Somerset's Summer - A View from the Commentary Box
Somerset’s
Summer - A View from the Commentary Box
I started writing this Journal one game into the
2019 season, after Somerset had beaten Kent in their opening Championship
match. It had already occurred to me
that, with four top-class seam bowlers and two of the best spinners in the
country in their squad, Somerset were as well equipped as any team to win four
day matches, provided that the batsmen performed to something like their
potential.
The Kent game seemed to confirm that. Perhaps this could, at last, be Somerset’s
championship year. And besides, there
was the Royal London One Day Cup and the Vitality Blast, in both of which Somerset ought to have a chance. There
was always the possibility that, in writing a journal, in the anticipation of
success, I might be jinxing the chances of it.
But then again, if I didn’t write it, and Somerset were to win something
- the Championship especially - I would regret it for the rest of my days.
I haven’t seen all of Somerset’s games. I share the championship matches with Stephen
Lamb on behalf of BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Somerset, but commentate on all of
the white ball games in the One Day Cup and the T20 Blast. But those that I have missed I have been
able, thanks to the excellent commentary provided by Stephen and many others,
to follow from afar.
The Journal is being written as the season
unfolds, although it was only in July that I decided to publish it as a
blog. It is a personal account of Somerset's Summer, written on behalf of no-one but myself. I hope readers enjoy it!
An encouraging start and a cricketer re-born
April 5-8
County Championship Somerset v
Kent
Somerset 171 and 243, Kent 209 and 131
Somerset 171 and 243, Kent 209 and 131
Somerset win by 74 runs
It is the first day of the season, April 5th,
the earliest start in Championship history, and as I leave for the County
Ground, the Long Sutton Catchwater is spilling over onto the bottom of the
garden. Prospects of any play today are somewhere between remote and
non-existent. But then, as I remind
myself on the way to Taunton, we had lost the first day of the season two years
ago against Essex, and that game had produced a positive result, albeit not the
one we’d wanted.
The Catchwater in flood with the Parrett beyond, first day of the season
The weather notwithstanding, spirits are high in
the press box as I arrive. It is always
good to meet old friends again; to know that we have all survived another
winter. The usual suspects are there, of
course: deadpan Richard Latham, who
writes cricket and football for the
Western Daily Press amongst others, Richard Walsh, whose passion for Somerset
County Cricket Club is often tested but never quenched, young Paul Martin,
doing his best to keep the cricketing flame alive at the Somerset County
Gazette and, of course, Somerset’s IT wizard, Ben Warren, pioneer of the live
stream with BBC commentary attached, who has managed to attract more followers
to the Somerset CCC twitter feed than any other county can muster, barring
mighty Yorkshire. I’m particularly
pleased to see Paul Edwards, arguably the most entertaining, certainly the most
literate cricket writer of this generation, who is reporting the game for
Cricinfo.
Vic Marks is also paying an all-too-rare visit
to Taunton. “How’s the book going?”, he
enquires, referring to ‘Rosey’, the autobiography I’ve spent the winter writing
for Brian Rose. “It’s finished”, I’m
able to reply. “It’s going to the
printers on Monday, so we’ll have it back in good time for the launch on April
25. You haven’t forgotten that you’re
due to be saying a few words?”, I add, slightly anxiously. No he hadn’t, and when Brian himself appears
with our publisher, Stephen Chalke, not long afterwards, the pair of them
compare notes on the anecdotes that each has included (Vic’s autobiography
being due out in June).
I’m sharing the commentary box with BBC Radio
Kent’s Matt Cole, as professional as he is affable, and our ‘third voice’. Kit
Harris, who I know will do his very best to feign neutrality, even though his
father was a long-time Somerset committee member! Somewhat implausibly, Kit captains the
Iceland Cricket team and, equally implausibly, is just back from an
all-expenses paid trip to India, having been invited, in the guise of Kato
Jonsson, to demonstrate his mystery ball, the fiflio, or back-spinner,
by the King’s XI Punjab. No, I’m not
making that up, and nor is Kit.
Magnificent stunt.
There is nothing for it but to chat as we while
away the hours until the umpires call it off.
But there is plenty to chat about, not least Somerset’s prospects for
the season. The consensus in the press
box, and this includes Brian and Vic, is that Somerset have got as strong a
squad to choose from as they can have had since the glory years. The bowling
unit looks particularly potent, with four top quality quick bowlers in Lewis
Gregory, the Overton twins and Jack Brooks; two not far behind, in Josh Davey
and Tim Groenewald, plus Tom Abell (who took a hat-trick in the last game of
2018, remember); while in Jack Leach and Dom Bess, we have two of the best
spinners in the country. The only real
concern is how long Somerset may be able to keep Bess, if he doesn’t get
regular first team cricket.
As for the batting, the classy and reliable Azhar
Ali is back, James Hildreth has decided to move himself up to number three in
the order to advance his England claims and there are highly talented
youngsters, like George Bartlett, Tom Banton and Tom Lammonby, to be given
their chance. Peter Trego has already been moved to a white ball-only contract
to make way for the coming generation, and it seems to me even at this early
stage that Marcus Trescothick will need to score plenty of runs to keep the
youngsters at bay. My only
disappointment is that Tom Abell is still down at number five in the
order. I’ve long considered him a
potential England prospect - as an opener.
That, it seems to me, is the role he should be playing for Somerset, alongside Tres, with Azhar at three, Hildreth at four, Bartlett or Banton at five, Steve Davies at six, followed by Gregory, the Overtons, Leach and Brooks.
For this first game, everyone is fit, barring Jamie Overton, who turned an ankle in pre-season in Abu Dhabi, so that Josh Davey, whose bowling improved so much during the second half of last season, comes in. If Surrey had all of their England players to choose from, theirs would be a stronger squad, and Hampshire, with all of their Kolpaks, would run us close. But I reckon we’re better than the rest. Surrey must be favourites to retain their title, but it is bowlers who win cricket matches, and looking at that Somerset bowling line-up, you couldn’t rule us out.
The Quantocks just visible in the rain and mist
That, it seems to me, is the role he should be playing for Somerset, alongside Tres, with Azhar at three, Hildreth at four, Bartlett or Banton at five, Steve Davies at six, followed by Gregory, the Overtons, Leach and Brooks.
For this first game, everyone is fit, barring Jamie Overton, who turned an ankle in pre-season in Abu Dhabi, so that Josh Davey, whose bowling improved so much during the second half of last season, comes in. If Surrey had all of their England players to choose from, theirs would be a stronger squad, and Hampshire, with all of their Kolpaks, would run us close. But I reckon we’re better than the rest. Surrey must be favourites to retain their title, but it is bowlers who win cricket matches, and looking at that Somerset bowling line-up, you couldn’t rule us out.
There is just time for the lunchtime sandwiches
and chips to be consumed, before play is formally abandoned for the day at
2. As I drive home, I start sneezing and
my throat feels sore.
Day 2
Sure enough, on Saturday morning, after a dreadful night’s sleep, I wake with a full-blown cold, which I hope and pray will neither infect my co-commentators nor affect my voice too badly. I am not in the least bit sorry to discover as I reach the ground that even though the rain has stopped, wet patches on the outfield mean that there is no prospect of play before an early lunch.
Somerset’s 2019 Specsavers County Championship
Division One season gets under way eventually at ten past one, under leaden
skies. Somerset have been asked to bat, to no-one’s surprise. What is a surprise is that George Bartlett
has been preferred to Jack Leach, leaving Somerset without a spin option,
unless you count Azhar’s occasional leg-breaks.
The innings does not go to plan.
Despite all of that pre-season work, the batsmen look rusty, and too
many of them are architects of their own destruction. Tom Abell bats well for 49, and then
top-edges an attempted pull, to give long-leg the simplest of chances. At
130/4, Somerset are looking reasonably well-placed on a green, seaming
pitch. At 171 all out, they have fallen
short and the Jeremiahs in the press box are recalling some of the many similar
batting collapses of recent years.
The wicket doesn’t look anything like so tricky
when Sean Dickson and Zac Crawley come out to open the innings for Kent. Dickson is dropped at first slip by
Hildreth, and the first wicket doesn’t fall until 71, when Trescothick snaps up
Crawley at second slip, his 437th catch for Somerset in first-class
cricket. The night-watchman, Harry
Podmore, also goes before the close, to leave Kent on 84/2.
“Not a great day to kick off Somerset’s season”, I tweet. “Too many loose shots and lapses of concentration from the batsmen; bowling lacked spark until the last 40 minutes. Must do better tomorrow.” It was a verdict with which Head Coach Jason Kerr did not disagree when I interviewed him at close of play. I reach home weary, grateful to have got through the day without serious mishap.
“Not a great day to kick off Somerset’s season”, I tweet. “Too many loose shots and lapses of concentration from the batsmen; bowling lacked spark until the last 40 minutes. Must do better tomorrow.” It was a verdict with which Head Coach Jason Kerr did not disagree when I interviewed him at close of play. I reach home weary, grateful to have got through the day without serious mishap.
But in one respect at least it was a momentous
day for Somerset cricket - the first occasion on which the splendid new
floodlights, which tower over the mostly low-slung Taunton townscape like giant
hydrangeas, have been turned on. We have
had floodlights at Taunton before, of course. Indeed, my ‘personal statistician’ as I like to call him, Steve Pittard, joint landlord of my local,
the Rose and Crown at Huish Episcopi (better known as Eli’s), reminds me that
Somerset was actually the first county to deploy floodlights on a cricket
ground, for a game between Somerset and the West Indies, staged as part of Viv
Richards’ benefit, as long ago as 1982.
But this is the first time that permanent lights have been used
at the County Ground, and just as well that they were, as it turns out, because
without them, several hours more play would have been lost to bad light and I
doubt if we would have got a result.
The splendid new floodlights (this was taken during the RLODC game v Essex)
Day 3
Day 3
The weather is a bit brighter on Sunday morning
and the Somerset seamers, bowling a much tighter line, are soon among the wickets, the most prized
of them being that of Matt Renshaw, who scored so many runs and made so many
friends at Taunton at the start of last season, smartly caught in the covers by
Abell off Gregory. Daniel Bell-Drummond,
coached at Millfield by my good friend and long-time summariser, Mark Davis,
who has been such a thorn in Somerset flesh over the years, top scores with 33,
but the lead is only 38 when Abell has Milnes caught behind and Kent are all
out.
The Somerset second innings doesn’t start badly
- it starts disastrously! We are only in the second over when Darren Stevens
traps Trescothick LBW. They are the two
oldest players in the Championship, and I am indebted to Paul Edwards for the
information that the dismissal marks the first occasion on which a 42 year old
has accounted for a 43 year old in county cricket since John Childs got John
Emburey out at Chelmsford in 1996!
It gets worse. Hildreth goes in the 4th
over, Azhar in the 9th and Eddie Byrom, fresh from his maiden
Somerset century in a game against Cardiff MCC University which was somehow
deemed ‘first class’, in the 16th. So that’s 32/4, Somerset are
still behind and Stevens is swinging the ball like a latter-day Maurice Tate.
Davies and Abell bat sensibly to steady the
ship. They take Somerset through to tea and the partnership is worth 58 when
Abell goes to cut what is little better than a long-hop from Mitch Claydon and
succeeds only in slapping it into the safe hands of Ollie Robinson at
point. As Tom Abell later admits,
Somerset have a habit of “losing wickets in clumps” and soon both Davies and
Gregory are back in the pavilion, and it’s 111/7, just 72 ahead. The writing is on the wall, so it seems. Except that George Bartlett, batting with a
maturity beyond his 21 years, and Craig Overton, who has worked hard on his
batting during an injury-blighted off-season, don’t seem to have read the
script. By the close, they’ve added 60 precious runs.
“Hope springs eternal”, I suggest at close of play, “another 50 tomorrow morning and this could be very interesting”, while Tom Abell - insisting that it was bad execution rather than a loss of concentration that accounted for his dismissal - reckons that Somerset have every chance.
Day 4
“Hope springs eternal”, I suggest at close of play, “another 50 tomorrow morning and this could be very interesting”, while Tom Abell - insisting that it was bad execution rather than a loss of concentration that accounted for his dismissal - reckons that Somerset have every chance.
Day 4
For the final day, the sun at last breaks
through, and the Quantocks emerge from the mist and low cloud in all their
springtime glory - a sight which does not pass unnoticed in the commentary box!
But events on the field are disconcerting. Overton is caught in the slips in
just the second over and Davey soon follows him. It is 181/9, a lead of 142,
and that is surely not enough. Enter
Jack Brooks, the ‘Headband Warrior’ as he is universally known, from
Oxfordshire via Northants and Yorkshire, signed by Somerset last September on a
three year contract at the age of 34, a move which raised one or two eyebrows,
mine included, at the time.
Oh ye of little faith! With bat as well as ball, Jack Brooks lacks nothing in either self-confidence or determination, and he sets out to keep George Bartlett company for as long as he can. He is helped in this endeavour by some fairly brainless short-pitched bowling from Kent, which he is only too happy to slice over the heads of the slips, as well as heaving Podmore over the mid-wicket boundary for a huge six. Bartlett continues on his pragmatic, accumulating way, and the pair have added 62 when Stevens finally gets the better of Bartlett, leaving Brooks undefeated on 35 and Somerset tails very definitely up. Kent will need 206 to win, in sunshine to be sure, but on a pitch still helping the seamers.
Oh ye of little faith! With bat as well as ball, Jack Brooks lacks nothing in either self-confidence or determination, and he sets out to keep George Bartlett company for as long as he can. He is helped in this endeavour by some fairly brainless short-pitched bowling from Kent, which he is only too happy to slice over the heads of the slips, as well as heaving Podmore over the mid-wicket boundary for a huge six. Bartlett continues on his pragmatic, accumulating way, and the pair have added 62 when Stevens finally gets the better of Bartlett, leaving Brooks undefeated on 35 and Somerset tails very definitely up. Kent will need 206 to win, in sunshine to be sure, but on a pitch still helping the seamers.
If Messrs Bartlett, Overton and Brooks have
shifted the momentum of this game towards Somerset, a combination of Gregory
and Overton and Brooks again, soon turn it on its head. Gregory’s very first ball has Dickson caught
in the slips by Overton, and he proceeds to bowl as well as I’ve ever seen
him. It is a devastating, match-winning
burst.
By lunchtime, the game is as good as over, Kent 43/5, three wickets to Gregory, one each to Overton and Brooks, who gets Renshaw caught in the slips and sets off on the longest celebratory charge yet seen at the County Ground. After lunch, Darren Stevens and Alex Blake offer some resistance but by 3.45 it is all over, Gibbo exultant on the mic - all coughs and sniffles long forgotten - as Mitch Claydon is taken at first slip by Hildreth, to give a deserving Josh Davey his only wicket of the innings.
Behind all the way, we had come up on the rails in the final furlong to win in the end quite comfortably. “A great counter-attacking win for Somerset”, I tweet triumphantly, “which shows the fighting spirit which there is in this team to go with the talent”.
By lunchtime, the game is as good as over, Kent 43/5, three wickets to Gregory, one each to Overton and Brooks, who gets Renshaw caught in the slips and sets off on the longest celebratory charge yet seen at the County Ground. After lunch, Darren Stevens and Alex Blake offer some resistance but by 3.45 it is all over, Gibbo exultant on the mic - all coughs and sniffles long forgotten - as Mitch Claydon is taken at first slip by Hildreth, to give a deserving Josh Davey his only wicket of the innings.
Behind all the way, we had come up on the rails in the final furlong to win in the end quite comfortably. “A great counter-attacking win for Somerset”, I tweet triumphantly, “which shows the fighting spirit which there is in this team to go with the talent”.
Gregory finishes with 5/18 to go with his 3/36
in the first innings and is inevitably our interviewee, alongside George
Bartlett and Jack Brooks, once Blackbird
has been belted out in the dressing room.
What had impressed me most about his bowling was not so much the swing
and seam movement he had produced - those were always in his locker - but the
pace and accuracy which had gone with it.
“You look like a new bowler”, I suggest, tentatively. “That’s because I am”, he replies. “This is the first time I’ve been able to
bowl pain-free for about six years” - a reference to the operation which
finally seems to have corrected his chronic lower back condition.
We had seen what Lewis Gregory could do with the bat in last season’s T20 Blast campaign. If this is indeed a fitter, better, more dangerous bowler, what a magnificent all-rounder Somerset now have on their books. Prospects for the season are looking better than ever, as I reflect, en route to Eli's for a celebratory pint.
Victory celebrated from afar
What a start indeed!
But now attention shifts to the 50 over game, and the Royal London One Day Cup.
'It was simple really. I just let them get on with it'. Brain Rose explaining how he captained his multifarious team to all those trophies, while Stephen Chalke and Fred Rumsey listen attentively.
We had seen what Lewis Gregory could do with the bat in last season’s T20 Blast campaign. If this is indeed a fitter, better, more dangerous bowler, what a magnificent all-rounder Somerset now have on their books. Prospects for the season are looking better than ever, as I reflect, en route to Eli's for a celebratory pint.
Victory celebrated from afar
April 11-13
Nottinghamshire v Somerset County Championship
Notts 263 and
126, Somerset 403
Somerset win by an innings and 14 runs
Stephen Lamb is on the mic for Trent
Bridge. He and I have been sharing
commentary duties for the Championship since the ECB part-funded the BBC to
provide on-line coverage of every game back in 2013. It gives me some time to fulfil my other
commitments and, in any case, Stephen is one of the best and most knowledgeable
commentators on the circuit.
I follow proceedings at Trent Bridge from a
distance - quite a long distance, as it happens. My wife, Claire, and I have flown out to
spend a few days in our apartment in Salema in Western Algarve. We first came across Salema in 2003 and loved
it from the start. It is far enough west
to escape the touristy sprawl which has spoilt so much of Algarve, and whilst
the main business of the village is now tourism, it does still have its own
small fishing fleet, the boats towed to and from the sea across the beach by a
communally-owned tractor. The beach is
gloriously golden, the sea a limpid blue, the creamy sandstone cliffs
stretch away on either hand, the houses and apartments running up the hill
behind the slipway shine white in the sunshine - always provided a storm isn’t
roaring in from the Atlantic! We bought
the apartment just over eight years ago, mostly for ourselves and the family to
enjoy, although we do rent it out as well, the income just about covering the
upkeep.
The beach at Salema - the perfect spot on which to hear Lamby and the Girdler call a Somerset innings win
The infrastructure of life in Portugal is a
curious mixture of the advanced and the perversely archaic. The bureaucracy is horrendous, and still
almost entirely paper-based. You can’t
even pay your council tax online or by direct debit. You have to queue in the
nearest post office. On the other hand, mobile phone coverage is far more
comprehensive than in Somerset. It
means that I’m able to enjoy the commentary from Trent Bridge on the beach,
listening on my mobile in 3G, cold beer in hand, breaking off every so often
for a swim in the sea, which is still quite bracing at this time of the
year. Stephen is sharing commentary with
BBC Nottingham’s Dave Bracegirdle (who played cricket for Braunton in his RAF
days at Chivenor) and Lizzie Ammon, who always seems to be a step ahead of the rest
when it comes to getting cricket stories for The Times.
Somerset are in the field, having taken the
opportunity to ask the home side to bat first, partly no doubt for the positive
reason of wanting to get amongst the Notts batsmen on a typically greenish-looking
Trent Bridge pitch; partly, I daresay, with an eye for what Messrs Broad and co
might be like to face on a first morning in early April.
Jack Brooks strikes first, pinning Ben Duckett
LBW with just his second ball, but once again it is Lewis Gregory who takes the
bowling honours. The Notts batting
line-up looks a strong one, even without the now white ball-only Alex
Hales. Chris Nash is fit again after
spending a large part of the 2018 season side-lined by a shoulder injury, while
Ben Duckett, Joe Clarke and Ben Slater have been recruited during the
winter.
I meanwhile have set off to walk
the four miles or so along the sometimes tortuous, often spectacular cliff path
to Burgau, where Claire will join me for lunch.
By the time I get there, Nash is still in and looking dangerous. By the
time I get back to the beach, he has gone, along with Clarke and Mullaney, all
three of them seen off by Gregory who, according to Stephen and co, is once
again bowling out of his skin. When he
scatters Samit Patel’s stumps all over Trent Bridge, I leap to my feet,
punching the air, much to the bemusement of the German family picknicking
nearby!
Notts’ final total of 263 looks a bit under par,
even allowing for the fact that they were put in, and I settle down in the late
afternoon sunshine to enjoy the Somerset reply.
I tweet a photo of the beach, which is well-received in the commentary
box! However, it sounds to me as if
Stuart Broad, with an extended spell in county cricket to look forward to, is
intent on demonstrating that, at 33, he is anything but a fading force. Azhar and Trescothick are evidently having a
torrid time, the former succumbing in the 6th over, the latter
caught behind in the 14th.
When James Hildreth is caught down the leg side two balls later to make
it 36/3, I decide that I’ve heard enough, and turn my phone off. I pluck up the courage to look at the close
of play score a bit later. Ah! Not too
bad, 74/3, Abell and Bartlett still there.
Day 2
The next day we decide to drive north, to Odeceixe,
the last village in Algarve before you reach the Alentejo, which boasts a
splendid restaurant called Chaparro, where you can enjoy shellfish straight
from the tank or all manner of local specialities, and what must be one of the
most beautiful beaches in the world. We stop on the way at Aljezur, to buy
fresh fish and local honey from the market, and enjoy a beer at the little café by the river
bridge, over which the heavy lorries thunder alarmingly. At 11.30 I check my phone. Abell and Bartlett still there. Relief.
By the time we reach Chaparro , the players have
gone in for lunch and Abell and Bartlett are still together, their partnership
now worth 138. My crab, still warm from
the boiler, the brown meat mixed with mayonnaise to make a sauce in the shell
in the Portuguese style, tastes especially delicious. Soon afterwards, the pair of them reach their
centuries and we head down to the beach, to sit on the stone benches outside
the little café, enjoy what is a stunning view, drink red wine (in my case,
Claire having volunteered to drive) and listen to the commentary.
I tweet a photo of myself drinking a toast to
these two outstanding young Somerset cricketers who had indeed “made my day”. I’m pleased as punch for both of them, but
particularly so for young George, who turned 21 the previous month and who,
with this century and two vital contributions against Kent to his name, has
most definitely come of age as a Somerset cricketer.
Here's to Tom and George! Toasting their centuries at Praia d'Odeceixe
After he is finally out, for a career-best 138,
Lewis Gregory contributes a rapid 50, to ensure that Somerset take what may one
day prove to have been an invaluable 5th batting point, and I’m back
on the beach at Salema in time to hear Jack Brooks send Duckett and Nash back
to the pavilion before the close. Notts
are still 115 behind with only eight wickets standing. Somerset are surely on the road to another
win.
Day 3
After an hour’s play on the third morning, that
isn’t looking quite so certain. Ben Slater and the nightwatchman Luke Fletcher,
are still together, and it doesn’t sound as if the seamers are getting much out
of the pitch on a murky morning. Enter Jack Leach, not selected for the Kent
game, unused in the Notts first innings.
The consensus in the box, which I share, is that he’s been brought on to
keep one end tight, while the seamers rotate at the other. How wrong that proves to be. In his very first over, he draws Ben Slater
down the pitch, and Steve Davies executes a neat stumping. Joe Clarke, no doubt distracted by the
evidence given in the rape trial of his friend and fellow Whatsapper, Alex
Hepburn, is bowled playing no shot, and after Fletcher has been caught by
Overton, again off Leach, Notts go into lunch at 88/5, effectively down and
out.
The end comes quickly after lunch, with three
more wickets for Jack Leach, to leave him with figures of 17/6/36/6 - on a
seamers wicket, away from Taunton, in April.
Who says he can only win matches on raging turners at Cyderabad?! Modest
chap that he is, whilst conceding that this was one of his best bowling
performances, he tells Stephen Lamb that his initial ambition had, indeed, been
to keep one end tight, and try to keep the batters guessing with changes of
pace and angle.
"It
was pretty cold. It is a tough time for a spinner at this time of year so I was
pleased to get a spell of overs under my belt. To be able to contribute to a
win makes it even better."
What it suggests to me is that Jack Leach is
becoming a spinner who doesn’t need a turning pitch to take wickets. I’ve always thought that if he could graft
rather more variation in flight and angle onto his remorseless accuracy, he
would be a bowler capable of winning matches under any circumstances on any
type of pitch.
“Well that was pretty conclusive”, I tweet, as I
settle down on the terrace with a large glass of wine. “Somerset’s bowling is
mustard. Now just need to sort out the top order batting. But what a start to the season!”
But now attention shifts to the 50 over game, and the Royal London One Day Cup.
April 19
A good Friday
Royal London One Day Cup Somerset 358/9; Kent 94 Somerset beat Kent
by 264 runs
A perfect day for cricket, and in
mid-April! The outline of the Quantocks
just slightly blurred in misty sunshine, but it is warm, windless and the
ground is filling fast for Somerset’s first outing in this season’s One Day
Cup, against a Kent side weakened by the absence, not just of Billings and
Denly, languishing, mostly unused, in the IPL, but also now of stand-in captain
Heino Kuhn (back strain) and Daniel Bell-Drummond (family bereavement). Bearing
in mind that Kuhn averaged 87 in last season’s One Day Cup, and that DBD is the
most prolific double-barreled batsman in List A cricket (thanks Steve Pittard,
joint landlord of Elis’ at Huish Episcopi, for yet another killer stat) that
represents a significant shift of the balance in Somerset’s favour, even if
they have lost their last 11 T20 games against today’s visitors!
I’m sharing commentary with Ben Watts, of BBC Radio
Kent, a young man who certainly knows his cricket and is good enough as a
medium pace bowler to have played a few games for Kent Seconds. At around noon, with Tom Banton already
setting the ground alight with his seemingly effortless power and range of
shots, we are joined by Brian Rose, now (at last) Somerset’s President. He’s come to sign some copies of his
autobiography, Rosey, which he and I have co-written over the past 12 months,
but the opportunity to get him on the mic is too good to miss. Talking to him about those glorious years,
when he captained his wonderful assortment of superstars, Oxbridge
intellectuals and wurzels (as he calls them) to five trophies in five years,
reminds me of two of the most famous previous encounters between these two
sides. The first was the 1967 Gillette
Cup Final, when half of Somerset descended on Lord’s, complete with smocks,
straws in mouths and wooden casks of scrumpy, while some of the Kentish
contingent draped themselves with hop bines. “The final showdown between the
Hop County and the Cider County” was how it was billed by the press. Kent won,
but Somerset, captained by Colin Atkinson, gave a good account of themselves,
not least Fred Rumsey, fast left-arm, founder of the Professional Cricketers’
Association, now 83 and in a wheel-chair, but still as voluble, amusing and
robust in his opinions as ever. He too
has written his life story and had shared the platform with Brian at the West
of England Cricket Society earlier in the week, in which the pair of them had
reminisced about their respective eras.
The other game I’m reminded of was the Gillette
quarter final in 1979, which Brian recalls vividly in his book. The county ground was packed and expectant.
Brian had won the toss, but against a Kent attack led by Graham Dilley and
featuring Derek Underwood, Somerset could only struggle to 190 in their 60
overs, and it would have been a lot fewer but for a fighting 50 from Budgie
Burgess. It didn’t look to be enough against
a powerful Kent batting line-up. But to
make that judgement was to reckon without Joel Garner and Ian Botham. The suggestion was that word had reached Joel
that Alan Ealham, the Kent captain, didn’t rate him as a genuinely fast bowler.
True or not, Joel bowled like a Caribbean hurricane that day, with Beefy Botham
not far behind. So full was the ground that the incoming Kent batsmen had to
make their way through massed ranks of Somerset supporters, encamped in front
of the old Pavilion, as they went out to face the music. “You could see the
fear in their eyes”, recalls
Brian. “They’d never seen anything like it”. Kent were bowled out for 60, Garner 9.4
overs, 2 maidens, 5 for 11! Somerset
would go on to win the cup; their first ever trophy. Great days!
Back to the present, and to Tom Banton, 20 years
old, and a great friend of my godson, James Clark, son of my good friend, and
now Somerset’s chairman, Charles Clark, who has been valiantly fighting a long
battle with cancer. I’d seen Tom a few
times before, without knowing quite what to make of him. Yes, there was obvious
talent, but he had several times thrown his wicket away by trying
over-ambitious shots - reverse sweeps and scoops a speciality - when the
situation demanded a more straightforward approach.
But it rapidly becomes apparent that, after a
winter spent in Western Australia with Tom Abell, this is a new Tom
Banton. He is playing straighter,
picking his shots, not playing around his front pad. And what power! A whip off his toes through mid-wicket
reminds me of one of Brian Rose’s signature shots. He dominates partnerships
with Somerset’s two most experienced one day batsmen, Trego and Hildreth, and
goes to his 100 in just 76 balls, with hardly a false shot and without ever
seeming to hurry. Yes, there is the
occasional reverse sweep as the confidence grows, but most of his runs come
from what I like to call “proper cricket shots”, albeit played with stunning
power. “Tom Banton: a star is born”, I tweeted. Yes I know it’s a cliché, but this was
an innings of stellar quality. What with
this, and George Bartlett’s two arguably match-winning innings in the
Championship, perhaps Somerset’s young batsmen are at last beginning to fulfil
their infinite promise.
Somerset’s innings isn’t just about Tom Banton. Lewis Gregory picks up where he’d left off in
last season’s T20, sustaining momentum through the middle overs, while big
Craig Overton sees to it that there is no falling off at the end, with some powerful,
well-judged blows, two of which end up in the river Tone. 358/9 looks to be
more than enough against a Kent side shorn of its four best batsmen.
And so it proves. After an accurate opening over from Josh
Davey, Craig Overton steams in from the Somerset Pavilion end like a Devonian
Joel Garner! He has Sean Dickson caught
by Banton off his very first delivery and produces the perfect ball to exploit
Matt Renshaw’s eagerness to go after anything outside off stump. At 26/4, there
is no way back for Kent and after Tim Groenewald has frustrated the dangerous
Alex Blake into skying one big hit too many to the keeper, it is soon all over,
Overton finishing with his best bowling figures in List A cricket, 5/18, to go
with his highest innings in this form of the game, that 66 not out.
The final margin
is 264 runs, which turns out to have been the biggest winning margin in games
between first-class counties in the 58 year history of List A cricket. As someone remarks to me over a pint at Eli’s
a bit later, it was rather as if Somerset had won by an innings. The only
slightly odd thing, which I remark several times upon in commentary, is that
Somerset’s white ball captain (as I imagine him to be), Lewis Gregory, is
fielding at either third man or long on.
How can he control events from there?
I’d been expecting to talk to Tom Banton after
close of play, in the press conference room in the Ondaatje Pavilion. But when I arrive, I find not one but three
Somerset cricketers lined up for interview:
Banton, Overton - and Tom Abell.
Now what is he doing here, given that he’d only scored 28? Fortunately, the question remains unasked,
and as I chat, first to Banton, then to Overton, the truth slowly dawns. Lewis Gregory is captain only for the T20.
Tom Abell is in charge for the One Day Cup, just as he is for the Championship
- something I would have been reminded of rather sooner, had I bothered to
check my Twitter feed. Anyway, no harm
is done and the skipper is his usual positive, unassuming self as he looks forward
to Sunday’s encounter with Glamorgan. I
return to the commentary box to send the interviews up the line to Bristol and
acknowledge my mistake on Twitter. It is
of some considerable comfort when one kind soul posts an interview in which
Marcus Trescothick, interviewing Tom for Sky TV, had made precisely the same
mistake!
The Kent innings only lasted for 27 overs, so I
was back to Eli’s a good hour and a half earlier than expected. Even so, I was worn out. The BBC can’t afford ‘third voices’ for one
day games, which means that the ‘home’ and ‘away’ commentators are on the mic for the duration - 100 overs in seven hours, potentially. In cricket commentary
- especially white ball cricket commentary - you can’t afford to let your
concentration lapse even for a moment, because when things happen, they happen
quickly, and for us humble county commentators, there are no television replays
to fall back on. Still, it had been a
good day. As a start to Somerset’s one day season, it was every bit as
encouraging as the start to the Championship season. I enjoyed my beer at Eli’s!
April 21 Phew!
Royal London One Day Cup. Somerset 261/9; Glamorgan 259 all out. Somerset beat Glamorgan by two runs
Sophia Gardens in its Springtime glory
Easter Sunday, and a gloriously sunny one, at
that. Sophia Gardens looking a picture as I arrive at around 10, the trees
along the banks of the River Taff decked out in their brightest, shiniest
spring greens. The only thing missing is spectators. By 11, when play starts, I would guess there
are fewer than 1000 in the ground, and probably at least a third of those are
from Somerset, including Peter Trego’s older brother Sam, who’d brought a
Somerset flag with him, to denote the ‘Trego stand’. As an indicator of the sort of crowds we
might expect to see here when the stadium hosts the Wales and the West ‘Hundred’ franchise
from next year onwards it is anything but encouraging, until, of course, you
remember that the whole point of the new competition is to attract people with
no previous interest in cricket, and South Wales would appear to be home to
plenty of those!
Today’s commentary is a joint one with BBC
Wales, meaning that I’m working with the knowledgeable and highly professional
Nick Webb, alongside Steve James, who played two tests for England and 17
seasons for Glamorgan and now writes cricket and rugby for The Times, as our
expert (very) summariser. The pair of
them are anything but optimistic, Glamorgan having been comfortably turned over
by Essex and Hampshire in their two opening 50 over games. This is not, at present, either a successful
or particularly happy club. Matt Maynard
has taken over as Head Coach after the departure of Robert Croft, but his
appointment is only for one season, which isn’t much of a vote of confidence in
a fine coach and great servant of the club and seems to me to be symptomatic of
turbulence and uncertainty behind the walls of the splendidly branded “Leeks” Pavilion.
Tom Abell wins the toss and decides to bat,
which seems to me to be perfectly sensible, given the sunshine and Somerset’s
success when batting first against Kent. The pitch is the one used a few days
ago for the Essex game, on which the visitors racked up 326. It looks dry at both ends, with a touch of
green in the middle. Used yes, but only
for the equivalent of just over a day’s play. You wouldn’t expect a second day
pitch in a Championship match here to hold any particular terrors, especially
bearing in mind that bore draw of a game played out a couple of weeks ago by
Glamorgan (570/8 dec and 70/1) against Northants (750 all out) on a pitch just
a few strips away.
