Weston defeated Bedminster in the first round of the National Knockout Cup.

WESTON got the new season underway against Bedminster in the National Knockout Cup.

With conditions favouring slow bowling, Weston had to dig in and build a total and despite the top five batsmen all making starts, no-one could anchor the innings. Kearsey and Blamire began pushing things later in the innings before Tom Main bludgeoned a quick 17. Blamire was last man out for a responsible 20, helping Weston reach 159-8.

Bedminster got off to an excellent start with Gareth Elphick (39) the only batsman of the day to adapt to the conditions as Bedminster reached 60-1, with Tom Main making the breakthrough.

The spin pairing Allen and Trego were brought into the attack inside the power play overs, and as Allen made the breakthrough Weston began to squeeze. Allen took the next three wickets to fall and the introduction of Kearsey brought two more, both caught at mid-on.

Happy to give the dangerous Carter the single, Weston looked to apply pressure at the other end and an unnecessary single resulted in a run out from a good piece of fielding from Chris Davidson.

Tom Court came on and picked up two wickets and Shabel Ahmed bowled the last batsman to skittle Bedminster out for 94.

The bowling performance was outstanding, led by man of the match Ash Allen, who finished with incredible figures of 9-7-8-3, with only three scoring shots from his 54 deliveries.

Weston can take a lot of confidence from this game into the first league match this Saturday against Thornbury at Devonshire Road. The next round of the ECB National Cup sees Weston travel to league rivals Warminster on May 12.