An Excellent Day at the Cricket

Metro Bank One-Day Cup 2023. Somerset v Warwickshire. 4^th August. Taunton.

Not the result Somerset supporters would have wanted, but it was an excellent day at the cricket. Tremendous atmosphere. Large crowd, probably four thousand plus, maybe even a few more. And it didn’t rain. We even had a couple of spitfires fly over. It is always wise to have air cover when there is a battle going on below. The retail area (if you are over 50) or fan zone (if you are under 50) was alive with smiling people each time I looked with no adverse consequences that I saw from the amount of alcohol on sale. There were a lot of younger people in the crowd and a goodly number of families.

As to the cricket, losing the toss didn’t help Somerset. There was persistent movement early on and Oliver Hannon-Dalby and Ed Barnard are bowlers above the grade for this competition in its present guise, and Somerset’s youngsters at the top of the order couldn’t cope with it. 24 for 3 by the eighth over with this year’s Championship backbone, James Rew gone. Sean Dickson and Lewis Goldsworthy began to repair the damage, but, as so often this season, Dickson failed to build on a good start and, attempting to cut George Garrett, edged to the keeper for 15. At 64 for 4, at the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, there was quiet gloom about the cricket and the music blasting the eardrums from all around seemed incongruous, yet there was still a buzz of happy chatter about being at the cricket and everyone seemed to be in good company.

Then, the cricket mood began to lift as Lewis Goldsworthy and George Bartlett, two of only five players in the Somerset side who have made any impact at first team level, built a partnership, although they struggled to get the ball past a short cover placed by Warwickshire, a position which perhaps cost Somerset 40 runs. They did though rouse the crowd who began to get behind them, the boundaries being increasingly applauded and then cheered, first from the Somerset Stand and then around the ground. And not just the adults, the children in the top of the Trescothick Pavilion were applauding too, engaged with the cricket.

Somerset were never quite where they needed to be though, dragged down by those three early wickets and that short cover, that irritatingly persistent short cover. Double the 30-over score if there are wickets in hand is the back-of-an-envelope calculation used to predict the approximate final score. As the 30^th over ended, the prediction came out at about 250. At least 30 runs short of where Somerset would need to end up, the person I was with and I thought, but so much better than where we might have been at 34 for 3.

But still the cheers grew, and the eyes were all on the cricket unless someone came past with a couple of pints of cider and there wasn’t too much of that. As Somerset went past 150 you could sense the hopes rising, although a cold calculation said there would need to be quite an acceleration to get anywhere near 280. Perhaps trying to achieve it Goldsworthy swept Lintott’s slow left arm spin. Sweeping against the spin always causes the heart to miss a beat and the ball floated into the hands of Kai Smith at  deep midwicket. Goldsworthy’ rescue attempt had ended at 78. The groan was audible but the applause for Goldsworthy was generous and the mood of the day had already been set. People were just enjoying a lovely day at the cricket. Somerset though were 160 for 5, a long way from the 280 minimum we wanted and only 15 overs left.

The short-contract Irish International, Curtis Campher, came and went and after a brief revival from Bartlett and the other newcomer, Danny Lamb, Bartlett top-edged to fine leg and Somerset were 192 for 7 with just nine overs left. Bartlett 74. The atmosphere dipped a little now, but a final flurry from Lamb (28 not out from 26 balls) raised it again. And yet, everyone knew Somerset’s final score of 230 all out in 47 overs was not enough and the afficionados present regretted the loss of those three unused overs.

Somerset began the Warwickshire innings with the 39-year-old Jack Brooks and Ned Leonard, 21 this month, and the difference between youth and experience showed itself against the experienced Warwickshire opening pair of Rob Yates and Ed Barnard. Brooks bowled a mean opening spell creating a dearth of runs at his end. Leonard meanwhile bowled some balls as piercing as any bowled by Hannon-Dalby, the pick of the Warwickshire pace bowlers, but also drifted too much onto the legs and too full on the off side upon which Warwickshire pounced to take a flying start. He will learn you cannot bowl there against established county players.

Brooks did bring the crowd loudly to life when Yates edged him to Rew with Warwickshire on 33 but by then the Warwickshire greyhound was out of the traps. From there Barnard and Will Rhodes marked time with the required run rate, which was never enough of a challenge, for singles with the occasional boundary were all that was needed. When Warwickshire reached 111 for 1 without having suffered too many alarms they needed another 120 runs needed from 29 overs and the game seemed a formality. If anyone wanted confirmation, they simply had to look at the scoreboard by Gimblett’s Hill to see that Warwickshire had left the Duckworth Lewis score far behind.

And yet, the crowd still buzzed as they enjoyed their day at the cricket with a weekend to come. Then, without warning, Somerset being Somerset, they fought their way back into the match. Brooks at one end and Campher, all bustle at the other, took three wickets in three overs. It ignited the crowd. The wickets were met with roars, arms were flung high towards the heavens, the applause was heartfelt, so much so that Brooks’ crescent moon celebratory run halfway around the outfield was barely noticed. There was cheering aplenty now as Somerset fought on. For the analytically minded a glance at the scoreboard revealed the Warwickshire 126 for 4 was only nine runs ahead of Duckworth Lewis. “Another wicket now…” the irrepressible thought.

Lewis Goldsworthy, a part-time bowler at best when he played in the Championship, now found his slow left arm being pressed into service at the Trescothick Pavilion End, the ‘wrong’ end for spinners at Taunton. And yet, he held Warwickshire to less than four an over and Somerset held them to within ten or so of Duckworth Lewis which, in 50-over cricket, has an uncanny ability to reflect the watcher’s feel for the state of the game. Somerset were behind, but only just and tension was building. But that one more wicket would not come and then Dickson kept Goldsworthy on for an over too many. Perhaps understandably, for the previous three overs, one from Leonard and two from Goldsworthy had conceded just three runs. But, that one over too many conceded 15 runs, not least a six from Hamza Shaikh which cleared the square boundary, disappeared down the gap between the Caddick Pavilion and the Temporary Stand and brought home the reality of the size of the Somerset task.

The spell built up by the Somerset bowlers since the fall of the fourth wicket was broken but the team was not, and neither was the crowd. The team kept pressing, the crowd kept cheering and even the music somehow seemed to be attuned to the atmosphere. Brooks was brought back earlier than Dixon must have hoped, and he and Campher removed Shaik for 38 and Barnard for 94, a counterblow which ignited the crowd’s roar twice more. But it was too late. At the fall of Barnard, Warwickshire were 202 for 6, just 29 runs short with ten overs left. Oh, the nagging memory of that irritating Warwickshire short cover. And, oh, those 40 runs it cost Somerset. From there Kai Smith and Jake Lintott saw Warwickshire home with some ease. The match was lost, but I doubt the crowd was, for it had been an enjoyable day at the cricket with a festival atmosphere. They left with disappointment at the result but many were wreathed in smiles at the memory of their day. They will be back.

Somerset 230 (47 overs) L.P.Goldsworthy 78, G.A. Bartlett 74, J.B. Lintott 3-43. Warwickhire 233 for 6 (43.4 overs) E.G. Barnard 94, C. Campher 3-47). Warwickshire won by four wickets. Warwickshire 2 points. Somerset 0 points