In the event, batting is anything but easy,
against an accurate opening burst from Lukas Cary, born Pontardulais, and
Marchant de Lange, born Sydney. The fact
that there are more Australians in this team (Hemphrey, Labuschagne, de Lange
and van der Gughten) than there are Welshmen (Lloyd, Carlson and Carey) speaks
volumes for the state of Glamorgan cricket.
Of the Somerset openers, Azhar once again looks like a red ball fish out
of water in white ball cricket, while Tom Banton seems to be trying almost too
hard not to give it away with an over-ambitious shot. Both have departed by the
end of the ten over ‘powerplay’ (a silly and out-dated description of what
would be much better termed ‘stage one’ of the innings), leaving the old firm
of Trego and Hildreth to give the innings some middle-order substance. They add 48 together, without either being at
his best, before Trego has his leg-bail removed by an absolute trimmer from
Somerset old boy, Craig Meschede. He
stands there for a moment, in stunned disbelief, presumably at the fact that
his old team-mate could ever have produced a delivery that did so much. As
Steve James has been saying for some time, this is anything but an easy pitch
to bat on.
Still, Hildreth seems to be finding his timing,
Abell has been in good form and the pair of them are, as usual, running like
hares to keep the scoreboard ticking over without taking undue risks. The
partnership is worth 57 and Marnus Labuschagne has been brought into the attack
with his part-time Shahid Afridi-style leg-breaks, when Captain Tom has a rush
of blood, charges down the wicket, misses and is stumped. This presages a
mid-innings mini-collapse. 133/3 becomes
178/8 and Somerset are in trouble, with only Craig Overton left standing of the
all-rounders and still ten overs remaining.
Sensibly, and showing further signs of his growing maturity, the big
Devonian sets out to bat through the remaining overs, shepherding his tail-end
partners, Tim Groenewald and Josh Davey, in the process. They do not let him
down. 178/8 becomes 261/9 with the final over going for a spirit-lifting 12
runs. The momentum is with Somerset.
“That’s probably at least 30 too many on this pitch”, opines Steve James.
Within 12 overs of the start of the Glamorgan
innings, Messrs Webb and James’ Celtic fatalism appears more than justified.
Josh Davey and Craig Overton have torn through the top order, to leave
Glamorgan in tatters on 41/6. The
Somerset strategy of bowling wicket to wicket, offering no width and making the
batsmen play at almost every ball, has been perfectly executed, with four of
the top six going to LBW decisions. It’s
looking like it might be almost as big a win as in the Kent game.
But that is to reckon without determined David
Lloyd and spiky Graham Wagg. The pair of them set out, first to hold the line,
and then, as the pitch loses some of its unpredictability, the balls their
hardness and the bowling its sharpness, they begin to turn defiance into
dominance. My Welsh colleagues are still determinedly pessimistic. I can sense
a close finish.
But then another twist.
Lloyd lays back to thrash Roelof van der Merwe’s slow left arm to a cover
boundary cleverly left vacant by Abell, misses and is bowled. When Wagg holes
out to mid-off, to give Josh Davey his 4th wicket and his best List
A figures, it looks to be all over:
193/8, still 69 short of target.
“But don’t forget”, I say on commentary. “The last two Somerset wickets added
83”.
That seemed to be unduly cautious when de Lange,
after some mighty blows into the entirely empty grandstand, has his stumps
scattered in all directions by a spearing Overton Yorker, but the last-wicket
pairing of Carey and van der Gughten, needing 59, set about their task calmly
and with no little skill. Gradually, the target is whittled away. Gregory gets
a Yorker through van der Gughten’s desperate defence in a cloud of dust, but
it’s missing leg stump by a fraction.
Tim Groenewald is not at his best, Overton and Davey bowled out.
As a
final throw of the dice, Abell brings back van der Merwe from the Cathedral
road end, to switch Gregory to the River Taff end. But still the runs keep coming. With two
overs remaining, just three are needed. With van der Merwe to bowl the
penultimate over, Abell brings the field in on the off-side, tempting Carey to
hit over the top to seal victory with a single, glorious blow. Sure enough, he
goes for the lofted off-drive, doesn’t get hold of it, and gives a straightforward head-high catch to Azhar Ali
at mid-off….. who fumbles it! Oh no!!, I cry. Only for
Azhar somehow to recover himself and clutch the ball one-handed, inches above
the turf. He’s engulfed by his team-mates. Phew!!
While all this was going on, I’d been engaged in
an exchange of text messages with Somerset’s tech-maestro, Ben Warren, as to
who the close of play interviewee should be.
He’d suggested Josh Davey, for his best List A return; I’d wondered
about big Craig, for that mature, game-changing 41 not out, followed up by
three good wickets. As the last wicket
partnership went on, I began to have second thoughts. “Hurry if we lose”, I
messaged. Happily, the Somerset Director of Cricket was spared the ordeal of
trying to explain how defeat had been snatched from the jaws of seemingly
inevitable victory, and big Craig it was, clutching a celebratory pint. His verdict had as much relief about it as
joy, and quite right too. To have lost
from such an obviously winning position could so easily have burst Somerset’s
early season balloon, with a tough away game at Hove to come on Wednesday. As
it was, the 100% record was intact.
But I did wonder, as I drove home through the
inevitable Bryn Glas tunnels congestion, whether the team I’d seen scrape home
by the skin of their teeth is really Somerset’s strongest combination. Surely Steve Davies, eight One Day Internationals
and 5645 List A runs under his belt,
would be a better bet up top than Azhar Ali, and a better bet as
wicket-keeper than Tom Banton, who had looked as untidy behind the stumps as he
had looked assured (against Kent at least) in front of them. And what about Dom
Bess, who’d bowled five un-threatening and expensive overs and scored just
five? Surely Jamie Overton would offer
more of a threat in those middle overs with his pace and hostility, always
provided he’s fit of course.
We shall see.
As I got back to Langport at around 9 o’clock, for a glass of wine and
some supper, I was just happy enough to have been able to call another Somerset
win.
April 23
Lunch with Jos
I was just donning my gardening gloves after a
belated “Sunday” lunch, on what was actually a sun-blessed Bank Holiday Monday,
when I got a text from Charlie Webber,
one of the four chaps with whom I have lunch once a month in a local pub
to talk cricket. He is also Jos
Buttler’s father-in-law.
“Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, Gibbo”,
he writes. “Would it be OK if I bring Jos along too? He and Louise have just had a baby girl and
they are staying with us.”
Now, our little group of cricketing lunchers has
quite strict rules about interlopers. In short, we’re agin them, for fear that
the whole thing could quickly get out of hand if we welcomed all and
sundry. With that in mind, I framed my
reply carefully: “Hmm, well. I’ll need to think about it……(thinks for
about a nano-second)…OK, as it’s Jos, we’ll bend the rules!”
So it was a bit of a let-down when I turned up
at the Bear in Wiveliscombe at 12.30 the next day, to find Charlie, Richard
Flood and John Fawcett there, but no sign of Jos. It turned out that there had been some sort
of baby-related mini crisis back at home, but that Jos was hoping to come along
for a drink a bit later. And sure
enough, after about half an hour, a tall figure, in polo shirt and smartly
tailored shorts, appeared in the doorway.
He looked bigger than I remembered from when I’d
last met him - an interview after he’d carried Somerset to victory in a CB 40
game at Bristol with a series of mighty blows back in 2011 - and
positively glowed with health and happiness.
All was well with Louise and baby Georgia Rose, born two days before.
Yes, he had thoroughly enjoyed the IPL, even if his team, the Rajasthan Royals,
hadn’t been at their best. The
atmosphere in the stadiums was like nowhere else.
I ask him what his favourite grounds are in
England? Not Lord’s, surprisingly,
although he does say that the view of the ground as you come out of the Long
Room and down the steps is like nothing else in the cricket world. He prefers
the Oval, where the crowd is noisier and more passionate, and Trent Bridge.
Would he be coming back to play for Somerset when his contract with Lancashire
expires at the end of the season? He
didn’t say yes, but then he didn’t say no, either. It was slightly worrying when he said that he
and Louise had given up on trying to find the right house in Somerset and had
bought a place in Clapham. “I profoundly hope you’re not going to end up
playing for Surrey” was my response.
We reminisce about some of the great moments in
his career: that remarkable 150 in 77
balls against the West Indies at Grenada for instance; or, in the field, one of
my most memorable Jos Buttler moments, the quite remarkable catch he took in
front of the Oval Pavilion in a T20 match in 2013 to dismiss Jason Roy off the
bowling of Pete Trego, when he sprinted 30 yards or so, flung himself
full-length to his right and somehow came up with the ball. He remembered it
too. “Yes, that was one of my best.
Jason Roy too.”
Cricketing stardom and IPL riches have not gone
to Jos Buttler’s head. He remains quietly spoken, self-effacing and thoughtful
in his opinions on the game. But one can
sense the inner confidence which securing his place in the England side in all
formats has given him. He is a very
different character to the unhappy soul who was pushed out of Somerset CCC at
the end of the 2013 season. He has
enormous physical presence as well. You can now see where he gets his power
from. Those forearms are like hams!
He poses for a photograph with us, holding up
the copy of “Rosey” which I’d given him, and in which he features prominently
(if Brian had still been in charge, he would have made Kieswetter captain to
keep him happy and given Jos the gloves to make England happy). And then he was gone - back to Louise, the
baby and his formidable mother, who is due to visit that afternoon. But he’ll be back before long, if I’m any
judge; not just staying in Somerset, but playing for Somerset. What a brilliant cricketer, and what a lovely
bloke!
July 28. Vitality Blast T20 Somerset v Sussex
Sussex 184/8; Somerset 171/5. Sussex win by 13 runs
Another perfect summer's day, and the County Ground is at its glorious best as I look out from the commentary box before the start of play. Even though it's a Sunday afternoon rather than a Friday evening, today's game is another sell-out. What a shot in the arm England's victory in the World Cup has given to all forms of the game!
A perfect summer's day at the County Ground
Somerset are unchanged from the side that lost to Hampshire on Friday evening, meaning that Tom Lammonby has been preferred to a fit-again Jamie Overton. Sussex are without Jofra Archer, called up by England despite his side strain, and his mentor, the injured Chris Jordan. But they do have the Australian wicket-keeper batsman, Alex Carey, who was such a success in the World Cup, the left arm pace of Tymal Mills and the fizzing leg breaks of the world's number one T20 bowler, Rashid Khan. The prospect of him bowling to the world's number one T20 batsman, Babar Azam, is mouth-watering indeed.
Today's commentary is a shared one with BBC Sussex's Adrian Harms and we are joined by BBC Radio Bristol staffer, Ed Hadwin, who is the very epitome of the professional sports presenter. Brian Rose has also promised to drop by. Lunch arrives, in the shape of a tray-full of partially incinerated cheese and onion pasties and a big bowl of oven chips, to both of which I give a miss.
After two defeats in a row, this is a game that Somerset really need to win if they are to challenge for qualification from a South Group packed with strong teams, not least among them being Sussex. The last time these two teams met was at Edgbaston in last year's semi-final, when Luke Wright carted Jamie Overton for six after six into the Hollies Stand to put his side effectively out of reach. Hence, perhaps, Jamie's absence.
Lewis Gregory wins the toss and, as is usual at Taunton, elects to bowl first. The young Welshman, Phil Salt crashes his first ball from Max Waller for a straight four, and mistimes his second into the safe hands of the Somerset skipper at mid-off. Roelof van der Merwe is given the first over from the River End, an experiment which doesn't work out happily as Wright hits him for two emphatic boundaries. Enter a doubtless chastened (after his treatment on Friday) Jerome Taylor. But today he seems to be bowling to a plan. Only two runs come off his first over and in the next, from Gregory, he positions himself perfectly to take a skied top edge from Wright - and drops the ball! How many runs is that going to cost, I wonder out loud. Just nine, is the answer, because when Taylor is brought back from the River End, he produces the perfect yorker first ball to knock out Luke Wright's off-stump. Redemption!
Alex Carey makes a wary start as he picks up the pace of the pitch and at 37/2 at the end of the seventh over Sussex have a lot to do to post the score of 180 plus which is normally reckoned to be par at Taunton. It is at this point that momentum shifts. Van der Merwe, so economical in Somerset's first three games, is taken apart by Carey, to whom Laurie Evans is quite happy to give most of the strike. Nor is Somerset's fielding as sharp as usual, something remarked upon by Brian Rose when he turns up in the box. The runs come thick and fast through the middle overs, and at 166/3 after 17, with Carey unbeaten on 78, Wiese having just taken Craig Overton for two fours and a six, Sussex are heading for something close to 200.
That they don't get there is down to Lewis Gregory, who takes three wickets in the 19th over, including Carey's, brilliantly caught diving full length in the deep by Lammonby, whilst conceding just three runs. A decent final over from Taylor and we might not be chasing much more than 175 or so. And he starts well - a single, a bye and then Ollie Robinson run out, trying to steal a bye to give Rashid the strike. But at this crucial juncture, with three balls to go, Somerset's no doubt expensively procured vastly experienced international fast bowler produces a no ball, which Rashid hits for six (so an eight in all), followed by another no ball, plus one off the free hit. So the second half of the final over produces 13 runs - more than enough to make all the difference in a tight finish.
It's a good pitch, maybe not quite the 'belter' that Jason Kerr had told me he was hoping for, but 185 ought not to be out of reach, even against this strong Sussex bowling attack, provided Somerset get a good start. Which they do! In fact, it's an excellent start. Banton and Babar Azam, scoring freely in their contrasting styles, are still together after ten overs, with 85 on the board, meaning that the requirement is exactly ten per over over the second half of the innings, with all wickets in hand. Somerset are surely favourites.
But to assume that, as I'm afraid I did, is to reckon without the excellence of the Sussex bowlers ((Briggs and Wiese excepted). Tymal Mills comes back into the attack for the 11th, and concedes just three. In the next over, from Ollie Robinson, Banton goes to his 50 with a pulled four and is out the very next ball, top-edging to short fine leg. Babar Azam is now well into his stride with 40 from just 28 balls, but Trego can make nothing of Rashid's leg-spinners and googlies, and the asking rate starts to climb. "I reckon this is all down to Babar", I say when I come back on commentary for the 16th over. "If he stays there, Somerset win. If he gets out, Sussex do." Adrian Harms agrees. Babar promptly takes Wiese for 17 runs in the 16th over to reinforce my argument.
By the end of the 17th over, the game is in the balance: 41 required from 18 balls, Babar on 76. Rashid steps up to bowl his last over, and with his fifth ball, the world's best T20 bowler gets the better of the world's best T20 batsman, as Babar mistimes a pull and is caught at long on. It is, as I had feared, the decisive blow. Lewis Gregory, Peter Trego and James Hildreth all do their level best to find the big shots that are needed, but against the left arm pace of Mills and a fit-again Reece Topley, they swish and carve in vain.
So a third defeat in four games. Not fatal to our chances of qualification, but distinctly wounding. What went wrong? Well, some on Twitter are saying that the openers didn't try hard enough to accelerate through the middle overs, so that they left the later batsmen with too much to do. But I'm not sure I buy that. For me, the difference was in the quality of the bowling, especially when the chips were down. Lewis Gregory can hold his head high on that score but Overton was expensive and Jerome Taylor, in that final over especially, criminally wasteful. I'm not sure what the solution is - bring back the pace of Jamie Overton maybe, or give Josh Davey a try? - but we need to find it pretty quickly, or we'll be out of the Vitality Blast before qualifying is even halfway through.
The Old Order Changeth
Vitality Blast T20 South Group: Somerset v Surrey
Surrey 203/4; Somerset 207/2. Somerset win by 8 wickets
All set for Surrey
I fear that we may already have witnessed the end of the 'Trescothick era' in Somerset's County Championship cricket. Have we now, I wonder, come to the end of the 'Trego era' in Somerset's white ball cricket?
I confess that when I first looked through the squad that Jason Kerr had chosen for tonight's game, I hadn't noticed the absence of 'Peter Trego' among the names. I knew already that Lewis Gregory would be missing courtesy of a broken bone in his left foot, and I was pleased to see Eddie Byrom's name on the list, after all of the quick runs he's been scoring in T20 games for the Seconds, although I thought it more a gesture of encouragement rather than as evidence that he would actually play. It was only when I got a message on Twitter from Sam Trego to say "Peter dropped!" that I realised what had happened.
Like Sam, I felt that the decision was a bit harsh. Peter may not have been at his absolute best in the T20 so far, but he did see us home at Sophia Gardens with a well-judged 47 not out, and he is second in the batting averages, with only the prolific Babar Azam ahead of him. Eddie Byrom had obviously earned his chance, and good luck to him, but it was still a bit sad. For Peter Trego is one of the great Somerset cricket characters, typifying our swashbuckling, up and at 'em, never say die approach in the early part of the 21st century just as Sammy Woods did a century and more ago, and intelligent and articulate with it. For the record, he has played 164 T20 games for Somerset, scoring 3273 runs at 24.42 with a strike rate of 126, taking 50 wickets, and never giving us a dull moment. If this is indeed the end, he will be missed.
After three consecutive defeats, this is a game Somerset simply have to win if they are to have any realistic chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, and that won't be easy. Surrey's already powerful-looking line-up will be reinforced by the return of Same Curran, released by England, so that even without Jason Roy, they'll be fielding eight international players, led by the muscular Australian World Cup captain, Aaron Finch. I arrive in the box to find the BBC's Surrey commentator, Mark Church, peering anxiously at the television, biting his nails. In the Edgbaston test, Rory Burns is on 99, and Nathan Lyon is spinning ball after ball past his outside edge. At last, he gets a delivery he can tuck into the leg-side, sets off for the sharp single and reaches his century in a cloud of dust. Phew!
Tom Abell, captaining in place of Gregory wins the toss and opts to bowl. In an interview before the start, Geoff Twentyman asks me who's going to win. "Surrey must be favourites", I reply, "but if Somerset bowl a bit better than in the last couple of games, they'll be in with a decent chance.".
They start well enough, Jerome Taylor conceding just four from his first two overs and having Will Jacks brilliantly caught by Max Waller, who times his jump to perfection at mid-on, taking the ball two-handed high above his head. But then, I'm afraid, the bowlers rather revert to type. There doesn't seem to be much of a plan, or if there is, the bowlers aren't following it. Mark Church, on commentary with Charlie Taylor towards the end of the Surrey innings, with Finch just removed after helping himself to 72 from 44 balls, confesses himself bemused when Jerome Taylor, with a field set for full and straight, instead bowls short and is carted unceremoniously to the long leg boundary by Ollie Pope in a 17th over costing 20 runs. It is looking as though Somerset might just keep Surrey to below 200 when Roelof van der Merwe, entrusted with the final over ahead of the banished Taylor, produces a last ball full toss which Tom Curran belts down the ground for six.
Against a Surrey attack featuring the Curran brothers, Rikki Clarke and the wily old Imran Tahir, I reckon that the chances of a Somerset batting line-up low on confidence chasing down 204 to win must be vanishingly small, an opinion shared by the Jeremiahs in the press box.
O ye of little faith! Tom Banton comes out swinging, and just about everything he tries comes off. "Surrey just don't know where to bowl at him", remarks Mark Church as he takes the Curran brothers for 22 in two overs, including a quite outrageous reverse swept six off Sam. Babar Azam - the top-ranked T20 batsman in the world, don't forget - is mostly content just to give Banton the strike. The shot-making is breathtaking. Sixty six come off the powerplay, and Banton reaches his 50 off just 23 balls.
The introduction of spin from both ends, Gareth Batty coming on from the River End, first slows the breakneck progress of the two Bs, and then, with 95 on the board, produces the first wicket as Banton top edges Batty to give Jamie Smith a comfortable catch. James Hildreth is the new batsman and this time it is his turn to play second fiddle, to Babar Azam, who hits the first three balls of the 12th over, Batty's third, for 6,4,4, to get Somerset back up with the run rate. I am just wondering whether Ben Warren will act on my suggestion that the PA should play the Beach Boys' "Bar, Bar, Bar; Barbar Azam" to celebrate his 50, when Imran Tahir tempts him into one pull shot too many and he is caught at long on.
Seventy seven are needed from 46 balls, with a new batsman coming to the crease, in the shape of Eddie Byrom, playing his first senior T20, and with a reputation as a blocker rather than a blaster. Off his very first ball, he goes for a reverse sweep, misses and Surrey appeal, optimistically, for a catch behind. But Byrom is in no way deterred. In Batty's next over, the 14th, he hits the last three balls for 6,4,6, one of the sixes being palmed over the boundary by a diving Jordan Clark, to be sure, but Byrom is timing it well. He treats Imran Tahir, one of the most dangerous and experienced white ball bowlers in the world, with something approaching contempt, and when Tom Curran comes on for his habitual 'death spell', he goes the distance too. Hildreth joins in with a six off Rikki Clarke and when 13 runs are plundered from the 18th over, Somerset are as good as home at 198/2. Hildreth takes a single off the first ball of the 19th, to give Byrom the strike, whereupon he smashes Sam Curran down the ground for two fours, the first to bring up his 50, in just 18 balls, the second to win the game. Quite magnificent! He's a revelation, I say on commentary.
Fast Eddie - the County Ground has a new hero
We interview Somerset's two young heroes on the outfield afterwards, Tom Banton almost as pleased for his fellow King's College old boy and best mate, as he is for himself. Eddie Byrom is looking almost stunned by his success. What was he thinking about as he walked out to face one of the best T20 bowlers in the world, I wondered, with the game in the balance? With typical modesty, he replied that he knew Somerset had a good platform, and that there were good players to come, "so I knew that I couldn't afford to chew up any balls. So I went for my shots and luckily, it came off.".
It certainly did. It was an amazing innings to top off a smashing game of cricket, one of the best T20s I have ever seen. And talking of smashing, when I got back to the commentary box to send my interviews up to Bristol, I found it cordoned off by anxious-looking stewards. A glance at the window of the box revealed why. The outer glass was completely crazed. It looked like a gigantic smashed windscreeen. And even as I retrieved my broadcasting kit, it started to fall onto the terrace beneath, which had thankfully been cleared. What on earth could have caused it, we all wondered? There looked to have been some sort of impact in the top left-hand corner. A seagull perhaps, possibly discombobulated by the spectacular light show which the floodlights had provided in celebration of Somerset's win. But if it was just a seagull, imagine what a cricket ball might do!
The commentary box window after something hit it. Just as well it's double-glazed
Of course, Somerset still have a lot of work to do to qualify, with three away games coming up in the next six days, all against teams above them in the table. But tonight's performance has offered both hope and enormous promise. If we really have seen the last of Peter Trego in Somerset colours, then Banton and Byrom are looking like worthy successors.
April 24.
Sussex by the sea.
Royal London One Day Cup. Somerset 283/8; Sussex 62/4 in
16.3 overs
Somerset win by 68 runs (DLS)
I always enjoy going to Hove for the
cricket. Brighton is a vibrant town,
with some great pubs, the County Ground at Hove is a cricket ground, not a
stadium, and it is always a pleasure to work with BBC Sussex’s Adrian Harms,
whose commentary is never anything but accurate, entertaining and
generous. Not daring to risk either the
M27 or the M25 through the Wednesday morning rush-hour, I travel up the
afternoon before and stay at the soulless but comfortable and, above all,
central, Britannia Study
Hotel. At £70 or so for bed and breakfast, it also falls within my BBC
expenses allowance - just! I reflect
that it is a far cry from the Old Ship on the sea-front, where my father used
to stay on his visits to Hove.
Hipster central - the Prince Albert in Brighton
For my evening’s entertainment I decide to try
two previously unvisited pubs in the Good Beer Guide, the Evening Star and the
Prince Albert, both near the station and within comfortable walking distance.
The Evening Star, home of the excellent Dark Star Brewery, is quiet, but my
pint of Mallinson’s Centennial is
exemplary. The Prince Albert is much
livelier. Hipster central! I reckon I’m just about the only bloke there
without a neatly trimmed goatee beard.
Again, the beer is excellent. I
order a pint of Long Man Best Bitter, followed by halves of a delicious dark
mild brewed by Reunion in London and a
session IPA from Arundel.
The forecast for match-day is distinctly
iffy. Threatening clouds are blowing in
from the sea as I make my way to the ground and there is rain in the air. Heavy
showers are forecast for the afternoon.
This would be a good toss to win, and put the opposition in, so that you
would know exactly what may be needed if Messrs Duckworth, Lewis and Stern come
to be involved. Tom Abell calls wrong and Somerset are batting.
A toss we really didn't want to lose
But there is better news on the team front. Luke Wright, who pulverised the Somerset
bowling for 92 in 56 balls the last time these two sides met, on T20 finals
day, is unfit. There’s no Jofra Archer,
either. He’s still with the Rajasthan Royals (and highly rated by Jos,
incidentally). That’s both a relief and a shame. I’ve been saying he’s one of
the best cricketers in the country ever since I saw him take 5/42 and make 35
down the order when the runs were really needed in a One Day Cup match at Taunton
in 2016. I still think he ought really
to be playing for the West Indies.
As the Somerset innings gets under way, it soon
becomes apparent that this is not an easy pitch to bat on, with some balls
taking off, and others - like the one that accounts for Peter Trego - sticking
in the pitch. Word seems also to have
got around about Tom Banton’s strengths and weaknesses. Ben Brown stations four men to cut off his
off-side shots, and after struggling to 7 from 28 balls, the resultant
frustration produces a rash shot and the first wicket. Trego soon follows, the
first ten overs yield only 32 runs and it is left to Azhar and James Hildreth
to re-build.
Which they do very
effectively, working the ball into the gaps, keeping the scoreboard turning
over, with just the occasional big shot. After Azhar goes, Tom Abell takes up
his mantle. He and Hildreth always bat well together, the running between the
wickets a joy to behold. But it still doesn’t look as if Somerset are going to
get many more than about 250 - until the arrival at the crease of Lewis
Gregory.
While the other batsmen have all struggled with
a two-paced pitch, Lewis makes batting on it seem the easiest thing in the
world. He tucks into the Sussex bowling with real relish. One off drive rockets
between extra cover and mid-off like a tracer bullet. He reaches 50 in just 25 balls, with two
fours and three sixes and barely a false shot. While he’s out there, the
Somerset score moves from 186/4 to 255/6 in just seven overs, when Tom Abell is
out. Enter Craig Overton, with, as I
waste no time in pointing out, 107 runs to his name in two innings without
having been dismissed. Hardly are the
fateful words out of my mouth than he gets a short ball from the Pakistani Mir
Hamza, which keeps low and pins him LBW.
My goodness, didn’t I get some stick on Twitter for my commentator’s cursing!
Somerset finish on 283, which both Adrian and I
reckon is probably 20 or so better than par.
Sussex are going to have to bat very well, to chase down either that
total, or whatever revised total DLS may decree should it rain, which is
looking likelier by the minute. The home
team will probably win if they can keep ahead of the DLS par score, but if they
lose wickets, that par score will quickly go through the roof. The balance
between run-scoring and wicket-avoiding will be both delicate and crucial.
In the event, Somerset’s seam bowlers quickly
make a mess of whatever the Sussex calculations may have been. Phil Salt, fresh
from a century in the previous game, is pinned by Overton for 7, Josh Davey
accounts for van Zyl, Finch is cleaned up by Lewis Gregory and then the Sussex
danger-man, Laurie Evans, so often a thorn in Somerset’s side, is well caught
on the square leg boundary by - that man again - Craig Overton. By the time the rain arrives, Sussex are 62/4
in 16.3 overs, a little matter of 68 runs short of the DLS par. What had seemed a very tricky assignment when
the toss had been lost in the morning, had turned into a comfortable win.
I interview James Hildreth afterwards. He is as
self-effacing as always, whilst obviously taking pride in that partnership of
101 with Azhar, which had built the platform from which Lewis Gregory - “One of
the most powerful and cleanest strikers of the ball currently playing” - would
subsequently launch. But his warmest
praise is reserved for Somerset’s four seam bowlers: Craig Overton, Josh Davey, Lewis Gregory and
Tim Groenewald. “Just brilliant” was
James Hildreth’s assessment, and I wouldn’t argue with that for a moment.
April 25 Launching Rosey
Co-writers
There is a fine gathering of Somerset cricketers, past and present, for the launch of Brian Rose's autobiography, which he and I have spent a large part of the winter working on. Somerset County Cricket Club are very generously hosting the event, with both the Chief Executive, Andrew Cornish and the Chairman, a now wheelchair-bound Charles Clark there to support their President.
Ken Palmer, who made his Somerset debut in 1955, is the senior of the cricketers present and is as talkative as ever, alongside the likes of Andy Caddick and Charl Willoughby, both of whom feature prominently in the book, who appear to be imparting some no doubt invaluable advice to one of Somerset's newest pacemen, Paul van Meekeren. The current generation are led by club captain, Tom Abell, together with two of the cricketers whom Brian did so much to further their early careers, Marcus Trescothick and James Hildreth.
Three adopted fast-bowling sons of Somerset: Paul van Meekeren, Charl Willoughby and Andy Caddick
The three speeches, from our publisher Stephen Chalke, Vic Marks and Brian himself, could hardly be improved upon. Stephen marvels at the way Brian managed to marshal and manage the remarkably disparate group of hugely talented cricketers he had under his command; Vic recalls how, before what seemed like almost every game in that era, Brian's team talk would consist of telling his players that "this is the most important game in Somerset's history"; while Brian himself is persuaded into relating the story of Brian Close's broken box and the groundsman's screwdriver!
It is a lovely, nostalgic occasion, and we even manage to sell a few books, as well as giving plenty away. I'm delighted with the way the book has turned out, but the hard work of selling it starts now!
April 25 Launching Rosey
There is a fine gathering of Somerset cricketers, past and present, for the launch of Brian Rose's autobiography, which he and I have spent a large part of the winter working on. Somerset County Cricket Club are very generously hosting the event, with both the Chief Executive, Andrew Cornish and the Chairman, a now wheelchair-bound Charles Clark there to support their President.
Ken Palmer, who made his Somerset debut in 1955, is the senior of the cricketers present and is as talkative as ever, alongside the likes of Andy Caddick and Charl Willoughby, both of whom feature prominently in the book, who appear to be imparting some no doubt invaluable advice to one of Somerset's newest pacemen, Paul van Meekeren. The current generation are led by club captain, Tom Abell, together with two of the cricketers whom Brian did so much to further their early careers, Marcus Trescothick and James Hildreth.
The three speeches, from our publisher Stephen Chalke, Vic Marks and Brian himself, could hardly be improved upon. Stephen marvels at the way Brian managed to marshal and manage the remarkably disparate group of hugely talented cricketers he had under his command; Vic recalls how, before what seemed like almost every game in that era, Brian's team talk would consist of telling his players that "this is the most important game in Somerset's history"; while Brian himself is persuaded into relating the story of Brian Close's broken box and the groundsman's screwdriver!
It is a lovely, nostalgic occasion, and we even manage to sell a few books, as well as giving plenty away. I'm delighted with the way the book has turned out, but the hard work of selling it starts now!
April 26
Swinging in the rain
Somerset
353/5; Essex 154/7 in 17 overs.
Somerset win by 36 runs (DLS)
It is Somerset’s first day-night game under the
splendid new floodlights, which have eclipsed the church towers of St Mary
Magdalene and St James as the dominant features of the Taunton skyline to remarkably
little public complaint. But it is not,
of course, the first time that cricket has been played under lights at the
County Ground. That - as Steve Pittard
helpfully reminds me - was as long ago as 1982, when Somerset played the West
Indies under lights mounted on scaffolding towers as a feature of Viv Richards’
benefit season. It was also the first
time that floodlights had been used on an English county ground (previous
floodlit games had all been played on football grounds, including Ashton Gate).
We’m innovators, not bumpkins, down in Somerset!
Sky television are broadcasting the game, which,
together with the advent of a new ‘fan zone’ in part of the St James St car-park,
means that us media folk are required to arrive before 10.30, for the 1 o’clock
start, if we want to park. This doesn’t bother me unduly, as I need to put
together my questions for the annual Mendip Agricultural Discussion Club quiz,
and I can do that just as easily in the commentary box as in my study at home. But it is also raining - heavily. I permit myself the unworthy thought that,
with three wins under our belt, Somerset might not be entirely displeased with
one point from an abandoned game.
As it is, the heavy showers are soon blown away
eastwards and Simon Lee and his splendid team of groundstaff work their usual
wonders to get the ground fit for play at three. The umpires, Jeremy Lloyds and
Jeff Evans, decree a contest over 39 overs per side, Lloyds’ involvement
enabling me to get in a plug for “Rosey” as I recall his untimely departure for
Gloucestershire in 1984, after falling out with Ian Botham, who had taken over
- mistakenly in Brian’s view - as captain.
My BBC Essex colleagues are the vastly
experienced Paul Newton (whom I invariably refer to as Paul Newman at some
stage whenever I’m working with him), complete with his teddy bears, Chuffy and Teddy, and the
dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist Dick Davis,
with whom I don’t think I’ll be discussing the merits of the ECB’s ‘Hundred’!
Essex win the toss and, to no-one’s surprise
given the weather forecast, ask Somerset to have a bat. Tom Banton, after his travails at Hove,
decides that he’s not going to be tied down, and is caught at cover off a top
edge. This brings together Azhar Ali,
whose white ball credentials I’d questioned, and Peter Trego, arguably the best
white ball cricketer never to have won international honours with England. They make a fascinating contrast, Trego all
swashbuckling swagger, Azhar all placement and timing. But in truth, the Pakistani stroke-maker
loses nothing in comparison with the Somerset smiter as they keep pace with
each other en route, first to 50 apiece, eventually to their respective 100s,
Azhar off 84 balls, Trego off 78. One of
Trego’s six 6s finishes in the river Tone, but Azhar strikes four of his
own. The partnership is worth 217 when
Azhar is out for 110, but first Lewis Gregory, with a rapid 21, and then James
Hildreth, playing his fastest-ever List A innings of 40 in 18 balls, ensures
that the acceleration is maintained. One of his sixes finishes in the bowels of
a Sky Television artic; one of Gregory’s very nearly clears the Botham stand.
