Weston run out comfortable winners in early season friendly against Uphill Castle.

WESTON 1st XI faced Uphill Castle in the old firm clash that made up the latest round of pre-season friendlies.

Weston batted first and saw what will hopefully be the first of many 100 run first wicket partnership by openers Shabil Ahmed and Simon Green. It took until the introduction of ex-Westonian Matt Kearsey to break the deadlock, removing Green for 45 and Ahmed, who logged his half century, in quick succession, leaving two new batsmen, in the shape of Gary Morgan and Edd Brown, at the crease.

Both went out attacking and soon runs were flowing thick and fast, before Rob Owen took a fine catch on the boundary to give George Cox the wicket of Brown (41). Morgan (59 not out) was joined by Neave (16 not out) as Weston posted a competitive 225-3 off 40 overs.

The Weston opening bowlers, Adam Davies and Sean Stringer came out all guns blazing, and while Davies, fresh from a two year hiatus from cricket, took time to find his line, Stringer quickly sent the Uphill top three packing, all clean bowled.

This brought John Davidson and Lambert to the crease, and while runs were slow to come by, Davidson carved out a thoughtful innings, supported by Marcus Bail, who threw caution to the wind and flayed 28 in quick time.

Davidson eventually succumbed to Davies on 78, his team eventually closing their innings well short of the target on 155-7.

InTouch CRM man of the match was Sean Stringer.

? Weston’s second eleven also took on Uphill and in Will Whitell’s first game as captain also came away victorious.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Weston were soon in trouble as Andy Logan, Whitell, Sam Curley and Ian Wheaton were back in the pavilion with the score on just 26, three of whom fell to the bowling of Andy Leech (3-27).

Simon Turner and Pete Lomax rolled back the years in putting on 83 for the fifth wicket. However, when Turner was run out for 40, Weston was still in need of some impetus for the end of the innings.

It came in the shape of vice-captain Paul Stringer who smashed his way to a belligerent 89 from just 51 balls. With the support of Lomax who compiled a fine 71, they steered Weston towards a competitive 237-7 from their 40 overs.

In reply, Mark Hodder and Andy Llewellyn got Uphill off to a good start before they were both dismissed with the score on 46. Wickets continued to fall at a steady rate and with the exception of Tom Oultram (35) and Gareth Williams (62 not out) no other Uphill player made double figures until a tail end 10 from Andre Cox after which time the game had already been lost.

Pick of the Weston bowler were Tom Court (2-24), Ashley Allen (2-9) and Wilf Huxtable (3-55).

Intouch CRM man of the match was Paul Stringer.

? In the third team game taking place between Weston and Uphill’s third teams, Weston ran out comfortable winners.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Uphill made a steady start as Nigel Cook (10) and Bob Hurford (15) took the away team to 35-1. However, once both had been removed by Stuart Roberts (2-21), the rest of the order were blown away by Justin Turner (5-11) and the returning Ben Curley (3-1) leaving Uphill all out for just 45.

In reply, Weston had little difficulty in reaching their target, knocking the runs off in just 8.4 overs for the loss of just Tom Dancey.

After the captains agreed to allow Weston to bat on to get some more pre-season practice, the Weston batsmen made hay in the sunshine as Mike Lee (50 ret), Sam Poole (29), Carl Fletcher (40 ret), Matt Blamire (25 ret), Alex Penwill (22 not out) and Mark Gingell (13 not out) saw Weston to 203-2 from 30 overs.

In Uphill’s second innings the going got no easier for the batsmen as Curley (2-1), Dancey (2-13) and Blamire (1-8) made quick inroads and despite some late order runs from Matt Loud (26), Rob Latham (17 not out) and Kieran Ward (22 not out), Uphill’s innings drew to a close on 82-6.

Intouch CRM man of the match went to Justin Turner.