Down to the wire
September 16-18 County Championship Division 1. Hampshire v Somerset
Hampshire 196 and 226; Somerset 142 and 144. Hampshire win by 136 runs
Day One
I have two confessions to make, as play gets under way at the Ageas Bowl on a murky Monday morning. The first is that Somerset winning the County Championship would mean more to me than England winning the Ashes, or even the World Cup. Either of those two latter triumphs can be secured every four years. Somerset have not won the Championship in 118 attempts spanning 127 years. In my sixty-odd years of following their fortunes like a devoted Springer Spaniel, they have - agonisingly - been runners-up on four occasions, the closest and most painful being the fiasco in 2010 when Lancashire as good as gifted the thing to Notts. That still hurts.
My second confession is that, in my heart of hearts, if Somerset are indeed going to win the Championship, I would rather they saved their/our moment of triumph until next week, at Taunton, against Essex. I am primed and ready to travel to Southampton to broadcast the good news in the event that Somerset win handsomely and Essex lose largely pointlessly, but I doubt if my golfing partners at Burnham (Wednesday morning) or the Bath and West Membership Representatives on Council (Thursday morning) would be too enamoured of a last-minute no-show. A good win, with Essex doing no better than a draw, would suit me just fine.
In which context, it is both air-punchingly delightful, and plan-alteringly disconcerting to find Hampshire at 0/1, 10/3 and 18/4 in the first half hour. Thanks goodness Tom Abell lost the toss, otherwise that would be Somerset! When Craig Overton has Lewis McManus caught at point shortly before lunch it is 88/7 and I am already framing e-mails of apology in my mind. But that is to reckon without Liam Dawson, surely the best thing apart from GWR locomotives and Richard Jefferies ever to have come out of Swindon, whose record against Somerset stands comparison with the very best: 731 runs in 12 matches at 40.6 with a century and four 50s. As the balls gets less hard, and the pitch less spiteful, he seems to be moving ominously into his stride.
On the balcony of the Hilton Hotel on the outer reaches of the Ageas Bowl, a veritable cacophony of commentators has been assembled. There is BBC Radio Solent's Kevan James, of course, with our own Stephen Lamb, plus the Hampshire cricket historian David Allen, who appears to have memorised the scorecards of every Hampshire v Somerset game ever played, plus Radio 5Live Sports Extra's Kevin Howells. After lunch, we even get a burst from the Secretary of the Hampshire PGA. And there is Robbie James still to come.
As the afternoon unfolds, Dawson bats every bit as well as I feared he might, keeping out the good ones, and taking full toll of anything loose, of which, as I can tell from the live stream (even if it isn't synchronised properly), there is rather too much. He and Keith Barker add 92 for the 8th wicket. Dawson reaches his century with a thumping straight drive off Abell, then two balls later nicks off, much to my relief. Fidel Edwards doesn't trouble the scorers, as they used to say, and Hampshire are 196 all out. Despite that frustrating partnership, it has been Somerset's day so far, for sure, but I remind myself that Somerset got only three runs more in their first innings against Yorkshire, and went on to win by 298 runs!
Sure enough, batting looks every bit as tricky for the Somerset openers, as it had for Hampshire's, and when Murali Vijay essays an indeterminate push to an in-ducker from the strong, bustling Kyle Abbot, Somerset are 12/1. Shortly afterwards, with Abbot passing Steve Davies' outside edge almost every other ball, the umpires take them off for bad light. Thank goodness for that, I say to myself. Except that they're soon back on again, and Davies' luck soon runs out as he plays an airy drive to an Abbot inswinger and has his off-stump pegged back. Another interruption and another short session of Abell and Hildreth somehow surviving follows, before the light finally fades. Somerset 30/2, but the forecast is good for tomorrow, which, as I tweet, "with sunshine promised, should be a much better day for batting". Even as I tapped out the letters, I could feel the hand of fate upon my shoulders!
