BOTH Ilminster and Chard Cricket Clubs found their West of England Premier Cricket League matches on Saturday scuppered by the weather.

Ilminster hosted Premier 2 Bristol/Somerset leaders Taunton St Andrew’s, with the visitors winning the toss and electing to field.

Opener Jon Hurford was out for a duck, caught behind by James Regan off the bowling of Lloyd Alley, but George Hayward and Charlie Vickery scored 23 apiece to haul the total upwards.

Both were clean bowled, by Luke Poole and James Hayman, respectively, but Ilminster skipper Sam Spurway added 15, Jonny Warry 7 and and Josh Lee 6no as the hosts reached 86-5 when the game was abandoned.

Poole ended with 2-14 off five overs and Deven Bell 0-5 off four for Saints.

Ilminster collected six points to Saints’ eight, and so the hosts remain fourth in the standings – but now just six points ahead of Taunton, who won at Claverham on Saturday.

This coming weekend Ilminster travel to Lansdown, who are second from bottom in the table, for a 12.30pm start.

***

AS for Chard, they were 110 all out in their WEPL Somerset Division clash at home to Staplegrove before the rain intervened.

The visitors’ Ian Bishop did the bulk of the damage, taking 5-10 off 10 overs (five of which were maidens).

Chard reached 21 before Nathan Johnson (3) fell to Matthew Dimond, and Danny Cleal (26) and Matthew Micale (21) took the home side up past 50.

At that point, however, Bishop set to work and claimed the next five wickets as Chard stumbled from 58-1 to 83-6.

Scott Wells-Burr made 10, Chris Scott 11 and Nathan Warren 9 to take the score over 100, but Ryan Cleverly (2-26) tied up the tail to dismiss Chard for 110.

The weather saw the match abandoned without Grove getting to bat, however, and so Chard collected six points to the visitors’ 13.

Chard – seventh in the table (fourth from bottom) – host Wembdon, who are third, this Saturday (12.30pm).

***

West of England Premier League
Somerset Division
Weston-super-Mare 225-9 dec beat North Perrott 82-3 (revised target 92) by 10 runs

NORTH Perrott lost their crunch match with Somerset Division leaders Weston-super-Mare, falling short of their adjusted target by 10 runs.

Having won the toss, Perrott put the hosts in to bat and had joy early on when Alex Eckland removed Simon Green for a duck.

But from 5-1, Weston powered up to 80 thanks to Andy Fear (22) and Ryan Davies (45).

Gordon Whorlow hit back, removing both without another run being added, and Troy Johnson removed Patrick Howes (3) to reduce the hosts to 88-4.

County star Peter Trego showed his class to tilt the match back in Weston’s favour, as he combined with Shabil Ahmed (38) to haul his side up to 192-4.

That was where Trego finally fell for 63 (off 59 balls, with six 4s and two 6s), as he was caught by Johnny Ireland off Whorlow.

Ashley Allen added 15 as Weston declared on 225-9, an imposing target in tricky conditions.

Whorlow finished with 4-41 off 10 overs for Perrott, while Johnson took 3-51 off 10 and Lorraine Szczepanski an economical 0-25 off 10.

The visitors’ openers began well, before George Retter departed for 18, caught behind off the bowling of Charl Willoughby (1-16 off seven).

Whorlow continued plugging away, now joined by the in-form Johnson, but the latter fell to Ashley Allen (1-21 off six) and Jake Symes followed for a duck, Trego (1-35 off seven) adding the wicket to his fine display with the bat.

Whorlow was on 27no and Eckland 7no when rain stopped play at 6pm, and any hopes of further play were abandoned half an hour later.

Perrott’s 82-3 from 23 overs was 10 runs short of the revised target in the Duckworth-Lewis calculations, meaning that hosts Weston were declared the winners and collected 16 points.

The visitors picked up four points, meaning that they are now 21 points adrift of their promotion rivals.

Their attempt to close the gap begins next Saturday, at home to Staplegrove (12.30pm start).