Chard Cricket Club welcomed Minehead CC to South Somerset this weekend and came away with all 20 league points after a solid all-round display saw them bowl Minehead out 85 runs short of the target.
Chard were led by 58 runs from Scott Wells-Bur who helped the team to 235, before bowlers Malcolm Cloete and skipper Chris Scott took four wickets apiece to skittle Minehead for 150 runs and the win.
Skipper Scott put his team in to bat first but quickly saw opener Dan Parsons fall for one in the second over.
Harvey Evans then joined Reid Mawdsley in the centre and the two took the team to 75 runs before Mawdsley’s dismissal for 40 in the 16th over and Evans’ for 29 in the 21st, with Chard at 93-3.
Malcolm Cloete hit 20 more runs until he was caught in the 26th and Scott added a five more as Wells-Burr started hitting big with his team at 111-5.
Wells-Burr arrived at the crease at the start of the 26th over and 58 minutes later he had scored his 58th run, an important run-per-minute innings that took his team all the way to 201-7 after 42 overs.
Jon Dalwood then added 32 late runs to Chard’s total and Nathan Warren 16 more as the team were bowled all-out for 235 runs with two balls left to go in their innings.
Chard took the ball after half time and their bowlers made sure Minehead would get nowhere near the winning score.
Wells-Burr, 1-22 from seven overs, continued his fine performance as he took Minehead’s first wicket early in the sixth before Cloete, 4-32 from 10 overs, took his first wicket of the day an over later to put Minehead at 29-2.
Skipper Scott, 4-37 from 8.5, then joined the attack to take a wicket maiden with his first over and another with his third to reduce Minehead to 38-4 after 13 overs.
Minehead continued to struggle to make runs off Chard’s bowling and Cloete returned to produce a double wicket maiden in the 20th over, compounding Minehead’s misery and taking the game away from them at 73-6.
Richard Scott, 1-18 from two, came into take an LBW in the 29th over before Cloete and Scott completed their four wicket hauls with balls in the 35th, 36th, and 37th over, bowling Minehead out for 150 runs in the 37th over and claiming an 85-run victory.
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