Wellington 219-9 Staplegrove 220-8 Wellington slipped to sixth in the Somerset Division of the West of England Premier League following their second derby defeat in seven days as Staplegrove won with four balls to spare to take 19 points to Wellington’s 8.
The Red and Blacks are still within twenty points of second place and will be looking to this weekend’s game at Butleigh to recover the ground lost recently.
After being put into bat in showery conditions Wellington lost a wicket with the score on eight before Marc Holloway – in his first appearance at this level in 2013 – with 43 and Alex Sparks with 59 added 94 excellent runs for the second wicket as they cashed in on some wayward Grove bowling with great cover driving coming to the fore.
Holloway was closing in on a half century when he was stumped just before drinks. Sparks was caught in the gully from one that spun greatly. Aks Latifi with 45 and Neil Hendy with 31no got Wellington to a very healthy 219-9 at tea. Mike Bird with 3-35 was Staplegrove’s most successful bowler.
Wellington did not make a breakthrough for 25 overs and then nearly dismissed Staplegrove in 25 overs as their innings was a two sided affair – Tom Pantling with 69 and Dan Sizer with 67 looked at complete ease as they compiled a 126 run opening stand that was ended when Pantling was bowled by Paul Short.
Although Neil Hendy – back to bowling after three weeks out of this side of the game – took two middle order wicket the visitors were closing in on a good win as Bird made 24, but their lower order wobbled to such an extent that at 217-8 the game could have gone either way; two excellent catches from George Hooper are worthy of note, but Grove got over the line with four balls left to leave Wellington empty handed for a second week in local derby terms.
South Petherton 141 Wellington 2nd XI 142-1
Wellington 2nd XI expertly despatched bottom side South Petherton in Division Three of the Somerset League last weekend and are now occupying a mid table position as a result of back to back wins.
With Richard Henwood back as skipper after injury the toss was won by Wellington and they had the chance to bowl Petherton out for less than a ton had all chances given been accepted, but the job was done in the end as Ollie Wilkins held a hat trick of chances.
Ian Hewson with 2-30 in 12 controlled overs of medium pace let nothing go as did his new ball partner Adrian Lee who clocked up 1-11 in 8 overs.
The plaudits went to Lee Nichol with 5-57 in 11 overs as he took his first five wicket haul for the Club.
Harris with 32 and some entertaining hitting from the home side’s lower order got them to 141 all out with over five overs left at the time that Tom Baycock removed the home skipper Williams for 18.
Wellington never looked back when batting and lost only one wicket when doing so; Robin Davies made a good 11 before Trevor Brooks with 43no and the in-form Mark Salter with 70no accumulated the runs in under 30 overs as Petherton made no impact and even at this stage of the season look doomed.
Wellington will entertain Wembdon 2nd XI this coming weekend and travel to Horrington to complete their first half of the season.
Wellington 3rd XI 86 Weston Super Mare 4th XI 84
Wellington 3rd XI held their nerve when it mattered to go twenty points clear in Division 9NW of the Somerset League after beating Weston Super Mare’s fourth team by just two runs last weekend to make it five wins and a draw in six games so far.
Wellington decided to bat first and it was Tom Hawkings who held the top order together with his knock of 18 as no other batsman in the top eight made double figures; for Weston Stone with 5-33 in 11.4 overs and Skinner with 4-10 bowled well and at 60-9 Wellington were looking in real trouble, but a spirited and in the end match winning stand of 26 for the last wicket between Charlie Burrough and Alex Troake saved the day for the Red and Blacks third string.
Burrough – who plays for the Club’s Under 13s – made a fine 12no as he was solid in defence and scored runs when the opportunity presented itself and Troake made a career best score of 19 and this was a fine effort by this pair, but Wellington still only had 86 runs to play with – how would their time with the ball go?
Very well in actual fact was the case as Macaulay Campbell lead the Wellington attack and took 6-15 in 12 fine overs of medium fast seam bowling as he reduced WSM to 14-5 helped by Richard Short who took 2-17 in eight good overs of his own.
Only four of the WSM players made a run, but Stone with 34 and Dance with 12 turned 39-6 into 73-6 and the winning line was in sight, but an inspired spell from Chris Shapland who took 2-15 in six overs of left arm seam combined with Campbell’s second spell saw the game come to Wellington and 29 points too.
The team are away to Bridgwater Sports on Saturday and then end the first half of the season with a home game against Huntspill and District.
- Mention to another of the Club’s Under 13s who made a senior debut in this game goes to Josh Hawkings; he too equipped himself well following his call up.
- Next Sunday the Club’s Sunday XI are away to Taunton St Andrews in a friendly fixture that starts at 2.00pm.
Match reports: David Derrick