WELLINGTON 3rd XI suffered a second loss in a row in Division Seven South of the Somerset League with a disappointing defeat at Nynehead CC against Mass 2nd XI who came into the game in bottom place in this nine team division, writes David Derrick.

Wellington are now in fourth place and are fourteen points behind second placed Bishops Hull 2nd XI and 69 behind top dogs Trull 2nd XI who they host at Sampford Arundel CC on Saturday, June 27.

As for this game Connor Wickenden took charge of the team in Tyler Fyfe's absence and opted to bat first on winning the toss and this approach was rewarded by a 49 run opening stand between Phil Baker and Des Campbell who made 20 and 21 respectively.

However the middle order did not kick on as the score lurched to 73-6 with V.Kumar's 6-21 doing good for the home side. Max White with 25 and Aayan Kazi with 15 pulled things round for Wellington and took the score to 111-7 before Fawad Sadat and Jay Jadeja with ten apiece took the Red and Blacks third string to 146 all out in 35.4 overs.

Jay Jadeja bowled Sulaiman with the Mass score at 19, but it would be 74 runs more before Wellington saw further success as Wickenden's slow left arm orthodox put the home side in a spin as he took 4-30 in five overs.

He was joined by leg spinner Kazi who took 2-43 in seven overs before Mass squeezed home by just three wickets, even though they had a hefty nineteen overs left when their target score was reached with Puthanveedu cracking 77 not out in under 50 balls - their lynchpin as they collected 35 points and moved off the bottom to Wellington's 14.