It’s Wellington
By Jamie Dowley
Wellington are the 2025 SCCL Premier Division champions* after a faultless display at Whitchurch that epitomised both clubs contrasting seasons. After racing to 10 straight wins they have been able to canter home “on the bridle” and Dan Vaughan’s young side will go into the play offs in 3 weeks time confident they can replicate their success of 2023. Batting first, they made steady progress to 74-2 off 18 overs but when Vaughan went for 31, Matt Simmonds (pictured) assumed responsibility. With Brian Mudzinganyama making 36, Will Lewin then joined in with Simmonds in striking 55, the last 9 overs yielding a mammoth 114 runs as the home bowlers wilted. The former Bridgnorth and Shropshire allrounder who seems to have been a forgotten man as far as the county are concerned, has really stepped up in recent weeks after the departure of Dan Lloyd and will no doubt be crucial in the play offs. Here he reached 129no, a season best from Wellington, receiving generous applause from home patrons and the smattering of away supporters.
The home reply was a curious affair, shorn of any real intent to chase down a revised 233 off 33 overs they laboured to 174-5, as Mike Robinson found some form with 69 and Mohammed Fahim scoring 41. They do take 5 points from the game, but they still need another win to be safe and if Madely get a win at Wem next week, all bets are off.
Back to Wellington and a delighted captain Dan Vaughan “it’s a great achievement with such a young side, and they have all shown great character during the whole season. It’s onto the play offs now where we are hopeful we can give a good account, we are an ambitious club and are keen to keep testing ourselves at a higher level”
*barring any unforeseen points deductions in the last two games
Allscott Heath have made the race for 2nd interesting as they were 15 runs ahead on DLS when the game was abandoned at home to Wem, and the 16 points gained on Jim Astley’s side has given them a real chance of overhauling them in the closing fortnight of the season. For the visitors, Harry Chandler and Sam Peate, perhaps both enjoying their best ever seasons of league cricket, got their innings off to a solid start but when Peate went for 46 and Chandler followed for 37, the innings somewhat fell away as Kuldeep Devatwal (4-20) cut a hole in the Wem top order. Only Matt Cohen with 21 was able to hang around and the resulting 156ao off 39 overs looked to be a touch below par as Jason Summers wrapped up the innings with 3-23. Summers with 28, Mo Adall making 26 saw the reply off to a good start and Devatwal was there at the end unbeaten also on 28 as Allscott got ahead of the rate and took the 20 points.
Callum Starling “ it was a strange game of cricket but we will take the win for sure. If we can finish 2nd it would be great but it’s a pretty tall order even if we win our last 2 games. We are already starting to look ahead to next season and there are lots of positives right now”
Madeley travelled to West Shrewsbury to take on Shelton, knowing a win was essential if they were to have any chance of finishing outside the bottom two and they showed tremendous fighting spirit to return home with a 90 run win, something that looked a million miles away when they were 124-9 with only Joseph Buttery of the batsmen making a score with 39. That brought Dan Kearsley to the crease to join vice-captain Oli Davis and the pair somehow scrambled an extra 52 runs to reach a healthy 176ao. Davis making 23 and Kearsley 14, while the home attack gave up 45 extras which would have annoyed Simon Jones who took 3-51, with Sam Griffiths the pick of the attack with 2-16 off only 8 overs he had. Shelton soon had 58 on the board without loss but when Viv John and Muhammed Zaheer fell for 22 and 29 respectively, the innings completely imploded, losing all 10 wickets for 28 runs to finish 86ao. That was down to a wonderful slow bowling performance from both Mithun (4-17) and Salim Ahmed (5-22) as Madeley showed once again they wont give up their Premier Division spot lightly
Martin Boyle “We showed we can bat all the way down to Number 11 with that amazing last wicket partnership between Dan and Oli after Joe had again played a crucial knock like he did at Allscott two weeks ago. Ok we didn’t bat the overs but from where we were it was a phenomenal effort. Our 2 spinners were again exceptional Sal and Mith who is always economical. It’s obviously been a desperately sad time for the club with Craigs passing but we are all holding it together really well”
Sentinel broke Bridgnorth hearts in the dark at Albert Rd after an enthralling 10 run win that ended the visitors hopes of avoiding the wooden spoon. Much earlier in the day there was a maiden century for Aaryan Dixit and an unbeaten 47 from Ed Ashlin that got the Engines to 259-7 off 45 overs. A long rain delay then ensued, although only 10 overs were lost and this meant Bridgnorth required 269 off 45 overs also. At 46-3 this looked some way off but then a fine 110 run partnership between Ian Gregory (89) and Ross Hurdley (49) dragged them back into the game. With darkness descending and slow bowlers the only option for Ashlin, the game was still in the balance but with Dixit and Tom Griffiths chipping away in the wickets column, Mark Macpheron-Lees was left stranded on 19no as Sentinel wrapped up the innings at 8.25pm, bizarrely with the scores level. But sadly for Bridgnorth this was no tie, and they will finish bottom at the end of the season.
The game at Church Street was abandoned with Ludlow 60-2 chasing a revised 195 off 25 overs. Earlier in the piece Sunny Singh showed his class in making 71no while the explosive Zab Safi hit a quick 49, and Mo Raheel Khattak a more patient 40 as St Georges totalled 255-5 off 45 overs Syed Tanzeel Nazqi was going well with 35no in the Ludlow reply when play was halted although perhaps the Dragons will be the ones to feel more aggrieved at the resulting 9-6 points split.
Finally what looked poised to be a competitive 2nd half between Quatt and Newtown fell foul of the drizzle sweeping across the county. The visitors were in huge trouble at 73-7 but were bailed out by Sam Baugh and Nathan Smith, who normally show their skills with the ball but this time Baugh with 79no and Smith with 43 did it with the willow as they recovered magnificently to post 195ao. James Lunn, enjoying a fine season for his new club shone again with 3-24 while Josh Greef took 3-53. From that point no further play took place and it was an 8-6 points split in the hosts favour.
So with 2 games to go the attention switches to the bottom of the table. With a maximum of 2 relegated, Madeley need to find a win at Wem somehow, while Newtown and Whitchurch still have everything to play for.
