burst from Mead and Richardson and run scoring opportunities were in short supply, but through resolute occupation of the crease a stand of 45 in 13 overs developed before Murdock speared one high and was caught for 12.

Two more wickets were lost and at 51-3 with 15 overs gone and to go Wellington needed a boost and skipper Short and Aks Latifi provided it as 115 runs were added in these 15 overs with Short top scoring with 53 as he played the ball to leg very well and Latifi making 38 including taking 23 from an over sent down by B.Bosworth.

Indika Weerawarna and Rob Moysey added 39 more unbroken runs by making 21no and 28no respectively to hoist Wellington to an impressive 166-5 at tea with Exeter having lost all their early dominance with only Reddick with 2-29 taking more than one wicket.

The City side were removed for 90 with one over left as all the Wellington bowlers got in on the act – Luke Desave and Thom Trott were fast, accurate and three wickets fell during their opening spell as a lovely outswinger from Trott got the edge of A.Bosworth’s bat and Aks Latifi had an easy keeper’s catch to take, Croney – who had kept well for Exeter earlier in the game – and Cawthorn were both run out with Desave and Charlie Davies both doing good work in the outfield and Exeter never got going again as wickets fell regularly – Indika Weerawarna bowled his biting off spin to great effect and his quicker ball was too good for Exeter’s South African Viljoen.

Nelsey with 21 and Mead with 17 added some gloss to a poor Exeter batting effort and late wickets from Rob Moysey and in Thom Trott’s second spell saw the job done by the Red and Blacks by a margin of 76 runs.

Junior section membership is being dealt with by Richard Short and his team this week on Tuesday for Under 11s and Under 13s and on Thursday for the Under 15s.

We are now four games into the 2012 season and we need the senior section players to pass their membership fees to Adrian Lee.

Please use the next two net sessions (leading up to the opening SCL matches) as a chance to pay your fee as well as the two home games we have next weekend against Bridgwater and Street.

Rob Moysey (Capt), Paul Short, Aaron Campbell, Aaron Chugg, Charlie Davies, Robin Davies, Aks Latifi (Wkt), Tom Hawkings, Paul Melville, Sam Cook, Ollie Wilkins

Meet at Pavilion at 12.30pm for a 1.30pm start.

A working party of Simon Spalding, Richard Short and David Derrick will be performing a two part assessment of our ground and facilities – the risk assessment is required for Club Mark and the facilities grading is part of the SCL’s quality driven process to improve what is on offer at their member Clubs grounds according to four key principles.

The site visit will take place on Tuesday 1st May at 7.15pm

Our first ever Ladies Committee has been formed and it is to meet for the first time next month – on the Committee are Amanda Moysey, Jane Trott, Judith Short and Jenny Baycock.

Paul Short (Capt), Thom Trott, Rob Moysey, Max Capaldi, Aks Latifi (Wkt), Luke Desave, Sam Murdock, Will Hinchcliffe, Indika Weerawarna, Charlie Davies, Adrian Lee

Meet at Courtland Road Car Park at 11.15am for a 1.00pm start.

The Club’s Fixture Card for 2012 is now available.

Contact your Team Skipper or Team Manager for a copy.

Life Members and Vice Presidents will be contacted with a copy very soon.