Cullen’s century takes Westbury to cricketing victory

Westbury Cricket Club entertained Chipping Sodbury in the latest Wiltshire and Gloucestershire League Division One match.

Hoping to put behind them three successive defeats, Westbury made two changes from last week’s defeat at Biddestone, with James Cotterill and Richard Oakley coming in for Alex Senneck (who broke his thumb last week) and Martin Dolman.  Tom Cullen took over the captaincy in the absence of Alex Senneck.

Westbury won the toss and decided to bat first on a very hot day. They opened with a new partnership with MacDonald and Cotterill, but they made a disastrous start when Cotterill was out for 3 with the total at 5. MacDonald was then joined by the new Westbury captain Cullen and they took the total to 67 when MacDonald was out for 24.

Cullen, with the help of the rest of the batsmen took the total to 212 for 6 off their allotted 50 overs. At the end of the innings Cullen was unbeaten on 102 off 128 balls.

When Chipping Sodbury batted they made a disastrous start when they lost two wickets in the first over when Andy Carroll dismissed Wakefield and Willoughby both for 0.

Reed was then joined by Wake and they took the total to 32 when Wake was out for 2. Shortly afterwards when the total was at 40, Reed was out for 21. There was then a good partnership of 34 between Clarke and Jater who took the total to 74. It was at this time that the Westbury spinners came into their own and the innings subsided from 97 for 6 to 131 all out.

Andy Carroll (3-12 off 7 overs) and Richard Oakley (3-35 off 10 overs) had the best figures but they were superbly supported by the rest of the Westbury bowling attack. This was a fine team performance after the disappointing losses over the last few weeks.

Next week Westbury travel to play Swindon in another league game.