Wiltshire CCC fall to Unicorns Championship defeat v Wales

Wiltshire came into this game on a high after beating Devon for the first time in 52 years in their previous MCCA Championship game.  Unfortunately life has a habit of bringing you down to earth when you least expect it.  Wales entered this match languishing at the foot of the table, but their performance belied their lowly position.

Wales won the toss and elected to bat, Scott De Weymarn, brother of England and former Hampshire physio Craig De Weymarn, kept the scoreboard ticking over until caught by  Will Wade to give Joe King, 3 for 47, a wicket. With the score on 83 for 1 Joshua Andrady  became one of 4 LBW victims Other catches were held by Tom Morton 2, Ed Young and Luke Evans. Oskar Kolk 35, and Cameron Herring 67 moved the score on to 162 for 5.  Cameron Herring then held the tail together until he became one of three victims for Will Harries 3 for 41. Jake Lintott took 3 for 20 as Wales closed on 222.

At this stage the situation looked good for Wiltshire.  Jake Goodwin 33 and Will Wade 30 made a solid start supported by Neil Clark 25 as Wiltshire progressed to 92 for 2, but it was at this point that the wheels came off! Wiltshire collapsed to 121 for 9 in less than an hour with spinners Sam Pearce 4 for 25 and Thomas Bevan 3 for 21 doing the damage Brad Dawson 15 watched helplessly at one end while 4 wickets fell for just 10 runs at the other end and then he became a victim too. Will Harries 12 and Joe King 11 not out managed to survive overnight and add a few precious runs in the morning as Wiltshire were finally bowled out for 140 – a deficit of 82 runs.

Wales  built on their lead as Scott de Weymarn 49, Mojeid Ilyas 43, Chris Matthews 31 and Cameron Herring 30 all made significant contributions.  Neil Clark and Tahir Afridi each took two catches to help restrict Wales, but the real destroyer was Joe King who added to his first innings wickets with a battling 6 for 56 (and match figures of 9 for 103) Wales closed on 211 and an overall lead of 293.

Wiltshire faced the daunting task of chasing 294 for victory.  Time was not an issue since they had a session on Monday plus all day Tuesday to achieve their target. However, wickets fell with monotonous regularity.  Jake Lintott 33 was the last to go as Wales clinched victory bowling Wiltshire out for 154 and claiming victory by 140 runs.  Will Wade made 24, and Neil Clark 20 with Thomas Bevan 5 for 59 being the main destroyer for Wales as spinners claimed the vast majority of wickets to fall.

Wiltshire must now put this disappointing defeat behind them as they take on Berkshire at Finchampstead on Sunday in the semi-final of the MCCA 50 over competition.