County Championship 2022. Division 1. Somerset v Surrey. 12^th, 13^th, 14^th and 15^th June. Taunton.

Sonny Baker was unavailable for selection by Somerset due to his continuing back injury while Jack Leach was on Test duty with England and Matt Renshaw on international duty with Australia.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, B.F.G. Green, T.B. Abell (c), T. Banton, L.P. Goldsworthy, S.M. Davies (w), L. Gregory, R.E. van der Merwe, C. Overton/M. de Lange, J.H. Davey/K.L. Aldridge*, P.M. Siddle.

*J.H. Davey was replaced by K.L. Aldridge on the first day and C. Overton by M. de Lange on the second under the ECB Concussion Protocol

Surrey. R.J. Burns (c), R.S. Patel, H.M. Amla, B.B.A. Geddes, J.L. Smith (w), W.G. Jacks, C.T. Steel, J. Clark, J. Overton, A.A.P. Atkinson, D.J. Worrall.

Overnight. Somerset 180. Surry 56 for 1. Surrey trail by 124 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.

Second day 13^th June – Surrey take a grip

Waiting in for a parcel that requires a signature is one of the less endearing aspects of modern life. One of the more endearing is the message you receive telling you, within an hour or so, when it will arrive. Who would have imagined that when I watched my first Championship match at Taunton in 1958? The world has changed. The cricket world too. The first day of Championship cricket in 1958 took place on 7^th May. Somerset played Glamorgan at Cardiff Arms Park. The match was drawn, and Colin McCool made 130.

Matches were of three days duration in those days, and each county played 28 matches, not quite enough to play every other county twice. There was no one-day cricket and the Championship’s last ball was bowled on 5^th September. Twenty-eight three-day matches wrapped up in two days under four months. Glamorgan played four of their home matches at the Arms Park, five at St Helens, Swansea and one each at Newport, Llanelli, Neath, Pontypridd and Ebbw Vale. Now all their Championship cricket is played in the arena that is Sophia Gardens. Different times indeed.

My 1958 match, like this one, was against Surrey at Taunton. Surrey were top of the table then too, having won five of their first seven matches, four by an innings, with two drawn, one of those when Raman Subba Row of Northamptonshire held them at bay with a triple century. I never saw Subba Row bat in the flesh but watched him score a century for England on television. I did see him in the flesh once. At Croydon in 2008. Somerset were again playing Surrey, to whom Subba Row moved after his time at Northamptonshire, at the Whitgift School, Subba Row’s alma mater. I walked out to look at the wicket one lunchtime and heard someone say, “What do you think Raman?” And there the man was, three yards from me, tall, still erect, and distinguished, looking at the pitch, doubtless making more sense of it than I was. Raman Subba Row is 90 this year. Time passes. Surrey went on to win the Championship in 1958 for the seventh successive season on pitches prepared for the spin of Jim Laker and Tony Lock and not a pitch inspector in sight. Taken by my father, I set off for that 1958 match dreaming of Somerset scoring runs. Perhaps Peter Wight would score a century. Of course, cricket does not work like that. Surrey won the toss and batted all day, scoring 347 for 8 and I sat on the grass in front of where the Ondaatje Stand is now.

In 2022, on the second day, Surrey took their overnight 56 for 1 to 382 for 7, Somerset bowled 96 overs, 20 of them by a single spinner, Roelof van der Merwe. In 1958, Somerset bowled 131 overs on the first day, 68 of them by their four spinners: an off spinner, a slow left armer, a leg spinner and an occasional off spinner. It really is a different cricketing world. In this new world, with the support of van der Merwe, Somerset’s modern pace bowlers, despite the final score, worked assiduously through the day to contain Surrey, if perhaps tiring a little towards the end of a long day. That precisely delivered parcel kept me from the first 20 minutes but I arrived at the Brian Rose Gates just as Rory Burns hooked Peter Siddle into the River Stand. It was an inauspicious start to my day, and it took Burns to his fifty. Several discussions later, it is impossible to walk unhindered to your seat when you have been watching Somerset for as long as I have, I arrived at my chosen spot square of the wicket in the Somerset Stand. Burns welcomed me with a flick off his toes to the Lord Ian Botham Stand to take Surrey to 100 for 1. Aldridge the suffering bowler.

Burns looked untroubled under a sky of high white cloud and, when the cloud permitted, as it often did, a hot sun. As I settled into my seat, the ball came off the bat with worrying, for a Somerset supporter, ease, the bowlers’ efforts making no impression. Somerset’s 180 looked more inadequate with each passing over. The name of Geddes on the scoreboard alongside Burns raised the question of the whereabouts of Hashim Amla, not out overnight, for no wicket had fallen before my arrival. “Ill,” said the steward. “And there is a concussion substitute for Overton,” he added. Marchant de Lange the replacement.

