West of England Premier League
Somerset Division
Chard 176 beat Wembdon 86 by 90 runs

CHARD made it two wins from two as they comfortably overcame Wembdon on Saturday.

On a damp wicket it looked a key toss to win – Chard lost it, and were promptly reduced to 9-2 upon being put in as both openers fell early.

Thereafter, the home batsmen applied themselves and steadily accumulated runs against some tight bowling from the visitors.

Harvey Dening made a patient 22, Jonathan Scott 20, Niall Crouch 26 and Chris Scott 27 as Chard built useful partnerships throughout their innings.

Chard almost batted out their overs before the last wicket fell from the penultimate ball of the 48th over with the score on 176, which looked a challenging total.

Wembdon’s task got immediately tougher when key man Dan Bingham was clean bowled in the first over of the reply by a full, straight delivery from Akhona Mbanga.

Mbanga (2-27) and Richard Scott continued to threaten, reducing Wembdon to 24-3, and it was 38-4 when Scott had visiting skipper Jon Brockwell caught behind by Nathan Warren – one of four dismissals the wicketkeeper was involved in.

Scott went on to claim 4-26 from an excellent 10 overs, with Jon Dalwood taking 3-8 from 3.4.

Dalwood’s haul included the final two wickets, both taken with the score on 86, as Chard wrapped up a 90-run victory.

They are the early leaders of the fledgling table and face a tricky trip to Minehead on Saturday (12.30pm start).

***

ON Sunday, Chard lost both their matches in the first round of the WEPL T20 competition at Taunton Deane.

Chard played the hosts in the first game of the day and restricted the Deane to 134-9, with Richard Scott taking 3-24 and Akhona Mbanga, Chris Scott and Emmanuel Shazad claiming two wickets apiece.

Chard slumped to 22-5 in reply but an excellent unbeaten 62 from Chris Scott made a game of it, with three fours and four sixes in his entertaining 45-ball knock.

Ultimately, however, Chard fell 15 runs short and the Deane’s win over Yeovil in the second game made the final match of the day, between Chard and Yeovil, academic.

The scores rather reflected that, as Chard were skittled for 55 and Yeovil got home by five wickets.

Chard progressed in the Baker Cup on Monday night, beating Middlezoy, and they are back at Taunton Deane on Friday night to play the home team’s second XI in the Somerset Cricket Board's Major Cup.