Belvedere 183-6 - Wellington 184-4

After Paul Short had won the toss and elected to ask newly-promoted Belvedere to bat, Kevin Symons got the breakthrough by bowling Chadwick for four.
Progress was slow for the Weston-Super-Mare based side as they took only 19 runs from the first eleven overs they faced as Symons and Thom Trott bowled accurately.
This was a good effort having lost Adrian Lee to a hamstring injury after he had bowled only two overs.

But, after being mighty close to being LBW to Symons, R.Tasker and Gullick got going for the team who finished third in Division Two of the Somerset League last season and they added 86 for the second wicket and were not parted until the 30th over when Alex Sparks made a good turn and throw from short fine-leg and Alec Short had little difficulty in running Gullick out for 36.
Tasker was joined by his skipper and brother I.Tasker and they added 71 runs in under a dozen overs as the momentum seemed to be with the visitors, but the re-introduction of Kevin Symons got rid of R.Tasker stumped by Alec Short and Matt Daniel claimed two wickets as he re-joined the attack later - a good boundary catch by Rob Moysey removed the Belvedere skipper for 35.
Belvedere rather stuttered to 183-6 at tea, but this was still a good effort on a trying pitch.

Wellington openers Mark Salter and Matt Daniel added 51 good runs in 15 overs to give the Red and Blacks a solid platform to go on from, but Salter drove to I.Tasker at deepish long-off for 30 having done all the hard work and he was disappointed to be out.
Alex Sparks joined Daniel and they took the score into the high sixties before Sparks was done by a grubber for 12.

Daniel was the steadying influence on the Wellington innings as he made 32 in 26 overs before being the second wicket of the best Belvedere bowler Loud (2-35 in 12 overs).
Rob Moysey was all the time building an innings to push Wellington on to victory with and with Marc Holloway (15) added 41 for the fourth wicket, but Holloway was run out and when skipper Paul Short joined his predecessor there were 60 needed and only 8 overs left to Wellington, wickets in hand were there, but a rate of eight per over was perhaps against the Red and Blacks - not so as Short powered to 27no and victory with nine balls to spare.

His first scoring shot was a six and this set the tone for him to hit three more fours and run the ball around well as Belvedere lost their way and with it the match.
Leaving the crucial 40th and 42nd overs to youngster Whittle was the pivotal moment in the match as he went for 25 in these two overs and sent down a wayward mixture of deliveries with six of them being wides - a bonus over in many ways for Wellington.
Moysey was unbeaten on 48no as he showed all his experience to seal a first opening day win for four seasons and a first home opening day win since 1999.

Wellington took 31 Somerset League Division One points and Belvedere 13.
Another of the promoted sides awaits Wellington next weekend as they travel to North Newton.