Day 2
I can't listen to the commentary this morning, as I'm chairing a meeting of the Somerset Catchment Partnership, which has everything to do with Somerset's rivers and nothing to do with Somerset's cricket, but I do surreptitiously check my phone every so often, and the news is not good. Tom Abell is soon undone by an in-ducker from Abbot, and the rest of the middle order waste no time in following him back to the pavilion, victims of his pace and movement. Eight wickets are down for just 65 when Craig Overton has his stumps scattered by big Kyle, and Somerset are staring a daunting deficit in the face. I'm having lunch at the splendid King Alfred at Burrowbridge (discussing possible events for next year's Bath and West) as Dom Bess and Roelof van der Merwe offer stout resistance in a damage-limiting stand of 67 for the 9th wicket. A total of 142 doesn't seem too bad in the context of what might have been, but even so a first innings lead of 54 is a lot to concede in what promises to be a low-scoring game. Kyle Abbot's figures of 9/40 say all that needs to be said about what sort of a pitch this must be.
I'm back at home, tuned-in to the live feed, as the Hampshire second innings gets under way, punching the air at regular intervals as wicket after wicket goes down to Gregory, Overton and Davey. When Aneurin Donald is bowled by Overton for 1, it is 45/6, and a manageable fourth innings target seems in prospect. Meanwhile, at Chelmsford, Essex have been losing wickets - 125/4 they are when Bopara is out, still 49 behind.
As the players come out after tea, it occurs to me that this could be the crucial session. If Somerset can bowl Hampshire out for less than, say, 120, they could well win, with 19 points, some time tomorrow morning. If Essex are bowled out for much less than Surrey's 174, they could well end up losing, with only three points to show for it. That would boost Somerset's lead to 24 points, so we would need only a single point to win the Championship on Monday!
That delightful vision does not hang temptingly in view for very long, however. James Vince is once again proving an immovable object as far as the irresistible force of the Somerset attack is concerned, while at Chelmsford, Dan Lawrence and Ryan ten Doeschate are piling on the runs. "We are now getting some clarity on the Championship situation", says Kevin Howells as the Hampshire lead goes past 170, Kyle Abbot now offering Vince frustratingly solid support. "We can say for certain now that this has been Essex's day". He's not wrong.
Day 3
Wednesday morning is, as usual, given over to foursomes golf at Burnham. It is a gloriously sunny day, with scarcely a breath of wind and I resolve not to look at my phone until well into the second nine, by which time Hampshire must surely be all out, and Somerset's target known. I'm driving against George Marsh, Headmaster of Millfield Junior School for many years, and a Nottinghamshire member, who is as perplexed as everyone at what has happened to what looked, at the start of the season, to be one of the strongest outfits in the First Division. But Somerset is his second favourite county and after I miss the shortest of short putts to allow our opponents a half at the 11th, we both decide its time to check the score: Hampshire 226 all out, Vince 142, Somerset will need 281 to win and they've made a good start on 16 without loss.
I resist the temptation to check the score again until our match is won and I'm back at the clubhouse: 60/0 at lunch! Perhaps this will be the day when Murali Vijay shows us what he's made of. "We just need one batsman to make a big score", says the oldest member of our golfing group, Wesley Wyatt, 87 years young, as we change before lunch. "Yes, and how much easier it will be for Simon Lee, our Groundsman, to prepare a pitch if all that Somerset need is a draw", I add optimistically.
Over the remainder of proceedings it is perhaps best to draw a veil. That opening partnership actually reaches 86, the target down to below 200 with all wickets standing, when Vince brings Abbot back for a second spell. His impact on the Somerset batting is as catastrophic as was the iceberg's on 'Titanic'. Seven wickets go down for 14 runs in the worst collapse of a collapse-prone season and despite some late resistance from Gregory and Overton, the good ship Somerset is sunk with all hands. Hampshire have their revenge for the Royal London Cup final and Abbot, with 17/86 has the best ever bowling figures for a Hampshire player.
'Oh well', I tweet. 'At least that's clarified the situation for next week: only a win for Somerset will do, and that may help calm the nerves'. Later, over supper with my wife Claire, I check the weather forecast, in the hope of an improvement on what it had previously been suggesting. No such luck. Heavy rain is now promised for Monday on the BBC weather app, with showers for Tuesday and Wednesday. I groan and swear. "Oh you're always such a pessimist", says Claire. "For heaven's sake try to be positive and look on the bright side."
I will try. I really will.