A wave of disappointment goes around the County
Ground as Trego lays back to thrash Siddle through the covers, misses, and is
bowled for 141, six runs short of equalling his highest one-day score (that
147 against Glamorgan in 2010, when one of his sixes famously went through the
commentary box window and laid out Edward Bevan). But after some meaty blows from Craig
Overton, the eventual total of 353 looks to be at least 50 too many for Essex,
assuming the game goes the distance, which, looking at the skies and the
rainfall radar, seems unlikely.
As at Hove,
the priority for the side batting second when there’s rain around must be to get ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern
par and stay there, and, also as at Hove, Somerset’s bowlers see to it that
they cannot. Josh Davey has the
pinch-hitter Paul Waller caught behind; Craig Overton accounts for Sir
Alastair. DLS goes through the roof. The
only thing surely that can deny Somerset now is if the players go off before 10
overs have been bowled, and don’t come back. The Essex batsmen know that as
well.
Dan Lawrence is hit somewhere near the groin
area by a lifter from Craig Overton soon after he comes in, and, with the rain
clouds looking more threatening by the minute, makes the most of it. The Somerset fielders are running between
overs to speed up the rate; the Essex batsmen are using every conceivable ploy
- drinks, gloves, endless proddings at the pitch and takings of fresh guard -
to slow it down. But the weather gods
are on Somerset’s side. Roelof van der
Merwe is brought prematurely into the attack to speed the flow of overs, and a wave, this time of relief, goes round
the ground as the tenth over is completed.
After 12 overs, with Essex on 82/3, the rain comes down and the players
go off. With no sign of any respite,
either in the skies or on the radar, that surely should be that.
And under normal circumstances it would have
been, but if Sky TV are in attendance, the umpires are under a different level
of pressure to get play re-started, almost no matter what. So, as the rain turns to misty drizzle, out
they come again at 8.30 for a final five overs.
By this time, all but a handful of the crowd have gone home, the
outfield is as slippery as a skating rink, and the ball will be as greasy as a
bar of soap. A new DLS target has been
set regardless of wickets - 191 in 17 overs, so Essex will need to score a
further 111 in their five remaining overs.
It’s a farce, but a farce that inflicts serious damage on the bowling
analyses of Lewis Gregory and Tim Groenewald, not to mention on Somerset’s net
run rate, as the batsmen lash out, the bowlers struggle with a slippery ball
and the fielders understandably put injury-avoidance before run-saving. Gregory goes for 38 in his two overs,
Groenewald for 34 in his three, although he does at least have the consolation
of picking up three wickets. Fortunately, no-one gets hurt.
The final winning margin is just 36 runs, which
doesn’t seem in any way to reflect Somerset’s superiority. Still, we get the chance to speak to two very
happy cricketers, in Azhar and Trego, at the post-match press conference. They refer to each other as ‘my twin’, as
there is indeed a likeness in the neatly trimmed beards, swarthy complexions and mischievous brown
eyes. I wonder if Azhar is planning
to get one or two tattoos?!
Typical
Glos
April 28
Royal London One Day Cup
Gloucestershire v Somerset
Somerset
242/9; Gloucestershire 246/6 in 49.2 overs.
Gloucs win by 4 wickets with four balls to
spare
The Easter heatwave is already becoming a
distant memory as I make my way to Bristol. The forecast suggests no real
threat of rain, but it is cloudy and chilly at a thinly populated Brightside
Ground for the 68th one day encounter between these two old
neighbours, rivals and, in the final analysis, friends.
My co-commentator, Bob Hunt, is slightly
hungover after celebrating his 65th birthday the evening before but
is as passionate as ever in his support for his beloved ‘Shire’, a devotion
which he makes no attempt to conceal when he’s on the microphone! We’re sharing the box with Julian Clark,
Bob’s faithful volunteer scorer, and Millie Mansell, training to be a sports
journalist, who is sitting in in the hope of picking up a few tips on how to
commentate on cricket - or maybe how not to commentate on cricket! We are promised that two players will pop in
at some stage for a stint of summarising:
James Whittingham for Gloucestershire and Marcus Trescothick for
Somerset. The view from the box at the
top of Bristol’s (relatively) new pavilion is not improved by streaks of pigeon
droppings on the glass.
Tom Abell wins the toss and decides to bat,
presumably on the basis that chasing is never easy on the slow Bristol
pitches. The Glos captain, Chris Dent,
tells Bob that he would have done the same, which is reassuring. The pitch is the same one as was used for the
Essex game ten days ago. It looks worn
and a bit tired: a typical slowish,
awkward Bristol pitch, tailor-made for Gloucestershire’s collection of slowish,
awkward, dibbly-dobbly bowlers; much less so for Somerset’s pacier seam
quartet. I am at a loss to understand
why a place hasn’t been found for the extra spin option of Dom Bess.
As expected, batting is hard work. Banton, after
trying and failing umpteen times to pierce the covers cordon set for him, is
yorked by David Payne. Azhar hasn’t found the boundary even once in reaching 43
when he goes for a reverse sweep to the left-arm spin of van Buren and is
bowled. By this time, Trego and Hildreth have already come and gone, LBW
sweeping and sharply caught at mid-wicket respectively. Abell and Bartlett bat well together to
re-build, until young George is just a split-second slow in setting off for a
tight second run and fails to beat the throw.
But that misfortune does at least have the consolation of bringing Lewis
Gregory to the crease with still more than 10 overs to be bowled. He doesn’t disappoint. Even on this sluggish, capricious surface, he
strikes the ball strongly and cleanly. His
52 from 33 balls, four big sixes included, plus another telling contribution
from Craig Overton, carries Somerset to 242 - fewer than they’d hoped for at
the start maybe, but a good many more than they must have feared, at 154/6 with
only ten overs left. 243 will take a
lot of getting.
Marcus Trescothick - who I decide not to
introduce as the Grand Old Man of Somerset cricket! - is full of confidence as
to the outcome when he arrives to do his summarising stint. Dent has been brilliantly run out by Craig
Overton in the very first over, Gareth Roderick tempted into nicking a
full-length delivery from Lewis Gregory and the dangerous Benny Howell caught
at backward point off his first ball. No
sooner has Marcus picked up his microphone than van der Merwe is steadying
himself under a steepling skier at deep mid-wicket to see off the promising
James Bracey. When Abell takes a stunning catch to remove Miles Hammond,
Somerset are seemingly on course for a fifth successive win.
It still looks that way, even after a pragmatic
partnership between Graeme van Buren and Jack Taylor has carried
Gloucestershire from 115/5 in the 31st over to 200/6 in the 46th. Forty in 24 balls is the equation. Something
will need to go badly wrong to deny us that fifth win. Abell had brought Overton back to break the
van Buren/Taylor partnership, which he did.
But that means that it would fall to Tim Groenewald to share the closing
overs with Gregory.
This does not work
out well. The 47th over (Groenewald’s 9th)
goes for 17, the 49th also for 17, including three wides, as he
tries to keep Taylor in check by bowling outside off-stump. Two full tosses are belted out of the ground
and a length ball to Ryan Higgins disappears into one of the flats in the
Jessop apartments. The Croucher would
surely have approved. By the time
Gregory steps up to bowl the final over, Glos need just one. A dot ball briefly revives Somerset hopes,
but Higgins launches the next one over mid-off, and the win is sealed.
As defeats go, it is disappointing - especially
those last few wayward overs - but hardly unexpected. Yet again, Somerset have failed to adapt to
the Gloucestershire combination of slow pitch and pace-off-the-ball bowlers.
They hadn’t helped themselves by not playing the extra spinner, but the look on
Jason Kerr’s face as he emerges from the dressing room for the post-match
interview tells me that they should still have won. When it came to the crunch, Tim Groenewald,
poor chap, had been found wanting. In
the language of coaching he hadn’t “executed his skills” when it mattered most.
The chances were that the next thing to be “executed” would be the
unfortunate bowler himself!
The Brunton Memorial Ground, Radlett
Interviewing a victorious captain at Worcester
Day 2
The weather for day two isn’t quite as balmy, nor the crowd quite as big, but they’ve soon got plenty to warm hearts and hands, as Groenewald removes the night watchman, Morne Morkel and Leach pins Gareth Batty - the Taunton crowd’s pantomime villain - LBW for nought. Didn’t we all enjoy that?! Rikki Clarke, so often the scourge of Somerset, whether for Warwickshire or Surrey, reaches a typically belligerent half-century, but eventually runs out of partners. The last eight Surrey wickets have added just 115. The only fly in the ointment is Jack Brooks’ calf strain, suffered in the warm-up. It’s doubtful he’ll bowl again in the match. Yet further cause for ruing the absence of big Jamie.
Thursday belongs to Lewis Gregory. As a bowler, he seems to have added both a yard of pace and a mead of accuracy since the end of last season. As a batsman, he has been immense in white ball cricket, whilst still all too often flattering to deceive in the Championship. With a sound, well-coached technique and power to burn, one feels he ought to be averaging in the high 30s, rather than the 20.8 which is where it stands in 72 first class games for Somerset spread over nine seasons. He can make batting look the easiest thing in the world, and then get himself out with an ill-judged heave.
But apart from an aerial cover-drive on 96, which is fortunately grassed by Stoneman, there are no ill-judged heaves today. He seems in total command, reaching his 100 in 121 balls with eight fours and four big sixes, one of which disappears over the Andy Caddick pavilion a good 100 yards from the pitch, which is well to the western side of the ground. Davies departs early, but Gregory gets good support, first from Craig Overton and then from Tim Groenewald, who has to withstand a terrible battering at the hands of Morne Morkel. He may have contributed just 13 to the 8th wicket stand of 64, but it is a brave, painful effort, entirely typical of this gutsy cricketer. Jack Leach is there as a cheer goes round the ground for Somerset taking an unlikely first innings lead, and we’re just two runs short of a fifth batting point when he is well caught by Scott Borthwick at slip.
For it is indeed a great moment. Not just a win for Somerset after all those near misses, but just perfect in the way it had been a combination of Somerset young and old - Banton and Hildreth - who had taken Somerset home. Surely one or the other would be Man of the Match. But no, it is Jamie Overton and, on reflection, quite right too. The key to Somerset’s win was reducing Hampshire to 188/8. There was no way back from that. It was the bowlers, backed up by the usual superb Somerset fielding, who had done it, and none more so than big Jamie. “Surely they’ll have to get him back from Northants”, someone tweets. “I profoundly hope so”, I reply.
There is time for just two overs of the Surrey reply, the second of which Mark Stoneman barely survives against a fired-up Jack Brooks, who looks to have made a complete recovery from the calf strain he picked up when these two sides met at Taunton.
June 21 A sad day
Stephen opens up the commentary with BBC Radio Essex’s veteran, Paul Newton, his two teddy bears doubtless propped up on the desk in front of him. They have the luxury of not just one, but two scorers, David Jackman being joined by a work experience lad who may perhaps, half a century on, look back fondly on this day!
Well, that was a day that certainly didn’t work out as planned, or as predicted. Far from the 300 plus which I’d suggested Somerset would need to put them ahead in the game, they subside ignominiously for 131. And far from it being Simon Harmer who does the damage, it is their seamers, led by 21 year old Aaron Beard, who hadn’t bowled a single over in the game against Hampshire.
Day 3
Yes, I know it’s not an easy pitch. But some of the batting has been woeful. I am comforted by the fact we had a serious blip in the One Day Cup campaign - losing three games on the bounce - yet came back stronger than ever.
Out in the middle, the players are celebrating and shaking hands. But hang on; what’s this? Mason Crane, the not out batsman, has turned back from his walk to the pavilion, from which a limping Hampshire batsman appears, accompanied by a runner. It is Tom Alsop, once again exhibiting that great British propensity for heroic, but entirely futile gestures. He survives the last ball of Leach’s over, leaving Crane to face Bess. He at least is not disposed unduly to delay the inevitable. A leg-side slog ends in the safe hands of Leach at mid-wicket and this time, as I announce with some relief, Somerset really have won by 313 runs. Or have they? Might Joe Weatherley yet appear? But no. Hampshire have had enough, even if the uncertainty does rather spoil my victory peroration. I am cheered by a reaction on Twitter: “Hello Ant. I’ll bet that’s the first time you’ve called two Somerset wins in a morning!”
Enter the spinners, who Fabian expects this pitch to favour. He's right. Van der Merwe goes for just five in the seventh and in the next over, having been hit for a straight six by Nabi, Max Waller pulls back his length a touch, the dangerous, powerful Nabi mistimes another big hit, and van der Merwe takes a difficult, swirling catch at long-on, falling backwards onto the turf but holding on. Wickets continue to fall at regular intervals. Tom Lammonby, making his senior debut, is brought into the attack with his left arm seam and immediately shows what a bright prospect he is. His first over goes for just three and in his second he takes his first wicket, Sean Dickson making a complete hash of an intended scoop, while in between he takes a sharp catch at mid-off to remove Alex Blake off a Taylor full-toss.
Out-bowled
May 1. Middlesex v Somerset Royal London One
Day Cup
Middlesex
364/6; Somerset 246 all out 43.4 overs
Middlesex
win by 118 runs
With Lord’s being readied for the World Cup and
sundry other international commitments, this game is played at the Brunton
Memorial Ground, home to Radlett CC.
Radlett is just down the road from St. Albans, a city I have only once
visited, many years ago, so that is where I decide to stay for the night
before.
St Albans Cathedral
I am not disappointed. St Albans is a handsome city, which combines
ancient and modern to great effect. The enormous cathedral, with its gate-house
and park, is a wonderful statement of Christian supremacy, looking down as it
does on the remains of Roman Verulanium. Besides the Cathedral, St Albans is also
blessed with some excellent pubs, as befits the home of the Campaign for Real
Ale. My first stop, on the way to my
hotel, is the Foragers @The Verulam Arms, a pub which apparently prides itself
on offering unusual beers and, as its full name would suggest, specialises in
cooking with whatever wild ingredients the local countryside may have to
offer. I stick to the beer - a half of
Barbarian Rhubarb IPA and a half of St Cloak Stout. “That’ll be £5.10”
announces the barman. Blimey, that’s
more expensive than central London!
Still, the beer is good, and I am intrigued to overhear one of the staff
going through that evening’s menu with a couple wondering whether to eat. The main attraction appears to be pheasant -
in May?! I hope they didn’t ‘forage’ it
alongside a local main road!
Later in the evening, as I set off on foot, my
first stop is the White Hart Tap, which brews its own beer. Or at least
sometimes it does. But not this
particular evening. However, I try two
of the other brews on offer, both new to me, and they are excellent, as is my
fish and chips. In a room off the main
bar, a group of bearded beer buffs, each of whom has brought a different beer
or beers, are earnestly tasting and comparing notes. They take their beer seriously in St Albans!
The White Hart Tap
A walk through the Cathedral Close takes me to
my second port of call, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, a wonderfully ancient,
characterful pub which charges wonderfully modern, exorbitant prices for its beers. A pint of Farr’s Bitter and a half of 3
Brewers of St Albans Copper set me back £6.90!
Yes, it was good, but not THAT good!
Radlett itself is an unassuming little
town. In an e-mail Stephen Chalke
informs me that its
main claim to fame now is that it houses the highest proportion of Jewish
people of anywhere in the UK – nearly 30%. Radlett was the culmination of the
aspirational journey of the Jewish immigrants of 100 and more years ago – from
the East End up through Southgate, Barnet, Golders Green, Finchley and finally
out into leafy Hertfordshire. For the
morning of a rare and special visitation by Middlesex CCC, the authorities have
helpfully allowed the town to be brought to an almost complete standstill by
temporary traffic lights at the main cross-roads.
When I do
eventually reach Radlett CC, I discover a pleasant enough cricket ground, set
on a low hill, with boundary boards surrounding a slightly domed outfield and a
smart, modern pavilion. The commentary
position isn’t exactly ideal, in a small tent at an angle to the pitch, so low
down that one can only see the top half of fielders on the far side of the
ground. But at least it’s fine day.
I’m
working with BBC London’s long-time Middlesex commentator, Kevin Hand, who is
having problems connecting our BBC equipment to the cameras providing the
Middlesex live stream. The Middlesex
media man, the genial Fletch, is sent off on a tour of every electrical
retailer within a ten mile radius to procure the requisite cable. By the time he returns, empty handed, the
problem has been solved and play is under way.
Fortunately, our effects microphone fails to pick up his comments upon
discovering that his mission had been not only fruitless, but pointless!
Having
won the toss, Tom Abell decides to ask Middlesex to bat, his reasoning being,
as Andy Hurry explains later, “with the short boundaries and a decent pitch,
it’s a very difficult ground to defend on.”
Somerset’s greatest strength in the competition so far has been their
new ball bowling: Kent were 26/4,
Glamorgan 21/5, Sussex 48/4, Essex 24/2 and even Gloucestershire 44/3. But from what seems - from our less than
ideal vantage point in a tent next to the pavilion - a pretty good batting
pitch, there is no early breakthrough, nor even much sign of one. The makeshift Middlesex opening partnership
of Sam Robson and Max Holden go calmly about their task of building a platform,
keeping out the good balls and taking full toll of the bad ones, of which there
are more than we’ve seen so far this season, from all four seamers and, when he
comes into the attack, Roelof van der Merwe’s left-arm spin.
The
Middlesex analyst, Alex Fraser (son of Gus), who is sharing our commentary
tent, knows the Radlett ground well and had suggested before the start that 300
would be a decent score. As the opening partnership reaches 50, and then 100,
I’m revising that upwards to at least 350, maybe even more, especially if Ross
Taylor, who has been in tremendous form for New Zealand, gets going.
Fortunately
for Somerset, if not for the spectators, he doesn’t - holing out to deep
mid-wicket for just six - but Nick Gubbins races to a powerful, stylish 90,
while John Simpson, George Scott and Toby Roland-Jones all contribute at better
than a run a ball, the main sufferer being, yet again, Tim Groenewald, whose
wicketless nine overs disappear for 84.
It has
been a strangely lacklustre Somerset performance in the field. The bowlers
failing to sustain pressure; the fielding - admittedly on a difficult, rough
outfield - untypically sloppy, with three catches going down, one of them a
straightforward caught and bowled chance spilled by Azhar, in the course of
five overs of distinctly moderate leg-spin.
Still,
365 doesn’t seem an impossible target, given that Somerset had racked up almost
as many in 11 fewer overs against Essex.
But we need a good start and, for the sixth game in a row, we don’t get
it. The Somerset opening partnerships in the One Day Cup have been 7, 16, 29,
3, 28 and now 10, Banton yet again the man to go, failing to keep down a square
drive and being well taken at backward point by Nathan Sowter. Trego and
Hildreth also fall to sharp catches, while Captain Tom, suffers that cruelest
of batting fates, being run out, backing up.
The batsmen would probably say they were unlucky (and Abell certainly
was), but the standard of fielding is so high these days that if you offer even
half a chance, you’ll probably be on your way.
If the
runs had come easily for Middlesex, for Somerset every one of them has to be
eked out. Bartlett never settles, Azhar plays his run shot down to third man once
too often, to get out just when he should have been starting to dominate,
Gregory fires briefly and then gives the softest of catches. At 146/7, Somerset
are facing humiliation and a massive dent in their net run rate.
That the
damage is limited is down to some sensible batting from the lower order, van der Merwe contributing a typically feisty
38 before being given out LBW a good five yards down the pitch, as if umpire
Baldwin, who lives nearby, is in a hurry to get home for his tea, Craig Overton
adding 21 to his impressive tally of runs and then a defiant last wicket
partnership of 50 between Groenewald and Josh Davey, who must be one of the
most stylish number 11s in the business. The fact that it is the highest stand
of the innings puts the efforts of the specialist batsmen in their proper
perspective. The final margin is 118 runs - bad, but not disastrous.
Afterwards,
Andy Hurry acknowledges that it has been a very disappointing performance
without explaining why that might have been. To me, there didn’t seem to have
been the spark, or the spirit, of some of Somerset’s earlier performances. Against Gloucestershire there had maybe been
a touch of complacency. But I didn’t see that today. The body language had instead
once or twice suggested disaffection - maybe with the selection? Who knows.
At any
event, it leaves Somerset needing to win both of their last two games, starting
with Hampshire, the holders, on Sunday, to be sure of qualifying for the
quarter finals. Looking on the positive side, it’s a chance for this team
really to show what it’s made of.
Inexplicably poor
May 5 Royal London One Day Cup. Somerset v Hampshire.
Somerset 216 all out in 40.3 overs; Hampshire 221/3 in 31.3 overs
Hampshire win by six wickets with 18.3 overs in hand
“Well, that was a nice day”, I hear a middle-aged woman say to her husband as I leave the ground. “Shame about the cricket.”
It was a verdict with which no Somerset cricket follower could possible disagree. The performance may not have been quite shameful, but Head Coach Jason Kerr called it ‘embarrassing’, and said I could choose any other epithet if I thought that wasn’t sufficiently damning.
And it had indeed been a lovely day, of crisp spring sunshine, cotton-wool clouds drifting over the ground on a north-westerly breeze, the light almost piercingly bright, the Quantocks a palette of greens, bright yellow and terracotta.
It had started well, too, with Jamie Overton belatedly coming into the side in place of the hapless Tim Groenewald, and Tom Abell winning the toss. He decides to bat first, on the basis that this is a used pitch which might possibly deteriorate as the day goes on. It doesn’t, or at least not as far as I could see.
My co-commentator is BBC Solent’s Kevan James, who batted in the middle order and bowled left arm medium pace for Middlesex and Hampshire in the 1980s and 90s, and is one of only two cricketers ever to have taken four wickets in four balls, and scored a century, in the same first-class game. At Southampton, he will always have a team of part-timers to help ease his commentary burden, but today it is just him and me, with our respective teams first and second in the group and everything to play for. A win for Hampshire will mean winning the group and going straight through to a home semi-final; for Somerset it would make qualification well-nigh certain and might even open the door to overtaking Hampshire at the top.
As two of Hampshire’s clutch of Kolpaks, Kyle Abbot and Fidel Edwards, bowl the opening overs, it soon becomes apparent that, used or not, this is a decent pitch for a one-day game, with the ball coming on nicely for the batsmen, and good carry for the bowlers. I suggest that 350 will probably be about par, and Kevan doesn’t disagree. Mention of the Hampshire Kolpaks also gives Kevan the chance to rib me about the comments I had made on commentary during the Middlesex game about Hampshire ‘buying success’. There had been quite a little Twitter spat about it the previous evening, although it seems to me that the fact that not a single member of this Hampshire team was actually born in the county does rather make my point.
Out in the middle, Tom Banton seems to be building his innings nicely, when he plays a rather airy-fairy drive at a good length ball from Abbot and loses his off-stump. I use the old commentary cliché of ‘he was playing down the Bakerloo line, against a ball on the Piccadilly’. Poor Tom Banton. After that magnificent 107 against Kent, he’s had a rotten time of it, with just 54 runs in six innings. Enter Trego - the ‘tattooed tonker’, as Steve Pittard likes to describe him. He and his ‘twin’, Azhar Ali have taken the score onto 63 and are threatening a repeat of their partnership against Essex, when Trego goes to cut a ball from the wily Liam Dawson which is too close to him for the shot, and is bowled, for 26. Azhar is next to depart, attempting to play that glide of his down to third man, and instead feathering a catch to the keeper: a carbon copy of his demise at Radlett. Hildreth, meanwhile, is struggling to find his timing. He is offered up two juicy full-tosses by the leg-spinning wunderkind, Mason Crane (who, with his thin legs and angular approach does rather remind me of the eponymous bird). He fails to score from the first, then completely mistimes the second to give James Fuller a comfortable catch running back at mid-wicket. So that is four Somerset batsmen in succession who have got themselves a start, and then got themselves out, through either poor shot selection or poor execution.
That becomes the story of the innings. Tom Abell reaches 36, and then holes out to deep square leg; George Bartlett makes his highest one-day score and is just starting to go through the gears when he lifts an off-drive straight into the hands of Aneurin Donald on the long-off boundary. Roelof van der Merwe is his usual feisty self, clouting the only six of the innings into the retirement apartments behind the Somerset stand, and then being pinned LBW by Abbot for 38. Jamie Overton runs himself out first ball and has a hissy-fit on his way back to the Pavilion, his twin brother gives mid-on some catching practice and that’s it: 216 all out, halfway through the 41st over, on a decent pitch, with a fast outfield, against some steady but mostly unexceptional bowling. Of the 10 Somerset wickets, only Gregory and van der Merwe were got out by the Hampshire bowlers. The other eight had just given it away.
The crowd seems almost stunned. Since when was 216 enough to win a one-day game at Taunton? Kevan, wary as all commentators are of tempting providence, suggests that Somerset can still win, as we tuck into our carbohydrate overload - ham and cheese puff pastry slices and chips - during the break.
His pessimism is not justified by events. Tom Alsop and Aneurin Donald come out all guns blazing, evidently intent on finishing the job in as few overs as possible. It’s a disappointment when the latter scores his first run. I’d been so looking forward to saying, as he walked off, scoreless, to the pavilion: “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a Donald duck!” As it is, I have to content myself with a text from Steve Pittard, informing me that there was indeed a cricketing connection to Mickey Mouse’s best mate: Walt Disney had thought of the name after seeing a headline “Donald’s duck”, after the great Bradman had made nought in a match in New York in 1932. I’m still not sure whether he was having me on!
As the score mounts, conversation in the box drifts back to the Hampshire players’ origins. I read out the list of their birthplaces: High Wycombe, Centurion, Bloemfontein, Ashford, Swindon, Swansea, Cape Town, Cape Town, Empangeni, Shoreham-by-Sea, Barbados. There’s not a Hampshire native among them. Come to think of it, what do you call a Hampshire native? Or a Somerset native, come to that? We have Devonians and Cornish and Londoners and so on, but Somersetians is a bit lame and neither Kevan nor I can think of anything for Hampshire. Perhaps Twitter can enlighten us. It does, up to a point. Tom Blake informs us that there is no official ‘demonym’ (a new word to me) for people born in Somerset, but that Somters, Mersets and Setters have all been suggested over the years. As for Hampshire, the best we are offered is “Hampsheerians”. But whatever the demonym, there are none in this game!
Even without James Vince, this is a powerful Hampshire batting line-up and they knock off the runs without much bother, against bowling which is effortful but hardly inspired. Markram looks a fine player, and I wonder again why Sam Northeast doesn’t seem to be in the England reckoning as he eases his way to a half century. The seamers plug away, but with very little of the variation that we see from the likes of Gloucestershire’s Benny Howell or Worcestershire’s Patrick Brown. Something for the coaches to work on, maybe.
By 4.30, it’s all over, and the assembled media troop over to the ‘interview room’ in the Ondaatje Pavilion to ask Jason Kerr what has gone wrong with his team. He doesn’t really have an answer. Admits that the batting was rubbish, but there’s no hint of any deeper malaise, which I suppose is reassuring. He describes Tuesday’s encounter with Surrey as a must-win, if Somerset are to qualify for the play-offs. Technically it’s not, because if Gloucestershire and Sussex go down at Chelmsford and Hove respectively, we could still lose and go through on a better net run rate. But it doesn’t feel that way as I limp out of the ground and head wearily for home.
Redemption
May 7
Royal London One Day Cup Somerset
v Surrey
Surrey 289/9; Somerset 292/6 in 45.4 overs. Somerset
win by five wickets
My hopes are not high as I drive to the ground
on a fine morning of high clouds and blue sky.
Surrey may have been seriously weakened by injury and England, but their
batting still looks alarmingly strong and Morne Morkel is sure to be a threat
to Somerset’s batsmen, low on confidence as most of them must be after Sunday’s
debacle.
So it is a relief to discover,
as I join BBC Radio London’s Mark Church in the commentary box, that Morkel has
been rested, leaving the Surrey attack to be led by the inconsistent Stuart
Meaker and the promising but still unproven Conor McKerr. Mark has acquired a beard since I last saw him,
and quite a neat one. He reminds me a
bit of Sir Walter Raleigh, or perhaps James Hildreth, in his new guise. He has also completed his remarkable ‘1,000
Mile Challenge’; running the five miles between Lord’s and the Oval 200 times
during the winter to raise money to combat pancreatic cancer, the disease which
killed his father Tony, and is looking as fit as you would expect after that
lot, despite having arrived at the ground at 8 am, thinking it was an 11 o’clock start.
We get under way at 1, the weather set fair, and
Mark having been joined by his brother in Surrey commentary arms, Johnny
Barran, who has stopped off, jet-setter that he is, on his way back from a week-end dune-surfing
in Devon. Tom Abell wins the toss, asks
Surrey to bat, presumably partly because defending is so difficult at Taunton,
and partly because he can’t exactly be brimming with confidence in his batsmen.
Mercifully for Somerset hopes, Surrey
are not only without Morkel, but also Jason Roy (injured and England), Ollie
Pope (out for the season with a badly damaged shoulder), Jade Dernbach (calf
strain), Rikki Clarke (injured) and the Curran brothers (IPL and England). But they do have Ben Foakes, back from his
man of the match performance in England’s win against Ireland in Dublin. For my money, he’s the best keeper in England
right now, and should be wearing the gloves in the Ashes, with Bairstow and
Buttler played as out and out batsmen.
The opening burst from Craig Overton and Josh
Davey is as threatening as it has been throughout the competition, and
Stoneman, frustrated by their accuracy, goes for a big shot, top edges and is
caught by Banton. One after another, the
Surrey batsmen get a good start on a decent batting pitch and then, exactly as
happened to Somerset against Hampshire, get themselves out. Will Jacks is caught on the boundary, Rory
Burns rather clumsily stumped trying to give van der Merwe the charge, the
ever-reliable Elgar is caught behind and then, the biggest fish of all, Ben
Foakes is quite brilliantly caught by Craig Overton, charging in from long-on,
sliding on his knees and somehow getting his hands under the ball before it
hits the deck. When I saw the ball in
the air, I didn’t think he had a prayer of making it, fine fielder though he
is. It was the day’s golden moment.
Jamie Smith, the young batsman of whom so much
is hoped, looks promising and plays some nice shots, and Ryan Patel displays unexpected power in hitting Jamie Overton for six over extra cover. But by far
the most memorable moment of the remainder of the Surrey innings is the
entrance of Gareth Batty, to good-natured (I think) booing all around the
ground. He is the cricketer that Somerset loves to hate; the Taunton crowd’s
favourite bogey-man. Naively, I thought
that this all dated back to an incident at the Oval in 2013, when he’d given
Peter Trego a mouthful, plus a shove for good measure, and been banned for two
matches by the ECB. But when I repeated that notion in the press box during the
interval, I was rapidly disabused. “No,
it wasn’t that”, declared
Richard Walsh. “It
was that time in 2012, when Murali Kartik mankaded young Alex Barrow, and
Batty, who was captaining Surrey, wouldn’t call him back. He’s never been forgiven for that, and
probably never will be.”
All of which prompts a subsequent on-air
discussion with Johnny Barran about the rights and wrong of Mankading, a mode
of dismissal (when the bowler removes the bails with the non-striker out of his
ground, backing up) much in the news since Jos Buttler suffered that fate for
the second time, on this latest occasion at the hands of Ravi Ashwin. I suggest, without much conviction, that to Mankad without a warning is against the ‘spirit of cricket’ - “whatever that
might be”, mocks Barran. And he does
have a point, given the extent of cheating which has always characterised this
supposedly gentlemanly game, from ball-tampering, to batsmen refusing to walk
when they know they’re out, to fielders pressurising umpires with incessant
appealing. For the record, the relevant
law states:
"If the
non-striker is out of his/her ground from the moment the ball comes into play
to the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the
ball, the bowler is permitted to attempt to run him/her out".
No
mention of any warning, you will note.
On reflection, I think I agree with Johnny Barran that, as long as the
bowler doesn’t try to con the batsman into thinking he’s about to deliver the
ball when he isn’t (and there was more than a suggestion of that in the Buttler
incident) then no warning should be necessary.
Happily the situation doesn’t arise in this game, although George
Bartlett does regain his ground pretty smartly when that man Batty stops
unexpectedly in his run-up, to smiles all round.
Yet
again, for the 8th
time in as many games, Somerset’s opening partnership fails to reach 30. There
are only three runs on the board when Azhar fends off a quick, lifting delivery
from the distinctly lively Conor McKerr, and Ryan Patel takes a blinder of a
catch, diving low to his left, close in at backward point. So this time it’s Tom Banton that Peter Trego
joins at the crease, with the white balls at either end still hard and the
lacquer unbruised. The pair of them have
added 38 when Trego goes to cut a ball which cuts sharply into him off the seam
and is bowled.
Somerset badly need a
partnership and, thank goodness, they get one, of 57,as Hildreth works the ball
around as skilfully as ever, and Banton begins to unfurl his shots. One reverse sweep goes to the third man
boundary like a bullet, and he’s reached his second 50 of the campaign, when he
goes to repeat the shot against Batty, hits it too square and in the air, and
is comfortably caught. Should he
persevere with the shot? Hildreth is asked subsequently. “Of course he should”,
comes the reply. “He plays it as well as anyone I’ve seen.”
Hildreth
has now, yet again, become Somerset’s mainstay, and he gets good support, first
from Tom Abell, and then George Bartlett, who plays the supporting role to
perfection, taking the singles to keep the board moving and give Hildreth the
strike. The pair of them comfortably keep pace with the
asking rate without taking any real risks, against bowling which is gradually
losing its edge, and Hildreth is in sight of a seventh one-day hundred when he
goes to pull Jordan Clark, doesn’t quite get hold of it and is caught at
mid-wicket. There is real warmth in the
applause as he walks slowly back, thumping his bat against his pad in
frustration.
But his
departure brings in Lewis Gregory, who has been in the form of his life. He
wastes absolutely no time in getting into his stride, blasting Clark down the
ground for two sixes, one of which lands on the roof of the Botham stand. There is just time for Bartlett to reach a
well-crafted 50 before Gregory finishes things off with a six over
long-off. The match is won and Somerset
are through to the play-offs. The only
question still to be resolved is whether Friday’s game will be a home match
against Lancashire, or away at Worcester.