It was not an auspicious outlook for Somerset, but their bowlers took a grip of the scoring while Surrey fought to protect their wickets. In the 22 overs from my taking my seat to lunch they added 48 runs for the loss of Geddes with just four boundaries. Kasey Aldridge, concussion replacement for Davey, bowled a testing spell from the Trescothick Pavilion End. The four overs he bowled after I sat down cost eight runs, four of those when Burns edged wide of second slip to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion. Aldridge then beat Geddes to applause from the Lord Ian Botham Stand and sank in disappointment, hands on knees, when a huge leg before wicket appeal against Burns, playing across his pads, was turned down. It was a spell that generated repeated applause, both for balls which forced the batters into defence and for overs which asked questions.

Peter Siddle bowled a short spell from the River End. He too gave little, beat Geddes twice in succession and conceded eight runs, four of them to a well-struck Geddes cover drive to the Priory Bridge Road boundary. While Siddle and Aldridge bowled, Surrey were held in check. The gradually rising score favoured Surrey only because of the paucity of Somerset’s first innings total. When De Lange, from the River End, and Tom Lammonby, from the Trescothick Pavilion End, bowled unchanged for nearly an hour, the pressure was maintained. In their first eight overs, the single scoring stroke was a four played with an angled bat wide of second slip to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion by Burns. Applause followed most overs, and the intensity of the cricket kept the eyes on every ball, each played with a straight bat where the ball was straight, and a raised one when there was any width. Less than two and a half runs an over resulted; marginally less than Surrey’s rate in 1958, although that would have seemed quicker with 35 more overs bowled in the day.

For all the intensity of the bowling, the only wicket to fall before lunch was that of Geddes. He defended against de Lange and edged straight to Lewis Gregory at first slip. De Lange and Lammonby had built towards that wicket. First, those eight overs for four runs. Then, when Burns tried to break out by driving de Lange through the on side to the Temporary Stand for four, and Geddes drove Lammonby for three towards Legends Square, they held their discipline. And yet, Surrey’s dogged accumulation took them to lunch on 151 for 2 with Burns 97 and Jamie Smith on two. Somerset’s 180, recorded on the bottom of the scoreboard, looked unbearably lonely beneath the mountain of Surrey runs forming above it.

My lunchtime circumnavigation stalled in the lower level of the Trescothick Pavilion. The scattered locations of the former Gimblett’s Hill occupants caused by the delayed completion of the Hill revamp has meant that it takes me longer to walk around the ground. With the match moving steadily towards Surrey we found ourselves talking about the merits and methods of operating an electric car. I suspect at a similar point in proceedings in 1958 I found myself playing cricket behind the beer tent, where the Ondaatje Pavilion now stands. Displacement behaviour of all sorts takes place when a match is drifting away from a supporter’s team. When play recommenced with me still on the Trescothick Pavilion terrace, Burns bore attention with his century imminent, achieved to generous applause with an uppish push into the leg side for a single.

From there, I proceeded along the walkway in front of Gimblett’s Hill. There I fell in with two others. As we leaned against the new wall at the front of the Hill, we discussed the performance of the Somerset top order. In truth it has struggled to perform in recent times and that has had more than a little to do with Somerset’s eight defeats in their last ten Championship matches. Relegation is a real worry among supporters. And then our focus turned to the cricket in front of us as Surrey’s score, still only two wickets down, approached Somerset’s 180.

Aldridge, running away from us, demanded attention because he was bowling with vim. Brisk in his walk back to his mark and hustling to the stumps, he pushed Smith back onto his toes and found the edge. Steven Davies moved neatly towards first slip and took the catch. Surrey 170 for 3. Smith 6. The roar from next to me was volcanic, my eardrum reverberating, my hearing numbed. Aldridge had taken his first first-class wicket. It had been a persistent bowling performance and the wicket was richly deserved. When the slow left arm of van der Merwe replaced Aldridge, his first ball defeated Burns who edged, Gregory at slip taking the catch with all his customary nonchalance. Again, my ear drum rebelled, and Surrey were 182 for 4, two runs ahead. Burns, 113, walked off to more generous applause.

