WELLINGTON beat bottom side Butleigh by 28 runs away to record their second successive victory in the Somerset Division of the West of England Premier Cricket League.

However, it was far from a straight-forward win with Wellington, who opted to bat first, reduced at one stage to 103-8 before their lower-batters came to the rescue.

Wellington’s last two wickets put on 130 runs with the last pair of Toby Stirzaker (47) and Tom Hopkins (26 not out) scoring 63 as the visitors were eventually bowled out for 229.

Earlier Wellington’s openers George Ruell and Luke Desave both scored 16 before the first wicket went down. Wickets then began to tumble as Wellington lost eight wickets for just over 100 runs with only Sam Whitefield (27) and Nathan Yarde (17) managing to make any runs.

Ben Evett, batting at No 9, scored a quick-fire 45 in only 28 balls to boost Wellington’s score before Stirzaker and Hopkins shared in what proved to be a match-winning last-wicket stand. Sam Bilsborough was Butleigh’s leading run-taker with 3-28 in ten tidy overs.

Butleigh also ran into early trouble with the bat as Hopkins removed both openers Robert Milligan (7) and Mark Agutter (0) with only 24 runs on the scoreboard.

However, Bryan James (54) and Will Morgan-Phillips (54) got Butleigh back into the game with only five wickets down for 165. But the home side were beginning to fall behind the required run rate for victory and eventually finished on 205-9 in their 50 overs.

Desave took 3-18, Hopkins 2-26 and Yarde 2-30 while there was a wicket apiece for skipper Arron Campbell and Lakshan Edirisinghe.

Elsewhere, Temple Cloud lost for only the second time this season, going down by 61 runs against Ilminster but remain top of the table, eight points clear of second-placed Taunton Deane 2nd XI who beat Shapwick & Polden.