WELLINGTON 3rd XI bounced back to winning form in Division Seven South of the Somerset League by beating Wembdon 5th XI by four runs at Sampford Arundel, moving up to third in the table, writes David Derrick.

Tyler Fyfe chose to bat first which saw Phil Baker and Jack Holloway put on 68 quality first wicket runs and they looked to be in complete control, before they were prised apart with Holloway making 27 (28 balls five fours) and Baker 30 (33 balls, seven fours).

Wellington’s score dipped to 81-5 as only Des Campbell with 17 prospered in the middle order. It took another Craig Schultz blockbuster of 46 (21 balls, seven fours and two sixes) to energise Wellington as he took the score to 141-6 and it was good that last pair Ben White and Jay Jadeja added 21 runs that were all made by White (12 balls, two fours and two sixes) to boost the final team score to 177.

Dickinson with 3-39 and H.Fairfax with 3-23 did good work with the ball.

Lee, with 38, and Bell with 14 added a classy 41 for Wembdon 5's first wicket, but, from then on, spin from Aayan Kazi and Jack Holloway ran through the visitors line up as they took a combined total of seven wickets for 47 in sixteen overs as Kazi trapping 4-26 in eight overs and Holloway 3-21, also in eight overs.

Craig Schultz took the other pair of wickets to fall as Wembdon skipper Syvret with 55 at a run a ball still harboured hopes of pulling off a win from a position of 90-7 as H.Fairfax with 16 continued his good game. When Syvret was out the score was 165-9, but, trying as hard as they might, the last pair for Wembdon in E. Fairfax and Dickinson could only muster eight runs.