Honours even after two matches between Dorset and Wiltshire as Wiltshire Men's T20 season comes to an end

NCCA T20 Competition

Wiltshire CCC v Dorset CCC @ Westbury & District CC

Sunday 6th July 2025

Game 1

‘Changeable’ is a convenient word to describe the weather on the day and the form of the respective teams.  Rain was forecast for at least some time during the day and it brought a premature halt to Game 1. Wiltshire won the toss and elected to field first. Enter Will Tripcony 20 and Finn Gordon 22 who had destroyed Cornwall in their most recent fixture and gave Dorset an impressive 10 wicket win. Not so today as Will Tripcony was dismissed by Rhys Baker thanks to an excellent catch by wicket keeper Jake Goodwin diving full length. Just 2 balls later and Hampshire’s Felix Organ suffered the same fate. Finn Gordon then tried to hit Wadworth Man of the Day, Alfie Johnson over the boundary rope … but the ball fell short and enabled Will Naish to take one of his reliable boundary catches. Meanwhile former Wiltshire man Dylan Church,31, was busy accumulating runs for his new county.  He was the 6th man out with the score just 86 for 6. Connor Smith added 14, but no other batter achieved double figures. Rhys Baker  3 for 27 came back to claim the final wicket with Wadworth Man of the Day Alfie Johnson also taking 3 wickets and a remarkable T20 economy 3 for  just 13 runs from his 4 overs. The other wickets fell to Charan Chahal, Archie Fairfax Ross and Ed Young with wicket keeper Jake Goodwin claiming a superb run out as he swiftly threw the ball to the bowler’s end. And so a very strong and capable Dorset team had been dismissed for just 107.

Wiltshire’s reply started very strongly with openers Tom Cheater 45 not out  (28 balls, 7x4, 1x6) and Jack Mynott 21 not out taking Wiltshire to 69 for 0 wicket from just 7.5 overs … and then the rain came … and then the rain came even harder.  Lunch was taken and the umpires and captains negotiated an early termination of Game 1 with Wiltshire winning comfortably as they had a Duckworth-Lewis revised target of just 35 from 7.5 overs.

Wiltshire CCC beat Dorset CCC by 10 wickets

Game 2

In game 2 Wiltshire once again asked Dorset to bat first and once again the Wiltshire bowlers and fielders made life difficult for the batters.  Finn Gordon was the first to go as a top edged shot was well held by skipper Ed Young. But Felix Organ top scored with a determined and aggressive 56 until bowled by Ed Young. Rhys Baker and William Brown had been causing trouble all day with their pace and Rhys had Will Tripcony trapped LBW.  The introduction of the spinners brought more success, but for Charan Chahal it brought his game to an end.  In stopping a fierce return strike from Felix Organ he suffered a possible fracture of his finger as well as a dislocation. Once Felix Organ was dismissed the run rate slowed a little and Dorset could only muster the modest total of 131 for 7. Alfie Johnson bowled Dylan Church. Archie Fairfax Ross tempted Dorset Skipper Luke Webb, 6 to reach for one which conveniently fell into the hands of Tom Cheater.  More sharp wicket keeping saw Ed Ellis caught by Jake Goodwin from Ed Young’s bowling (Ed 2 for 23)  Alfie then claimed the wicket of the prolific run scorer Ben Rogers who was superbly caught by a difficult diving catch from substitute fielder Olly Butterworth (Alfie 2 for 23)

Unfortunately ‘changeable’ is exactly what happened to Wiltshire’s batters as the heroes of the first game were dismissed for a total of just 3 between them.  The rest of the team had no opportunity to bat in the first game , but now was their chance to shine.  Sadly it was the Dorset bowlers who shone in this game with Ethan Baker, 3 for 17 and 4 catches, the main destroyer.  Finn Gordon 2 for 6 and Felix Organ 2 for 14 completed the rout after Connor Smith and Ollie Breckon had removed Tom Cheater and Jack Mynott respectively. The only batter to emerge with any real credit was Sam Ashman 27.  Jake Goodwin 10 was the only other batter to make double figures and Sam Ashman was left with nobody who could stay with him.

On a day of mixed fortunes the players, officials and supporters of Wiltshire CC would all like to wish Charan Chahal a full and speedy recovery. One win and one loss on a day of changeable weather and changeable fortunes.  Next come the three day Championship games with Wales being the first opponents on 20th/21st/22nd of July at Bemerton, the home of South Wilts CC.

Dorset CCC beat Wiltshire CCC by 68 runs

Roy Honeybone, July 2025