Hampshire 196 and 226; Somerset 142 and 144. Hampshire win by 136 runs
Day One
I have two confessions to make, as play gets under way at the Ageas Bowl on a murky Monday morning. The first is that Somerset winning the County Championship would mean more to me than England winning the Ashes, or even the World Cup. Either of those two latter triumphs can be secured every four years. Somerset have not won the Championship in 118 attempts spanning 127 years. In my sixty-odd years of following their fortunes like a devoted Springer Spaniel, they have - agonisingly - been runners-up on four occasions, the closest and most painful being the fiasco in 2010 when Lancashire as good as gifted the thing to Notts. That still hurts.
My second confession is that, in my heart of hearts, if Somerset are indeed going to win the Championship, I would rather they saved their/our moment of triumph until next week, at Taunton, against Essex. I am primed and ready to travel to Southampton to broadcast the good news in the event that Somerset win handsomely and Essex lose largely pointlessly, but I doubt if my golfing partners at Burnham (Wednesday morning) or the Bath and West Membership Representatives on Council (Thursday morning) would be too enamoured of a last-minute no-show. A good win, with Essex doing no better than a draw, would suit me just fine.
In which context, it is both air-punchingly delightful, and plan-alteringly disconcerting to find Hampshire at 0/1, 10/3 and 18/4 in the first half hour. Thanks goodness Tom Abell lost the toss, otherwise that would be Somerset! When Craig Overton has Lewis McManus caught at point shortly before lunch it is 88/7 and I am already framing e-mails of apology in my mind. But that is to reckon without Liam Dawson, surely the best thing apart from GWR locomotives and Richard Jefferies ever to have come out of Swindon, whose record against Somerset stands comparison with the very best: 731 runs in 12 matches at 40.6 with a century and four 50s. As the balls gets less hard, and the pitch less spiteful, he seems to be moving ominously into his stride.
On the balcony of the Hilton Hotel on the outer reaches of the Ageas Bowl, a veritable cacophony of commentators has been assembled. There is BBC Radio Solent's Kevan James, of course, with our own Stephen Lamb, plus the Hampshire cricket historian David Allen, who appears to have memorised the scorecards of every Hampshire v Somerset game ever played, plus Radio 5Live Sports Extra's Kevin Howells. After lunch, we even get a burst from the Secretary of the Hampshire PGA. And there is Robbie James still to come.
As the afternoon unfolds, Dawson bats every bit as well as I feared he might, keeping out the good ones, and taking full toll of anything loose, of which, as I can tell from the live stream (even if it isn't synchronised properly), there is rather too much. He and Keith Barker add 92 for the 8th wicket. Dawson reaches his century with a thumping straight drive off Abell, then two balls later nicks off, much to my relief. Fidel Edwards doesn't trouble the scorers, as they used to say, and Hampshire are 196 all out. Despite that frustrating partnership, it has been Somerset's day so far, for sure, but I remind myself that Somerset got only three runs more in their first innings against Yorkshire, and went on to win by 298 runs!
Sure enough, batting looks every bit as tricky for the Somerset openers, as it had for Hampshire's, and when Murali Vijay essays an indeterminate push to an in-ducker from the strong, bustling Kyle Abbot, Somerset are 12/1. Shortly afterwards, with Abbot passing Steve Davies' outside edge almost every other ball, the umpires take them off for bad light. Thank goodness for that, I say to myself. Except that they're soon back on again, and Davies' luck soon runs out as he plays an airy drive to an Abbot inswinger and has his off-stump pegged back. Another interruption and another short session of Abell and Hildreth somehow surviving follows, before the light finally fades. Somerset 30/2, but the forecast is good for tomorrow, which, as I tweet, "with sunshine promised, should be a much better day for batting". Even as I tapped out the letters, I could feel the hand of fate upon my shoulders!
Day 2
I can't listen to the commentary this morning, as I'm chairing a meeting of the Somerset Catchment Partnership, which has everything to do with Somerset's rivers and nothing to do with Somerset's cricket, but I do surreptitiously check my phone every so often, and the news is not good. Tom Abell is soon undone by an in-ducker from Abbot, and the rest of the middle order waste no time in following him back to the pavilion, victims of his pace and movement. Eight wickets are down for just 65 when Craig Overton has his stumps scattered by big Kyle, and Somerset are staring a daunting deficit in the face. I'm having lunch at the splendid King Alfred at Burrowbridge (discussing possible events for next year's Bath and West) as Dom Bess and Roelof van der Merwe offer stout resistance in a damage-limiting stand of 67 for the 9th wicket. A total of 142 doesn't seem too bad in the context of what might have been, but even so a first innings lead of 54 is a lot to concede in what promises to be a low-scoring game. Kyle Abbot's figures of 9/40 say all that needs to be said about what sort of a pitch this must be.