Those two wickets brought a frisson of Somerset hope and some animated chatter. It did not last. Surrey soon pulled away again. Will Jacks lead the way with a calculated, attacking innings supported first by Cameron Steel and then by Jordan Clark. Gregory was soon swept aside, conceding 17 runs in three overs, Jacks taking successive boundaries, a glance to the Trescothick Pavilion and a steer backward of point to the Ondaatje Stand. Marchant de Lange fought back briefly, bowling four overs for four runs. Van der Merwe bowled steadily, but without looking like taking a wicket, Steel sweeping him to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion and driving him through wide midwicket to the Ondaatje boundary.

Abell kept the old ball a few overs beyond its time, but with tea approaching, Gregory and Siddle took the new ball, also to no avail, Jacks driving Siddle’s first ball off the back foot through the covers to the Caddick Pavilion. Then, off the last ball before tea, Steel edged Siddle towards Gregory at slip. There was a gasp around the ground when the ball went down, but it was clear from my angle, now back square in the Somerset Stand, that it had fallen short. The players left the field with Surrey on 247 for 4, 67 runs ahead and another match, before the second day was out, was drifting away from Somerset.

My teatime circumnavigation was far from over when the players returned. I had taken my time and when play recommenced I continued to amble from one vantage point to another, stopping here and there to watch a few overs. When the opposition are batting themselves into a position of strength my walks around the ground can become extended affairs. The important detail still registers, and Steel falling leg before wicket to Siddle playing across his pads just after tea raised a slither of hope, but only momentarily.

Momentarily, because what followed was a potentially spirit-crushing partnership between Jacks and Clark. As I walked, they seemed untroubled, and Surrey’s score rose accordingly. It brought back images of that 1958 match when Surrey had batted all day and had never looked like faltering. In 2022, Jacks and Clark made battting look as easy as it had in 1958. Some images from 2022 stand out. Jacks clipping Siddle off his legs, the batters running two, quickly but well within themselves, leaving a firm impression of Surrey in complete command. Clark driving Lammonby through the off side with bat movement so dismissively short and sharp the ball fled as if in terror to Gimblett’s Hill. Jacks took two boundaries in an over from de Lange, a perfectly angled bat sending one to the Caddick Pavilion and a drive through the on side hurtling to the Garner Gates boundary. The single turned behind square by Jacks off Lammonby to bring up Surrey’s 300, still only five wickets down, seemed as inevitable as the sun setting in the west.

Returning to my seat made no difference. The next over, from Lammonby, brought two boundaries, ten runs and a dropped catch. Clark drove Lammonby through the off side to Gimblett’s Hill, tried to repeat the stroke and edged fast and wide of Gregory, the only slip. Gregory jumped to his right, got hand to ball but it went down. “Hildy would have caught that for sure,” someone said. It was a harsh judgement. The ball flew to the extreme of Gregory’s reach. Had he caught it, the catch would have been talked about for the rest of the match. It left a sinking feeling though, for Surrey were constructing the steepest of mountains for Somerset to climb in their second innings. To add insult to injury, Clark ran a single for the drop and Jacks turned the next ball fine to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion boundary. Surrey were 316 for 5, 136 ahead with Jacks on an ominously growing 80.

Abell replaced Lammonby with de Lange and Clark hooked him into the back row of the Ondaatje Stand. Then, when Jacks tried to drive him, he was bowled for 88. That brought Jamie Overton to the wicket to applause. The wicket brought the question, “Did we get the bonus point?” “No. Missed it by two balls,” the answer adding to the questioner’s woes. Then evidence that Surrey were intent on pressing home their advantage. Overton lofted van der Merwe back over his head and into the Lord Ian Botham Stand while Clark hooked de Lange, the ball clearing the large Temporary Stand on the Priory Bridge Road boundary and bouncing along the Priory Bridge Road car park.

Passing 350, Surrey forged on. Overton steered to fine leg for two. “Oh, that was a lovely shot,” someone said. Then he cut van der Merwe, the ball picked up the spin, curved sharply away from the deep point fielder and defeated his despairing dive. “Run ‘em, run ‘em, run ‘em,” the call for a scurried two before finally, Overton drove at Abell and was caught behind for 20. Furious with himself, he rapped his pads with his bat before walking off. From there Surrey eased to the close, a couple of singles to the deep-set field ending the day. In 1958, Somerset passed Surrey’s first innings score and went on to win the match. Winning this match seems far beyond them.

Close (2022). Somerset 180. Surrey 382 for 7. Surrey lead by 202 runs with three first innings wickets standing.

Result (1958). Surrey 347 for 8 dec and 113 (J.G. Lomax 5-26). Somerset 349 for 6 dec (P.B. Wight 175) and 112 for 4. Somerset won by six wickets. Somerset 14 points. Surrey 0 points.