WELLINGTON bounced back from their agonising loss to Midsomer Norton to beat Keynsham by six runs away in the Bristol/Somerset Division of the West of England Premier Cricket League on Saturday.
Keynsham went into the game having beaten Clevedon by eight wickets the previous weekend while Wellington were obviously licking their wounds after letting Midsomer Norton off the hook.
Victory enabled Wellington to go third in the table with 46 points, 15 less than the early leaders Downsend who have won all three of their games.
Batting first, Wellington lost openers Nathan Roberts and George Ruell early on, but Jacob Hurry and skipper Arron Campbell took the score on to 51 before Hurry was out for 19.
Campbell (21) lost his partner Ollie Hunt (8) at 72 and was out himself on 76 before the most productive partnership of the innings between Sachinda Colombage (44) and Luke Desave (31) who put on 72 for the fifth wicket.
Colombage was out with the score on 148 and Desave followed soon after with Wellington now on 153-6.
Callum Hendy (18) was out looking comfortable, and Richard Sharples (7) and Toby Stirzaker (1) soon followed as Wellington were bowled out for 187,
Jake Carstens took 3-36, Sam Lowe 3-24 and Sam Wheller 2-39.
Carstens (23) and Tom Bancroft (24 ) put on 51 for the first wicket before both fell to Campbell.
Ben Ackland (17) and Ahmed Syed (16) were out after playing themselves in as Keynsham began to lose wickets at regular intervals.
They went from 86-4 to 127-8 as Colombage and Nathan Yarde took vital wickets.
However, Russell Baker (42) and Harry Mattingley (19 not out) put Keynsham back in the game with a crucial 48 runs for the ninth wicket before Baker departed and Sam Wheller followed him five runs later.
Sri Lankan Colombage capped the best performance since his arrival by taking 3-38 in his ten overs, Yarde 2-28 in seven, Campbell 2-30 in nine and Desave 1-24 in 5.5 overs.
It is easy to look back but Wellington would have been top had they not lost against Midsomer Norton. But that said they have still made an impressive start with two away wins in three matches - who would have thought that at the start of the season? They have already shown they have a side plenty good enough for this division.
Elsewhere, Midsomer Norton followed up their win over Wellington by beating Ilminster by nine wickets in a game affected by the weather.
Golden Hill, who have the same number of points as Wellington, were six-wicket winners over Congresbury, while Taunton Deane lost again, this time by seven wickets to Clevedon.