County Championship 2022. Division 1. Somerset v Yorkshire. 19^th, 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd July. Taunton.

Craig Overton was unavailable for selection due to being on international duty. Josh Davey was unavailable due to a hamstring injury and Sonny Baker due to an ongoing back injury.

Somerset. M.T. Renshaw, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory, K.L. Aldridge, M.J. Leach, J.A. Brooks, M. de Lange.

Yorkshire. A. Lyth (c), T. Kohler-Cadmore, G.C.H. Hill, H.C. Brook, J.A. Tattersall (w), D.M. Bess, J.A. Thompson, M.L. Revis, J.W. Shutt, M.J. Waite, S.T. Gabriel.

Overnight. Somerset 262 for 5.

Second day 20^th July – Advantage Somerset

This was a day when the unexpected became the norm. Cloud and rain hugged the Quantocks for much of the day, but only half an hour’s play was lost. The normally deep-voiced, melodic English accent of the public address announcements was briefly replaced by a lilting Australian twang, subsequently discovered to be the result of a raid on the microphone by Matt Renshaw. Kasey Aldridge, batting high at number eight, found the boundary with a reverse sweep, “They can all do it now,” the comment, and Jack Leach connected with a switch-hit which deposited the ball into the Ondaatje Stand. They can’t all do that. Somerset’s final session wobble of the first day was overcome too as, after an initial stumble, they began to build a substantial score on the second morning. This was a match beginning to hold the attention.

The temperature was down several degrees on the first day as the players walked to the middle, and the Quantocks, whilst visible, were bathed in haze. As the morning wore on, the cloud thickened and the floodlights were soon on. With the prospect of rain never far away I took refuge in the top of the Trescothick Pavilion. In the middle, a truce reigned for the first four overs as Dom Bess and Matthew Revis with the ball, and Tom Abell and Lewis Gregory with the bat, fenced with each other while they awaited the new ball.

With the arrival of new ball, taken immediately it was available, cloud began to hug the point of the Quantocks and there was a new urgency about the play. Abell was beaten by one ball and kept another out. Both were bowled by Jordan Thompson. Gregory was beaten by Thompson too, but also drove him towards the River Stand for three with an almost defensive bat. “He timed that nicely,” the appreciative comment. He played Matthew Waite with equal deftness wide of the slips to the gap between the Lord Ian Botham and River Stands. It was a start from Gregory which had all the makings of the sort of effortless, classical innings he can play when he is at the top of his form.  

While Gregory’s bat began to flow, Abell’s seemed paralysed. Not out 114 overnight, he was out for 116 in the 12^th over of the morning, leg before wicket to Waite. “That jagged in,” someone said, the movement, or perhaps Abell’s reaction to it, evident even from over straight long on. “It’s been a bit different this morning, the new ball has moved more,” said my old work colleague, with me for the second day. Abell’s wicket jarred in the light of Gregory’s start and left Somerset on 286 for 6, still some way short of the 400 my colleague had thought necessary on the first morning.

If Abell had kept Somerset level in the match on the first day, Gregory moved them towards advantage on the second. He had shown intent from the start. Five not out overnight became 25 by the time Abell was out, and now he reached for the ball, cutting it through backward point to the Ondaatje boundary. Then, a leg side, short-arm jab, square to the Somerset Stand took Somerset to 298 for 6, two runs short of a third bonus point. “Shot!” someone said, before catching his breath and adding, “They’re going off.” Sitting towards the rear of the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, often the first sign of rain is either umbrellas going up in the open stands or, as on this occasion, the umpires conferring, or the players suddenly leaving the field. That Quantock-hugging drizzle had finally enveloped the ground.

Not for long. It soon retreated to the Quantocks where it appeared and re-appeared for much of the day. This was the day when Somerset invite schools to bring parties of children into the ground. This year they were concentrated in the Temporary Stand in such numbers that for much of the time it sounded as if the match was being played in a school playground, a sound which the rain could not defeat. When play was in progress, Somerset boundaries were applauded and cheered in voices more high-pitched than the norm at a Championship match, and energetically waved ‘4’ and ‘6’ cards gave the impression of a cauldron of broth being super-heated.

When the players returned, Gregory and Aldridge kept Somerset moving, although not without challenge. Gregory’s first boundary was a thick edge to the covers store, and Aldridge struggled. He was beaten by a ball from Waite which moved away, “Good ball!” the comment. A loud leg before wicket shout, also from Waite, caused a tight holding of breath until it was clear the umpire would not raise his finger. Waite’s next ball was left, but it came in sharply to gasps as it passed uncomfortably close to the stumps. For Somerset, a boundary from Gregory was turned deftly to Gimblett’s Hill off Revis. There was too, more than the usual ration of leg byes from the moving ball and some well-directed singles. It all took Somerset to lunch on 324 for 6 with Gregory on 47 to Aldridge’s six. Four hundred was edging into view if Gregory could stay.

