WELLINGTON are through to the final of the Taunton and District Youth Cricket League’s Under 15 Competition after beating Minehead by 46 runs yesterday evening (June 18).

Having been put into bat, Wellington openers Brock Vallance and Oscar Milton found the home attack difficult to get away in the early exchanges, and Vallance had only reached 2 when he was removed by a sharp catch behind.

This brought Shayan Barthakur to the crease, and the left/right hand partnership proved the main stay of the innings. Scoring at a good rate, and aided by several dropped catches, Barthakur had reached 43 Inc 6 x 4s when he was bowled off his pads.

However the innings continued to flourish as skipper Oli Hutchings joined the fray. Opener Milton reached his retiring score of 52 in a fine innings which included 8 boundaries, and Hutchings continued to press, reaching an unbeaten 36, finally George Corp added a rapid 15 no, as a challenging total of 171 was posted.

The hosts were up with the rate early on in their reply, but this was halted by Barthakur, who added 2 wickets to his fine knock. As the run rate required increased, the Wellington youngsters began to make inroads into the seasiders’ batting line up, and aided by good fielding, and a particularly fine catch held by Robin Hill, the tie turned towards the visitors.

Late replacement Isla Hendy grabbed 2 wickets, and spin twins Milton and Archie Evans grabbed 1 apiece and a final wicket for Hill, meant Minehead closed their innings 46 runs adrift.

Wellington await the winners of Taunton Deane and Taunton St Andrews, with a provisional date of Wednesday, July 10, set for the final.

Wellington U15's 171-3 (20 overs), Minehead U15's 125-8 (20 overs)