Chard CC 1st XI 78 / 3 (16.2) def North Petherton CC 77 / All out (13.2)

CHARD Cricket Club finished the 2023 season with a strong home win at the weekend against North Petherton CC.

The match in the WEPL Somerset ended in a win for the home side, the winning margin being seven wickets.

The result means that after 18 games this season, Chard finish in second place in the league table, while North Petherton finish in seventh.

In the match, North Petherton won the toss and chose to bat first sending out Tom Lott and Mondli Khumalo.

Chard's bowlers were in top form in the innings though and the wickets fell quickly right the way down the batting lineup.

Lott was out for seven runs and Will Bere who replaced him was out the next ball leaving Pethy 11 for 2.

Things went from bad to worse quickly for the visitors as they were 24 for 4 soon after with Khumalo and Owen Irish losing their wicket.

And in fact, North Petherton were eventually sat at 32 for 8 and in a very bad spot after less than 10 overs,

However Lewis Irish top scored for North Petherton with 32 runs and salvaged something from the innings.

After his wicket fell, that was all for the visitors who ended on 77 all out after 13.2 overs.

Harvey Evans finished with four wickets for Chard while Malcome Cloete ended with five, and the best figures of 5 for 29 in seven overs.

Evans four wickets impressively came off just three overs and one of those overs was a maiden, a very solid session with the ball.

In reply, Reid Mawdsley and Harvey Dening opened the batting and while Dening was dismissed for just four runs, Mawdsley went on to carry his bat for 31 not out.

Jack Larcombe added two runs, Josh Short hit a quick 22 and Malcolm Cloete scored nine not out and the winning runs.

All in all it was a very solid way to wrap up the WEPL season for Chard as they enjoyed a strong campaign finishing in second place.

Mawdsley in fact topped the batting charts for the entire league as he finished with 568 runs this season and a top score of 121 not out.

Cloete also topped the bowling charts for the WEPL Somerset division as the bowler finished with 45 wickets, a best day out of 6 for 22 and an insane 4 five-wicket hauls.

On to next year.