1st XI
Riding on a high from their victory last week, Weston 1st XI pulled off a stunning win at home against Keynsham. Weston captain Rob Turner won the toss and elected to bat. Batting looked tough from the off, with Fear falling in the first over. Pete Trego played some excellent shots and looked to be getting into the groove when he chipped one to a fielder off the bowling of Keynsham captain Tom Bryan (10-3-11-3). Wickets then fell at regular intervals to leave Weston in deep trouble on 44-5 off 12 overs. Turner steadied the ship a bit, putting on a partnership of 23 with Shabil Ahmed before he too fell for 14 with the score on 67. John Davidson (22) put on 31 runs for the 9th wicket with 1st team debutant Tahmid Ahmed. Tahmid batted with a maturity beyond his years to take Weston to 113 all out in the 43rd over. Scoring was slow and a lot of maidens were bowled in the Weston innings, giving hope to the Weston spinners.
Keynsham got off to a positive start, making batting look a lot easier than Weston did. An opening partnership of 31 off just 8 overs made it look like the teams were heading for an early shower. However, Weston’s spin twins, S Ahmed and A Allen, bowled a game changing spell, including a double wicket maiden for S Ahmed in his first over, to reduce Keynsham to 64-5 off 23 overs. There were some outstanding catches from Ben Gully, Allen, Trego and Turner, with the pick of these arguably being Gully’s diving take on the boundary. Keynsham tried to dig in, but Weston took 5 wickets for 5 runs in 6 overs to leave Keynsham all out for 80. Weston took victory by 33 runs and added 17 points to their total. Much credit must be given to S Ahmed (7-1-17-3) and Allen (9-6-5-3) and special mention must go to T Ahmed for his batting display and for taking his first 1st XI wicket on his debut.
Weston will look to continue this winning form when they travel away on Saturday to play Taunton Deane, always a strong team and a tough opposition.
The Forte Financial Player of the Match for the second week running went to Ashley Allen – 3 wickets for 5 runs from 9 overs and a great catch low to the ground in the covers were decisive factors in securing a Weston win.
2nd XI
Weston 2nd XI suffered their first defeat on the season in a tight game away to Cheddar 1st’s. Weston won the toss and batted first, and made a decent start, reaching 30 for no loss, before some quick wickets left them struggling at 50-4. But a superb partnership of 140 between Matt Blamire (82) and Fin Mayo (44*) rebuilt the innings, with Blamire playing aggressively throughout, hitting 3 sixes, whilst Mayo was comfortable playing a supporting role. Both innings were crucial on a pitch which was difficult to score runs on, as the visitors finished on a decent 192-7 from 45 overs.
With the ball, Matt Knight (2-36) made two early breakthroughs in a good opening spell, but the Cheddar batsman kept up with the rate early on. Weston kept plugging away, taking wickets to peg them back, with Sam Goodhew (2-35) bowling his usual reliable spell. There were wickets also for Blamire (1-34) and debutant George Bemand (1-24). Sims (42) and Travis (38) contributed well for the home team, and they eventually got home with 3 wickets in hand.
A battling performance from the 2nd team, who were fielding 3 debutants in the bowling attack, including 13 year old Will Crane who performed admirably with the new ball.
Forte Financial Player of the Match goes to Matt Blamire.
3rd XI
The 3rd XI had another difficult day, going down by 9 wickets to Castle Cary 1st XI. They batted first but struggled early on, and were indebted to U15’s Jakob Massey (26) and Eoin Austen (10) who provided resistance. Contributions down the order, including 16 for another U15 Davis Trego, dragged Weston up to 124 all out. Wickets were shared around for Cary, best figures going to Keirl who finished with 7-4-5-3.
Cary started their reply strongly and raced to 60 without loss quickly. However good bowling from another youngester Adam Smith stemmed the flow of runs, and Massey confirmed his good game by picking up a wicket. It was not enough though, and the hosts cruised home to win by 9 wickets in fhe 21st over.
A 3rd team fielding 7 debutants was always going to find life tough, and captain Josh Knight was quick to praise all the young players who stepped up and kept going to the end. Better availability in future weeks will help the 3rds find their feet in the higher division after promotion last season.
Forte Financial Player of the Match goes to Jakob Massey.
4th XI
Weston 4th Team once again put up a strong fight in an ultimately losing cause against Lympsham and Belvedere 2nds.
Having being put in to bat Weston’s total of 129 was built around an unusually restrained innings from opener Chris Pack who scored a patient 61. Some big hitting in the lower order from Alex Nicolls gave the score some respectability and the home felt they had a chance.
Some tight opening bowling from Matt Munday and the excellent U15 Georgina Goodwin who finished with 2 for 11 from 8 overs had Lympsham worried. Backed up by two wickets from Spike Hawkins, Weston were in the game but eventually lost by four wickets.
Again the fielding was excellent with keeper Alex Nicolls taking a fine legside catch and the Forte Financial Player of the Match Chris Pack adding a fantastic leaping catch at mid off to his half century.
team coloured playing kit last season, gives all our members the chance to access quality playing and training kit for this season onwards from a local company who have a great track record in supplying team wear to clubs.