In the event, Kent can’t quite sustain their run chase against
Middlesex, and Worcester it is.
The
relief on Jason Kerr’s face as he walks into the press conference alongside
James Hildreth is clear for all to see.
His selection policy of sticking to his guns - young guns, at that - has
been vindicated. He’s happy, Hildreth’s happy, the assembled journos are happy
and I’m pretty happy too, especially when I arrive at Eli’s to buy Steve a pint
and reflect on what has been, for Somerset, a redeeming performance.
Back to our best
May
10 Worcestershire v Somerset RLODC
quarter final
Somerset
337/8; Worcestershire 190 all out in 38 overs. Somerset win by
147 runs
A visit
to New Road isn’t quite the pleasure that it once was. The cathedral is as magnificent as ever,
especially since some judicious lopping along the banks of the Severn opened up
a clear view of that glorious West front, but the ground itself has suffered
grievously at the hands of ‘improvers’.
The ‘Graeme Hick Pavilion’, all glass and steel, is characterless; the old
half-timbered scoreboard on the opposite side of the ground is quite literally
crumbling away, almost totally obscured by the brutalist concrete of the ‘D’Oliveira
Stand’ and the
north-west corner of the ground is now disfigured by a hotel, which is ugly
even by Premier Inn standards. Only the
Ladies Pavilion remains of the once iconic New Road structures to remind us of
what has been lost.
The best view of New Road
This
being Worcester and ‘Rosey’ having just been published, conversation in the
press box inevitably turns to that notorious declaration just less than 40
years ago. Does Brian Rose now regret
what he did that day, I am asked. To
some extent yes, I reply. It wasn’t in the spirit of cricket, whatever that
is. But he still believes that, as
captain, he was duty-bound to do everything he could to get his team through to
the next stage of the Benson and Hedges, especially after Somerset had been
tripped up several times in the two previous seasons by technicalities. I get the impression that it still rankles in
these parts. Cricket followers have long
memories!
However,
there should be no issues with laws or regulations in today’s game, which is a
straight knock-out, the winner to play Notts at Trent Bridge 48 hours later. At
full strength, Worcestershire are one of the best white ball teams in the
country - witness their triumph in last season’s T20 Blast. But with Moeen Ali
on England duty and without their injured captain, Joe Leach, they maybe aren’t
quite the force they can be, although on a used pitch, the likes of Daryl
Mitchell, Wayne Parnell and the tricksy Pat Brown will be hard to get away.
So it is
no surprise when Somerset are asked to have a bat by the Worcester acting
captain, Brett D’Oliveira. But in making
that choice, he evidently reckons without the very special ability of Tom
Banton. He and Azhar Ali make their usual cautious start on a pitch which, as
expected, is two-paced at best, sticky at worst. But this time, admittedly thanks to Banton
being dropped twice in the slips by Ferguson, the openers aren’t separated in
the first ten overs, so that by the time Azhar nicks Parnell to the keeper, a
platform has been built for Peter Trego and the middle-order to make hay. Except it is not Trego who proceeds to do the
hay-making, but Banton. As the innings
progresses, so he unveils his full range of shots: sweeps - conventional, slog, reverse - some
coruscating drives through the covers, not to mention a ramped six, which sails
straight back over the wicket-keeper’s head.
Trego does his best to keep pace, but while he struggles with his
timing, Banton’s is as sweet as a nut.
They add 115 together, of which Trego’s contribution is just 37. I don’t
think I’ve ever seen Weston’s finest being outscored to such an extent.
After Banton’s
departure with 112 to his name, his second century of the competition, the
middle order find the going just as sticky as did Trego. Only Gregory and Craig
Overton are finding the middle of the bat with any regularity, with 24 in 16
balls and 25 in 15 respectively. But
despite that, Somerset still manage to take 87 off the last 10 overs, Pat Brown
the main sufferer, and on this pitch, 337 looks a more than useful total.
So it
proves. Against a Somerset seam attack
strengthened by the express pace of Jamie Overton, only the Australian Callum
Ferguson looks as though he might come to terms with the pitch, and his innings
is nipped in the bud by a superb piece of fielding by Tom Abell, quick as
lightning to his left at cover, swivelling to throw and hitting the one stump
he has to aim at. But against
consistently accurate seam and spin, none of the other Worcestershire batsmen
is able to dominate in the way Banton had, and they fall further and further
behind the asking rate. By the time the gritty Daryl Mitchell is caught by
Craig Overton off the bowling of Lewis Gregory in the 31st over, the asking rate is up
to almost 10 per over. By this stage,
Tom Abell has added the leg-spin of Azhar Ali to his bowling mix. I have to confess that I express some doubts
about this particular bowling change on commentary, given that Azhar has bowled
only 9 distinctly innocuous overs in the competition so far.
But Tom is right and I am wrong. As the
Worcestershire batsmen become increasingly desperate in their search for quick
runs, the genial Pakistani, who has become a real favourite in the Somerset
dressing room since his arrival midway through last summer, picks up wicket
after wicket, polishing off the innings by bowling Brown and Charlie Morris
with successive deliveries to finish with 5/34.
The winning margin is a huge 147 runs, and hardly over-states Somerset’s
superiority.
The key
to the win is, of course, that Banton century, which turned what would
otherwise have been a workable total into a daunting one. His captain is quick
to pay tribute at the end. “He was just
magnificent. He played out of his skin,
and 337 was probably 50 above par.
And then the bowlers were outstanding,
creating and maintaining pressure which their batsmen couldn’t cope
with.”
As for Banton himself, he acknowledges those
touches of good fortune early in his innings, but concedes that, considering
the pitch, this was an even better hundred than the one against Kent. Somerset’s new demon bowler, meanwhile, is
sporting the widest grin in Worcestershire.
As I
finish the post-match interviews and make my way back to the box to send them
up the line, I hear a female voice calling out ‘Anthony’ from the direction of the Committee
balcony. I look up, and there is Rebecca
Pow MP, wife of the Somerset Chairman, Charles Clarke. Now I’ve known Rebecca and Charles for 35
years. In fact, I gave Rebecca her first
full-time job, helping me with farming broadcasts and running the first of the
West Country’s food groups, A Taste of Somerset. She and Charles had met in Taunton YFC, of
which at the time I was President, and I am Godfather to their son James, who
is best mates with Tom Banton.
So I needed no second bidding to join them in
the Chairman’s suite, especially delighted to see Charles, who has been struck down so cruelly by cancer
and is now in a wheelchair. No sooner do I arrive by the stairs, than the two
Toms, Banton and Abell, come vaulting over the balcony to see Charles, Rebecca
and Tom Banton’s parents, who are also there. We have our
photo taken together, all beaming with pleasure at what had been, I felt sure,
Somerset’s best performance of the One Day Cup so far. And the fact that Charles was here to watch
makes it all the more special. If
Somerset do win anything this season, I just hope and pray that kind,
intelligent, funny and civilised Charles is still here to enjoy it.
A happy bunch: the two Toms, Charles, Rebecca and me
May
12 Royal London One Day Cup semi-final. Somerset v Notts
Somerset 337; Nottinghamshire 222 all out in 38.2 overs. Somerset win by 115 runs
Somerset 337; Nottinghamshire 222 all out in 38.2 overs. Somerset win by 115 runs
It was
when the eighth Worcestershire wicket went down on Friday afternoon that I
decided I ought to find somewhere to stay in Nottingham for the following
night. The team would be staying over,
but we had a family celebration planned for the following day (May 9th having been my 70th birthday), so it was a case
of down the M5 to Somerset once the quarter-final had been wrapped up, and then
back up it on Saturday afternoon for the semi-final.
I was not
feeling particularly optimistic as I drove north in my BBC pool car. Right from the start of the competition,
Notts had looked the side to beat, losing only one game in topping the north
group and twice scoring more than 400 at Trent Bridge. The fact that the misdemeanours of two of
their most potent batsmen, Alex Hales and Joe Clark, had ruled them out of
England contention only made their batting line-up that much more
threatening.
Nor were
recent encounters between Somerset and Notts at all encouraging. In the 2013 YB 40 semi-final at Trent Bridge,
Somerset had been bundled out for a humiliating 119, only Peter Trego offering
any real resistance with a defiant 40. Notts had knocked off the runs inside 17
overs for the loss of just two wickets. It had been a long drive home that
night.
The first
RLODC encounter between the two sides, in July 2014, had ended in a tie, but it
was a tie which felt like a loss. After Notts had made 261, Somerset were going
great guns at 203/2 in the 42nd over, 58 needed from 49 balls with eight wickets in hand.
But then Hildreth was out and wickets tumbled, leaving Groenewald and Alfonso
Thomas with just too much to do off the final over. I’d been handed the mic for
the climax, in expectation of a Somerset win, which only made the outcome that
much more galling.
And then
there had been that quarter-final at Taunton two years ago, when Notts had
racked up a then record 429 on a road of a pitch in brilliant sunshine. Once
again, Somerset had looked to be in with a shout on 342/7, with 88 needed in 10
overs and Lewis Gregory warming to his work.
And yet again, desp[ite a gallant 40 from Jamie Overton, we had fallen
short.
So it
wasn’t entirely surprising that Dave Bracegirdle, the Notts commentator, known
affectionately as ‘The Girdler’, should have been wearing a broad smile and a
confident air as I arrive in the (like most things at Trent Bridge) splendidly
comfortable and well-appointed commentary box.
Of the test grounds, Lord’s included, this is much my favourite. We are in the relatively new Radcliffe Road
Stand, directly opposite the old Pavilion and the enormous ‘Batman’ main
scoreboard. The sun is shining, the
pitch pristine, the outfield fast - the entire stage set to perfection.
The Trent Bridge pavilion and the 'Batman' scoreboard
So it is slightly surprising, given the
conditions and the batting power at his disposal when Steven Mullaney elects to
field after winning the toss. It seems
to me that Somerset will need at least 350 to give Notts pause for thought as
Banton and Azhard walk out to bat in front of a respectable but hardly capacity
crowd. Only in Taunton does the One Day
Cup really seem to have caught the cricketing public’s imagination. Tom Banton’s father, Colin, had played a few
games for Notts back in the 1990s without setting the Trent on fire, so he
would be doubly anxious to see young Tom do well.
He doesn’t disappoint. When the tall
off-spinner, Matt Carter, is brought early into the attack, Tom takes him for
three sixes in an over. But no-one else
seems to be able to time the ball like he does in his 59 run, 55 ball
innings. Trego mostly abandons the
spectacular for the pragmatic in compiling, rather than smashing, an important
73. His partnership with Azhar is worth 90, 183/1 on the board in the 29th,
when Azhar becomes so frustrated at his failure to accelerate on a pitch that
is clearly not quite as good as it looks, that he aims a wild heave at Jake
Ball and loses his middle stump.
Hildreth mistimes an intended clip through mid-wicket and is well taken
by Ball in his follow through, and after Bartlett is undone by Mullaney,
Gregory should have been caught off another mishit by Mullaney at mid-off, only
for the simplest of chances (by modern standards) to be spilt. Thus reprieved, he gives the innings his
usual turbo-boost, with 37 in 30 balls, including two big sixes, one of which lands not far short of our
commentary position. Pete Trego sees his
hopes of a century dashed as, stranded in mid-pitch by a Gregory change of mind,
he can only watch as Mullaney takes careful aim, and hits. But, as so often, the Overtons see to it that the innings does not
peter out, with a stand of 47 in 5 overs.
I reckon 337 is a good score on this pitch. Once the white balls lose their hardness,
timing the ball for the big shots becomes difficult. You can knock it around for ones and twos
safely enough, but Notts will need more than that from their big hitters to
chase down 338. My co-commentators - Radio 5 Live’s Kevin Howells offering a
neutral perspective alongside myself and Dave - are less impressed, both
convinced that Somerset should have gone on to 350 plus after that start.
My reading of the pitch turns out to be more
accurate than theirs. After a slightly ragged start with the new ball, with
Craig Overton tending to over-pitch and Josh Davey and Jamie Overton offering
too many innocuous short balls, the bowlers settle to their work. One of the two Notts bad boys, Joe Clarke,
falls much as Hildreth had done, mistiming a clip through mid-wicket and giving a
straightforward catch to an exultant Azhar.
Enter the other, Alex Hales, to a rapturous reception, something which
his conduct over the past year hardly merits.
But he’s a dangerous customer, perfectly capable of winning this game
for Notts off his own bat.
His
partnership with Ben Slater, a batsman re-born since his move from Derbyshire,
builds dangerously. The score is 110/1
in only the 18th over, when Slater becomes the latest batsman to
mistime an on-side shot and is well caught by Roelof van der Merwe at short
mid-wicket, plucking the ball out of the air over his left shoulder at the very
moment it seemed to have eluded him. Duckett soon follows, holing out into the
safe hands of Craig Overton at deep square leg as van der Merwe stands to
attention in mid-pitch with the ball in the air, confident of its fate. And then the big one. Hales has progressed to a half-century with
ominous assurance, biding his time, when
Abell brings back Craig Overton for a mid-innings burst. The third ball of his
spell is short and wide of off-stump.
Hales’ eyes light up. He goes for his favourite square cut, but the ball
bounces slightly more than he is expecting, takes the shoulder of the bat and
Tom Banton, leaping high to his right, takes a fine athletic catch, to send
Overton off on his trade-mark looping run, punching the air, and his team-mates into ecstasies. Somerset are winning now, even if Notts do
still have the likes of Patel, Mullaney and Moores to come.
As a bit of a warning to over-confident Somerset
supporters, I offer listeners another splendid Steve Pittard stat: that only two current all-rounders to have
scored more than 3000 runs and taken more than 150 wickets are Peter Trego (4777
and 163) and, ominously, Samit Patel, who leads the way on 5224 and 180. What is more, he seems to like scoring runs
against Somerset. But today he seems
strangely out of sorts with the bat, struggling to three off 17 balls before
attempting to sweep van der Merwe, missing and being given out LBW. The king of six, Tom Moores, who clears the
ropes on average once every 16 balls in this format, goes down the ground,
doesn’t quite get hold of it, and Jamie Overton sprinting across in front of
the pavilion like an Exmoor stag makes a tough chance look easy. There is just time for some defiant blows
from Luke Fletcher, before he too mistimes a shot down the ground to give Azhar
Ali a catch at long off and launch the Somerset celebrations.
“A terrific Somerset performance”, I tweeted
later, when I’d got home. “They
out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded a strong and confident Notts side.” And Notts were confident, perhaps
slightly over-confident. Their big
hitters had looked to impose themselves on the country cousins from Somerset,
regardless of the quality of both the pitch and the bowling, and had paid the
price. With a little less arrogance and a little more patience, that target
could have been chased down.
May 13-17
Somerset v Surrey County
Championship
Surrey 380 and 255/8; Somerset 398. Match drawn
Surrey 380 and 255/8; Somerset 398. Match drawn
It is a fine spring morning of piercingly clear
light as I arrive at the County Ground for what I’d suggested on Twitter the
evening before could be a “season-defining” game against Surrey. Reigning champions they may be, only denied
the double over Somerset last season by a September storm which first blew the
covers off the pitch, and then soaked it beyond repair, but this is a Surrey
side shorn of some of its brightest stars:
Jade Dernbach, Amar Virdi and Ollie Pope injured; Tom Curran and Jason
Roy with England; Sam Curran taking an ECB-enforced rest after his return from
the IPL.
With two Championship wins and a visit to Lord’s under our belts, Somerset hopes are high!
With two Championship wins and a visit to Lord’s under our belts, Somerset hopes are high!
But not for long. Even without their absent stars, Surrey can
still boast eight international cricketers, two of whom - Mark Stoneman and
Rory Burns - repel in some style the early threat of Gregory, Brooks and Craig
Overton on a pitch with pace and bounce.
In the commentary box, I am already querying the decision to send Jamie
Overton out on loan to Northants, following Dom Bess’s temporary departure
(which may, one fears, eventually become permanent) to Yorkshire. “Which other Director of Cricket”, I ask
rhetorically, “would opt to play Tim Groenewald ahead of Jamie Overton?”. My
two Surrey co-commentators, Mark Church and Johnny Barran, are more than
content as the openers walk off at lunchtime.
A third consecutive Surrey first innings score of 400 plus already seems
more than likely.
Two quick wickets immediately after lunch -
Stoneman caught behind and Borthwick taken at third slip - lift Somerset
spirits without doing much to change the underlying situation, given Surrey’s
strength in batting depth. Sure enough,
Burns and Dean Elgar put together a business-like, if not particularly
attractive partnership of 166, to dominate the afternoon session. Burns, with head and bat both cocked towards
mid-wicket as the ball is delivered, and Elgar, who can drive elegantly through
extra cover, but whose signature shot is the shovel through mid-wicket, are not
exactly Gower and Lara when it comes to left-handed stroke-makers.
Hard-pounding it may be, but the Somerset
bowlers stick to their task and in the last hour, get their reward, as Surrey
slip from 265/2 to 330/6 at the close.
Tom Abell produces a beauty to remove the dangerous Ben Foakes, while
Gregory accounts for Will Jacks with the ball of the day. “It’s bowled him”, I cry, as the Gregory
yorker spears in towards the stumps.
Well, not quite, Gibbo, as Jacks somehow gets his pads in the way, but
it’s the easiest decision of the day for umpire David Milns and a lesson to
this particular commentator about not over-excitedly anticipating outcomes!
So, Surrey ahead, but an encouraging fight-back
by Somerset. Jason Kerr isn’t happy with
the new ball bowling when I interview him at close of play, but reckons that
330/6 is no better than par on a good batting pitch. Quick wickets in the
morning would see Somerset right back in the game.
Day 2
The weather for day two isn’t quite as balmy, nor the crowd quite as big, but they’ve soon got plenty to warm hearts and hands, as Groenewald removes the night watchman, Morne Morkel and Leach pins Gareth Batty - the Taunton crowd’s pantomime villain - LBW for nought. Didn’t we all enjoy that?! Rikki Clarke, so often the scourge of Somerset, whether for Warwickshire or Surrey, reaches a typically belligerent half-century, but eventually runs out of partners. The last eight Surrey wickets have added just 115. The only fly in the ointment is Jack Brooks’ calf strain, suffered in the warm-up. It’s doubtful he’ll bowl again in the match. Yet further cause for ruing the absence of big Jamie.
Azhar and Trescothick survive five tricky overs
before lunch, to raise hopes of a solid start.
Alas, the great Tres, who has played no first class cricket for a month,
such is the early-season fixture list, goes to play his favourite glide down to
third man, fails to do more than feather it, and is caught behind, his fourth
low score on the bounce, with the precocious Tom Banton waiting in the wings.
But then we are treated to a partnership which, in terms of cricketing aesthetics, is the polar opposite of what we’d endured the previous afternoon. Azhar and Hildreth add 94 in 17 overs of facile, fluent batsmanship. It is a shock, for everyone around the ground and, one suspects the batsman himself, when Azhar absent-mindedly chips an innocuous ball to mid-wicket, his 60 having occupied just 73 balls. Poor execution or loss of concentration? I suspect the latter.
But then we are treated to a partnership which, in terms of cricketing aesthetics, is the polar opposite of what we’d endured the previous afternoon. Azhar and Hildreth add 94 in 17 overs of facile, fluent batsmanship. It is a shock, for everyone around the ground and, one suspects the batsman himself, when Azhar absent-mindedly chips an innocuous ball to mid-wicket, his 60 having occupied just 73 balls. Poor execution or loss of concentration? I suspect the latter.
Abell and Bartlett come and go disappointingly
cheaply, but Hildreth gets good support from Steve Davies and seems on the
verge of a first century of the season, when he gets a leading edge to that man
Rikki Clarke and is caught and bowled.
Such a shame, when he was batting so beautifully, and he’s still furious
with himself when we talk to him later.
Still, Davies and Gregory see Somerset through to the close with no
further mishap, and if Somerset are behind in the game at 243/5 at the close,
they’re not so far adrift. But for a
couple of loose shots, they would have been ahead.
Day 3
Day 3
Thursday belongs to Lewis Gregory. As a bowler, he seems to have added both a yard of pace and a mead of accuracy since the end of last season. As a batsman, he has been immense in white ball cricket, whilst still all too often flattering to deceive in the Championship. With a sound, well-coached technique and power to burn, one feels he ought to be averaging in the high 30s, rather than the 20.8 which is where it stands in 72 first class games for Somerset spread over nine seasons. He can make batting look the easiest thing in the world, and then get himself out with an ill-judged heave.
But apart from an aerial cover-drive on 96, which is fortunately grassed by Stoneman, there are no ill-judged heaves today. He seems in total command, reaching his 100 in 121 balls with eight fours and four big sixes, one of which disappears over the Andy Caddick pavilion a good 100 yards from the pitch, which is well to the western side of the ground. Davies departs early, but Gregory gets good support, first from Craig Overton and then from Tim Groenewald, who has to withstand a terrible battering at the hands of Morne Morkel. He may have contributed just 13 to the 8th wicket stand of 64, but it is a brave, painful effort, entirely typical of this gutsy cricketer. Jack Leach is there as a cheer goes round the ground for Somerset taking an unlikely first innings lead, and we’re just two runs short of a fifth batting point when he is well caught by Scott Borthwick at slip.
Enter a
limping Jack Brooks, accompanied by his runner, Tom Abell. Two balls later, with his middle stump out of
the ground, courtesy of Rikki Clarke, he’s on his way back again, to the
pavilion and the fitness table. The lead is 18.
In Brooks’ absence, Overton and Gregory take the
new ball and within five overs, both have struck, Gregory enticing Stoneman
into an unwise drive at a ball pitched up temptingly outside off stump, Overton
getting Borthwick LBW. The cricket is
becoming attritional, Patel and Foakes occupying 45 and 47 balls respectively
in eking out their scores of 12 and 9.
But we are treated to a fascinating duel between bat and ball, courtesy
of Rory Burns and Jack Leach. With just
three overs to the close, it is looking as if the contortionist will prevail
over the conjuror, when Burns comes down the pitch to kill the spin, Leach
fires the ball in outside off and Davies has the bails off in a flash. Night-watchman Morne Morkel somehow survives
to the close, to leave Surrey on 152/5, just 134 ahead, and with a big question
mark hanging over Dean Elgar’s fitness to bat on the morrow, given that he has
been suffering - and suffering is the word! - from kidney stones.
Afterwards, a justifiably content Lewis Gregory reckons that the stage has been set for a game-deciding spell by Jack Leach, on a pitch where there is modest turn to be had, especially out of the bowlers’ footmarks. If Surrey can be rolled over for no more than, say, another 80, then Somerset must be favourites to win.
Day 4
Afterwards, a justifiably content Lewis Gregory reckons that the stage has been set for a game-deciding spell by Jack Leach, on a pitch where there is modest turn to be had, especially out of the bowlers’ footmarks. If Surrey can be rolled over for no more than, say, another 80, then Somerset must be favourites to win.
Day 4
The following day, May 17, is a red-letter one
in the Gibbo cricket commentary career - the 50th anniversary of my
first official cricket assignment for the BBC.
Back then, whilst still at Oxford, I’d been hired by the BBC West Region
Sports Producer, Tony Smith (best known for producing Down Your Way for many
years with Brian Johnston), to act as scorer for my father, Alan, and the West
Indies test match commentator, Roy Lawrence, for the tourists’ game against
Gloucestershire at Bristol. It had
poured with rain, play was abandoned for the day before lunch and the three of
us had spent the afternoon drinking beer in the County Ground Hotel, something
I could well afford, given that my fee of £5 would buy about 40 pints in those days!
A wash-out it may have been, but it did mark the
start of quite a notable career, first as a scorer (1969-82), then as a
reporter and occasional commentator for BBC Radio 2 (1983-94), then as a
commentator for BBC Radio Bristol (1995-2005) and finally, after a break of a
few years whilst my NFU career took me to Warwickshire, as the BBC’s main
Somerset commentator. To me at least, it
seemed an occasion worth celebrating, and what better way to mark it than with
a Somerset victory over the reigning champions?
The day starts well. I’ve been summoned to the
BBC Somerset studios to talk to Breakfast presenter, Claire Carter, about
Somerset’s season so far. Usually I do
these interviews from home, so I suspected that my anniversary might get a
mention, especially as I knew that, thanks to Stephen Lamb and Clinton Rogers,
it was not unknown in BBC cricles. What
I was not expecting was the arrival in the studio at ten to nine of the BBC
Somerset boss, Nick Bull, and Somerset County Cricket Club
Chief Executive, Andrew Cornish, carrying an enormous cake, topped with a
cricket ball with my name on it, plus a Somerset one-day shirt signed by all
the players. I’m momentarily quite overcome.
Presentation at BBC Somerset: (l to r) Nick Bull, AG, Andrew Cornish and Claire Carter
There are photographs once the programme has ended and then I’m off to the County Ground, where another photocall has been arranged, this time with a group of players. The club’s media manager, Spencer Bishop, rounds them up as they come back to the Pavilion to change after the usual game of pre-match football, and I’m not sure if all of them even know who I am, let alone what it’s all in aid of. But the beaming smiles make for a lovely photo, which I shall treasure to the end of my days. So thank you BBC Somerset and Somerset County Cricket Club. You’ve made an old commentator very happy!
A happy old commentator with (l to r) Tim Groenewald, Jamie Overton, George Bartlett, Jack Brooks and Steve Davies
There are photographs once the programme has ended and then I’m off to the County Ground, where another photocall has been arranged, this time with a group of players. The club’s media manager, Spencer Bishop, rounds them up as they come back to the Pavilion to change after the usual game of pre-match football, and I’m not sure if all of them even know who I am, let alone what it’s all in aid of. But the beaming smiles make for a lovely photo, which I shall treasure to the end of my days. So thank you BBC Somerset and Somerset County Cricket Club. You’ve made an old commentator very happy!
Back to business, and the weather. The forecast
is unpromising, which makes the search for early wickets even more pressing as
play gets under way under threatening skies.
Almost immediately, James Hildreth fails to hang onto a sharp chance at
slip off Morkel, and umpire Nick Cook gives Will Jacks the benefit of the doubt
of a Craig Overton LBW shout in what must have been a desperately close
call. But both survive and the rain
arrives. It is only a thick drizzle but wetting enough to necessitate an early
lunch and no re-start until 2.15, by which time 34 overs have been lost and with
them, one fears, any realistic prospect of Somerset win, given that the
obdurate Elgar (declared fit to bat) and the combative Clarke have yet to be
removed. The press corps consoles itself with large slices of my anniversary
cake.
The cake before the press got their teeth into it!
Hopes of victory revive briefly when Morkel and Jacks fall in quick succession. But the 56 runs they’ve added in quick time mean that the required run-rate for a Somerset win is reaching the implausible level, even with a sudden Surrey collapse. And of that there is no sign as Elgar and Clarke warm to their work. Soon, it is drizzling again from ever darker skies, and not even the County Ground’s new floodlights can dissuade the umpires from taking the players off soon after tea. There is a final, futile gesture of a re-start, but Abell brings on himself and Azhar Ali, and the players shake hands soon afterwards.
Hopes of victory revive briefly when Morkel and Jacks fall in quick succession. But the 56 runs they’ve added in quick time mean that the required run-rate for a Somerset win is reaching the implausible level, even with a sudden Surrey collapse. And of that there is no sign as Elgar and Clarke warm to their work. Soon, it is drizzling again from ever darker skies, and not even the County Ground’s new floodlights can dissuade the umpires from taking the players off soon after tea. There is a final, futile gesture of a re-start, but Abell brings on himself and Azhar Ali, and the players shake hands soon afterwards.
Captain Tom and Andy Hurry seem happy enough
with the performance and the outcome in the interview room afterwards. Somerset 11 points, Surrey 12 is probably a
fair reflection of the balance of play over the four days, and we are still top
of the Championship table, with a home match against Warwickshire, who have
just been hammered by Hampshire, to come.
Somerset’s season remains on track.
May 20-23 County Championship Somerset v Warwickshire
Somerset 209 and 164; Warwickshire 135 and 189. Somerset win by 49 runs
Somerset 209 and 164; Warwickshire 135 and 189. Somerset win by 49 runs
To the County Ground at just after 11,
delivering boxes of books (hooray!), just in time to see Marcus Trescothick
swish hopefully at the first ball of Oliver Hannon-Dalby's ’third over - and
nick it to first slip (boo!). Is this
the end for the great man? Opinion in the
press box is divided, with the locals saying he should step aside for Banton,
whereas David Hopps, reporting the game for Cricinfo, and who is due to
interview Marcus before the game is over, arguing that he is still too potent a
player to lose lightly. I am undecided. What worries me is not so much the run of low
scores - that can happen to any opening bat - as the manner of the
dismissals: firm-footed prods or carves,
nicked to wicket-keeper or slips. He seems also to have lost the art of
rotating the strike. It tends to be a
case of leave, swish, four - or out.
Stephen Lamb and Isabelle Duncan are sharing
commentary. No sign of BBC West
Midlands’ Clive Ekin, and no word either.
I feel for the two of them. Six hours on the mic is a long time, even
with the breaks for lunch and tea, as I know all too well from my One Day Cup
efforts. Issy wonders if I might like to
do a stint? I politely decline.
Stephen subsequently informs me that Clive did appear not long afterwards, having simply missed his train. They are also joined by Brian Rose and Nigel Dando, brother of Jill, a former colleague of Stephen’s in the BBC Radio Bristol newsroom and one of my earliest journalistic contacts when I moved back from London to the South-West, as the NFU’s “Regional Information Officer” in December 1975. I wished I’d been there to meet up with him for what I suspect would have been the first time.
Stephen subsequently informs me that Clive did appear not long afterwards, having simply missed his train. They are also joined by Brian Rose and Nigel Dando, brother of Jill, a former colleague of Stephen’s in the BBC Radio Bristol newsroom and one of my earliest journalistic contacts when I moved back from London to the South-West, as the NFU’s “Regional Information Officer” in December 1975. I wished I’d been there to meet up with him for what I suspect would have been the first time.
By the time I leave, the score has reached
30/1. By the time I get home, after
visits to the Post Office and the podiatrist, it is 125/6. I’d seen that a greenish pitch was doing a
bit, but this was ridiculous. By lunchtime, Somerset have reached a
harum-scarum 142/6 - about five runs an over. Some doughty hitting from Josh
Davey takes the total over 200. Would
Warwickshire fare any better against a Somerset seam attack shorn of Jack
Brooks (by necessity - that calf injury in the Surrey game) and Jamie Overton
(by selectoral choice)?
The answer to that question is swiftly
forthcoming, as I work on this Journal in the Shed and potter in the garden, as
Warwickshire wickets tumble. When Tim
Groenewald takes the crucial wicket of Dominic Sibley, brilliantly caught in
the gulley by Craig Overton, they are 79/5.
In a message on Twitter, Andrew Frampton, who farms in West Dorset,
suggests that perhaps Somerset have deliberately prepared a green wicket, guaranteed
to produce a result within three days, to give themselves an extra day before
Lord’s. I reply that if that was the cunning plan, it seems to be working out
rather better than any of Baldrick’s ever did. By the close, by which time I’m
sitting on the bottom lawn, enjoying a glass of chilled cider and the Times
crossword, they are 110/7.
Day 2
Day 2
Tuesday is a busy day. To Wellington first thing in glorious
sunshine, to go through the agenda for the next meeting of something called the
Somerset Catchment Partnership, which I have the dubious privilege of
chairing. We are charged with improving
water quality in the rivers of Somerset, but have been given no money and no authority with which to do it. But I do have
the faithful Emilie to guide us in our impossible task, as French as you like,
but who speaks environmental acronyms like a native.
Thence to Somerton for a visit to my dentist, the formidable Birgitte, and so on to the King Alfred at Burrowbridge for one of our ‘cricket lunches’. Whilst all this is going on, Somerset have slumped to 75/7, a lead of 149 to be sure, but still very far from the nailed-on domination that I’d been anticipating, after Warwickshire were bundled out for 135.
Thence to Somerton for a visit to my dentist, the formidable Birgitte, and so on to the King Alfred at Burrowbridge for one of our ‘cricket lunches’. Whilst all this is going on, Somerset have slumped to 75/7, a lead of 149 to be sure, but still very far from the nailed-on domination that I’d been anticipating, after Warwickshire were bundled out for 135.
We enjoy our lunch in the sunshine, on the
terrace over-looking the Parrett, and talk of England’s prospects in the World
Cup. I thoroughly approve of the
selection of Dawson and Vince, as it means that neither will be allowed to
feature for Hampshire in the One Day Cup final coming up on Saturday at Lord’s!
In the end, thanks not least to a determined and
skilful 36* from Craig Overton, Warwickshire are left with 250 to win: difficult, but not impossible given that
Taunton wickets often tend to flatten out as four day games go on. Two early wickets fall, as I catch up with
The Times on a hot afternoon in the garden.
Sam Hain and Sibley are batting together - Warwickshire’s two best
players. Break this partnership and Somerset will be nearly there. I decide to cut the grass to take my mind off
things. I’m quite happy being there in
person for nail-biting cricket finishes, still happier commentating on them,
but when following from afar, my favoured inclination is to turn off the radio
or television and wait for good things to happen, rather like a small boy
hiding behind the sofa as some gripping melodrama is reaching its climax.
At the close, Warwickshire are 103/6, the dogged Hain (who clearly learned a lot from Jonathan Trott) still there on 43*. I remember a century he scored at Edgbaston in 2015 - an innings that had set us on the road to a heavy defeat.
Day 3
At the close, Warwickshire are 103/6, the dogged Hain (who clearly learned a lot from Jonathan Trott) still there on 43*. I remember a century he scored at Edgbaston in 2015 - an innings that had set us on the road to a heavy defeat.
Day 3
So, at the start of the third day, Somerset need
four more wickets to record their third win of the Championship season, Hain
the main obstacle. On Wednesday mornings, I play golf at Burnham and Berrow,
come rain or shine, storm or frost. I am a member of the Stocks group, named
after its founder, Geoffery Stocks, with whom I was wont to cross swords when
he was the Chief Executive of Taunton Cider and I was the County Secretary of
Somerset NFU. We are a heterogeneous
group, drawn from many walks of life, united by a love of foursomes golf and
good conversation. When I tell you that
I have been playing Stocks golf for over ten years and am still one of the
youngest, you will get a fair idea of the age profile! As to the impression that we create amongst
our fellow golfers, I think that the name I use to describe them to my two
golfing sons-in-law is as good an indication as any - ‘the old buffers’!
