A superb knock of 92 not out by Weston’s Andy Fear led his side to a nail-biting victory at Shapwick & Polden.

WESTON got back to winning ways after a nail-biting finish against Shapwick & Polden.

Bowling first, Weston started well as Charl Willougby removed Ackland caught by Paul Stringer at square leg. Sean Stringer removed Coppell, but Shapwick, through Tinnion and Karmarkar, were able to withstand the pressure to rebuild.

Stringer passed the outside edge consistently in a luckless 10 over opening spell finishing with 1-36. The introduction of Allen soon saw Karmarker (22) and Ahmed immediately removed Edmunds.

Tinnion reached his 50 before he top edged Ahmed and was well caught by Davidson. Shapwick had slipped from 95-2 to 109-5. The middle and lower order all chipped in, with Willoughby removing Spencer (12) and King running out Rudge (17). Some late big hitting from Sam Spencer (27) and James Haggett (33) enabled Shapwick to reach 219-9.

The Weston innings got off to a flying start as John Davidson cracked four early boundaries, but he went for one shot too many and was clean bowled.

Fear and Ahmed ticked the board over nicely, punishing any bad balls which raced away on the quick outfield. Ahmed was looking at his fluent best, hitting seven boundaries on his way to 42 before we has well caught off the bowling of Higgs.

James King continued with the momentum hitting a huge six, but he mistimed and was caught for 13. Fear went past his 50 with a boundary before Ben Rudge clean bowled Davidson.

At 147-4, Weston were still in the driving seat and needing less than five an over. An unnecessary shot from Ford saw him caught and Stringer soon followed.

Goodhew joined Fear and the pair required 46 for victory. Goodhew was able to squeeze a couple of boundaries and as errors began to slip into the fielding.

With eight needed from two overs, Goodhew (17) fell to Mike Higgs, who followed the wicket up with five dot balls. Fear turned down a single off the first ball before clearing the ropes with the second. The following ball Fear pulled the ball to the square leg boundary to bring up the winning runs and take himself to a superb 92 not out.

Weston picked up 19 points in the process and will hope this can be the turning point in their season. Despite an excellent all-round performance from Ahmed, the Forte Financial man of the match was awarded to Andrew Fear.

On Saturday, Weston travel to Chard.

Shapwick & Polden

S Tinnion c C Davidson b Ahmed 56

B Ackland c P Stringer b Willoughby 2

S Coppell c J Davidson b S Stringer 13

N Karmarkar b Allen 22

L Edmunds lbw Ahmed 0

W Spencer b Willoughby 12

B Rudge run out 17

S Spencer c Fear b King 27

D Roodt lbw Ahmed 2

J Haggett not out 33

M Higgs not out 9

Extras 26

Total (9 wkts) 219

Bowling: C Willoughby 10-2-34-2; S Stringer 10-0-36-1; C Davidson 9-0-67-0; A Allen 10-3-21-1; S Ahmed 10-1-47-3; J King 1-0-8-1.

Weston

J Davidson b Roodt 16

A Fear not out 92

S Ahmed c Haggett b Higgs 42

J King c Edmunds b Ackland 13

C Davidson b Rudge 4

T Ford c Haggett b Rudge 3

S Stringer b Haggett 6

S Goodhew c Rudge b Higgs 17

P Stringer not out 0

Extras 29

Total (7 wkts) 222