One of those occasional, impromptu brains trusts which form in the stands in lunch intervals set itself up around me. It occupied itself with the subject of the replacement of Steven Davies behind the stumps by the 18-year-old James Rew. Rew had come into the side in the last match at Southport after Davies had had a disappointing early season with the bat and two indeterminate scores against Surrey. At Southport, Rew had greatly impressed, taking part in a 145-run partnership with Lewis Goldsworthy when Somerset were under severe pressure, and making a good start behind the stumps. Davies is an exceptional wicketkeeper, and it is too soon to judge Rew with the gloves; and so, inevitably, the perennial debate about best keeper versus best keeper-batter ensued. As is so often the case with that debate when it is held among Championship watchers, no serious conclusion was reached, but an enjoyable half-hour was passed by all.

Play resumed on time with shadowless players walking to the middle in dimpsy light. The sky may have remained morose, but Gregory and Aldridge brightened the early afternoon with confident stroke play which gave Somerset a clear edge. Four runs an over on a pitch showing some life is not a risk-free enterprise though, and not every run came off the middle, but the spirit of the partnership lifted the crowd. The first over, from Thomson, bowling from the River End, set the tone. To the second ball, Gregory came half forward and edged it short and wide of second slip to the covers store for four. It took him to his fifty, appreciative applause and comments of, “Well played.” To the last ball, he stood boldly erect, and drove with the minimum of bat movement but at great pace through the covers to the Priory Bridge Road boundary. Cue applause, high-pitched cheers and cries of, “Good shot!” from a crowd appreciably larger than that which had braved the first-day furnace. When Bess was brought back, Gregory pounced, driving an overpitched delivery back over the bowler’s head and into the River End sightscreen. Aldridge too was finding his range, nudging Gabriel past the slips to the Lord Ian Botham Stand to register the fifty partnership. A pair of cover drives to the Caddick Pavilion and Somerset Stand had greater pedigree according to one watcher, “That’s two good shots from Aldridge,” his instinctive comment.

The pair took Somerset to within 24 of that hoped-for 400. Then Gregory, batting to a deep-set field with four on the boundary, attempted to hit Bess into the Lord Ian Botham Stand and was caught on the boundary by Adam Lyth. 376 for 7. Gregory 77. For Gregory, there was no long, doleful, head-down walk back to the Caddick Pavilion. When he is out, Gregory walks off the field at pace, head held high, and on this occasion he had been instrumental in moving Somerset towards a position of strength.

While Gregory attacked, Aldridge grew in confidence. Now, he and Jack Leach continued the charge. Leach, known for his defensive defiance, showed another side. Bess, Somerset’s main tormentor, was driven over long off and into the Lord Ian Botham Stand to applause, cheers and a shout of, “Well done Jack!” There was laughter too when, against Jack Shutt’s off spin, he attempted a vicious switch hit and missed. Perhaps it was not the stroke for a number nine. Then cheers when, off the next ball, he repeated the stroke and the ball landed amongst the surprised occupants of the Ondaatje Stand to more high-pitched cheers and wildly waving ‘6’ cards in the Temporary Stand. It was Aldridge though, to more applause, who pulled Bess from outside off stump through wide long on to the River Stand to register Somerset’s 400.

Leach’s attempt to clear the boundary for the third time resulted in him being stumped off Shutt for 16, but by now the focus was shifting to how Yorkshire would fare when their turn with the bat came. “That one turned,” the comment, with Leach some way down the pitch. Jack Brooks soon followed, caught behind off Bess. Marchant de Lange, in his own inimitable style, pulled Gabriel into the Ondaatje Stand and drove him straight to the Trescothick Pavilion for four before that reverse sweep from Aldridge was followed by an attempt to clear midwicket. It resulted in Gabriel nudging his off stump. Aldridge had made an impressive 41, and Somerset’s 424 left Yorkshire with something to mull in the tea interval.

The timing of Aldridge’s wicket left a three-hour final session which Yorkshire began with intent. Both the left-handed Lyth, a pull to the Somerset Stand boundary and a cut square to the Caddick Pavilion off successive balls from Brooks, and successive cover and square drives to the Priory Bridge Road and Caddick Pavilion boundaries from George Hill off Gregory, threatened to put Somerset’ score into some perspective. The second boundary from Hill was accompanied by the head in hand comment of, “Oh dear!” from in front of me. Then, Lyth drove languidly and edged wide of Abell at gully, Abell dived low to his left, equally languidly, and scooped up the catch. Yorkshire 23 for 1. Lyth 13.