Cricket is high on the list of shared interests
and subjects of conversation. We number at least ten MCC members amongst the
fraternity. I haven’t been able to play for a month, what with the One Day Cup,
so they are anxious to get the inside track on Somerset’s chances in the
Championship and, of course, at Lord’s on Saturday. I am cautiously optimistic
on both counts.
Mobile phones are rightly banned on the course
and in the clubhouse at Burnham, so there is no question of listening to the
commentary and any score-checking will need to be surreptitious. In any case,
I decide that I’d rather wait until the match is over, in the hope that both we
and Somerset will have won by then, rather than subjecting myself to possibly
swing-disrupting tension. But by the 15th,
my partner and I two up and on the verge of going dormie three, I can resist
the temptation no longer. Warwickshire
150/9! The game is as good as won! Elated, I address my little pitch shot - and
proceed to bury the club in the ground behind the ball, which remains unmoved!
Thus chastened, I resolve not to look again
until the golf is won. I’ll take out my
phone again when I put my clubs back in the car, two victories - ours and
Somerset’s - safely in the bag. Which is
what I do, except that half an hour on from my previous peek, Warwickshire are
still nine down. So I shower, and
change, and have a pint in the clubhouse before looking again, just before we
go in for lunch. Still nine down and
only 51 more needed, with Hain still there.
Alarm bells are ringing.
Still, there is nothing to be done save for putting
the phone in my pocket and concentrating on the asparagus, steak and ale pie
and strawberries and cream. Lunch over,
I pluck up the courage to look again.
Thank goodness for that! We’ve
won by 49 runs. If we’d been five minutes later going in to lunch it would have
tasted twice as good!
As it is, the team will be on a high going to
Lord’s, not rueing a dramatic defeat, and we’ll still be top of the
Championship table, even if Hampshire beat Notts, as is already seeming more
than likely.
Somerset v Hampshire. It could be the season’s defining rivalry!
May 25
The Last Lord’s Final
Royal London One Day Cup Final - Somerset v Hampshire
Hampshire 244; Somerset 245/4 in 43.3 overs. Somerset win by 6 wickets
Hampshire 244; Somerset 245/4 in 43.3 overs. Somerset win by 6 wickets
My Friday evening before the Big Day is spent on
the Grand Pier at Weston, for a fish and chip dinner in celebration of the
publication of “Rosey” and of the 40th anniversary of Somerset’s
first trophy - the 1979 Gillette Cup.
But there is no Peter Trego to compere the event, as had been planned,
for the splendid reason that he is in London, gearing up for Somerset’s first
Lord’s final for eight years, and possibly the last such final to be staged at
the game’s spiritual home. “He’s as nervous as a kitten”, replies Sam Trego, as
I enquire as to his younger brother’s health and well-being over a pint of
cider before the meal.
Sir Beefy and Rosey tucking into their fish and chips on Weston's Grand Pier
The guest of honour is, of course, Brian Rose,
who makes a generous little speech thanking his sponsors, his publisher and his
co-author. Stephen Chalke and I take a modest bow. The other principal guest is
Sir Ian Botham, as he likes to be known. He arrives late, courtesy of a traffic
jam on the M5, and on crutches, courtesy of a recent hip/knee replacement.
‘Smart casual’ was the dress code for the evening, according to the invite, so
I wear a blazer, with an ancient Somerset tie.
Beefy is wearing a lumberjack shirt and a padded waistcoat, which is
certainly casual, but borderline smart.
Still, considering he has battled through the traffic all the way from Tunbridge Wells to get here, he is in remarkably good spirits. “We have met once before, when I was working for the BBC”, I venture as we are introduced. “Well, if you were working for the BBC, I probably told you to fuck off”, he replies, with a broad smile. Which is precisely what he had done!
Still, considering he has battled through the traffic all the way from Tunbridge Wells to get here, he is in remarkably good spirits. “We have met once before, when I was working for the BBC”, I venture as we are introduced. “Well, if you were working for the BBC, I probably told you to fuck off”, he replies, with a broad smile. Which is precisely what he had done!
For the meal, I have Stephen Chalke on my left,
his pockets stuffed with £5 notes as change for all the books we hope to sell
at £15 a throw. How’s it going, I
enquire. “Oh well, a lot of them aren’t really book people and a lot of the
others have already got the book and just want Brian to sign it,” he
replies. In the end, we shift around
40, which makes it a profitable as well as an enjoyable evening.
On my other side is Robbie Carter, who does the
Roses’ plumbing for them, and who wastes no time in informing me that he played
rugby for Bristol back in the 70s. “As hooker?”, I
suggest, surveying his nuggety frame and
the glint in his eye. “You must be
joking”, he replies, slightly offended. “I was a winger; one of the best”. He
goes on to regale me with tales of his playing days, all involving Robbie
getting the better of sundry much flashier opponents like David Duckham and
Bath’s David Trick. On his first
encounter with Gerald Davies, the brilliant Wales and British Lions
centre/wing, the pair of them are challenging for a loose ball, with Robbie
going past his man….”when he did this”, he says, planting his foot rather too
firmly on my ankle. “The ref didn’t see it of course. Great play that was. Taught me a lot”.
I leave early and drive to my billet for the
night, a Premier Inn just off the A34 not far from Didcot, handily placed for
my train to Paddington in the morning.
Mercifully, I sleep pretty well.
BBC Somerset ring shortly after seven for a pre-match chat. As he signs off, the presenter, Simon
Parkin, says of me “That was Anthony Gibson. And doesn’t he sound like Hugh
Bonneville?”. I’m not sure if he means
it as a compliment but I take it as such.
May 25th is my wedding anniversary,
so it is appropriate that Providence seems to be smiling on me. As I reach the platform at Dicot Parkway,
with the intention of taking the 8.15, the doors on the 8.01 are still
open. I decide against a last-minute
dash. Just as well, for I soon discover
that I’ve left my mobile in the car. If
I’d jumped on that train……..? It doesn’t
bear thinking about.
Looking a picture - Lord's on the morning of the final
The weather is set fair in North-West London as
I reach Lord’s at around 9.30. The
ground looks a picture, as always. It is a place which inspires mixed feelings
in the Gibson breast. On the one hand, it must surely be the most aesthetically
pleasing and stylish cricket stadium in the world, as well as, obviously, the
most historic. On the other, I’m always
conscious of slightly snobbish, MCC-related overtones. On test match days, the
Pavilion has more bacon and egg in evidence than a Premier Inn breakfast
buffet. Today, I’m happy to note, there
is plenty of maroon, silver and black to be seen, not just in the Pavilion but
all around the ground. The Somerset supporters comfortably eclipse the
Hampshire ones, in number and, even more so, in noise. More than a few have
evidently been on the cider since the coaches left Taunton at 6 in the morning!
The pitch looks fresh, with just a tinge of
green. “Bat first”, says Mark Davis, who bowled fast left-arm for Somerset
through the 1980s before becoming one of the most sought-after coaches in the
game, and who will be summarising for myself and co-commentator, Stephen Lamb.
“Runs on the board. Scoreboard pressure. You can’t beat it.”
After that, it seems almost inevitable that Tom
Abell loses the toss, and Somerset find themselves in the field. Tom later
admits that he too would have preferred to bat. But I’m quite relieved. After the scars left on the older players by
so many near misses, and the nerves which must be jangling amongst the younger
ones, I would have feared for the Somerset batting against a fired up Kyle
Abbot and Fidel Edwards on the biggest stage, with the entire county so hungry
for success. Being in the field, getting
used to the ground, the noise and the atmosphere, might calm the nerves.
As Tom Abell leads the players out of the
Pavilion and into the sunshine, I remark on commentary that this must be the
proudest moment of his life. And
whatever he may have said in the dressing room beforehand has obviously done
the trick. Josh Davey bowls an inspired spell from the Pavilion end, accurate,
probing and soon successful as the dangerous young Welshman, Aneurin Donald,
drives fiercely at a ball on off-stump, fails to keep it down and gives Roelof
van der Merwe a straightforward catch in the overs. That was in the 4th over. In the 8th, a ball angled across the
left-handed Tom Alsop takes the edge and flies to first slip, where James
Hildreth unaccountably drops it. “Oh
no”, I cry. How many runs is that going
to cost us? Precisely none, is the
answer. Davey’s next ball is practically identical to the previous one, Alsop’s
shot ditto, but this time Hildreth makes no mistake.
The Somerset pressure is relentless, on a
batting unit sorely weakened, both psychologically and in reality, by the ICC’s
absurd decision to bar James Vince and Liam Dawson from playing. It is only when the acting Hants captain, Sam
Northeast and the muscular South African, Rilee Rossouw, are together that the
batsmen seem to be getting on top. Enter
Jamie Overton. A gleeful Stephen Lamb
almost shrieks with delight as Rossouw, beaten for pace as much as anything,
gets a bottom edge onto his stumps. Once
again, it shows the value of having a bowler of real pace up your sleeve. And yet, in the championship, Jamie Overton
has been shipped off to Northants, to the disbelief of a great many Somerset
supporters, me included. He proceeds to
underline the folly of that decision by picking up two more wickets, and bowling
as well as I’ve ever seen him with white ball in hand.
Jack Brooks, giving Mark Davis a break in the summariser’s chair, compares his spell to the one he bowled at Headingley towards the end of last season, when he and brother Craig had blasted through the Yorkshire batting for a win that had given Somerset just a sniff of the Championship.
Jack Brooks, giving Mark Davis a break in the summariser’s chair, compares his spell to the one he bowled at Headingley towards the end of last season, when he and brother Craig had blasted through the Yorkshire batting for a win that had given Somerset just a sniff of the Championship.
Wickets fall at regular intervals. Sam Northeast is sticking doggedly to his
anchor role until, with just 164 on the board and only 13 overs and one ball
remaining, he decides to teach his opposing captain - who has come on to
replace a sore-sided Lewis Gregory - a
lesson by launching him into the grandstand.
But he misses, and is bowled. Cue
Somerset ecstasies, in the box as well as on the pitch and around the ground.
At 188/5, with five overs to go, I hand over the
mic to Stephen and head downstairs for an early lunch. The media centre food is
as pretentious and badly cooked as ever.
So I was only half aware of what was Somerset’s only real glitch. Lewis
Gregory having hurt his ribs and gone off, and with Josh Davey also, as it turns out, carrying an
injury, the well-planned bowling sequence has been disrupted. Had everything gone to plan, Jamie Overton, with
figures of 3/28 after his eighth over, could either have been allowed to bowl
out, or taken out of the attack altogether. Instead, van der Merwe is brought
back, with Jamie being kept back to bowl his last two overs at the death, which
is never a great idea. Sure enough,
those two overs go for 20 as Mason Crane and James Fuller extend their
partnership to 64 and the total to 244 by the end of the 50th over.
At the break, I head off to Box 2 in the Mound
Stand, where the Somerset Chairman is holding court. Two days previously, Rebecca had been given
her first Ministerial post, as Parliamentary Secretary in the Department of
Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). She
embraces me like a long lost brother:
“My hero, my mentor, who gave me my first chance and taught me so much”
- or words to that embarrassing effect.
It is at least partly true, although Rebecca’s advancement is far more down to her own
conscientiousness, loyalty and ability.
She is scathing about some of her colleagues - no names, no pack-drill
- who, having stabbed the PM in the back,
are now being quite outrageously hypocritical in their praise of her qualities,
even as they hover over the dying Mrs May.
Despite her obvious pleasure in her new job, she
is looking tired, while Charles, in his wheelchair, his face puffy from chemo,
seems to have gone backwards since I’d seen him at Worcester, even if his eyes
are still bright with life and anticipation.
I ask James Clark how his mate Tom Banton is faring. “A bit green with nerves, from what I can
gather”, comes the reply. “Hasn’t been answering his phone”.
As it turns out, the young maestro soon seems to
have overcome whatever nerves he might have been feeling on walking out to bat
on a big occasion at Lord’s for the first time. Having survived two loud but
optimistic shouts for LBW in the first over from Fidel Edwards, he proceeds to
tuck into the slippery Barbadian slinger with relish, taking him for 14 in his
second over, including a six flicked almost casually into the grandstand. Understated Azhar is also timing it nicely
and Banton has reached his first Lord’s 50 and the partnership topped the
century, when he gets an inside edge to a good ball from James Fuller and
departs, reluctantly, for 69, his temperament as well as his talent confirmed.
Enter Peter Trego, as keen to excel on what is
possibly his last Lord’s appearance as Banton was on his first. He approaches
his task sensibly. There are few of the trademark flourishes. When Azhar
departs for a well-made 45, he is joined by his old brother-in-arms James
Hildreth. With 121/2 on the board, and
only another 124 needed in 28 overs, these two old hands know perfectly well
that if Somerset aren’t bowled out, they’ll win. So pragmatism, not
showmanship, must be the watchword, and is.
How sorry I am that they couldn’t see Somerset
home together. But a Trego top-edge is well taken by Chris Wood at long leg, and it is left to George Bartlett to
keep Hildreth intelligent company as they set out to take their county over the
line. I have to confess that my main
preoccupation at this stage - with Somerset clearly on the road to victory - is
to make sure I’m on commentary when the winning run is scored. With some
misgivings, I pull rank, ask Stephen to carry on beyond the 35th
over when I should have taken over and come back on for the 38th. So it is Gibbo on the mic when Hildreth
drives Abbot down the ground for his 27th one-day 50, and Gibbo who
achieves Somerset cricket broadcasting immortality as Hildreth tucks the ball
into the on-side and sets off for the single that wins the game. The previous evening, I had thought of some
words I might use in this eventuality. In the heat of the moment, I completely
forget them, but the ones that I found instead seem to have been well enough
received.
Brian Rose appears, grinning from ear to
ear. How does he feel, I ask him, with a
distinct lack of originality. “Brilliant”, he replies. Ditto!
Man of the Match Jamie Overton and Captain Tom Abell meet the press
For it is indeed a great moment. Not just a win for Somerset after all those near misses, but just perfect in the way it had been a combination of Somerset young and old - Banton and Hildreth - who had taken Somerset home. Surely one or the other would be Man of the Match. But no, it is Jamie Overton and, on reflection, quite right too. The key to Somerset’s win was reducing Hampshire to 188/8. There was no way back from that. It was the bowlers, backed up by the usual superb Somerset fielding, who had done it, and none more so than big Jamie. “Surely they’ll have to get him back from Northants”, someone tweets. “I profoundly hope so”, I reply.
The journey home is one of joyous contentment. I
stop briefly at Eli’s to see if Steve Pittard is about. But no, it’s his
evening off, so I go home and sit up late with Claire on the terrace - it is
our wedding anniversary, after all! - drinking wine and savouring, after all
those years of disappointment, the sweet
taste of victory in a Lord’s final.
Tom Abell, with his first trophy as Somerset Captain!
June 3 to 6. County Championship: Surrey v Somerset at Guildford.
Somerset 344 and 153; Surrey 231 and 164. Somerset win by 102 runs
To Guildford, Somerset having been overtaken by Hampshire at the top of the Championship table, but they have played a game more and must have been disappointed with only a draw against Yorkshire.
Mark Church on the bridge of HMS Guildford
Somerset 344 and 153; Surrey 231 and 164. Somerset win by 102 runs
To Guildford, Somerset having been overtaken by Hampshire at the top of the Championship table, but they have played a game more and must have been disappointed with only a draw against Yorkshire.
I am in recovery from four days helping to run
the ‘cider tent’ - Orchards and Cider, as it is officially known - at the Bath
and West Show, and my spirits are lifted by a sunny morning and a trouble-free run
up the A303. To beat Surrey at Guildford
would be tremendous after being hammered by an innings last year but, if I’m
being honest with myself, I would probably settle for a draw with a decent haul
of bonus points. Surrey, with a defeat and three draws behind them, need the
win more than Somerset, so perhaps a more sporting pitch than is usual at
fast-scoring Woodbridge Road may be in prospect.
Both teams have significant absentees: Surrey are without Jason Roy, Tom Curran and
Liam Plunkett, to England, plus Sam Curran, Jade Dernbach and Amar Virdi, to
injury; while Somerset have paid a high price for that win at Lord’s - Gregory
having strained an intercostal, Davey with a pulled muscle and Azhar suffering
from a chest infection. Tom Banton takes his place, although it must be
possible that he would have played in any case. As it is, Marcus Trescothick
keeps his place at the top of the order and I’m pleased to see that, as he
marches out, rehearsing his shots in that gloriously familiar way of his, the
batsman alongside is Tom Abell, who simply must prove himself as an opener if
he is ever to play for England.
The pitch is the colour of the inside of a
cucumber and offers what I describe as tennis ball bounce to the Surrey seam
trio of Morne Morkel, Matt Dunn and Rikki Clarke. We are soon in trouble -
Abell caught at third slip off a good one from Morkel, Tres nicking
disappointingly (again) to the keeper, Hildreth LBW only half-forward to Dunn.
That makes it 35/3 and as George Bartlett edges his first ball towards the
waiting bucket-hands of Clarke at first slip, I’m bracing myself for 35/4. But,
unaccountably, the usually infallible Rikki - with, as Steve Pittard informs
me, a higher ratio of catches per match against Somerset than all but four
other out-fielders - drops it. It turns out to be the day’s pivotal moment.
Bartlett, 21, has the 20 year old Tom Banton at
the other end. Between them, these two young guns somehow survive the
Morkel/Clarke onslaught, playing and missing more than a few times, for sure,
but defending stoutly and latching onto anything loose with style and power. By
lunch, they have carried Somerset to 100/3, and I am able to enjoy my ham salad
sandwich on the top deck of the modernistic Guildford pavilion. The BBC London
commentator, Mark Church, refers to it as HMS Guildford, and it does indeed
feel rather as if we are commentating from the bridge of a big ship.
The afternoon belongs to Bartlett. Tall, as
slender as a withy, slightly stooping, so that he sometimes reminds me of Derek
Randall, he goes on his understated way with a mixture of determination and
flair. After Banton has been undone by sharp bounce from the ever-threatening
Morkel, with the partnership worth five short of the hundred, out strolls Steve
Davies, to face his former team-mates. Two gullies are promptly posted. But
this is a Steve Davies who means business. The almost languid cover drives are
certainly in evidence, but there is an encouraging absence of airy wafts.
Bartlett’s century duly arrives in the last over
before tea, courtesy of a leg-side nick. The bowler? Well, who else but Rikki
Clarke! Cricket can be a cruel mistress.
The runs flow rather more freely after tea, and
especially after Surrey take the new ball, but wickets fall as well - Davies
undone by a good nip-backer from the persevering Dunn, Bartlett finally getting
an edge to Morkel, but not before he and a judiciously aggressive Craig Overton
have added 73 for the seventh wicket. Brother Jamie contributes some hefty
blows and Jack Brooks has his stumps scattered by Morkel, only for umpire
Hartley to call a no ball. “He’ll claim that he heard the call”, I suggest,
implausibly. But this is an escape which costs nothing. The very next ball is
nicked to Ben Foakes and Somerset are all out for 344.
There is time for just two overs of the Surrey reply, the second of which Mark Stoneman barely survives against a fired-up Jack Brooks, who looks to have made a complete recovery from the calf strain he picked up when these two sides met at Taunton.
How good a score is 344? Perhaps not as many as Tom Abell must have
hoped for when he won the toss, but certainly a lot more than he would have
feared at 35/3. Honours just about even,
I conclude, over fish and chips and a pint of Arundel Brewery Gold at the excellent
Jolly Farmer at Bramley, later in the evening. I was struck on the way there by
the unexpected beauty of the Surrey Hills, looking at their loveliest in the
evening sunshine.
The unexpected beauty of the Surrey Hills
The unexpected beauty of the Surrey Hills
Day Two
Thursday morning dawns mistily. I am woken, not
by my alarm, but by the squawks of the hotel peacock, which appears to have
stationed itself directly beneath my window. The bird epitomises the Manor
Hotel - superficially showy, but attractive really only at first glance. The
public areas are all chrome, black glass and fake marble. But the place is
basically a rabbit-warren of staircases, corridors and small rooms, separated
from each other by paper-thin walls. Around every corner, there seems to be
lurking a doleful, silent Eastern European, as if awaiting orders. Still, the
grounds are nice and there’s a gym and a swimming pool for the
energetically-minded, a category which, on this occasion, doesn’t include me.
The Manor Hotel - my 'castle of kitsch'
The murk has cleared by the time play starts at
11, with Surrey yet to open their account. The morning’s commentary is dogged
by technical problems, which are eventually traced to Mark Church’s
broadcasting kit. So our Somerset listeners are denied the pleasure of hearing
me describe Jack Brooks ripping out Stoneman’s off stump, as the batsman plays
no shot at a fast, late-swinging in-ducker. It is the perfect start for me, for
Somerset and especially for Jack Brooks, celebrating his 35th birthday. Craig Overton then has Rory Burns caught by
Trescothick at, where else, second slip and brother Jamie promptly weighs in to
trap Dean Elgar LBW with a trademark fast, swinging delivery. It is 38/3, with
Jamie bowling like the wind, even if, also like the wind, the direction is not
entirely predictable, as Trescothick discovers as he finds himself acting as a
gloveless wicket-keeper to a particularly errant delivery at second slip!
There is just time after lunch for Jamie Overton
to have the threatening Ben Foakes caught behind before the rain arrives, just
as the forecasters had been predicting, at 2. It gets steadily heavier as the
afternoon wears on. We take shelter in the scorers’ eyrie. Conversation turns
to Dom Bess’ loan spell at Yorkshire, for whom he has just scored 91. Is it
really sensible for Somerset to have loaned him to a county who might easily be
rivals for the Championship? And might
it not serve to hasten his departure?
At around 4, the rain starts to ease and Messrs
Hartley and Baldwin arrive to consult the scorers on the options. By the time
they go out to inspect at 4.45, the sky is clearing. A 5.30 start is decreed,
with 18.4 overs to be bowled. That surely suits Somerset better than Surrey.
Craig Overton proceeds to bowl the best spell of
the day in front of the persevering remnant of the crowd, mostly confined to the hospitality tents at the far end
of the ground. He has Scott Borthwick well caught by Davies while, at the other
end, Ryan Patel survives a vociferous appeal for a caught behind off the
previously erratic Groenewald, who also, finally, settles into a rhythm. Patel
is also the beneficiary when Trescothick isn’t sure whether his catch at short
leg off Leach is taken cleanly or on the half-volley. He and Will Jacks
survives to the close.
Craig Overton tells me that Somerset have bowled well in parts (but, as with the curate’s egg, it’s as well not to dwell on the other bits!) and are 60:40 ahead, which sums up the position pretty well. Surrey close on 188/5, still 156 behind, although if Somerset had bowled rather better at all of those left-handers, they could and perhaps should have been all out.
Craig Overton tells me that Somerset have bowled well in parts (but, as with the curate’s egg, it’s as well not to dwell on the other bits!) and are 60:40 ahead, which sums up the position pretty well. Surrey close on 188/5, still 156 behind, although if Somerset had bowled rather better at all of those left-handers, they could and perhaps should have been all out.
Day 3
As I arrive at the ground, I’m greeted by
Richard Winter, last seen as a tall, blond-haired fast bowler opening the
bowling for the first XI when we were both at Monkton Combe in 1966; now tall,
broad-shouldered, bald and smiling. He follows Surrey everywhere, and agrees
with me that the club’s reputation has been transformed, from a bunch of city
boys and mercenaries into the rightful inheritors of the Surrey of Bobby Abel,
Jack Hobbs and the Bedsers - thanks largely to the influence of the Stewart
family, Mickey and Alec, who have taken the county back to its roots.
The pavilion at Woodbridge Road
Somerset waste no time in making inroads into
the Surrey middle order, Craig Overton once more leading the way. He has Jacks
well caught by Trescothick, so bringing to the crease the dreaded - to Somerset
eyes - Rikki Clarke. Sure enough, he’s soon scoring freely on both sides of the
wicket and has 20 to his name when he goes to cut Craig Overton, fails to keep
it down and is brilliantly caught by Jamie, diving to his right at gully. The
twins embrace. Brothers in arms.
The innings subsides quickly after that, Surrey
231 all out, Patel last man out, Batty visibly furious at being given out by
umpire Bateman when the ball had clearly clipped his pad. Scott Borthwick appears on deck shortly afterwards to view the dismissal on
the Surrey analyst’s computer. “Out?”, he questions. “Can only have been
LBW!” It had been umpire Bateman who had
failed to detect a nick by Patel the previous evening. Making amends, I
wondered?
As Tres walks out to bat to extend Somerset’s
lead of 113, I do briefly wonder whether this might be for the last time for
Somerset. He looks horribly vulnerable against the hostility of Morkel and the
accuracy of Dunn, although it is Abell who goes first, caught in the gully. But
when your luck’s against you in cricket, it really is against you. A Morkel
lifter clips the great man’s thigh pad, Surrey appeal and up goes the Bateman
finger. Tres stands for a moment, clearly upset, before walking slowly off,
head bowed. It might just be the end, if Azhar has recovered from his chest
infection. But I profoundly hope not. After that stroke of ill-fortune, he
surely deserves at least one more chance.
Banton is pinned LBW in the last over before lunch and Surrey are right back in the hunt.
Banton is pinned LBW in the last over before lunch and Surrey are right back in the hunt.
But James Hildreth, in at number three inside
the first 10 overs for the eighth time, is batting with his usual slightly chancy
fluency, with good support from a composed George Bartlett. With his second run
he reaches 16,000 first class runs for Somerset, sixth in line in the list of
all time Somerset batsmen, now behind only (in ascending order) Peter Roebuck
(16218), Bill Alley (16644), Peter Wight (16965), Marcus Trescothick (19654)
and Harold Gimblett (21142). If he plays until he is 40, he will surely eclipse
them all. When he strokes Rikki Clarke through the covers to bring up his 50,
it is his 73rd for Somerset.
Jack Brooks, no shrinking violet he, is on the
balcony by now. I ask him about the pitch: “Same as before, plenty in it”; and
about the Tres dismissal: “No way. Thigh pad. Umpire apologised to him at
lunchtime which only makes it worse.”
On a break from commentary, I wander into the
press tent, to be somewhat taken aback by the sight of Tim Groenewald’s naked
bottom. He’s being given a vigorous
massage on his lower back by the Somerset physio, Jamie Thorpe, on the
treatment table, which for some reason has been moved to the press tent. Tres
and Jamie Overton are there as well, fully clothed, it should be said, enjoying
the Hildreth/Bartlett partnership and looking forward to a lead of 300 plus,
when Hildreth pushes indeterminately forward at Dunn, there is a double noise,
Surrey appeal and up goes umpire Hartley’s finger. Pad first, presumably. Gone
for 64.
Eighteen overs and 39 runs later, Somerset are all out for 153, a lead of 266. The Surrey bowling, Morkel and Dunn to the fore, has been remorseless in its accuracy, to take full advantage of the swing and unpredictable bounce on offer, but even so, that was disappointing.
Eighteen overs and 39 runs later, Somerset are all out for 153, a lead of 266. The Surrey bowling, Morkel and Dunn to the fore, has been remorseless in its accuracy, to take full advantage of the swing and unpredictable bounce on offer, but even so, that was disappointing.
The consensus of my co-commentators is that 267
is too big an ask for a Surrey batting line-up low on form and confidence, a
view which seems to be confirmed when Stoneman under-edges a Brooks inswinger
into his stumps. But then the bowling rather loses its edge. Leach looks
unthreatening and is slog-swept by Burns for six. He and Scott Borthwick have
taken the total to 94/1, and are looking in no trouble at all, when Tom Abell
brings Brooks back from the Pavilion end and, for reasons best known to
himself, Burns chases after a wide one and is well taken by Hildreth at first
slip, the ball having almost passed him on his left side as he clings on. “I
made it look more difficult than it really was”, he confesses afterwards, with
typical modesty. I have a feeling it may
turn out to have been a crucial moment.
Day 4
So, eight Surrey wickets needed to make it the
fourth win out of five in Somerset’s 2019 County Championship campaign. I don’t
have any strong feelings either way about the likely outcome as I bid my farewell
to kitsch castle and make my way to the ground on a sunny, but blustery
morning. As I arrive, so does an unexpected downpour, short but sharp.
The first three overs offer nothing much in the
way of encouragement. Nightwatchman Batty nicks one through where third slip
would have been and plays and misses at another, both from Brooks. At 118/2 and
in the last over of my first commentary stint of the day, fatalism is beginning
to creep in. And then Batty tries to hit Brooks into Dapdune Wharf and loses
his off stump. The bowler sinks to his knees, throws a hay-maker at the clouds
and lets out a great roar, as if he’s just cleaned up Kohli. Two balls later,
he swings a low full toss through the usually impregnable Elgar defences and
the stumps are scattered. This time it is my turn to punch the air, with the
microphone. BOWLED!!
I am off the air by the time Trescothick swoops
low to his right, belying his years, to catch Foakes. Brooks has five wickets,
three of them this morning, and all of a sudden, Somerset are winning. But
Borthwick is still there, batting sensibly, leaving what he can and punishing
anything remotely loose. I’m slightly surprised when Abell decides to replace
the rampaging Brooks with the previously innocuous Groenewald. My fellow commentator, Johnny Barran, opines
with his usual insouciance that his advent will offer the Surrey batsmen some
‘gentle respite’.
Talk about the commentator’s curse! With his
very first ball, Timmy G swings one through Borthwick’s defences and rips out
his middle stump! Soon afterwards he traps a hesitant Will Jacks plumb LBW. Now
only Patel and Rikki Clarke stand in Somerset’s way. But not for long. Clarke chases a wide one
from Groenewald and is well taken by Davies, plunging to his right, while Patel
carves one Overton, Craig, to the other, Jamie, at slip. The end is nigh. When
Morkel heaves Overton to Jack Leach at mid-off, it’s all over, Somerset the
victors by .....well, the scoreboard gives the total at 153, so that makes the
margin 103 runs, which is what I announce.
Except that the bloody scoreboard is wrong. It was actually 154 when
that last wicket fell, so someone in the BBC Radio Bristol sports department is
going to have to do some pretty nifty editing if my celebratory peroration is
to be usable. Grr!
But the important thing is that we’ve won. I’d
texted to Richard Walsh earlier in the morning that it would need “an inspired
spell from someone” if Somerset were to close out the game. In the event, we’d
had two inspired spells: Brooks’ 3/11 in
five overs, Groenewald’s 3/9 in six.
It is Jack Brooks whom I speak to first afterwards. He is delighted, obviously, but also relieved that he had made his first really significant contribution to the Somerset cause when it was needed most. “I’m pretty good when it comes to defending small targets in the fourth innings”, he tells me, with no false modesty. Because that was precisely what he had done.
It is Jack Brooks whom I speak to first afterwards. He is delighted, obviously, but also relieved that he had made his first really significant contribution to the Somerset cause when it was needed most. “I’m pretty good when it comes to defending small targets in the fourth innings”, he tells me, with no false modesty. Because that was precisely what he had done.
Tom Abell pays tribute to his bowling unit, as
you would expect, and also rightly credits George Bartlett in the first innings
and James Hildreth in the second for putting those vital runs on the board. I
decide against asking him about his own form, or that of Marcus Trescothick.
But as I tweeted as I left the ground to head for home, if Somerset’s top order
would only start to fire, we’d be unbeatable.
Five out of Six!
June 10-13 County Championship: Kent v Somerset
Kent 139 and 59; Somerset 169 and 30/0. Somerset win by 10 wickets
June 10-13 County Championship: Kent v Somerset
Kent 139 and 59; Somerset 169 and 30/0. Somerset win by 10 wickets
Monday dawns with a surprise and a shock. The surprise is that Lewis Gregory is fit for
selection for the game which starts today against Kent at Canterbury, having
recovered remarkably quickly from what had seemed a nasty rib injury. The shock is that Marcus Trescothick has
been dropped. I had blithely assumed
that either Azhar Ali might not have recovered from his chest infection, or
that Messrs Kerr and Hurry might have taken pity on Marcus, giving him one more
chance to prove himself, after he had suffered the misfortune of being given
out caught off his thigh pad in the second innings at Guildford.
But no: “You have to put emotion to one side” Jason Kerr was
quoted as saying on the club website. “When Marcus and I discussed the
situation he was focused on what is best for the team. I think that’s a
testament to the kind of person he is and to what the Club means to him. He’ll
now look to play some Second XI cricket, get some runs on the board and get
some confidence behind him. Obviously the door is very much still open for
him.”
Shock was soon replaced by
sadness. What an end - if this is indeed
the end - to a great career. What if Somerset were finally to win the
Championship, with Marcus not in the team, after all he has given to the club
and all the years he has sought his and all of Somerset’s Holy Grail? It doesn’t bear thinking about.
What is not a surprise is
the weather. From the forecast, it looks
as if there’ll be no play at the St Lawrence ground all day. The consolations are twofold: one that the forecast for Hampshire’s game
against Notts at Wellbeck Colliery is equally dire; and the other that this is
Stephen’s game, so I won’t have to spend all day in the comm box watching
either the rain or endless pitch inspections.
By mid-afternoon, it has been called off for the day. At Langport it is now belting down.
By mid-afternoon, it has been called off for the day. At Langport it is now belting down.
The news on Tuesday is
much more encouraging. Sunshine all the
way, and 104 overs to be bowled, to make up for some of yesterday’s lost
time. At Langport, it is still raining -
a fitting backdrop for the funeral of our dear departed neighbour, Vera West,
who has died at the age of 98. How I wish
she’d made it to her century. At least I
still have some of her multi-prize-winning raspberry wine (she entered the same
bottle for several years, re-corking it after each victory!) to remember her
by.
The funeral starts at
11. A quick glance at my phone before it
starts confirms what I’d been expecting, that Kent would be asked to bat first
on what must be a green, seamers’ pitch.
The funeral finishes at around 11.45.
There is time for a quick tune-in to the commentary on my way to the wake. Blimey! Kent 46/5 in just the 12th over, Brooks, Gregory and both the Overtons among the
wickets and bowling like furies.