I'm back at home, tuned-in to the live feed, as the Hampshire second innings gets under way, punching the air at regular intervals as wicket after wicket goes down to Gregory, Overton and Davey. When Aneurin Donald is bowled by Overton for 1, it is 45/6, and a manageable fourth innings target seems in prospect. Meanwhile, at Chelmsford, Essex have been losing wickets - 125/4 they are when Bopara is out, still 49 behind.
As the players come out after tea, it occurs to me that this could be the crucial session. If Somerset can bowl Hampshire out for less than, say, 120, they could well win, with 19 points, some time tomorrow morning. If Essex are bowled out for much less than Surrey's 174, they could well end up losing, with only three points to show for it. That would boost Somerset's lead to 24 points, so we would need only a single point to win the Championship on Monday!
That delightful vision does not hang temptingly in view for very long, however. James Vince is once again proving an immovable object as far as the irresistible force of the Somerset attack is concerned, while at Chelmsford, Dan Lawrence and Ryan ten Doeschate are piling on the runs. "We are now getting some clarity on the Championship situation", says Kevin Howells as the Hampshire lead goes past 170, Kyle Abbot now offering Vince frustratingly solid support. "We can say for certain now that this has been Essex's day". He's not wrong.
Day 3
Wednesday morning is, as usual, given over to foursomes golf at Burnham. It is a gloriously sunny day, with scarcely a breath of wind and I resolve not to look at my phone until well into the second nine, by which time Hampshire must surely be all out, and Somerset's target known. I'm driving against George Marsh, Headmaster of Millfield Junior School for many years, and a Nottinghamshire member, who is as perplexed as everyone at what has happened to what looked, at the start of the season, to be one of the strongest outfits in the First Division. But Somerset is his second favourite county and after I miss the shortest of short putts to allow our opponents a half at the 11th, we both decide its time to check the score: Hampshire 226 all out, Vince 142, Somerset will need 281 to win and they've made a good start on 16 without loss.
I resist the temptation to check the score again until our match is won and I'm back at the clubhouse: 60/0 at lunch! Perhaps this will be the day when Murali Vijay shows us what he's made of. "We just need one batsman to make a big score", says the oldest member of our golfing group, Wesley Wyatt, 87 years young, as we change before lunch. "Yes, and how much easier it will be for Simon Lee, our Groundsman, to prepare a pitch if all that Somerset need is a draw", I add optimistically.
Over the remainder of proceedings it is perhaps best to draw a veil. That opening partnership actually reaches 86, the target down to below 200 with all wickets standing, when Vince brings Abbot back for a second spell. His impact on the Somerset batting is as catastrophic as was the iceberg's on 'Titanic'. Seven wickets go down for 14 runs in the worst collapse of a collapse-prone season and despite some late resistance from Gregory and Overton, the good ship Somerset is sunk with all hands. Hampshire have their revenge for the Royal London Cup final and Abbot, with 17/86 has the best ever bowling figures for a Hampshire player.
'Oh well', I tweet. 'At least that's clarified the situation for next week: only a win for Somerset will do, and that may help calm the nerves'. Later, over supper with my wife Claire, I check the weather forecast, in the hope of an improvement on what it had previously been suggesting. No such luck. Heavy rain is now promised for Monday on the BBC weather app, with showers for Tuesday and Wednesday. I groan and swear. "Oh you're always such a pessimist", says Claire. "For heaven's sake try to be positive and look on the bright side."
I will try. I really will.
Like you Anthony I've been waiting a long long time for a Somerset championship, I fear once again we've messed things up hugely at the Rose Bowl, I'll be surprised if we can win the game, not just because of the weather, but also because we are so inconsistent & prone Ty collapse. I'll finish with one thought, could Tresco have done any worse than Vijay!
ReplyDelete