WELLINGTON suffered an unlucky one-wicket home defeat against leaders Downend in the Bristol/Somerset Division of the West of England Cricket League.

The only consolation for Wellington was they collected seven points and moved out of the relegation zone, leaving Ilminster and Taunton Deane in the bottom two.

Wellington, who opted to bat in sweltering heat, opened with a new partnership of Nathan Roberts and skipper Aaron Campbell.

However, the pair had put on only 15 before Campbell was caught by Olly Sharp off the bowling of Philip Jackson.

Alex Sparks joined Roberts who was playing the dominate role and they put on 33 runs before Sparks was out for four, having faced 31 balls.

George Ruell (2) was dismissed with the score on 65 before Roberts was out lbw to the bowling of Masoor Klan, one short of his 50, with 72 on the scoreboard.

Wickets began to fall as Jacob Hurry was out for five and Sachindu Colombage was stumped after scoring only four. Now 80 for six, Wellington were in familiar territory with more than half the side out.

Much rested on the shoulders of wicketkeeper Callum Hendy and vice captain Luke Desave and these two came to the rescue with a stand of 107 runs. Hendy was eventually out for 39 valuable runs, coming off 60 balls.

Desave, now on 48 not out, added four runs to his score before losing his wicket and Toby Stirzaker was ninth out without scoring.

Richard Sharples was the last man out - also without scoring - as Wellington were bowled out for 195 in 50 overs. Khan took 3-18 in ten overs and Bob Naeem 2-16.

Downend, who began the match with a 21-point lead at the top of the table, also hit problems with the bat, losing three wickets in making 41 - Khan (19), Sharp (0) and Jordan Garrett all back in the pavilion.

Mahdi Saleen (13) was stumped by Hendy with the score on 86 and Matthew Jackson and Omar Randhawa both perished for ducks with Campbell being the bowler on both occasions.

At 102 for six, Wellington were in the driving seat but opener Callum Loud was still there - until he was lbw to Colombage on 82 with the score 126.

But Connor Blakely and Ollie Loud had other ideas and moved the score slowly on to 180 when the latter was out for 27.

Blakely was out for 26 with seven runs still needed. Under intense pressure Downend’s last pair Bobby Naeen (10) and Philip Jackson (0) managed to see the visitors over the line - much to the dismay of Wellington who had looked at one stage on course for only their fifth victory of the season.