By mid-afternoon, I’m back
from the wake and Kent have been bowled out for 139, which is a good few more
than at one stage had seemed likely.
Gregory has led the way with a career best 6/32. Now I can sit back and
enjoy the commentary on Somerset’s batting, I thought. Not for long, I couldn’t. Azhar goes in the second over, Hildreth in
the third, Abell in the fifth and, after a brief rally, Bartlett in the 11th. I look back
through the season’s scorecards to discover that Hildreth, having bravely
promoted himself to number three at the start of the season, has found himself
out in the middle before the end of the 7th
over in every innings bar one, the very first, against Kent at Taunton, when
Trescothick and Azhar Ali had reached 30 in the 9th
over before the first wicket fell.
Enough! I turn the phone off and potter in the
garden. It proves to be a useful
tactic. By the time I pluck up the
courage to turn it on again, it is 110/6, Davies out for 31 but Tom Banton is
still there, nearing his 50 and thoroughly vindicating the decision to prefer
him to Trescothick. After he goes, for
63, Gregory contributes a brisk 26 and Jamie Overton scores the cricketing
version of an own goal, when, in trying to keep a ball from Grant Stewart out
of his stumps, he succeeds only in kicking it into them. One would have thought, given all the
football cricketers play in the warm-ups, that their aim might be rather
better.
So, 169 all out, a lead of 30. I assume this would be the close, but no, I’d
forgotten about the extra overs. There
is still time for Kent to lose two second innings wickets, the second of them
Joe Denly’s, his off-stump trimmed by a beauty from Jamie Overton. Twenty two
wickets have fallen in a day. As Andrew
Frampton remarks on Twitter: “when there
were 17 wickets in a day at Taunton on a spinning wicket, the opposition were
up in arms about the state of the pitch. But even though 22 have fallen today,
no-one will complain because it was seam not spin.” He has a point, methinks.
The forecast for Wednesday
is not encouraging. Fortunately, it
stays dry at Minchinhampton where I am playing golf (badly), but by the time I
get in for lunch, play has been abandoned for the day at Canterbury. The only good news is that Hampshire’s game
at Wellbeck Colliery has been rained-off completely, so they will only take 8
points from a game they must have expected to win, especially after bowling
Notts out for a paltry 162.
Prospects look a bit
brighter for the fourth day, but when I look at my phone, it conveys the
discouraging news that there will be no play before lunch, when I’m due to
drive to Weston-super-Mare with a boxful of ‘Rosey’ for Brian to sign. Play starts just before I reach the familiar,
tacky surroundings of the Feathers Bar, and the night-watchman, Harry Podmore,
is soon gone. The books duly autographed, I look again. Heaven be praised! It’s 44/7!
Darren Stevens and Ollie Robinson seem to be offering some resistance
but then suddenly, just as I’m leaving the M5 at Dunball, it’s all over. Three wickets in four balls, two to Craig
Overton, one to the remarkable Lewis Gregory, to leave him with match figures
of 11/53, and 35 championship wickets in just five games.
Azhar and Abell put the
icing on the cake by knocking off the 30 runs required in double-quick time,
equalling Somerset’s best opening partnership of the championship season in the
process. Just as I reach home, Stephen
Lamb describes the winning run. “What a
tremendous win”, I tweet, exultantly. “Somerset defying the weather. Kent
rolled over in less than four sessions.
Best start to a championship season ever?”
The question mark is
because I haven’t had the chance to check Wisden and anything that one puts on
Twitter which is both categorical and wrong will quickly be pounced upon. But I’m sure that five wins out of six is
indeed Somerset’s best start to a Championship season. And, even though we are now 26 points ahead
of our nearest rivals, Hampshire, I’m equally sure that I’m not going to tempt
Providence by getting too far ahead of myself.
There are still eight games to be played in Division One of the County
Championship. When we’ve won four of
them, and the lead is 50 points, I might, just might, start talking about us
winning the thing.
June 21 A sad day
Charles Clark finally lost
his battle with cancer this morning. I
get the sad news in a Twitter message from Andrew Frampton just as Claire and I
are about to order our lunch at Chaparro in Odeceixe. We’d known that he didn’t have long, but the
news is still a shock, and once it sinks in, we are both in tears.
Charles was quite simply
one of the nicest people I have known:
intelligent, funny, generous of spirit, courteous to a fault; a man who
could brighten any gathering and lift any conversation. The world always seemed a better place in
Charles Clark’s company. He was the
seventh generation of his family to make his career as an agricultural
auctioneer, and he was one of the best in the business: shrewd, knowledgeable, more than capable of
driving a hard bargain but always fair with it.
He had a wonderful gift for words, a razor-sharp wit and a great sense
of timing, all of which made him the most sought-after charity auctioneer on
the circuit.
He was a fine commentator
as well. Not on cricket, although I’ve
always thought he would have done that as well as anyone, but on the sheep
classes at the Bath and West and other shows, where his deep knowledge of the
West Country farming community and their livestock shone through.
He’d been a decent
cricketer in his youth and, like his parents, Stephen and Mary before him, a
devoted Somerset follower all his life. When Andy Nash stepped down as Somerset
CCC chairman at the end of 2017, Charles was the obvious choice to succeed
him. We thought then that he had beaten
cancer, but it came back, horribly, and it was only through his quite
remarkable bravery and indomitable spirit that he was able to carry out his duties
as Chairman as conscientiously and effectively as he did.
I had last seen him on the
outfield at Lord’s after Somerset’s win. He was in his wheel-chair, his face
puffy from all the chemo he’d been having, but his eyes shining with delight at
having been able to watch Tom Abell lift the Royal London Cup. I turned my
recorder on and asked him what it felt like to be Chairman of Somerset when
they’d just won their first trophy in nearly 14 years.
“I’m just immensely
proud”, he replied, before turning his thoughts, as so often, to Somerset’s
wonderful supporters. “We’ve got the
best supporters in the country, and this is a win that means so much, not just
for the club but for the whole county. To hear the Somerset crowd singing is
very emotional. I just want to thank them for all their support.”
That was Charles Clark,
“the supporters’ chairman” as Andy Nash would describe him at the Memorial
service. I’m just so glad that he lived
to see Tom Abell lift that cup.
June 23-26 County Championship Essex v Somerset
Essex 216 and 183; Somerset 131 and 117. Essex win by 151 runs
A minute’s silence for Charles Clark, the Somerset team and officials lined-up on the outfield, immaculately observed by the crowd, provides a sombre preface to what could be a crucial encounter in Somerset’s Championship campaign. It also serves to put that campaign in context. I would happily trade a hundred Somerset victories to have Charles back again. No sport is more important than life and death.
Essex 216 and 183; Somerset 131 and 117. Essex win by 151 runs
A minute’s silence for Charles Clark, the Somerset team and officials lined-up on the outfield, immaculately observed by the crowd, provides a sombre preface to what could be a crucial encounter in Somerset’s Championship campaign. It also serves to put that campaign in context. I would happily trade a hundred Somerset victories to have Charles back again. No sport is more important than life and death.
It is a muggy morning in Salema, just as it is
in Chelmsford. The news that Tom Abell has called wrong and that Somerset are
in the field is discouraging, with a certain Sir Alastair Cook at the top of
the Essex batting order and Simon Harmer certain to be a threat in the fourth
innings.
Stephen opens up the commentary with BBC Radio Essex’s veteran, Paul Newton, his two teddy bears doubtless propped up on the desk in front of him. They have the luxury of not just one, but two scorers, David Jackman being joined by a work experience lad who may perhaps, half a century on, look back fondly on this day!
Nick Brown and Sir Alastair take 19 off the
first two overs as Gregory and Brooks struggle to find their range (which is
hardly surprising, given the emotion of the minute’s silence). I always like to
think of Alastair Cook as, at root, a fellow-Devonian, the Cooks being a
long-established farming family from South Molton. I have known his great
uncle, Albert Cook, for many years, initially through his many successes in the
show ring with his magnificent Devon Closewool sheep, more recently through our
mutual involvement in the Bath and West and Devon County Shows. But perhaps his
greatest claim to farming fame was as a champion sheep shearer. He first competed in the Golden Shears at the
Bath and West in 1948, first winning it ten years later when the show visited
Plymouth (which, coincidentally, was my very first Bath and West). He was
President of the Devon County Show six years ago, and was invited to
demonstrate his shearing prowess. At the
age of 85, he proceeded to shear his sheep in three and a half minutes, with
not a nick in sight. Albert is 91 now,
but when I’d seen him at the Bath and West, the twinkle in his eye was as
bright as ever, and his smile as broad as ever. When you meet Albert, you can
see where Alastair gets his smile from, as well, obviously, as his love of
farming. If he turns out to be even half
as good a farmer as Great Uncle Albert, Alastair will be a very good farmer
indeed!
Albert Cook in his natural habitat - at the Sheep Shearing shed at the Devon County Show!
But I digress.
Back to events at Chelmsford. News come through on Twitter that the live
stream has been fixed, so I switch to that, just in time to see Jamie Overton
take both the batsman and the commentator by surprise by removing Browne’s off
stump with the clinical efficiency of a dentist extracting a rotten tooth. But the Somerset attack isn’t quite the force
it has been so often this season without the injured Craig Overton, and neither
Cook nor Tom Westley seems unduly troubled as they take Essex to an ominous
110/1 at lunch.
This being a Sunday, we have a roast for lunch,
on the terrace, 25 degrees of heat notwithstanding. Today it is a free range
chicken, sold in the local supermarket with its head and feet still on and,
unlike all too many English birds, tasting properly of chicken. Lunch over, I
look at my phone: 143/3, and it is soon 147/4 as an out of touch Ravi Bopara
gets in a terrible tangle against Lewis Gregory and lobs a catch to mid-on.
It is time to head for the beach, where the 3G
signal is more than strong enough to allow me to watch the live stream and
listen to the commentary. Just before tea, Tim Groenewald shows his value by
producing, out of the blue, a real jaffa, which takes a mixture of Cook’s bat
and pad and lobs to second slip. Yessss!! I go for a swim to celebrate. This has been a good afternoon for
Somerset. Five wickets have fallen in
the session for the addition of 82 runs, my only concern being that this pitch
may turn out to be a bit like Brexit - a lot more problematic than it seemed at
first glance!
Jack Leach mops up the tail and Essex are all
out, for 216, having at one stage been 126/1. But my suspicions about the
difficulties of batting on this pitch are soon borne out as Abell and Azhar
struggle against Siddle and Porter. It is beginning to look like they might
make it through to the close, and I am poised to tweet that, for the first time
in this championship season, a Somerset opening partnership has got past 30,
when Azhar nicks a good one from Porter.
Nightwatchman Tim Groenewald somehow survives a final over from Simon
Harmer, and it is hard to disagree with Paul Newton’s verdict as the players
walk off that it is Harmer who holds the key to the outcome of this game.
Day 2.
Well, that was a day that certainly didn’t work out as planned, or as predicted. Far from the 300 plus which I’d suggested Somerset would need to put them ahead in the game, they subside ignominiously for 131. And far from it being Simon Harmer who does the damage, it is their seamers, led by 21 year old Aaron Beard, who hadn’t bowled a single over in the game against Hampshire.
I think it would be fair to say that at least
some of the credit for his return of 4/23 ought to go to the Esssex opening
bowlers, Peter Siddle and Jamie Porter. Captain Tom had already departed - the
victim of an LBW decision that might charitably be described as borderline - by
the time Beard was brought on to replace Siddle. You could almost sense the
relief on the part of Tim Groenewald, who had battled his way grimly to six off
52 balls against the unrelenting accuracy of Siddle and Porter, when he spots a
shortish ball outside off, goes for the cut - and slices to Westley at slip.
James Hildreth similarly thinks he can
tuck in to a ball that maybe isn’t quite as short as he thinks, and top edges
to mid-wicket. Banton’s dismissal for two (after he had already been missed at
short leg), I didn’t see, but the shot that Steve Davies gets out to is a real
horror show. Possibly the ball stops on him a touch; undoubtedly he makes the
worst of it, with a limp aerial drive to mid-off.
At this point, I decide that I’ve seen enough. I
had rather been hoping that Somerset had kicked the habit of batting collapses,
with the all-rounders coming to the rescue even if the top order batting fails.
But not today. A first innings lead of
85 is a lot to concede on any pitch, let alone on this unpredictable
surface. BBC Radio Essex’s Nick Gledhill
- a cricket anorak if ever there was one - suggests that Somerset might still
be in with a chance if they can bowl Essex out for around 150. Maybe, but
that’s a big ‘if’.
It’s soon looking bigger still as Sir Alastair
and Nick Browne make what sounds like their pretty untroubled way to 43/0,
before the persevering Groenewald removes Browne. Wickets continue to fall at
regular intervals, as indeed does the rain, causing two lengthy breaks in play,
during which I doze off on the beach in the sunshine. Essex close on 166/6, 249
ahead. On this pitch, against this Essex
attack, that’s probably enough already.
Day 3
Somerset mop up the last four wickets in 40
minutes, which is precisely what they need to do to stay in the game. My worry
is that the clatter of wickets may be the shape of things to come, when
Somerset go in search of the 269 they need. But, conscious of being accused of
serial pessimism, I offer the thought on Twitter of how tremendous it would be
if we could do it!
Exactly two minutes later, I watch aghast as
Abell prods his second ball straight back to Porter, who gleefully accepts the
simplest of caught and bowled chances. Five minutes later, Azhar chases a wide
one from Porter and is caught at slip. That’s 7/2. Jesus! Six wickets have fallen in an hour. This
could be over by lunchtime. BBC Radio Essex’s Dick Davies’ mournful tones are
perfectly attuned for the situation.
Mind you, as a Somerset listener, I am irritated
by the fact that there isn’t a Somerset voice to be heard on commentary for a
full hour up to lunch. It’s a consequence of the ‘home’ broadcaster fielding
two, if not three commentators, but that is still no reason why a better
balance shouldn’t be achieved. My irritation is compounded when, after a
promising stand of 39 with Hildreth, Banton essays a nonchalant flick at a ball
from Harmer and is caught at mid-on for 24. When Hildreth is caught behind off
the last ball before lunch, the game, I know, is up. Gregory delays the
inevitable with some handsome blows after lunch, including three successive
sixes off Harmer, but the others succumb meekly.
Yes, I know it’s not an easy pitch. But some of the batting has been woeful. I am comforted by the fact we had a serious blip in the One Day Cup campaign - losing three games on the bounce - yet came back stronger than ever.
Two other thoughts occur as I reflect on
Somerset’s defeat. The first concerns
the form of Captain Tom. Since that century at Trent Bridge back in April he
hasn’t reached 50, in either the Championship where he averages 26 or in the
One Day Cup, where his average, albeit in a winning cause, was a disappointing 25.3. It’s not that he has endured a succession of ducks, as in 2017. He’s been getting himself in, and then
getting himself out. I’m not enough of a technical expert to be able to suggest
what the problem is (apart from the usual bad luck which always seems to
accompany out of form batsmen), but it is worrying. Nothing makes for
successful captaincy more than weight of individual runs.
My other thought is whether some of the Somerset
team may not have been distracted by the death of their chairman. Some of the
shots played by the batsmen certainly suggested that their minds may not have
been completely focused on the job in hand. I wouldn’t blame them for that, for
one moment, but the focus needs to return, and quickly.
The 'Rest of the World' sent packing
June 30-July 3. County Championship Somerset v Hampshire
Somerset 408 and 358; Hampshire 349 and 104. Somerset win by 313 runs
June 30-July 3. County Championship Somerset v Hampshire
Somerset 408 and 358; Hampshire 349 and 104. Somerset win by 313 runs
A big game. First in the table versus third,
both sides having been going like trains until hitting the buffers with a crash
against Essex. For all that, it is not a
day’s cricket I am expecting to enjoy. A
minute’s silence in memory of dear Charles will be held before the start, and
I’ll be meeting up with Rebecca and James for the first time since he died and
it is hard to find words for occasions like that. The minute’s silence is impeccably observed,
and seems to last forever.
But it’s a dry, warm, if cloudy morning and Tom
Abell wins the toss. His opposite
number, Sam Northeast, evidently thought long and hard about putting Somerset
in, so it must have been a borderline decision by young Tom to bat first, the
Somerset top order being desperately short of runs and against a strong-looking
seam attack led by the redoubtable Kolpak Kyle Abbot.
Batting looks tricky, right from the off, the
first over being bowled by Clive Lloyd’s godson, Keith Barker, late of Warwickshire,
a strapping left-armer, who I mis-identify as the several inches shorter
right-arm Barbadian, with the unmistakable slingy action, Fidel Edwards. Not a
good start - for me, or for Azhar Ali, who is plumb LBW to Abbot in the eighth
over. For an overseas player who has been under criticism on Twitter for his
lack of runs, it is not exactly the ideal prelude to being presented with his
county cap at lunchtime.
“Mark Davis played 77 first class games and 59 one-dayers for Somerset in the
1980s,” I grumble during a break from commentary in the press box, “and he
never got a cap. This bloke is getting one after only 16 first class games for
Somerset, average - and that’s the word - 25.” The balance of opinion both among the press and on
Twitter seems to share my view.
As the ball seams around from both ends, the
genial, knowledgeable Kevan James, sharing commentary with myself and Kit
Harris on behalf of BBC Radio Solent, suggests that Hampshire will be disappointed
if they haven’t picked up five wickets by lunch. As it is, Captain Tom and James Hildreth -
once again coming in to bat at three with the ball still hard and the pitch
still fresh - see to it that Somerset get through to the interval without
further damage; Abell gritty, determined, leaving the ball well and not being
forced to play often enough by some inconsistent Hampshire bowling; Hildreth
skittish at first, gradually settling into a rhythm and unfurling those
trade-mark square cuts, back-foot drives and whips through straight
mid-wicket. Lunch is reached at 98/1. A
very good session, all things considered.
The afternoon is even better. Hildreth goes on
to his 44th century for Somerset and his sixth against Hampshire, more than any
other Somerset batsman has achieved. He
will break a lot more Somerset records before he’s done, will James
Hildreth. He is eventually undone by
some classically hostile West Indian fast bowling from Fidel Edwards. One bouncer hits him flush on the grille of
his helmet. After a considerable delay for head injury assessment and so on,
he’s back at the crease, battered clearly, but determined to show the bowler
that he’s unbowed. Sure enough, the next ball is short, Hildreth goes for the
pull, but it’s just a touch too wide of off-stump for the shot, which is
half-hit and ends up in Barker’s safe hands at short mid-wicket. Good bowling,
I grudgingly admit, as Hildreth walks off to the acclamation of a crowd
touching 3,000. How they must yearn for
an atmosphere like this at the soulless Ageas Bowl.
Still, Abell is still there, joined now by Tom
Banton and seemingly on his way to a hard-fought, thoroughly-deserved second
championship hundred of the season when he gets a good one from Abbot, and
edges to first slip. A shame, for sure,
but George Bartlett has been in good form, and soon both he and Banton are
tucking into some sometimes almost comically erratic leg-breaks and googlies
from the confidence-bereft Mason Crane, and Joe Weatherley’s similarly inviting
part-time off-breaks. The runs come thick, fast and stylishly. This is modern
batsmanship at its best and most imaginative.
350 is on the board, four batting points in the bag, in only 75 overs, when James Fuller traps
first Banton and then an out of form Steve Davies LBW.
The new ball is taken at the first opportunity,
and Abbot comes steaming in from the Somerset Pavilion end, to put Lewis
Gregory in his place. He thinks he’s got his man, as an in-ducker clips
Gregory’s pad with the batsman playing no shot. Abbot storms down the side of
the pitch, arms aloft, not so much shouting his appeal as screamingly demanding
the decision, which umpire Milnes declines to give, much to Abbot’s all-too
obvious disgust. He’ll be in trouble for that I suggest. Thus thwarted, Abbot
bowls even faster and Gregory, never one to duck a challenge, hits him even
harder. Four successive Abbot
thunderbolts are hit for four. Gregory’s looking for another boundary off the
fifth, with a cut down to third man. But this time, it’s a little too close to
him. He doesn’t have to play but pride dictates otherwise and a catch to slip
is the result. With the last of those fours, he had brought up the 400 and a
fifth batting point. Even with his departure, Somerset are surely now on their
way to 500 and an unassailable position in the game.
Apres Lewis, le deluge! Five wickets go down in
four and a bit overs for the addition of just seven runs, and Somerset are all
out for 408. It is a collapse for the ages. Worse even than Guildford last
year, when they lost their last five for 21, all to the less than demonic Ryan
Patel. At 11 this morning, 408 all out
would have seemed a triumph. At 6 this evening, after being 401/5, it felt like
a mini-disaster. Good bowling, for sure. But also some sloppy batting. When you’ve got your foot on the enemy’s
throat..., and all that.
Hampshire have bowled their overs so painfully
slowly that, even though it’s well past 6, there are 6 overs still to be
bowled. In the second of them, Jamie
Overton, given the responsibility of opening the bowling in his injured twin’s
absence, produces an absolute snorter to remove the unfortunate Ollie
Soames. But even though Lewis Gregory
bowls quite brilliantly from the other end, making the batsman play at
virtually every ball, Weatherly and the Indian test batsman Rajinkha Rahane
make it through to the close without further mishap.
It has been a great day’s cricket and, as James
Hildreth agrees when I speak to him after the close, Somerset are in what
should be a winning position, with 400 on the board, two top-class spinners in
their side and a pitch beginning noticeably to turn. But as I drive back to
Langport, I still can’t help wondering whether we might live to regret that
un-called-for clatter of wickets.
Day 2
Day 2
My mind isn’t really on the cricket this
morning. It is the day of Charles Clark’s funeral, which, because his passing
was so untimely (he was just 59) and he was so well loved, I expect to be an
occasion even more harrowing than these things usually are.
But the morning’s cricket serves to take my mind
off sadder themes, even if it isn’t exactly gripping. Jamie Overton claims an early wicket as Joe
Weatherly gets the merest touch of glove to a leg-side lifter, but after that
the two best batsmen in the Hampshire side - Rahane and Southeast - settle to
their task with application and, seemingly, very little trouble. With the aid
of the heavy roller, the wicket has flattened out overnight. There is precious
little for the seamers to work with and just the occasional hint of turn to
encourage Jack Leach who, it seems to me, isn’t giving the ball enough air.
Pushing it through at the batsman’s pads is fine for keeping the scoring rate
down, but it is wickets that Somerset need. As for Dom Bess, he is left to kick
his heels at backward point, as the captain brings himself on for three
innocuous overs ahead of England’s second-best off-spinner. I doubt if this
will encourage Bess to stay with Somerset when his contract negotiations get
under way next season.
In between commentary stints, I write a short
appreciation of Dennis Silk, the archetypal schoolmaster all-rounder, who
played for Somerset during the summer holidays for four seasons in the 1950s
and went on to become Chairman of the TCCB in the 1990s. He has died recently in an old people’s home
in Langport at the age of 87 and seems to have been well loved by all who knew
him. A big man, in personality as well
as physique, he won blues at Cambridge for both cricket (three years) and
rugby, before a highly distinguished teaching career. He was an educated, literary man, who loved
poetry as much as cricket, a combination of passions which he shared with his
friend Siegfried Sassoon (whose cricketing exploits with the Bluemantles are
recalled in The Weald of Youth), the pair of them having been introduced by
another cricketing poet of World War 1, Edmund Blunden.
Rahane and Northeast seem to be well set, as I
head off for the funeral at Stoke St Mary. Charles would have been deeply proud
of the parts played in what was a lovely, deeply poignant service, by his
brother Franco, who gave the eulogy, his widow Rebecca, who read a poem by
Matthew Arnold, his son James and two daughters Verity and Victoria. Afterwards,
we drank rose in the gardens of their farmhouse just down the road, reminisced
and remembered. Nigel Popplewell, a
great friend of Charles’, was there, and we compared Brian Rose anecdotes.
By this time, I had looked at my phone. The news
was better. Rossouw and Northeast both
out, for 55 and 101 respectively, both to Bess - 230/5. A partnership of 81 between Barker and James
Fuller means that Hampshire do not collapse in a Somerset-style heap, but we
knew from experience yesterday what a difference a new ball can make and, sure
enough, once it is taken, Jamie Overton is among the wickets. He finishes with
5/66 as Hampshire close on 329/8, a fast bowler who, it seems to me from this
performance, opening the bowling with Gregory on a pretty unresponsive pitch, has finally to have come of age as a spearhead in championship cricket.
Day 3
Another beautifully sunny morning, as I get up to
find our new gardener, Tim, slashing away like Peter Trego amidst the bindweed
and brambles. Somerset need to mop up the last two wickets quickly, and do so,
Lewis Gregory seeing off first Alsop and then Crane. Poor Tom Alsop, so much
incapacitated by a torn hamstring that he can barely put one foot in front of
another as he makes his painful way back to the pavilion.
It is the start of a very good day for Somerset.
Kyle Abbot and Fidel Edwards rather waste the new ball, allowing Abell and
Azhar Ali plenty of loose balls to put away and build their confidence. I cheer
as the opening partnership goes past 30 for the first time this season; I
rejoice when the pair pass 50; I am well-nigh dumbfounded when the 100 comes up
- Somerset’s first century opening partnership since Trescothick and Abell put
on 134 against Lancashire, way back in 2016. We go into lunch at 110/0. It has
been just about the perfect morning.
The Hampshire bowling improves after lunch,
Keith Barker in particular stemming the flow of runs by bowling steadily,
wicket to wicket. He gets his reward when an in-ducker finds its way between
Tom Abell’s bat and pad, and follows that by persuading Hildreth to have a
drive at an off-stump outswinger, to be caught at slip. Azhar still looks nailed on for his first
hundred of the season - the perfect riposte to his critics - when, for reasons
known only to himself, he decides to aim an upper-cut at a short one from
Abbot, either oblivious or contemptuous of a third man posted for precisely
this shot by Northeast. Sure enough, Fuller takes the catch. Fortunately, I am
not on commentary at the time.
Kevan James’ co-Hampshire commentator for the
last couple of days has been Emily Windsor, who plays for the Hampshire women’s
team and who is undoubtedly a far better cricketer than I have ever been, and
who talks about the game pretty well too, even if she is only 22. Cunningly, I
persuade her into admitting that the view from the commentary box at Taunton
(where she has never worked before) is the finest in the land. Ergo, it trumps the Ageas Bowl! Mind you, that is not difficult, given that
the commentary position there is on a balcony of the Hilton Hotel, about 150
yards away from the action, and that to make your way to the dressing rooms at close of play you
have to negotiate the hotel corridors and lifts, dodging past enormous
suit-cases and their even more enormous American owners, then walk what seems
like half a mile around the perimeter road, before re-entering the ground - if
the stewards will let you! But Emily is
fiercely loyal to her native Hampshire, and won’t hear a word against their
unlovely headquarters.
Meanwhile, Tom Banton is going on his insouciant
way. He has a distinctive way of bending his knees as the bowler runs up which
reminds me of....I’m not sure who. But if the ball is in his hitting areas, my
goodness don’t his hands flash through it. Like Jos Buttler, with whom he is
often compared, he played a lot of hockey as a school-boy, and has the forearms
and wrists to show for it. He and Bartlett add 95 for the 4th wicket and are
just looking to lift the scoring rate against Mason Crane’s leg-spin (and, to
be fair, he is bowling much better in this afternoon session), when Bartlett
gets a leading edge to be well caught in the covers, and is followed back to
the pavilion soon afterwards by a clearly disgruntled Banton, given out caught
behind off his glove, when the ball came off his forearm. It means that we are
denied the delicious prospect of a further Banton/Edwards duel, although Tom
does later disclose that in the first innings, with the Lord’s experience very
much in mind, Fidel had bet him £20 that he would get him out!
These set-backs notwithstanding, Somerset are
clearly setting-up a declaration, a process in which Gregory and an out of
touch Steven Davies do their best to assist.
Exactly when that declaration is due to come seems to be the occasion of
some confusion in the dressing room, as Tom Abell appears on the balcony to
summon the batsmen in, only to go back in again. In the end, it comes with only
six overs remaining, meaning that Hampshire will have four to get through in
their unlikely quest for 418 to win.
They don’t manage it. Young Ollie Soames somehow
survives an impassioned appeal from Gregory and co for what looks like a plumb
LBW, only to succumb to the very next ball, inside-edging an inswinger into his
stumps. Enter Ajinkha Rahane, only very
nearly to exit first ball, another huge LBW appeal being answered in the
negative - correctly, it seemed to me - by umpire Russell Warren. Jamie Overton doesn’t quite get it right from
the River End and Hampshire finish the day on 12/1.
What of the prospects for tomorrow? Tom Banton seems pretty confident when I
speak to him afterwards. The pitch is beginning to rough-up, so there should be
plenty for Leach and Bess to work with, and the bounce is increasingly
uncertain. With Essex in the process of
thrashing Notts, Somerset need a win to stay ahead in the Championship race,
and, on a wearing pitch, with two injured Hampshire batsmen (Weatherley having
turned an ankle to go with Alsop’s
hamstring tear), they are as well placed as they could have hoped to be, to
secure it.
Day 4
It is another gloriously sunny morning. I have
no strong intuition as to whether Somerset will succeed in their goal of taking
the nine Hampshire wickets they need for their sixth win of the Championship,
but I am encouraged by experience in the season to date. In their five wins, they have bowled out the
opposition in either the third or fourth innings for 131 (Kent at Taunton), 126
(Notts), 189 (Warwickshire), 164 (Surrey at Guildford) and 59 (Kent at
Canterbury). Even in their one defeat, at Chelmsford, they still managed to
bowl out Essex for 183 in the second innings.
Only in a rain-affected game at Taunton were they frustrated, as Surrey
finished on 255/8.
One outcome which I think we can discount is a
Hampshire win. Steve Pittard informs me
that only once has more than 400 been scored
on the last day of four at Taunton, and that was that famous day when
Somerset made 479 to beat Yorkshire in 2009, and this is a Hampshire side that
looks low on both confidence and ambition.
The outcome is soon put beyond doubt. In his second over of the day, Lewis Gregory
persuades Rahane to go after an outswinger and Jamie Overton takes a sharp
catch at second slip. The nightwatchman
Abbot nicks a fast, rising delivery from Jamie Overton in the very next over,
and that’s 18/3. Northeast is virtually
strokeless at one end; Riley Rossouw determined to play his shots at the
other. I am off commentary, watching
from the press box with Brian Rose, when
he goes to cut another Overton rocket and is well caught by Banton in the gully. Like Rahane’s effort, it was a reckless,
feckless shot, which speaks of a team which has already given up. However, for a time, Northeast and James
Fuller have other ideas. They get their heads down, take full toll of anything
loose and put on 50 together. The spinners come on, seemingly without getting
much turn, and doubts as to the
certainty of an early victory are just beginning to creep in when Northeast
goes to turn Leach through mid-wicket and is brilliantly caught, low down,
diving forward, by Tom Abell.
The end comes quickly now as Leach gets Barker and Bess weighs in by bowling Fuller.
The end comes quickly now as Leach gets Barker and Bess weighs in by bowling Fuller.
By now I am on commentary so that I can describe
the final wicket and hail another Somerset victory. The only question is: which will the final wicket be? Will either of the Hampshire walking wounded,
Alsop and Weatherley, come out to bat in what is so obviously a lost
cause? The fact that when the 7th
wicket falls, the umpires decide that the lunch interval will be delayed by 15
minutes strongly suggests that neither will bat and that the 8th
wicket will be the last. So, when Fidel
Edwards aims a huge heave at Leach and is bowled neck and crop, I triumphantly
announce a Somerset victory and 24 points, even (for once) getting the margin
of victory correct at 313 runs.
Out in the middle, the players are celebrating and shaking hands. But hang on; what’s this? Mason Crane, the not out batsman, has turned back from his walk to the pavilion, from which a limping Hampshire batsman appears, accompanied by a runner. It is Tom Alsop, once again exhibiting that great British propensity for heroic, but entirely futile gestures. He survives the last ball of Leach’s over, leaving Crane to face Bess. He at least is not disposed unduly to delay the inevitable. A leg-side slog ends in the safe hands of Leach at mid-wicket and this time, as I announce with some relief, Somerset really have won by 313 runs. Or have they? Might Joe Weatherley yet appear? But no. Hampshire have had enough, even if the uncertainty does rather spoil my victory peroration. I am cheered by a reaction on Twitter: “Hello Ant. I’ll bet that’s the first time you’ve called two Somerset wins in a morning!”
Anyway, the important thing is that Somerset
have won, especially as Essex are in the process of crushing hapless Notts at
Trent Bridge. The lead at the top of the
table is increased by two, and even though Yorkshire will win against Surrey, a
degree of separation is beginning to appear between Somerset and Essex and the
rest.
The post-match press conference is a happy
affair, Tom Abell paying tribute to his bowlers and Jason Kerr delighted that
his top-order batsmen have produced the goods.
I fail to resist the temptation to ask him about winning the
Championship. He says what I already
knew he would say, that, yes, of course they can win it, but that whether they
do so will depend on results. All Somerset can do is to concentrate on their
own performance and keep winning games of cricket.
And on
the form they’ve shown over the past four days - the way they’ve bounced-back
from that Chelmsford defeat - there seems no reason why they shouldn’t.
Top v
bottom
July 7-10 County Championship: Somerset
v Nottinghamshire
Somerset 326 and 169; Notts 241 and 122. Somerset win by 132 runs
Somerset 326 and 169; Notts 241 and 122. Somerset win by 132 runs
Day One
Every day for at least the last five, the
weather forecasters have been predicting that “tomorrow will be cooler and
cloudier than today”, and every day has been sunnier and hotter than the one
before. Today, July 7, is the sultriest
yet. It is a day on which to win the
toss and bat, which is exactly what Tom Abell does. The perfect start, it seems, against bottom
of the table, troubled, deracinated Notts.
Craig Overton’s groin permitting, Somerset will
be at full strength for this one. Not so
for the following game, against Yorkshire at Headingley. News had come through the previous afternoon
that Lewis Gregory and Jack Leach have been called up to play for the England Lions
against Australia A at Worcester, a meaningless fixture if ever there was
one. It could have been worse. But for the convention that no more than two
players are chosen for England Lions games from any one county, we could have
lost the entire first team, barring Azhar, of course.
