WEPL Somerset

Chard 176 beat Wembdon 86 by 90 runs

IT was a mixed weekend for Wembdon Cricket Club, with defeat in the league but success in the National Village KO Cup.

On Saturday Wembdon travelled to Chard and elected to bowl first upon winning the toss.

Some early pressure from James Annison and Brendan Pope made life difficult for the Chard openers and both were rewarded in the opening exchange, with Annison seaming a bowl back to take the leg stump of Reid Mawdsley while Pope had the dangerous Jon Dalwood caught behind for a duck.

Chard were patient and the middle order batted in partnerships on a low, slow wicket.

Having been 9-2, Chard recovered to 49-2 at which point Wembdon had opted to take the pace off the ball introducing Tom Lott, Dan Bingham and Sam Puddy.

Bingham got the breakthrough having Johnson (15) caught behind and Lott was soon in the action, trapping Denning (22) lbw.

At 66-4, Chard once again managed to rebuild and a stand of 45 for the fifth wicket was eventually broken as Bingham trapped Jonathan Scott (22) lbw.

Chard could only add one run when Crouch (26) chipped a Bingham delivery to mid wicket as Sellick held on to the catch.

Chard, now 112-6, were once again struggling, Bingham taking 3-26 from his 10 overs.

Wembdon continued to pick up regular wickets but the Chard lower order continued to plug away, moving the score along.

Sellick was the pick of the Wembdon bowlers in the latter stages of the innings, taking 3-24, while Pope returned to remove the hard hitting Chris Scott (27).

Chard nudged their way to a respectable 176 which was a challenging total on a testing wicket.

After tea, the Wembdon response got off to a poor start, losing Bingham without scoring.

Lott (11) and Puddy (11) moved Wembdon along with some free flowing cover drives and all seemed to be going well until Lott was unluckily stumped as the ball ricocheted off the wicketkeeper's pad on to the stumps.

Puddy then drove in the air to deep cover and Wembdon were back in trouble at 24-3.

Wembdon struggled to gain any momentum and found partnerships hard to come by which was to be the crucial difference between the two sides.

Wickets fell at regular intervals whilst some poor running and very average shot selection was not helping the cause.

Credit to Chard wicketkeeper Nathan Warren, who was involved in four dismissals, while only Liam Pigden (28 from 49) made any contribution worth noting.

Richard Scott's 4-26 and three late wickets for Dalwood wrapped up the Chard victory with Wembdon dismissed for 86.

Wembdon host Taunton Deane 2nd XI at The Green on Saturday, 12.30pm.

n On Sunday, Wembdon bounced back by defeating Timsbury in the National Village Cup by four wickets in a low scoring encounter on a wet wicket.

Wembdon elected to field first and the wickets were shared around, Mike Watts taking 3-31, as Timsbury were bowled out for 108.

Wembdon's response was positive and the slow surface wasn't stopping Tom Lott put away the bad ball.

Dan Bingham and Lott took the score into the 20's before Bingham was caught behind.

Lott continued and moved his total to 23 but then adjudged lbw made his way back to the pavilion.

Phil Curd, Liam Pigden and Pope all fell cheaply and, at 56-5, victory for Wembdon was by no means a certainty.

However Wembdon had a side with 11 batters all capable of batting in the middle order and it was Lowe and Rees that came together to stem the flow of wickets, rebuild and eventually take Wembdon close to the winning target.

Rees and Lowe took the total on to 91 when Rees (20) was caught in the deep.

Lowe remained and joined by Watts struck some late boundaries Lowe dispatching Sibley over long off for six to wrap up the game with just 20 balls remaining.

Wembdon will travel to either Stapleton or Hinton Charterhouse in the group semi final on May 26.

WEPL Premier 2 Bristol/Somerset

Taunton 182-9 (18 pts) beat Shapwick & Polden 169 by 13 runs

Following a first weekend loss, Shapwick & Polden were strengthened with the return of skipper Steve Tinnion, seamer Sean Stringer and the arrival of Kiwi import James Venkatrao.

The home side lost the toss and were asked to field on a sunny, dry day at Northbrook Road.

Stringer and Harry Woolway bowled tight lines and restricted the Taunton openers to only a couple of early boundaries before both seamers picked up a wicket each.

It was slow progress for Taunton who could only move on to 74-3 at drinks with Mason (2-19) and Luckins (0-26) showing great discipline.

First ball after drinks saw Dan Quick (21) loft to mid-off and Shapwick were well on top.

Away skipper Hugh Kelly (10) fell to a fantastic one-handed catch at slip off Ben Rudge (2-51).

Will Abell (44) showed positive intent to haul his side to 132 before the returning Stringer (3-41) accounted for him.

James Clark (33) played with no fear and dragged Taunton to their third batting point before being dismissed off the last ball of the innings.

A solid start from the Shapwick openers was ended on 21 when Venkatrao (7) was trapped lbw by Clark (4-21).

Sam Edmunds and Tinnion (60) batted with their usual aggression until Edmunds was trapped on the crease and bowled for 25. Wayne Spencer (12) and John Stratton (13) ably assisted the home skipper and, at 139-3, Shapwick were well on top.

However, at this point the returning spin of Clark picked up two wickets in as many balls, and with Tinnion falling to Dhindsa (2-42), suddenly Shapwick were staring down the barrel.

Rudge and Woolway attempted to dig in, to no avail, and 139-3 suddenly became 141-8.

Stringer and Luckins ground the score up to 169, but the run rate had crept up to six an over and it proved too much for the home side, who limped to 169 all out.

Certainly a game that the Shapwick side will feel they should have won, having been the better side for the majority of the game and looking in control of the run chase.

On Saturday, Shapwick & Polden travel to Ilminster, with both sides hoping to record their first win of the season.

WEPL Somerset

North Petherton 117 beat Taunton Deane 2nds 92 by 25 runs

ALI Zaryab Asif shone with the ball on his North Petherton debut as the hosts won a low-scoring match against Taunton Deane 2nds at Heathfield Park.

Pethy batted first and saw skipper Harry Bowditch add 22 for the first wicket with Adam Burns before the captain fell for 14.

Burns went on to make 23 and Asif chipped in with 16 but Pethy slipped from 61-2 to 88-8.

It needed a late cameo from Thomas Lambert, who made 20 not out from number 10, to guide the home side past 100 before they were eventually dismissed for 117 in the 39th over.

Sam Burgess was the pick of the Deane attack with 4-25, but both he and fellow opener Ali Warren fell early in the reply as the visitors slipped to 7-2 thanks to a wicket apiece for Ben Meek (1-28 from 10) and Farran Gregory (1-14 off eight).

Asif then ran through the middle order to claim 3-10 from 10 overs of miserly off-spin, with five maidens, including the key scalp of Deane captain Russell Jones for a patient 16.

Dave Jones made a battling 28 before becoming the first of two quickfire wickets for Paul Short (2-13), and Liam Winter wrapped it up by clean bowling Sam McClure with the score on 92, leaving the Deane 25 runs short.

On Saturday, Pethy have a local derby to contend with as they make the short trip to The Parks to take on Bridgwater 2nds, who have also won one and lost one so far.

Before that, on Thursday night, North Petherton’s T20 XI travel to The Green to take on Wembdon in the Somerset Cricket Board (SCB) Major Cup.