Uphill top of the table clash hit by injury

UPHILL Castle lost their top of the table clash with Wembdon by 58 runs in a bizarre game, blighted by bad luck.

Winning the toss, Uphill inserted Wembdon on a grassy wicket. George Cox and Simon Webster bowled an excellent opening spell with many balls beating the bat, and edges racing away for four before Webster had Puddy caught behind for 18.

Cox bowled Gower in the eighth over with the score on 49, before Brockwell and Peck put on 49 runs when Uphill’s luck changed.

Krish Kumar in his second over tore an inter-costal muscle and could not continue bowling, Williams filled in for three balls and had Brockwell caught off his second ball.

Marcus Bail took a wicket at the other end and Rob Tasker chipped in with a further wicket leaving Uphill in the driving seat as Wembdon were 105-5.

Bail then dislocated his shoulder fielding a ball, and Kumar joined him on the sidelines as his injury deteriorated leaving Uphill with nine men in the field for a number of overs, before replacements could be sorted.

Bingham and Pope should have taken the initiative, but only put on 79 from 18 overs thanks to accurate bowling from Hayden Watts and Tasker, backed up by some spirited fielding.

Uphill got their quota of fielders back up to 11 as they were helped out by Jason and son Kruz Belcher.

Webster turned the game for Uphill as he came back for his second spell and blew the innings away as the last five wickets fell for 21 runs off five overs, including a fine overhead catch by Kruz Belcher.

With 202 to chase, Uphill were confident the job could be done, but the innings got off to a disastrous start. Wembdon openers Bingham and Pope bowled an excellent spell with Uphill’s nicks going to hand.

Kumar, who was restricted in movement, was adjudged lbw, Seb Winn followed the following over the same way. Tasker and Belcher both nicked good deliveries to the keeper and Goegan was run out by a direct hit, leaving the Uphill innings in tatters at 6-5.

Andy Llewellyn and Watts put together a partnership, but both fell leaving Uphill 52-8, with Bail in Musgrove Hospital. With Bingham and Pope finishing their spell, the last pair of Webster and Cox put on a terrific last wicket partnership of 92, both hitting the ball to all parts.

The partnership was broken by the drinks break as Cox was caught behind the following over for an excellent 49 including five fours and three sixes, leaving Webster stranded on 28, as Uphill were all out for 144.

Uphill’s Specsavers man of the match was Simon Webster.

WEMBDON

S Puddy c Goegan b Webster 18

R Gower b Cox 20

R Peck lbw Bail 33

J Brockwell c Kumar b Williams 22

P Joshi c A Belcher b Tasker 3

D Bingham c Watts b Webster 41

B Pope c Winn b Watts 44

P Goss b Webster 2

R Eckley c K Belcher b Watts 2

D Watts not out 2

A Cook b Webster 2

Extras 13

Total 202

Bowling: S Webster 9.4-0-53-4; G Cox 5-0-23-1; K Kumar 2.3-0-23-0; M Bail 7-1-28-1; G Williams 1-0-1-1; R Tasker 10-0-42-1; H Watts 8-0-31-2.

UPHILL CASTLE

S Winn lbw Pope 1

K Kumar lbw Pope 0

A Belcher c Eckley b Bingham 3

R Tasker c Eckley b Bingham 0

J Goegan run out 0

H Watts b Bingham 14

G Williams c Pope b Bingham 0

A Llewellyn c & b Bingham 16

G Cox c Eckley b Brockwell 49

S Webster not out 28

M Bail abs hurt 0

Extras 33

Total (9 wkts) 144

THE seconds entertained Wembdon and went down by five wickets.

Batting first, Uphill made a steady start with openers Mark Hodder and Ashley Doyle before Doyle was caught for 20. Tom Oultram looked comfortable until he was out for 17.

A decent partnership between Hodder and Jake Llewellyn ended when Hodder was caught for a patient 45. Soon after, Llewellyn was bowled for 44 as Uphill were bowled out in the last over for 181.

Uphill made a good start with early wickets for James Holt and Andy Leech, but Wembdon made the most of a plethora of full tosses. Further wicket fell to Holt (3-56) and Leech (2-44) as the visitors reached their target with nearly 10 overs to spare.

Specsavers man of the match was Andy Leech.

UPHILL Cavaliers secured their fourth straight victory with an emphatic 158-run win over Huish & Langport 3rds.

Asked to bat, Uphill made a steady start thanks to Jamie Stephens (48) and Paul Kuht (19), but the loss if three quick wickets left Uphill on 88-4. However, sensible batting from Chris Oultram and Ewen Kennedy saw Uphill regain control and when Kennedy was out for 18, Uphill had reached 130.

Skipper Gary Kennedy joined Oultram and the pair took the score to 212 before Kennedy was out for 37. Oultram went on to top score with 78 not out and with Ben Castle (20) scored 48 of the last three overs to take Uphill’s total to 260.

In reply, Huish never looked like chasing down Uphill’s score and thanks to some accurate bowling from Nick Kuht and Pete Jobling, soon found themselves 28-3.

Kuht continued his good form finishing with 5-16 and with Jobling taking 2-34, Huish were seven down at the halfway stage.

Huish were finally dismissed for 102, Ewen Kennedy being the pick of the other bowlers used taking 1-7.

Specsavers man of the match was Chris Oultram.

THE 4th XI travelled to play Huntspill & District and lost by 81 runs.

Uphill started steadily and reduced the hosts to 86-6, but young Tom Garner batted well for his 58 to take Huntspill to 191 all out. For Uphill, Mark Patch took 4-55 and Hallam Bickell 2-18.

Martin Taylor and Statham got the Uphill innings off to a good start, but Huntspill captain Dave Counsell reduced the visitors to 36-3.

Fourteen-year-old spinner Freddy Berry bowled in tandem with his skipper and between them bowled 20 overs, taking five wicket for only 40 runs. Taylor played a dogged innings, finally being bowled for 27.

The only other batsman to reach double figures was Patch with a lively 21 from 13 balls, while Ben Hodder recorded his fourth duck in a row.

Specsavers man of the match went to Mark Patch.