This is one of Stephen Lamb’s games, so after a
visit to the gym, I spend the rest of the morning hacking away at the
undergrowth on the banks of the Catchwater. By the time I get the chance to
look at my phone, Somerset have lost two wickets, the openers, Azhar and
Abell. Son George, daughter-in-law Pippa
and little treasure Grace (she’s just coming up to two) arrive for Sunday
lunch, which we would normally eat on Claire’s terrace, but today it’s just too
hot. I cook the joint, loin of pork, and
though I say it myself, the crackling is perfection. When George enquires as to
the score, I discover to my disappointment that it is 146/6, Banton hit wicket,
of all things, and Bartlett bowled behind his legs.
Lunch over, with George and co on the way back
to Shepton Beauchamp, I settle down to listen to the commentary from Stephen
Lamb, Dave Bracegirdle, Radio Five Live’s Kevin Howells and Rob Scanlon
(another Somerset voice doing his best to be neutral). I say to Claire that I’ll go and strim the
banks of the Catchwater when the next wicket falls. An hour and a half later, I’m still sitting
on the terrace, under the sunshade, as the Steve Davies-Dom Bess partnership
passes the century mark.
It is a terrific, potentially match-turning
effort, but a slightly unusual aspect of it, remarked on by Rob Scanlon, is the
frequency with which Dom Bess comes all the way down the pitch to touch gloves
with his batting partner. Even a routine single sometimes produces this
comradely gesture. But it is the wily
Kevin who suggests the possible motive for all this mutual encouragement. Every time Bess comes down the pitch in his
cricket boots, he is adding a few more spike marks to the texture of the
pitch. Kevin does not state
categorically that this is what Bess is up to - “just a theory” - but if you ask me, he’s got it spot on!
Jamie Overton, not before time, displays his
credentials to be regarded as a genuine all-rounder in making a typically
belligerent but thoroughly useful 34 from 35 balls and we finish on 326 all
out. On a pitch that sounds as if it is
just starting to take a bit of spin, and with Notts having to bat last against
Leach and Bess, that looks like a more than useful score.
Day 2
Day 2
A visit to the dentist, to have a loose filling
replaced. Not exactly the ideal start to a Monday morning. Birgitte, my formidable
German dentist, does not have much patience with pain-averse Englishmen in red
trousers, and it feels like she’s drilled out half of my upper jaw by the time
it’s all over. By which time, Somerset
have taken a wicket, Ben Slater, caught by Tom Abell in the covers. But that’s it for Somerset successes up to
lunch. Overnight, I’d rather hoped that they might be five down by this stage,
but the commentary suggests that the bowlers aren’t quite on song, the pitch is
flat and, most unusually for this team, the body language in the field is poor
and two catches have gone down.
Not particularly relishing the prospect of
watching Notts pile on the runs, I don’t get to the ground until around
3.30. The score is 180/2 and the press
box is subdued. Stephen Chalke is there, reading Vic Marks’ wonderfully funny
and observant autobiography, Original Spin, as is Paul Edwards, as amused as
ever by the Somerset press corps’ habitual angst. “You don’t just come into a
press box down here”, he remarks. “You enter an emotional cauldron”!
Stephen is due to host what I’ve called on
Twitter “The Vic and Rosey Show” at close of play, to celebrate the publication
of their respective autobiographies. He reads me one of ever so many lovely
anecdotes, this one about the NatWest quarter final at Hove in 1983, when Garner
and Botham bowled out Sussex for 65, finishing respectively with 4/8 and 4/20. The Man of the Match adjudicator was the ever
circumspect Arthur Milton. “I really can’t choose between Garner and Botham”,
he announced to the assembled multitude, “ so I’ve decided to give it to Trevor
Gard.”!
Out in the middle not much is happening. To lighten the mood, Richard Walsh takes out
his phone to play the unofficial Somerset anthem (not counting Blackbird), “Go Somerset”,
written by the splendid Charles Clive-Ponsonby-Fane, great grandson of Sir
Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, joint founder of I Zingari, the poshest of all the
wandering clubs (and of which Charles is the President), whose memorabilia we
look after and display in the Somerset Cricket Museum. This seems to do the trick. Jack Leach,
operating as ever from the River End, starts to find some turn.
The last few overs before tea seem to signal a turning of the tide, which comes flooding in for Somerset soon afterwards. From 201/2 in the 68th over, Nottinghamshire don’t so much collapse as disintegrate to 241/9 in the 89th, which means that they’re all out, Chris Nash being unable to resume his innings after being hit on the helmet by a Jamie Overton bouncer in the first session. So seven wickets have gone down in 70 minutes for 40 runs in 21.1 overs. Leach and Bess bowl well, for sure, getting some sharp turn and bounce from the bowlers’ footmarks, but some of the Notts batting is truly woeful. After Libby is caught at slip by Gregory off Leach for 77, Mullaney top-edges a Bess long hop to give Abell the simplest of catches at mid-wicket, while R Ashwin, as we must learn to call him, plays a pre-meditated reverse sweep at a Bess full toss and is humiliatingly bowled. The less said about the rest the better.
The last few overs before tea seem to signal a turning of the tide, which comes flooding in for Somerset soon afterwards. From 201/2 in the 68th over, Nottinghamshire don’t so much collapse as disintegrate to 241/9 in the 89th, which means that they’re all out, Chris Nash being unable to resume his innings after being hit on the helmet by a Jamie Overton bouncer in the first session. So seven wickets have gone down in 70 minutes for 40 runs in 21.1 overs. Leach and Bess bowl well, for sure, getting some sharp turn and bounce from the bowlers’ footmarks, but some of the Notts batting is truly woeful. After Libby is caught at slip by Gregory off Leach for 77, Mullaney top-edges a Bess long hop to give Abell the simplest of catches at mid-wicket, while R Ashwin, as we must learn to call him, plays a pre-meditated reverse sweep at a Bess full toss and is humiliatingly bowled. The less said about the rest the better.
Somerset have an awkward five overs to get
through before the close. For reasons which I fail to fathom, Tim Groenewald is
sent out with Tom Abell to face one of the best off-spinners in the world on a
turning pitch. He lasts three balls. Enter Azhar, whom Groenewald was
presumably supposed to protect. His arrival at the crease is not greeted with
much enthusiasm by the two Richards in the press box. But Stephen Chalke, who
knows a thing or two about serious cricketers, warns magisterially against
rushing to judgement: “Have
faith in him. You mark my words, he’ll get a fifty tomorrow.”
In the next Ashwin over, he prods forward at an
arm ball and the Notts fielders go up as one in a triumphant appeal. The umpire is Nick Cook, who is not the
Somerset press corps’ favourite umpire, ever since, with Somerset needing one
wicket for a crucial win, he failed to
give Warickshire’s .Oliver Hannon-Dalby out to a nick off Jamie Overton which,
according to Richard Latham, could be heard all over Taunton. ‘He’s always had
it in for us, that Nick Cook’, is the general feeling. But the Cook finger
remains un-raised. “What a great umpire old Nick is”, rejoices the press box.
“He wasn’t going to be put off by all that over-confident appealing. Called
it as he saw it. Not out!”
Abell and Azhar see it through to stumps, at
7/1. The feeling is that if Somerset can
put 150 on the board, they’ll be in a winning position, but Ashwin may have
something to say about that.
The Vic and Brian Show
The session which follows with Stephen Chalke,
Vic Marks and Brian Rose in the Stragglers is delightful. They talk of the
cruel disappointments of losing two trophies in a week-end in 1978, of the
trauma which followed the infamous Worcester declaration, and the redemption
which followed, as the supporters got behind their embattled heroes as never
before, and carried them to the county’s first trophies. Many of those sitting
enthralled had been there for those disasters and triumphs. Not for the first time, Somerset cricket felt
like one enormous extended family. County cricket is alive and well and living
in Taunton. We don’t need the ECB’s gimmicky Hundred, thank you very much!
Two great men of Somerset cricket, and me
Day 3
It is another sunny day and Somerset make a good
start as they seek to build on what is, on this pitch, a more than useful lead
of 85. By 12 o’clock, as I’m listening
to the BBC Somerset news on my way to the Blue Ball at Triscombe for one of our
‘cricket lunches’, Azhar and Abell have taken the score to 50/1. Half an hour
later, as I reach the pub and switch on my phone for the score, it is 80/5,
with both of the Notts spinners, Ashwin and the young left-armer, Liam
Patterson-White among the wickets.
We talk mostly about England’s chances in the
World Cup over lunch, which proves to be excellent. Like a good many other rural Somerset pubs,
the Blue Ball has had its ups and downs in recent years, but the meal is the
best I’ve had there since Paddy Groves was running the place, more than 10
years ago. By the time I come to leave
to drive to the County Ground, eight wickets are down and the lead is only just
scraping over the 200 mark. But Azhar is still there, playing what proves to be
his most important innings so far in this 2019 season, and Jamie Overton is
providing sensible, occasionally belligerent, support.
As I reach the County Ground and get out of my
car to walk to the press entrance at the back of the Somerset Pavilion, a huge
roar goes up. Leach has got Jake Libby
LBW with his very first ball. More roars
soon follow, as Banton takes a difficult, juggling catch at short leg to remove
Slater and Tom Moores’ edges a lightning bolt of an outswinger into the safe
hands of Hildreth at slip. With Jack
Leach extracting plenty of turn from the River End, and Jamie Overton bowling
as fast as I’ve ever seen him, against a plainly demoralized set of Notts
batsmen, the result is no longer in doubt.
Only Ashwin offers more than token resistance and when he is sixth out,
at 95, the end comes quickly: 122 all
out; Somerset winners by 132 runs.
Essex may be thumping Yorkshire at Chelmsford, but we will keep our lead at the top of the table. That makes it seven wins out of nine games, equalling Somerset’s highest number of wins (last season) in Division 1. We are on a roll. “Bring on the Tykes”, I tweet, exultantly.
Essex may be thumping Yorkshire at Chelmsford, but we will keep our lead at the top of the table. That makes it seven wins out of nine games, equalling Somerset’s highest number of wins (last season) in Division 1. We are on a roll. “Bring on the Tykes”, I tweet, exultantly.
A Bump in
the Road
July
13-16 County Championship: Yorkshire v Somerset at Headingley
Day 1
To drive from Somerset to Leeds on a hot Friday
afternoon in July does rather give the lie to the old saying that it is better to
travel hopefully than to arrive! My journey occupies 15 minutes less than six
hours, including a detour to the BBC in Whiteladies Road to pick up my BBC
Radio Bristol pool van. By the time I
reach the Leeds Parkway Mercure, to the north of the city, halfway to Otley, I
am very weary and my right big toe is throbbing with gout. However, the hotel
is comfortable enough, and when I drive on to explore Otley, I discover both an
excellent pub - the Junction - and a fish and chip shop. I’m beginning to enjoy my annual visit to the
broad acres of God’s Own County.
It rained on Friday evening and there are grey
clouds overhead as I arrive at what must surely be the strangest cricket
‘Pavilion’ in England. The Carnegie
Pavilion, as it is officially known, is a towering edifice, clad in contrasting shades of green harlequin-style panels, which seems to owe nothing whatever to the game
of cricket. It looks what for most of
the time it is - a University building, part of Leeds Beckett University,
housing meeting rooms, lecture theatres and break-out spaces. To get from their dressing rooms to the
playing area, the players have to make their way across a dark tunnel and
through a set of black metal doors.
The Headingley 'Pavilion'
“One thing you can say for it, is that whenever anyone sees this building on the television, they know the game they’re watching is at Headingley”, argues Jonathan Doidge, the cheerful and highly professional successor to the late and much lamented Dave Callaghan as the BBC’s Yorkshire commentator. Well maybe, but it doesn’t provide exactly an ideal vantage point for us commentators - the redoubtable Dave Townsend, or DT as he is better known, being our ‘third voice’ - given that we are high up, behind windows that don’t open and a long way from the action in the middle. On the other hand, there is no more knowledgeable crowd in the cricketing world than the one you will find at Headingley, and they are as generous in their appreciation of good cricket from the opposition as they are (almost) of Yorkshire’s.
“One thing you can say for it, is that whenever anyone sees this building on the television, they know the game they’re watching is at Headingley”, argues Jonathan Doidge, the cheerful and highly professional successor to the late and much lamented Dave Callaghan as the BBC’s Yorkshire commentator. Well maybe, but it doesn’t provide exactly an ideal vantage point for us commentators - the redoubtable Dave Townsend, or DT as he is better known, being our ‘third voice’ - given that we are high up, behind windows that don’t open and a long way from the action in the middle. On the other hand, there is no more knowledgeable crowd in the cricketing world than the one you will find at Headingley, and they are as generous in their appreciation of good cricket from the opposition as they are (almost) of Yorkshire’s.
It is the sort of Headingley morning on which,
historically, the ball has swung like Glen Miller and wickets have fallen like
autumn leaves. Maybe it is that reputation
which accounts for what is doubtless a collective Somerset decision not to have
a toss and to ask Yorkshire to bat first. But there is nothing remotely green
about the pitch and my mind goes back to Guildford last June, when Surrey were
similarly inserted and proceeded to put 459 on the board.
Craig Overton, fit again after his groin strain,
opens the bowling, with the handsome new Emerald stand behind him. He passes
the outside edge once or twice and Will Fraine survives a concerted LBW shout,
but there’s precious little lateral movement in evidence, either from him or
from Jack Brooks, returning to Headingley for the first time since joining
Somerset at the end of last season, and being warmly received (as he seems to
be wherever he goes). But, one or two rip-snorters apart, he is not at his best
on an easy-paced pitch, with precious little evidence of swing. Groenewald and
Jamie Overton, when their turns come, are similarly ineffectual.
Dom Bess, shortly to travel in the opposite
direction to Brooks, on loan to Yorkshire for the Vitality Blast, and doubtless
therefore doubly keen to impress, gets a good bowl from the Football Stand end,
without really threatening. It is
beginning to look as if Yorkshire are going to get through to lunch unscathed
when Fraine clips a leg stump half-volley from Brooks to Bess at mid-wicket. Two overs later, Adam Lyth aims a back-foot
drive at a shortish ball from Bess which maybe bounces more than he is
expecting, fails to get on top of it and Abell swoops to take the catch low at
short extra cover. Two wickets given
rather than taken, but they just about even-up the morning session.
There is no such Yorkshire generosity in the
afternoon, as Gary Ballance and Ton Kohler-Cadmore take the score to 170/2 at tea,
with hardly a false shot against bowling which is steady but uninspired. Steve
Tancock, who writes intelligently and enthusiastically about Somerset cricket
for the Incider blog (www.thein-cider.co.uk)
arrives in the box for a stint as guest summarizer to enliven what is the least
eventful session of the season so far.
Worse follows after tea, both before the new
ball is taken, when the Somerset out-cricket seems to lose its customary
intensity, and after it, as both Craig Overton and Jack Brooks spray it around,
and Ballance in particular takes full toll.
The fact that, on 99, he is served up with a Brooks half-volley on a
metaphorical silver salver, which he thrashes gratefully through extra cover,
is sadly typical of some poor cricket.
When Ballance is dropped off Jamie Overton by
Hildreth at first slip, it seems as if Somerset’s day is going from bad to
worse. Happily, not least for
Hildreth, he flashes at an innocuous
ball from Groenewald just an over or two later and Jamie Overton takes a sharp
catch. It is Timmy G’s 400th
first class wicket, a milestone he has been waiting to pass since taking his
399th at Chelmsford almost three weeks ago. The congratulations from team-mates are as
sincere as you can get, for one of county cricket’s archetypal
work-horses. But that is our only
success. Yorkshire close on 282/3, TK-C,
as he is known in these parts, 77 not out.
Afterwards, Jason Kerr defends the decision to
ask Yorkshire to bat, hinting that it was Jack Brooks’ local knowledge that
tipped the argument and strongly suggesting that it might still have been the
right call, if the bowlers had done their stuff. It has been Somerset’s worst
day in the field in the Championship so far.
A win already looks a distant prospect, and with Yorkshire pushing up to
300 with only three wickets down, on a pitch that may be not quite so benign
when the South African test bowlers, Olivier and Maharaj, get to work on it, I
for one would already settle for a draw.
Day 2
As I arrive at the ground, it is immediately apparent that there are other cricketing matters occupying the Yorkshire faithful than their four day match with Somerset. I doubt if there are even a thousand spectators in the ground when play gets under way, and the press box is entirely deserted. I post a picture of it on Twitter, with the comment: “I have a feeling that the eyes of the cricketing world may not be on us today”. They weren’t, and with good reason!
The Headingley press box on World Cup Final day
It’s a cloudy day in Leeds, and clouds are hanging over Somerset’s status as first division leaders, with rivals Essex going well against Warwickshire at Chelmsford and Yorkshire on 282/3. Two wickets in the first hour offer some hope of keeping the home side to a manageable total, but the 110th over comes and goes without a sixth wicket and the bonus point that would have gone with it.
Somerset are bowling rather better than for most of yesterday, but with no more luck. The pitch is looking every bit as placid until Jack Brooks, fifth into the attack after the Overton twins, Groenewald and Captain Tom, gets one to spit viciously at Jonathan Tattersall, who gloves it to slip. One hopes that’s not the shape of things to come when Somerset bat.
It’s a cloudy day in Leeds, and clouds are hanging over Somerset’s status as first division leaders, with rivals Essex going well against Warwickshire at Chelmsford and Yorkshire on 282/3. Two wickets in the first hour offer some hope of keeping the home side to a manageable total, but the 110th over comes and goes without a sixth wicket and the bonus point that would have gone with it.
Somerset are bowling rather better than for most of yesterday, but with no more luck. The pitch is looking every bit as placid until Jack Brooks, fifth into the attack after the Overton twins, Groenewald and Captain Tom, gets one to spit viciously at Jonathan Tattersall, who gloves it to slip. One hopes that’s not the shape of things to come when Somerset bat.
If it is, that shape does not manifest itself
during a wearisome afternoon session, as Yorkshire grind on and Somerset plug
away. A ball from Dom Bess does bounce rather more than Matthew Fisher was
expecting, to give Tom Banton a sharp catch at short leg, but Harry Brook and
Keshav Maharaj then take full advantage
of a tiring attack to add 105 for the eighth wicket, and effectively put the
win out of Somerset’s reach. Brook
having reached a stylish century, he eventually holes out to Azhar Ali at long
off and, at last, the innings is over.
Are we, I wonder, in for the first bore draw of Somerset’s season, or
will those long hours spent in the field take a toll on the batsmen, and open
the door to a Yorkshire innings win?
While all this is going on, we keep at least
half an eye on events at Lord’s, which seem to be taking a turn for the worse.
The target of 242 had seemed eminently gettable at the start of England’s
innings, but at 86/4, with almost half the overs gone, on what is evidently a
tricky pitch, we are in trouble. DT
reckons we’re done for, and bets me 50p that New Zealand will win. I’m happy to accept the wager. “Jos will carry us home”, I announce, with
genuine confidence. “The pride of
Somerset will save the day”.
In the meantime, Somerset are soon in trouble as
they set out to reply to Yorkshire’s daunting 520. Abell gets a good one from Matt Fisher and
that is 8/1 in the fifth over, James Hildreth finding himself walking out to
bat yet again with the number of overs on the board still in single
figures. Azhar Ali is next to depart,
taken in the slips off the slightly shambling but unquestionably potent Duanne
Olivier - South Africa’s 42nd Kolpak - to whom I give the soubriquet
of ‘the limping assassin’, as he does indeed seem to favour his left
ankle. Maharaj, last seen bowling
Lancashire to that infamous tie at Taunton last September, comes into the
attack and is immediately a threat.
Banton is unlucky to be given out caught behind, and can barely drag himself from the crease, but Hildreth, using his feet to good effect, copes equally well with the pace of Olivier and the wiles of Maharaj - unlike Bartlett, who aims an ambitious pull at a good length ball from the South African paceman and holes out at mid-on. We finish the day at 76/4, still 295 runs short of saving the follow-on.
Banton is unlucky to be given out caught behind, and can barely drag himself from the crease, but Hildreth, using his feet to good effect, copes equally well with the pace of Olivier and the wiles of Maharaj - unlike Bartlett, who aims an ambitious pull at a good length ball from the South African paceman and holes out at mid-on. We finish the day at 76/4, still 295 runs short of saving the follow-on.
Dom Bess accepts that Somerset have had a bad day
- arguably their worst of the season - when I talk to him at close of play, but
is anxious to turn a negative into a positive. “Obviously we are up against
it”, he tells me, “but if we’re going to win the Championship, it’s days like
tomorrow and potentially the day after when we’ve really got to fight and show
a bit of courage.”
Interview sent down the line to Bristol, it’s
time to catch up with events at Lord’s. I head to Woodies Craft Ale House, just
up the road in Headingley, which is fairly rocking with excitement, just in
time to see the final over of England’s innings and that oh so fortunate
deflection off Ben Stokes’ bat which produced a priceless six runs (and no, I
wasn’t aware of the law which means that it should only have been five). I’m not good at watching tense climaxes to
sporting events on television, so after a quick pint, I head back to my hotel,
in the hope that it will be all over by the time I get there, and I can either
celebrate or mourn accordingly. And, joy
of joys, the news is good. England have
won at last, on a technicality to be sure, but deservedly so, given that they
have unquestionably been the strongest side in the tournament. I do, though,
feel for the New Zealanders, who must be feeling very much as we Somerset cricket
followers did when we were robbed, as it seemed at the time, of the County
Championship on a technicality back in 2010.
As for ‘the greatest game in cricket history’, I don’t think so. You could make a case for it being the greatest limited over game (although for me, the 1975 final between West Indies and Australia still holds the palm), but no way was it greater than, say, the Oval test of 1902, or the West Indies-Australia tie of 1960, or Headingley in 1981. Just as Test cricket is at a different level, so are its greatest games.
As for ‘the greatest game in cricket history’, I don’t think so. You could make a case for it being the greatest limited over game (although for me, the 1975 final between West Indies and Australia still holds the palm), but no way was it greater than, say, the Oval test of 1902, or the West Indies-Australia tie of 1960, or Headingley in 1981. Just as Test cricket is at a different level, so are its greatest games.
Day 3
So, 444 behind with six first innings wickets
standing, and the pitch starting to turn.
This could be over today.
However, I decide against checking out of my hotel, but do pack my bag
and stow it in the van, just in case. My hotel is a good six miles north of
Headingley and there is no point in piling the irritation of a 12 mile out of
my way round trip onto the agony of a Somerset innings defeat.
It is a beautiful morning of blue sky and white
fluffy clouds, and by 11.40, as I finish my first commentary stint, my mood is
as bleak as Ilkley Moor in February.
Somerset have already lost three wickets: Hildreth LBW, Bess likewise, Craig Overton
bowled, all to Maharaj. “They’ve all
been out to straight balls”, exclaims David Hopps, as I visit the press
box. “Well quite”, I reply. That’s
because he’s getting lots of turn and when one goes straight on, they’re playing for the spin. It’s good bowling”. I also inform the assembled company of my
hotel-related decision. Good call, they
reckon.
But Somerset do not go down in a heap, as I had
rather expected they might thanks mainly to Jamie Overton, who bats as
sensibly as I’ve ever seen him do. He tells me later that he had learned the
lessons of those early wickets and decided to play every Maharaj ball on the
assumption that it would go straight on, and keeping his pads well out of the
way. “If he bowls me one that turns and takes the outside edge, then so be
it”. He plays the shot of the day when
he carves the erratic Olivier over point for six. “Well, there’s no point in just blocking it
out because, sooner or later, a ball’s going to come along with your name on
it.”
When Steve Davis, still not remotely the batsman
he was at Surrey, is taken at slip at the very moment that I come back onto
commentary, Overton is given muscular support, first by Groenewald, then by
Brooks, and we are within four runs of a precious batting point when genial
Jack edges Maharaj to second slip, to give the left-armer figures of 18/154 in
three innings against Somerset, the first 11 of them for Lancashire last
September. All out 196, 324 behind. The follow-on is duly enforced.
By now, we are just into the afternoon session
and I’m planning my Tuesday activities back home in Langport. But Abell and Azhar are in no mood to
capitulate. For some reason, Maharaj is not brought into the attack until an
hour of the innings has gone and 50 is on the board - the second highest
opening partnership of Somerset’s Championship campaign. Azhar enjoys a bit of
luck but Captain Tom is batting immaculately. They reach tea, unseparated. Hopes of an unlikely saved game swell in the
Gibson breast.
Only to be dashed. In an inspired spell, the
former Yorkshire wunderkind Matt Fisher (first team debut at 15) pins Azhar LBW and finds the outside edge of Abell’s defensive bat. In between these heavy blows, James Hildreth,
three balls into his innings, Somerset needing to bat for the best part of four
sessions to save the game, comes down the pitch in what seems like an attempt
to hit Maharaj over the top of the new Emerald stand, miscues, and is caught at
‘longish-off’ (as my co-commentator, Jonathan Doidge describes it). It is a shot so awful under the circumstances
that I vow never, ever, to remind him of it.
Abell’s departure brings Somerset’s still
unproven middle-order duo of Banton and Bartlett together. In a rowing context, numbers four and five
would be the engine room. But these lads
look much too willowy for that description. Bartlett blocks while Banton goes
through his galaxy of shots, including a perfectly outrageous, albeit perfectly
executed, reverse sweep off the dreaded Maharaj. A clearly out of touch
Bartlett has batted for over an hour for just five, when he nicks the left-arm
spinner to slip. In the meantime, Banton has been taking the fight to the
Tykes. My ‘limping assassin’, Olivier, decides to bounce out the cocky
youngster. He goes for four successive
fours, each one more emphatic and stylish than the one before. What a player this Banton is, with his
self-assurance and fast hands.
At close of play, after recording Jamie Overton
insisting that, at 159/4, still 165 runs short of making Yorkshire bat again,
Somerset can still hold on for a draw, the commentary team head to one of many
Leeds temples of real ale, Arcadia, just down Headingley High St. We are joined
by David Hopps, celebrating his 60th birthday. He agrees with me that Banton is something
special. Jonathan Doidge argues that
Harry Brook is just as good. I beg to differ. Tomorrow’s play may give a clue
as to which of us is right!
Day 4
Oh dear.
Groenewald sets the tone for Somerset’s morning when, in Fisher’s first
over, he twice plays big off-side shots and nicks through the slips. “If I was in that Yorkshire slip cordon, I’d
be making sure to keep my hands warm”, I say on commentary. “Timmy G doesn’t
seem in the mood to block it out.” Sure
enough, the very next ball, he carves, not to slip but to point. It was a “this game is lost, let’s get on
the bus and head home” sort of a shot.
Banton doesn’t last long either, playing a lackadaisical defensive push
at a ball from the Yorkshire captain, Steve Patterson, which nips back between
bat and pad. Over-confidence? Possibly.
Loss of concentration?
Maybe. Poor shot? Certainly.
Bess again fails to impress his many Yorskshire
fans to be similarly castled by Patterson and only some typically bloody-minded
resistance from the Overtons delays the inevitable. Craig is last out, adjudged LBW by Mike
Burns, and clearly furious, either with the umpire, the opposition or himself,
as he walks back after the obligatory handshakes, beating his bat against his
pad and swearing so loudly that we can almost hear him up in the box.
It makes for an angry end to a performance from
Somerset that was off the pace from virtually the first over. Tom Abell can identify no saving graces when
I interview him afterwards, offering this stark assessment: “We were comprehensively outplayed by a good
Yorkshire side in all three facets of the game.
We weren’t good enough from day one, and we’ve paid the price for that.”
Jason Kerr was similarly downbeat. The bowlers had failed to produce their usual
penetration on a slow pitch, yet the batsmen had equally failed to score the
big runs that ought to have been available:
“I’m going to have to go away and have a long hard think about why we didn’t perform as we can.”
“I’m going to have to go away and have a long hard think about why we didn’t perform as we can.”
It was indeed a deeply disappointing
performance, by far the worst of the season.
OK, so Somerset had been without Gregory and Leach, but the bowling had
lacked spark and the batting application.
Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that it’s over a month before
Somerset’s next Championship game, at Edgbaston, I’m not sure. But with us taking just one measly point from
this game, and Essex picking up 20 from their win over Warwickshire, we’ve been
knocked off the top of the table, and the run-in looks to favour ten
Doeschate’s boys. Was this the day that
the dream died? I profoundly hope not.
Somerset’s Vitality Blast 2019
Master Blasters
Glamorgan
v Somerset. Glamorgan 180; Somerset 181/2 in 18 overs. Somerset
win by 8 wickets
I am not one of those cricket snobs who look
down on any form of the game involving white balls and coloured clothing with
disdain. Twenty over cricket has brought
the crowds flocking back to the county game, and enthused many a young
cricketer, boy or girl. It is also great
fun to commentate on: never a dull
moment, especially if, as this evening, I am alongside Mark Davis, with whom
I’ve been working off and on since the mid-1990s, and who once used to come
flying in from the River End to terrorise visiting batsmen with his
away-swingers and in-duckers like a blond-haired Malcolm Marshall. He’s a
brilliant coach and an astute observer and analyst. I describe what happens; he explains it.
This is a game which we both feel Somerset ought
to win, reinforced as we are by the recruitment of ‘the world’s number one T20
batsman’ in Babar Azam, whilst the opposition have been denied the services of
Babar’s fellow Pakistani match-winner, Fakhar Zaman by visa issues (a tale
familiar to Somerset followers), and have three T20 debutants in their
ranks. Lewis Gregory, who will miss our
next two games to play for England in a one-off ‘Test’ against Ireland, wins
the toss and elects to field. Despite
some evidence to the contrary, Somerset fancy themselves chasing.
Mayhem ensues, and not in a good way! Max Waller’s obligatory opening over goes for
ten, Jerome Taylor, looking fitter than a year ago, concedes 13 from his first
six deliveries and then Jamie Overton puts the tin lid on things by going for
19 in a wild, wayward over, in which he is carted dismissively for six by
Jeremy Lawlor, playing his first senior T20 game. Gregory is equally profligate, and by the
time the six over powerplay is finished, Glamorgan have 71 on the board,
leaving Somerset hopes of a fast start seemingly in tatters.
But then the fightback begins, led by that
feisty little South African (sorry, Dutch) all-rounder, Roelof van der
Merwe. He has Lawlor caught on the
long-off boundary by Max Waller in an over which costs just 3 runs, and by the
halfway stage, Glamorgan have been pegged back to 95/1. Craig Overton, belatedly, we think, brought
on to bowl the tenth over is similarly tight, and with the dreaded Colin Ingram
seemingly struggling to find his timing, Somerset are soon right back in it.
At the end of the 18th over,
Glamorgan have reached only 142/5 - just 74 runs for the loss of five wickets
in the last 12 overs. It’s looking even
better for Somerset when only four runs come from the first five balls of the
crucial 19th over, bowled by Jerome Taylor, who always seems so much
more effective at the end of one of these innings than at the start, I remark..
Spoke too soon Gibbo! Taylor’s final delivery, a slower-ball bouncer, is called wide. Ingram hits the bonus ball for six. At the other end, he’s got the inexperienced Owen Morgan, who scrambles a leg-bye off the first ball of the final over, being bowled by Craig Overton. “What happens over the next five balls could determine the fate of this match”, I suggest to Mark and our listeners.
Spoke too soon Gibbo! Taylor’s final delivery, a slower-ball bouncer, is called wide. Ingram hits the bonus ball for six. At the other end, he’s got the inexperienced Owen Morgan, who scrambles a leg-bye off the first ball of the final over, being bowled by Craig Overton. “What happens over the next five balls could determine the fate of this match”, I suggest to Mark and our listeners.
Whereupon Ingram takes this as his cue to hit
those five balls for 6,4,4,6,6 to take Glamorgan from an inadequate 154/5 to a
distinctly challenging 180/5. Poor Craig doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing,
serving up medium pace length. This is a
good pitch and with Babar Azam in the side, Somerset ought to have every chance
of chasing down 181, but would that momentum shift in the final over take its
toll?
No, is the simple answer. That much becomes apparent in the very first
over of Somerset’s reply, as Banton takes 22 off Marchant de Lange, including
two scoop shots for six over fine leg, the first of them off a free hit. At the
end of the over, the two batsmen chat in mid-pitch. “He kept telling me to calm down”, admits
Banton later. “But I just kept slogging it, and it sort of worked.”
Babar Azam, who averaged 67 in eight World Cup games, seems happy enough to play second-fiddle, finding the gaps with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of style, one on drive in particular drawing gasps of admiration from what is, for Cardiff, a decent crowd. The two Bs seem to complement each other so well, Banton with his exotica, which include a switch-hit four to third man, Babar with his silky-smooth conventional stroke-making. The powerplay yields 75 and by the time Babar is caught on the boundary off the last ball of the 9th over, 98 are on the board and the game is as good as won.
Babar Azam, who averaged 67 in eight World Cup games, seems happy enough to play second-fiddle, finding the gaps with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of style, one on drive in particular drawing gasps of admiration from what is, for Cardiff, a decent crowd. The two Bs seem to complement each other so well, Banton with his exotica, which include a switch-hit four to third man, Babar with his silky-smooth conventional stroke-making. The powerplay yields 75 and by the time Babar is caught on the boundary off the last ball of the 9th over, 98 are on the board and the game is as good as won.
It is a shame that Banton can’t go on to make
his century, as Billy Root takes a good catch, diving forward at mid-wicket,
but his departure, for 64 off 35 balls, simply serves to bring the two old stagers -
Hildy and Tregs - together, 378 T20 games between them (counting this one) and
far too worldy-wise to throw it away from here.
The end comes off the last ball of the 18th over as Hildreth
calls Trego through for a quick single to mid-off, and a comfortable victory
has been sealed.
How comfortable?
Well, in terms of the batting, the prospect of watching the two Bs
opening the innings for the next 13 games is positively mouth-watering. If Somerset can get off to starts like that
more often than not, then they’ve got the perfect middle-order to take
risk-free advantage, with still the power-hitting of Gregory and the Overtons
to come.