The wicket did not cause Yorkshire to miss a step. Hill push-drove Gregory through the covers to the Caddick Pavilion boundary, but mainly kept an end tight while Tom Kohler-Cadmore conducted a systematic attack to which Abell responded with repeated shouts of, “C’mon boys.” When Jack Leach joined the Somerset attack, Hill broke from his defensive shell and lofted him with one bounce into the River End sightscreen. Against the next ball he repeated the stroke. He found the edge, and was caught at deep extra cover in front of the Temporary Stand by Renshaw who had run hard from long off to complete a sliding catch a foot above the ground. The ball safe, he raised his thumbs to the cheering schoolchildren in the stand and gifted them a huge smile for which he was royally rewarded with more cheers. Yorkshire 55 for 2. Hill 19.

Kohler-Cadmore’s assault was impressive. He had already driven Leach for six into the River End sightscreen and, with Harry Brook replacing Hill, now set about, to use the modern term, levelling up the match. Another six off Leach, over straight long off, brought the comment, “He can hit them, can’t he?” And then another six, Leach again the victim, as a lofted on drive cleared the boundary and stored covers to land somewhere in the St James Street car park. There was a drive through extra cover too which slowed in front of Gimblett’s Hill, but not before three had been run. Kohler-Cadmore’s strokes, though correct in technique, were not of the classical, flowing variety. He plays, or did in this innings, with a pugnacious, clean-hitting, assault on the ball. There were strings of defensive strokes too, particularly against Aldridge who held Yorkshire in check whenever he held the ball. Kohler-Cadmore will play for Somerset in 2023. He does not have a batting style to which, of itself, spectators immediately warm, but in this innings, he was strikingly effective and those around me warmed quickly to the prospect of his arrival in Taunton.

The 23-year-old Brook has a growing reputation, and he showed some evidence to support that reputation here. Against Marchant de Lange he pulled two sixes over the Priory Bridge Road boundary, one of which landed in the third row of seating, and drove square for four to the Somerset Stand. Against Leach, he drove through the covers to the Somerset Stand and straighter to Gimblett’s Hill. In seven minutes over an hour, he added 41 to Yorkshire’s growing total before finally clipping Brooks to midwicket where Aldridge took an excellent two-handed catch diving full-length to his right to tremendous cheers, both for the nature of the catch and because Brook had been looking dangerous.

Yorkshire 129 for 3. Deficit 295. Somerset perhaps slightly ahead but, before that catch, the looks on supporters’ faces were beginning to wonder for how long. With the cloud now thickening and an hour of play still scheduled, Yorkshire sent in Matthew Revis to undertake the nightwatch. Brooks ran in again, the ball speared in, Revis attempted to keep it out, but it crashed into the pads. The appeal left no doubt, and even from a seat over a fine first slip everything about it looked and felt out. The raising of the finger was no surprise. Suddenly, in successive balls, a burgeoning threat to Somerset had become an opportunity to push an advantage home. “Come on Jack!” the cry from several parts of the ground amidst applause and cheers. With a hat-trick in prospect, “A couple more tonight would really set this up,” was typical of the comments from the reducing numbers of spectators around me, the crowd now into evening shrinkage mode. But the hat-trick never came. The number of hat-trick balls I have seen in my six and a half decades of watching first-class cricket must run well into three figures. The number of hat-tricks I have seen totals two. Alfonso Thomas’s four-in-four, after I had been watching first-class cricket for five and a half decades, and Tom Abell’s ‘nine, ten, jack’ at Trent Bridge in 2018.

Kohler-Cadmore and Waite kept Yorkshire moving at three an over as the day gradually lost its battle with the cloud. There were few alarums for the batters, although Kohler-Cadmore did edge Brooks past slip for four, bringing up his fifty in the process to generous, perhaps welcoming, applause. Twice more he found the boundary, off Gregory and de Lange, and Waite cut Gregory to the gap between the River and the Lord Ian Botham Stands. The pair took Yorkshire to an early, light-induced, close, 257 runs behind Somerset. Advantage Somerset perhaps, but not by so much that anyone could afford to relax overnight.

Close. Somerset 424 (T.B. Abell 116, L. Gregory 77, G.A. Bartlett 46, D.M. Bess 4-68, M.J. Waite 3-64). Yorkshire 167 for 4. Yorkshire trail by 257 runs.