But as for the bowling, I’m afraid there’s some work to be done. As Mark Davis says, whatever bowling plan they can have been working to at the start, it certainly hadn’t been executed. If they bowl like that against Kent at Canterbury in 48 hours’ time, especially without Gregory and possibly Jerome Taylor (who limped off after his spell), they’ll be made to pay a far higher price than a callow Glamorgan side exacted.
But as for the bowling, I’m afraid there’s some work to be done. As Mark Davis says, whatever bowling plan they can have been working to at the start, it certainly hadn’t been executed. If they bowl like that against Kent at Canterbury in 48 hours’ time, especially without Gregory and possibly Jerome Taylor (who limped off after his spell), they’ll be made to pay a far higher price than a callow Glamorgan side exacted.
But it is a happy trip back to Somerset. A good start has been made, the misery of Headingley,
if not forgotten, then certainly pushed to one side.
July
20 Vitality Blast T20: Kent v Somerset
Kent 165/9, Somerset 124 all out. Kent
win by 41 runs
The last time Somerset beat Kent in a twenty
over game was at Tunbridge Wells in 2011.
I was there. Kent made 163, thanks largely to Rob Key and Darren
Stevens, whereupon Marcus Trescothick and the recently arrived Roelof van der
Merwe knocked off the runs for a nine wicket win with three overs to
spare. Easy. Since then, we have had one no-result
followed by ten defeats. No team, surely, can have been so dominant over
another in top-class T20 cricket around the globe.
But tonight must, equally surely, be the night
on which the hoodoo is broken. We have
beaten Kent three times already this season, twice in the Championship and
once, by a record margin, in the Royal London One Day Cup. Moreover, Kent are missing three of their
best batsmen: Denly on England duty,
Billings injured and Heino Kuhn, concussed during the week and therefore
barred. Daniel Bell-Drummond will
captain their side. Somerset too have an
important absentee in the shape of Lewis Gregory, at an England training camp
prior to the Ireland test. But we are otherwise
at full strength and must be bursting with confidence after Cardiff on Thursday
evening.
I am outnumbered in the commentary box by my
Kentish colleagues, Matt Cole and Fabian Cowdrey, now retired from cricket and fast
becoming a top-class commentator. Kent win the toss and bat, and Somerset take
two wickets in the first two overs! Zak
Crawley LBW to Max Waller’s top spinner; D B-D brilliantly caught at slip by
Hildreth off Jerome Taylor. What a
contrast to that wayward start with the ball at Cardiff!
But the pressure is not sustained. Jamie Overton, again brought on to bowl the
third over, can’t find his radar and goes for 14, including the biggest six
I’ve ever seen at Canterbury as the Afghan international Mohammed Nabi pulls him
onto the roof of the ugly flats along the northern side of the ground. With Ollie Robinson batting intelligently at
the other end, the six over powerplay yields 54 runs and that early damage has
been repaired. I sense that an opportunity to turn the screw has gone begging,
for want of more discipline and consistency from the seamers collectively
Enter the spinners, who Fabian expects this pitch to favour. He's right. Van der Merwe goes for just five in the seventh and in the next over, having been hit for a straight six by Nabi, Max Waller pulls back his length a touch, the dangerous, powerful Nabi mistimes another big hit, and van der Merwe takes a difficult, swirling catch at long-on, falling backwards onto the turf but holding on. Wickets continue to fall at regular intervals. Tom Lammonby, making his senior debut, is brought into the attack with his left arm seam and immediately shows what a bright prospect he is. His first over goes for just three and in his second he takes his first wicket, Sean Dickson making a complete hash of an intended scoop, while in between he takes a sharp catch at mid-off to remove Alex Blake off a Taylor full-toss.
As van der Merwe continues both to frustrate and
remove the Kent batsmen, the end of the 18th over arrives with just 137/8
on the board. Two good overs now, and
surely Somerset have got this won. But
they are not good overs. Lammonby’s 19th goes for 16; rather more
culpably, Taylor’s 20th yields another 12. With 166 to chase down, on a decent but by no
means entirely reliable pitch, the game is back in the balance.
How good a score is 165? More on that in due course. Suffice it to say that neither of my Kent
co-commentators reckons it’s enough.
Wary of tempting providence, and suspecting that Kent might bowl rather better
on this surface than Somerset, I tweet that we’re in for a close finish.
Tom Banton, conscious no doubt of the Sky TV presence, looks to pick up where he’d left off at Cardiff on Thursday, and goes
for his shots from the off. His timing
isn’t quite there, but one square cut goes to the cover boundary like a
bullet. “Fast hands”, I emphasise to
Fabian, who echoes Michael Vaughan in replying that Banton reminds him of KP.
But this time, there is no chance to compare young Tom with Babar Azam, who is
cleaned up by a peach of delivery from the New Zealand fast bowler Adam Milne. I am struck already by how much more
disciplined the Kent seamers are in line and length than ours were. Pete Trego is offered no width at all but at
47/1 at the end of the six over ‘powerplay’ we are well placed.
And then Imran Qayyum comes into the attack with
his left arm spin and in the space of five overs, the game is won and
lost: Banton mistiming a lofted drive
and holing out at mid-off, Trego brilliantly caught by Jordan Cox diving
forward at deep square leg, Hildreth bowled, Lammonby run out, van der Merwe
caught off a leading edge and Tom Abell stumped. 54/1 has become 74/7. The Overtons do their best to salvage
something from the wreckage, but when Jamie is taken an inch inside the
boundary rope by Mohammed Nabi, any last faint hopes are snuffed out.
Andy Hurry offers no excuses when I interview
him afterwards. The bowlers hadn’t been at their best, but 166 was still
eminently gettable and it was the failure of the middle-order batsmen that had
cost Somerset the game. The M2 is closed
for the night, and as I make my rather tortuous, satnav-guided way from
Canterbury to my hotel in the M20 service area at Maidstone, the thought occurs
that whilst the batting had been unquestionably poor, we shouldn’t have been
chasing anything like as many as 166 if the bowlers had taken better advantage
of that start, against a severely weakened Kent batting line-up. When I get to my room, that is what I tweet,
unwisely perhaps.
At any event, Max Waller, travelling back to
Taunton on the team bus, picks up my comment and asks in reply what I’d thought par was on that pitch (Sam Billings having apparently suggested 190 on the televion),
the implication being that keeping Kent to 165 was a good
outcome. Fortunately I had asked both
Andy Hurry and Fabian Cowdrey that selfsame question. The former had said 150,
the latter 175. So Max (who had actually bowled pretty well) has a point, and
so maybe do I, although I’m happy to concede that whatever the shortcomings of
the seam bowling, it was the batting that cost us the match. In both departments, there is plenty for the
coaches to work on before a strong Hampshire outfit arrives at the County
Ground on Friday.
Boxed in
Vitality
Blast T20. Somerset v Hampshire
Somerset 172/3; Hampshire 174/6 in 19.3
overs. Hampshire win by four wickets
The commentary box at Taunton offers just about
the best view of both the playing area and of the countryside beyond as you
will find on and English or Welsh cricket ground. There are, however, two
things wrong with it: for reasons known
only to himself, the architect chose to put a solid wall, rather than glass,
along one side of it, and it is too small.
Most test grounds now have five or six commentary boxes, to accommodate
increasing demand. For a big T20 game,
this might include Sky TV, a BBC Test Match Special or Five Live team, plus
home and away commentators doing their stuff, like me, for their local BBC
stations. At Taunton, this has meant
make do and mend, with one team in the main box, another in the auxiliary press
box and a third sharing the terrace below with the sponsored
cider-drinkers. Sky TV, were they here,
would have commandeered the main press box, the journos being exiled to a hospitality
suite in the Ondaatje Pavilion.
But for this season’s Vitality Blast, the
commentary situation has gone from difficult to virtually impossible. Both of the two alternative commentary points
have gone, leaving only our one, small box, with room enough for one set of
commentators at the front, and the other on a raised section behind, a position
which offers a view of only half the outfield, at best; something that BBC
Radio Solent’s Kevan James had discovered to his understandable annoyance, on
arriving at the ground.
Not ideal as a commentary position
When I get there,
at around 5 for a 6.30 start, we try between us to work out some more
satisfactory arrangement, to no avail.
Fortunately, Kevan is an easy-going sort of bloke, who doesn’t take life
too seriously, but I can think of other commentators who would have exploded. For a cricket ground which prides itself on
being one of the best appointed in the country, it is a situation that needs
sorting. But for now there is nothing for it but to cope as best we can, and
try not to be distracted by a rival set of commentators (Kevan has the Hampshire
women’s cricketer Emily Windsor working with him) offering a possibly rather
different interpretation of events at full volume from about two feet away!
My co-commentator is Charlie Taylor, who does
sometimes rather let his enthusiasm for Somerset cricket run away with him in
the excitement of a home T20 (but then who am I to criticize anyone on that
score?!) but who produces an excellent Cricket Show for BBC Somerset every week
and is developing into a fine commentator.
A couple of heavy showers are crossing the Quantocks and there are
clouds overhead as the players warm up, but there is no serious threat of rain,
the floodlights will be making their T20 debut and we are promised a full
house. Down on the terrace, the cider
drinkers are already getting stuck in.
The County Ground, looking magnificent under the floodlights
James Vince wins the toss for Hampshire and, as
is the accepted wisdom with twenty over cricket at Taunton, elects to bowl
first. Unlike the One Day Cup final at
Lord’s, Hampshire are at full strength, as indeed are Somerset, barring the
absence with a ‘minor’ ankle injury of Jamie Overton, meaning that Tom
Lammonby, after that promising debut at Canterbury, keeps his place. Tom Banton goes early, getting a leading edge
to what was intended as a lofted on-drive, which suggests that the ball may not
be coming on quite as the batsmen might expect on what looks like a decent
pitch. The much-vaunted Babar Azam is
also finding it hard to get his shots away, Trego likewise, and Somerset have
only 30 on the board at the end of the first six overs.
From that unpromising beginning, the tempo
gradually quickens, as Trego smashes Dawson down the ground for a six and a
one-bounce four, while Babar is soon tucking into James Fuller. Even so, by the
halfway stage, Somerset are still only 65/1, an awfully long way from the 180
or so that sides batting first at Taunton feel they need as a defensible
total. Only too well aware of that,
Trego goes for a huge pull-shot in the next over and loses his middle stump. Enter James Hildreth who, after a sketchy
start, times the ball as well as anyone all evening. A reverse slog-sweep for six is a remarkable
blow. He and Babar take 22 off Chris Morris’ third over and, at 120/2 with five
overs left, a decent total is in prospect.
Does 172/3 count as that? I’m not sure.
I suspect that Babar will be happy with his 95 not out, but not
ecstatic. It looks the sort of pitch on
which runs should come fairly freely, once the batsmen have picked up the pace
of it. And why did Gregory turn down an
obvious second run off the final ball? Was he misled by the scoreboard into
thinking that there was a ball was still to come? It might make all the
difference.
Not that it looks that way for the first three
quarters of the Hampshire innings. After
his rather ragged performance at Canterbury, Jerome Taylor is right on the
money in his first over, having Rossouw spectacularly caught by Max Waller at
mid-off, ‘leaping like a salmon’ as I hyperbolically describe it on commentary,
to take the ball two-handed in mid-air.
James Vince and Sam Northeast soon follow and when the dangerous Aneurin
Donald goes for 48 off the last ball of the 13th over, to break a promising
partnership with Liam Dawson, Somerset are winning. Chris Morris, the South African all-rounder,
evidently has other ideas, and picks up length balls from Craig Overton for two
sixes in three balls. But the big Devonian has the last word, as an inside
edges crashes into Morris’ middle stump.
Roelof van der Merwe bowls the next over, the 16th. He has been Somerset’s star performer with
the ball so far, taking five wickets and going at fewer than five runs per
over, an economy rate that he maintains over the first five balls of his third
over, conceding just five runs, when the asking rate is up above 12. But here’s
a thing. After that fifth ball, Richard
Illingworth calls ‘over’. “But that’s
only five balls”, I say on commentary, looking through the glass partition to
seek confirmation from the scorers, Sure enough, Polly Rhodes is already on the
walkie-talkie to the umpires. But Illingworth is already on his way to square
leg. He just shrugs. ‘Over’ has been called, and that is that. Kevan James, gesticulating meaningfully
behind me, is incandescent.
All of which leaves us with a situation in which
Hampshire need 56 runs from 24 balls with five wickets in hand, Dawson and
Fuller at the crease. The game is Somerset’s to lose, which is precisely what
they do! The first three balls of
Taylor’s next over, the 17th, all on a good length, disappear for
6,6,4. Two good yorkers follow, yielding just a single apiece, but then the
bowler serves up a juicy full-toss, which Fuller gratefully dispatches for yet
another maximum. Twenty four runs have come in six balls. “That may well turn out”, I say on commentary
“to have been a match-losing over”.
Yet worse, in a way, is to follow. In the next van der Merwe over, Gregory gives
away an entirely gratuitous run when,
having fielded the ball smartly at mid-off, he tosses it casually in the
general direction of the bowler, clearing his head by some margin. Van der Merwe’s response is to produce a
waist high full-toss, which is rightly called as a no ball. Two more come off
the free hit and Dawson hits the last ball for six. So that’s 155/5, with now just 18 needed off
the last two overs.
Somerset hopes are briefly revived, as Fuller manages to get the finest of nicks on what would otherwise have been a Gregory wide and Banton takes the catch. The new batsman is the Hampshire keeper Lewis McManus, who isn’t known for his hitting prowess, and just two runs come off the next three balls. But McManus is no mug. He spots that fine leg has been brought up into the fielding circle, and proceeds to guide Gregory’s last two balls down to fine leg for four apiece. With just eight runs needed off the final over, the game is as good as won, and when McManus just clears Abell at long-off it’s all over.
Somerset hopes are briefly revived, as Fuller manages to get the finest of nicks on what would otherwise have been a Gregory wide and Banton takes the catch. The new batsman is the Hampshire keeper Lewis McManus, who isn’t known for his hitting prowess, and just two runs come off the next three balls. But McManus is no mug. He spots that fine leg has been brought up into the fielding circle, and proceeds to guide Gregory’s last two balls down to fine leg for four apiece. With just eight runs needed off the final over, the game is as good as won, and when McManus just clears Abell at long-off it’s all over.
Judging by the response on social media, Charlie
and I aren’t the only ones who reckon that Somerset have thrown it away, not so
much through bad bowling, as aimless bowling. Jerome Taylor in particular,
didn’t seem to be bowling to any sort of plan. To serve up three length balls
to a powerful striker like James Fuller on a ground with short straight
boundaries was asking for trouble, and that’s precisely what we’d got.
Afterwards, Jason Kerr understandably defends
his bowlers, arguing that it was the sort of thing that’s always likely to
happen in T20 cricket, and implying that the real problem was that slow start
which denied Somerset a better total.
Babar Azam, whose English is a work in progress, is looking rather
baffled, no doubt torn between pleasure at his first big innings for Somerset, and
disappointment at the result.
July 28. Vitality Blast T20 Somerset v Sussex
Sussex 184/8; Somerset 171/5. Sussex win by 13 runs
Another perfect summer's day, and the County Ground is at its glorious best as I look out from the commentary box before the start of play. Even though it's a Sunday afternoon rather than a Friday evening, today's game is another sell-out. What a shot in the arm England's victory in the World Cup has given to all forms of the game!
Somerset are unchanged from the side that lost to Hampshire on Friday evening, meaning that Tom Lammonby has been preferred to a fit-again Jamie Overton. Sussex are without Jofra Archer, called up by England despite his side strain, and his mentor, the injured Chris Jordan. But they do have the Australian wicket-keeper batsman, Alex Carey, who was such a success in the World Cup, the left arm pace of Tymal Mills and the fizzing leg breaks of the world's number one T20 bowler, Rashid Khan. The prospect of him bowling to the world's number one T20 batsman, Babar Azam, is mouth-watering indeed.
Today's commentary is a shared one with BBC Sussex's Adrian Harms and we are joined by BBC Radio Bristol staffer, Ed Hadwin, who is the very epitome of the professional sports presenter. Brian Rose has also promised to drop by. Lunch arrives, in the shape of a tray-full of partially incinerated cheese and onion pasties and a big bowl of oven chips, to both of which I give a miss.
After two defeats in a row, this is a game that Somerset really need to win if they are to challenge for qualification from a South Group packed with strong teams, not least among them being Sussex. The last time these two teams met was at Edgbaston in last year's semi-final, when Luke Wright carted Jamie Overton for six after six into the Hollies Stand to put his side effectively out of reach. Hence, perhaps, Jamie's absence.
Lewis Gregory wins the toss and, as is usual at Taunton, elects to bowl first. The young Welshman, Phil Salt crashes his first ball from Max Waller for a straight four, and mistimes his second into the safe hands of the Somerset skipper at mid-off. Roelof van der Merwe is given the first over from the River End, an experiment which doesn't work out happily as Wright hits him for two emphatic boundaries. Enter a doubtless chastened (after his treatment on Friday) Jerome Taylor. But today he seems to be bowling to a plan. Only two runs come off his first over and in the next, from Gregory, he positions himself perfectly to take a skied top edge from Wright - and drops the ball! How many runs is that going to cost, I wonder out loud. Just nine, is the answer, because when Taylor is brought back from the River End, he produces the perfect yorker first ball to knock out Luke Wright's off-stump. Redemption!
Alex Carey makes a wary start as he picks up the pace of the pitch and at 37/2 at the end of the seventh over Sussex have a lot to do to post the score of 180 plus which is normally reckoned to be par at Taunton. It is at this point that momentum shifts. Van der Merwe, so economical in Somerset's first three games, is taken apart by Carey, to whom Laurie Evans is quite happy to give most of the strike. Nor is Somerset's fielding as sharp as usual, something remarked upon by Brian Rose when he turns up in the box. The runs come thick and fast through the middle overs, and at 166/3 after 17, with Carey unbeaten on 78, Wiese having just taken Craig Overton for two fours and a six, Sussex are heading for something close to 200.
That they don't get there is down to Lewis Gregory, who takes three wickets in the 19th over, including Carey's, brilliantly caught diving full length in the deep by Lammonby, whilst conceding just three runs. A decent final over from Taylor and we might not be chasing much more than 175 or so. And he starts well - a single, a bye and then Ollie Robinson run out, trying to steal a bye to give Rashid the strike. But at this crucial juncture, with three balls to go, Somerset's no doubt expensively procured vastly experienced international fast bowler produces a no ball, which Rashid hits for six (so an eight in all), followed by another no ball, plus one off the free hit. So the second half of the final over produces 13 runs - more than enough to make all the difference in a tight finish.
It's a good pitch, maybe not quite the 'belter' that Jason Kerr had told me he was hoping for, but 185 ought not to be out of reach, even against this strong Sussex bowling attack, provided Somerset get a good start. Which they do! In fact, it's an excellent start. Banton and Babar Azam, scoring freely in their contrasting styles, are still together after ten overs, with 85 on the board, meaning that the requirement is exactly ten per over over the second half of the innings, with all wickets in hand. Somerset are surely favourites.
But to assume that, as I'm afraid I did, is to reckon without the excellence of the Sussex bowlers ((Briggs and Wiese excepted). Tymal Mills comes back into the attack for the 11th, and concedes just three. In the next over, from Ollie Robinson, Banton goes to his 50 with a pulled four and is out the very next ball, top-edging to short fine leg. Babar Azam is now well into his stride with 40 from just 28 balls, but Trego can make nothing of Rashid's leg-spinners and googlies, and the asking rate starts to climb. "I reckon this is all down to Babar", I say when I come back on commentary for the 16th over. "If he stays there, Somerset win. If he gets out, Sussex do." Adrian Harms agrees. Babar promptly takes Wiese for 17 runs in the 16th over to reinforce my argument.
By the end of the 17th over, the game is in the balance: 41 required from 18 balls, Babar on 76. Rashid steps up to bowl his last over, and with his fifth ball, the world's best T20 bowler gets the better of the world's best T20 batsman, as Babar mistimes a pull and is caught at long on. It is, as I had feared, the decisive blow. Lewis Gregory, Peter Trego and James Hildreth all do their level best to find the big shots that are needed, but against the left arm pace of Mills and a fit-again Reece Topley, they swish and carve in vain.
So a third defeat in four games. Not fatal to our chances of qualification, but distinctly wounding. What went wrong? Well, some on Twitter are saying that the openers didn't try hard enough to accelerate through the middle overs, so that they left the later batsmen with too much to do. But I'm not sure I buy that. For me, the difference was in the quality of the bowling, especially when the chips were down. Lewis Gregory can hold his head high on that score but Overton was expensive and Jerome Taylor, in that final over especially, criminally wasteful. I'm not sure what the solution is - bring back the pace of Jamie Overton maybe, or give Josh Davey a try? - but we need to find it pretty quickly, or we'll be out of the Vitality Blast before qualifying is even halfway through.
The Old Order Changeth
Vitality Blast T20 South Group: Somerset v Surrey
Surrey 203/4; Somerset 207/2. Somerset win by 8 wickets
I fear that we may already have witnessed the end of the 'Trescothick era' in Somerset's County Championship cricket. Have we now, I wonder, come to the end of the 'Trego era' in Somerset's white ball cricket?
I confess that when I first looked through the squad that Jason Kerr had chosen for tonight's game, I hadn't noticed the absence of 'Peter Trego' among the names. I knew already that Lewis Gregory would be missing courtesy of a broken bone in his left foot, and I was pleased to see Eddie Byrom's name on the list, after all of the quick runs he's been scoring in T20 games for the Seconds, although I thought it more a gesture of encouragement rather than as evidence that he would actually play. It was only when I got a message on Twitter from Sam Trego to say "Peter dropped!" that I realised what had happened.
Like Sam, I felt that the decision was a bit harsh. Peter may not have been at his absolute best in the T20 so far, but he did see us home at Sophia Gardens with a well-judged 47 not out, and he is second in the batting averages, with only the prolific Babar Azam ahead of him. Eddie Byrom had obviously earned his chance, and good luck to him, but it was still a bit sad. For Peter Trego is one of the great Somerset cricket characters, typifying our swashbuckling, up and at 'em, never say die approach in the early part of the 21st century just as Sammy Woods did a century and more ago, and intelligent and articulate with it. For the record, he has played 164 T20 games for Somerset, scoring 3273 runs at 24.42 with a strike rate of 126, taking 50 wickets, and never giving us a dull moment. If this is indeed the end, he will be missed.
After three consecutive defeats, this is a game Somerset simply have to win if they are to have any realistic chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, and that won't be easy. Surrey's already powerful-looking line-up will be reinforced by the return of Same Curran, released by England, so that even without Jason Roy, they'll be fielding eight international players, led by the muscular Australian World Cup captain, Aaron Finch. I arrive in the box to find the BBC's Surrey commentator, Mark Church, peering anxiously at the television, biting his nails. In the Edgbaston test, Rory Burns is on 99, and Nathan Lyon is spinning ball after ball past his outside edge. At last, he gets a delivery he can tuck into the leg-side, sets off for the sharp single and reaches his century in a cloud of dust. Phew!
Tom Abell, captaining in place of Gregory wins the toss and opts to bowl. In an interview before the start, Geoff Twentyman asks me who's going to win. "Surrey must be favourites", I reply, "but if Somerset bowl a bit better than in the last couple of games, they'll be in with a decent chance.".
They start well enough, Jerome Taylor conceding just four from his first two overs and having Will Jacks brilliantly caught by Max Waller, who times his jump to perfection at mid-on, taking the ball two-handed high above his head. But then, I'm afraid, the bowlers rather revert to type. There doesn't seem to be much of a plan, or if there is, the bowlers aren't following it. Mark Church, on commentary with Charlie Taylor towards the end of the Surrey innings, with Finch just removed after helping himself to 72 from 44 balls, confesses himself bemused when Jerome Taylor, with a field set for full and straight, instead bowls short and is carted unceremoniously to the long leg boundary by Ollie Pope in a 17th over costing 20 runs. It is looking as though Somerset might just keep Surrey to below 200 when Roelof van der Merwe, entrusted with the final over ahead of the banished Taylor, produces a last ball full toss which Tom Curran belts down the ground for six.
Against a Surrey attack featuring the Curran brothers, Rikki Clarke and the wily old Imran Tahir, I reckon that the chances of a Somerset batting line-up low on confidence chasing down 204 to win must be vanishingly small, an opinion shared by the Jeremiahs in the press box.
O ye of little faith! Tom Banton comes out swinging, and just about everything he tries comes off. "Surrey just don't know where to bowl at him", remarks Mark Church as he takes the Curran brothers for 22 in two overs, including a quite outrageous reverse swept six off Sam. Babar Azam - the top-ranked T20 batsman in the world, don't forget - is mostly content just to give Banton the strike. The shot-making is breathtaking. Sixty six come off the powerplay, and Banton reaches his 50 off just 23 balls.
The introduction of spin from both ends, Gareth Batty coming on from the River End, first slows the breakneck progress of the two Bs, and then, with 95 on the board, produces the first wicket as Banton top edges Batty to give Jamie Smith a comfortable catch. James Hildreth is the new batsman and this time it is his turn to play second fiddle, to Babar Azam, who hits the first three balls of the 12th over, Batty's third, for 6,4,4, to get Somerset back up with the run rate. I am just wondering whether Ben Warren will act on my suggestion that the PA should play the Beach Boys' "Bar, Bar, Bar; Barbar Azam" to celebrate his 50, when Imran Tahir tempts him into one pull shot too many and he is caught at long on.
Seventy seven are needed from 46 balls, with a new batsman coming to the crease, in the shape of Eddie Byrom, playing his first senior T20, and with a reputation as a blocker rather than a blaster. Off his very first ball, he goes for a reverse sweep, misses and Surrey appeal, optimistically, for a catch behind. But Byrom is in no way deterred. In Batty's next over, the 14th, he hits the last three balls for 6,4,6, one of the sixes being palmed over the boundary by a diving Jordan Clark, to be sure, but Byrom is timing it well. He treats Imran Tahir, one of the most dangerous and experienced white ball bowlers in the world, with something approaching contempt, and when Tom Curran comes on for his habitual 'death spell', he goes the distance too. Hildreth joins in with a six off Rikki Clarke and when 13 runs are plundered from the 18th over, Somerset are as good as home at 198/2. Hildreth takes a single off the first ball of the 19th, to give Byrom the strike, whereupon he smashes Sam Curran down the ground for two fours, the first to bring up his 50, in just 18 balls, the second to win the game. Quite magnificent! He's a revelation, I say on commentary.
We interview Somerset's two young heroes on the outfield afterwards, Tom Banton almost as pleased for his fellow King's College old boy and best mate, as he is for himself. Eddie Byrom is looking almost stunned by his success. What was he thinking about as he walked out to face one of the best T20 bowlers in the world, I wondered, with the game in the balance? With typical modesty, he replied that he knew Somerset had a good platform, and that there were good players to come, "so I knew that I couldn't afford to chew up any balls. So I went for my shots and luckily, it came off.".
It certainly did. It was an amazing innings to top off a smashing game of cricket, one of the best T20s I have ever seen. And talking of smashing, when I got back to the commentary box to send my interviews up to Bristol, I found it cordoned off by anxious-looking stewards. A glance at the window of the box revealed why. The outer glass was completely crazed. It looked like a gigantic smashed windscreeen. And even as I retrieved my broadcasting kit, it started to fall onto the terrace beneath, which had thankfully been cleared. What on earth could have caused it, we all wondered? There looked to have been some sort of impact in the top left-hand corner. A seagull perhaps, possibly discombobulated by the spectacular light show which the floodlights had provided in celebration of Somerset's win. But if it was just a seagull, imagine what a cricket ball might do!
Of course, Somerset still have a lot of work to do to qualify, with three away games coming up in the next six days, all against teams above them in the table. But tonight's performance has offered both hope and enormous promise. If we really have seen the last of Peter Trego in Somerset colours, then Banton and Byrom are looking like worthy successors.
Fortress Chelmsford sacked
August 7 Vitality Blast T20 Essex v Somerset
Somerset 225/6; Essex 111 all out. Somerset win by 114 runs
I always have slightly mixed feelings about going to Chelmsford. On the downside is the fact that it’s not just a long way (180 miles from Langport, give or take), but getting there means negotiating almost exactly half of the M25, not so much a road to Hell as Hell itself. Chelmsford is for the most part a rather plain town-turned city and Somerset have lost more games than they’ve won here since I started going regularly ten years ago.
On the other hand the Cloud FM County Ground, as it is now known, is a proper cricket ground, the commentary position is excellent, the BBC Essex commentators are always welcoming and helpful and the crowd, whilst probably the most partisan on the circuit, do give floodlit games here a very special atmosphere. The excitement crackles in the air around the ground as if the whole place is charged with static electricity.
I arrive in good time - on my own. We have searched in vain for a co-commentator prepared to make the trip, and the player I was hoping to enlist as expert summariser, Tim Groenewald, has been chosen to play, replacing Jamie Overton. However, Dick Davies, one of the BBC Essex regulars, who knows as much about cricket in Essex as anyone, but who isn’t working this evening, kindly volunteers to step in.
It is a game that both sides need to win if they are to have a realistic chance of qualifying for the quarter finals, and the ground is full to bursting.
The toss at 'Fortress Chelmsford'
Tom Abell wins the toss and, for a change, opts to bat. A good decision, I think. It puts the onus on Somerset’s strength, their batting, and will mean that the bowlers will know what they’ve got to do. Mohammed Amir, who has recently, and sadly in my view, announced his retirement from test cricket at the age of just 27, opens the bowling and is driven handsomely back over his head for four by his Pakistan team-mate Babar Azam.
But this quickly develops into another episode in the Tom Banton Show. Aaron Beard, who took 7/45 when Essex beat Somerset in the Championship here in June, is called up to bowl the second over. Banton bides his time - for one ball. The next five go for 4,4,4,4,6! The leg-spinner Adam Zampa and the giant left-arm seamer Paul Walter are treated with similar contempt. The ball is flying everywhere. The 50 comes up in the fourth over. The crowd stunned into silence.
But then a twist. Banton goes to ramp Ravi Bopara, doesn’t get hold of it and is caught at short fine leg, whereupon James Hildreth turns his first ball straight into the hands of Walter at mid-wicket. Are we, I wonder gloomily, in for a repeat of the Middlesex ‘up like the rocket, down like the stick’ scenario? Tom Abell and Babar see to it that we are not, milking the good balls for ones and twos, and hitting the bad ones for boundaries. Against some lacklustre bowling, they take the score along at a steady ten an over, without undue trouble or risk.
At the halfway stage we are 97/2. Simon Harmer’s second over, the 12th, is savaged for 24, Abell belying his reputation as ‘not really a T20 batsman’ by hitting two big sixes, while Babar lands one in the river Cam behind our commentary box. Next stop, the North Sea!
Even when the pair of them go, the momentum is sustained, thanks initially to Eddie Byrom, who is badly dropped by Mohammed Amir, and then rubs it in by smashing him for two huge leg-side sixes, and, at the death, by Craig Overton, who silences the crowd with two massive blows in the final over, in which the hapless Beard concedes 20 runs. Somerset have added 59 in the last four overs. The death boot is on the other foot!
The required rate for Essex is 11.3 runs per over, attainable enough over a short burst, but surely impossible to sustain over the full 20? It doesn’t look that way, as Tom Westley (how on earth did he get picked for England ahead of James Hildreth?!) and the South African slogger Cameron Delport get to work. And, my goodness, can Delport hit a cricket ball! After finding his range, he fairly pulverises the last three balls of Jerome Taylor’s first over for four apiece. After three overs, Essex have 30 on the board and the ball seems to be flying off the bat.
Abell brings Groenewald on, for his first over in this year’s Blast. His sixth ball is smashed by Delport waist high, travelling like a shell, to Abell at mid-off, who somehow clings on. The danger man is gone. Cue Somerset rejoicing.
Westley goes in the next over, top-edging Overton, Waller taking the catch. Wheater and Lawrence threaten briefly, but as they fall further and further behind the asking rate, desperate measures are called for. Two sixes come off the first four balls of Roelof van der Merwe’s first over, but with the fifth, he catches Wheater in two minds and a simple catch to Hildreth at backward point is the result.
Dick Davies and I are sharing the commentary box with the BBC Essex boys, whose commentary is being carried by the live stream. I gather from Twitter that my shout of triumph as Hildreth took that catch almost drowned out the alternative, probably more subdued, version of events! Well, as I explained later, I did have rather more to shout about than they did!
Dan Lawrence is next to go, Overton charging a full 40 yards around the long-on boundary to take the catch at full pelt, tossing the ball triumphantly into the air in front of the silent crowd. Lawrence departs with an ill-grace, pointing his bat accusingly at the celebrating Somerset fielders. Had he been given a send-off perchance? Dick Davies suggests that he is the sort of cricketer who rather invites one.
Essex fold rather feebly after that, van der Merwe picking up four more wickets, including three in one over, for his best career-best T20 figures of 5/32. When Waller bowls Mohammed Amir, it’s all over. Somerset winners by 114 runs. Essex crushed. The crowd hushed. Fortress Chelmsford left in ruins.
Roll on Roelof!
I talk to an understandably delighted Roelof van der Merwe afterwards. He reckons that 225 was probably 30 or so better than par on that pitch, and agrees that the batsmen have learned the lessons from the Middlesex game by combining discretion with aggression to build on the initial Banton blitz, rather than wasting it.
As I’m waiting to do the interview I hear the sad news that the world record held by another Somerset slow left-armer, Arul Suppiah, who took 6/5 against Glamorgan back in 2011 (and I was there to see it!) has finally been eclipsed - by a part-time off-spinner for Leicestershire called Colin Ackermann, with 7/18 against the Birmingham Bears. Shame.
Still, I was in the highest of spirits as I set off for the long drive home, and the roads were relatively trouble-free, until, just as I was turning off the M3, a sign flashed up saying A303 CLOSED AT A36. I won’t repeat what I said, but my dismay proved fully justified. Foolishly, I decided to follow the advice of my satnav, which kept bringing me back to the - closed - A303. Half an hour of weaving my way through half the villages in central Wiltshire later, I regain the 303 at Mere, and get home at 1.30. Charlie Taylor had texted me to ask if the long journey had been worthwhile. Even after my extended Wiltshire detour, my reply was unreserved: absolutely!
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