County Championship 2023. Division 1. Somerset v Warwickshire. 6^th,7^th, 8^th and 9^th April. Taunton.

The author was unable to attend the final day of this match due to travelling to London for a non-cricket-related event which takes place only once every five years over the Easter weekend. The first two days on which play was possible (there was no play on the first day) were attended normally. The final day was followed online and watched subsequently on a replay of the Somerset CCC live stream.

Tom Abell had not fully recovered from a winter injury, but played for the second team whilst this match was in progress.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, S.R. Dickson, C.T. Bancroft, T.Kohler-Cadmore, G.A. Bartlett, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory (c), C. Overton, J.H. Davey,  M.J. Leach, P.M. Siddle.

Warwickshire. W.M.H. Rhodes (c), E.G. Barnard, M.G.K. Burgess (c), S.R. Hain, A.L. Davies, J.G. Bethell, D.R. Mousley, R.M. Yates, O.J. Hannon-Dalby, Hasan Ali, C. Rushworth.

Overnight. Somerset 269 for 8.

Third day 7th April – Somerset out in the cold

This was a day in which Warwickshire’s moved ahead but perhaps lost their way a little at the end as the bitter April cold engulfed the day. But first, the unfinished business of Somerset’s first innings. As so often with a batter not out with a good score overnight, Gregory, main architect of the Somerset second-evening revival was on his way back to the Caddick Pavilion, caught at slip by Robert Yates off Chris Rushworth for 65. Peter Siddle briefly lit up Somerset’s morning with a cover and an on drive off Oliver Hannon-Dalby’s naggingly persistent pace but was soon struck on the pad and Somerset were all out for 284. Siddle 10. Jack Leach 27 not out. “Not necessarily a bad thing, those two wickets,” someone along from me in the top of the Trescothick Pavilion said, “It probably means the ball is moving.”

When, off the third ball of the Warwickshire innings, Yates defended against Josh Davey, the ball flew like a bullet into Tom Lammonby’s waiting hands, low at fourth slip. Perhaps those two wickets were a good thing, the thought, for indeed the ball did seem to be moving and Warwickshire were 2 for 1. The cheer that went up certainly thought so and as it subsided the crowd buzzed with the sort of anticipation with which it had begun the first day. A loud leg before wicket appeal against Alex Davies from Craig Overton and an inside edge which raced past the leg stump off Davey kept the anticipation alive.

But subtly, the mood changed. The bat was beaten a couple of times, but the ball was finding the boundary too. Davies and Will Rhodes were getting on top of the situation and the thoughts of the first day, that the Gregory-Davey partnership had suggested the pitch had runs in it hovered in the back of the Somerset mind. That the Somerset attack, after the first few overs, seemed to lack its normal penetration added to the impression. The left-handed Rhodes in particular attacked the ball. Not much more than a push off Davey reached the midwicket boundary in front of the Caddick Pavilion and an on drive beat mid-on to reach the Lord Ian Botham Stand while Overton was turned fine to the Somerset Stand. By the 15^th over Leach’s slow left arm had been pressed into service at the River End but Rhodes promptly drove him straight for four and Warwickshire were 66 for 1. “They are going at four an over to our three,” the worried comment from behind me.

And then, while in full flow, Rhodes pulled Leach straight into the hands of Overton waiting on the Somerset Stand wide midwicket boundary. Had the pair practised for a week, Overton could not have been better placed or the stroke better directed. Warwickshire 70 for 2. Rhodes 39 from 52 balls. Davies had been more circumspect, although looking in no more difficulty than Rhodes had seemed. Three times he had steered the ball with a smoothness of touch between the slip cordon and backward point, twice off Davey and once off Overton.

With Rhodes gone, Davies immediately took the lead. Twice in an over, Gregory was guided to the gap between Gimblett’s Hill and the Somerset Stand and Leach slog swept into the Somerset Stand for six. Two fours in an over off Leach, one steered past slip and one cut sharply through backward point to the Ondaatje Stand took him past fifty in 63 balls with nine fours and a six, and Warwickshire lunched on 108 for 2, scored at four and a half an over. Leach had caused one or two problems, but no more than might be expected from a spinner in his early overs. The prospect of a long afternoon stretched ahead.

The match was not yet running away from Somerset, but my lunchtime meander revealed an uneasy feeling about the way it was going. Warwickshire were two wickets down, but the fall of Rhodes had either been fortuitous, or he had fallen into a carefully laid Leach-Overton trap, and Yates had fallen to the new ball in the first over. I found myself beginning the afternoon session still in conversation, standing by the covers store next to the Trescothick Pavilion. It is a good place to talk cricket. It affords a good view of the action and there is a steady trickle of spectators to chat to.

I soon found myself talking to someone who never missed a day of Somerset Championship cricket, home or away, before the pandemic, and we had often stopped to talk. I had seen him about the ground much less since COVID and so I took the opportunity to ask why. “The pandemic broke the habit,” the first part of his response. The second reflected the comments of many in the 2022 season and at the beginning of this match. The nature of domestic cricket is changing, and the Club is changing too, he suggested. The Hundred, or, more accurately, its impact on the rest of the game was at the heart of his disillusionment, as with so many who have followed the county game for decades, and some newer to it.

The compressing of the majority of County Championship matches into April, May and September, and the effective downgrading of the 50-over Cup by playing it at the same time as The Hundred, thereby denuding it of all the best county players, were at the heart of his concerns. As we talked, his point about early-season Championship matches seemed more and more apposite as the temperature began to drop. We both knew that by the end of the day, those left in the ground would be uncomfortably cold, however many layers of clothing they had brought.

There was discontent too with recent changes at Somerset. The twin impact of the pandemic and the high levels of inflation currently affecting the country had squeezed the club’s finances at a time when there is ever-increasing competition for players from the better-financed Test ground counties and from various T20 franchises around the world. The response of the Club to these challenges has included strategies to bring in more income from corporate sponsorship and hospitality and at the same time to cut costs. The developing outcome has been a number of changes at the Club which have resulted in unhappiness among many members and were at the heart of the Club-related issues which were causing the disillusionment of the person I was chatting to.

As he spoke, he swung around and pointed to the Somerset Stand resplendent in its bright new seats but closed for the season on the final two days of Championship matches to reduce costs. Although the Somerset Stand tends to be the least well-populated stand for Championship matches, one of the aspects of watching cricket at Taunton which draws people in is the atmosphere and a starkly empty stand which stretches across one entire side of the ground undermines that.

The closure of The Stragglers coffee bar on non-match days because it was running at a loss has caused considerable discontent for it had become a centre for members to meet when they were in Taunton. He referred as well to the decision during the winter to close the County Room in the Colin Atkinson Pavilion to members during matches. It is the only bar in the ground from which the cricket can be viewed and has been a favourite haunt of many members on match days since it was opened over 40 years ago. The decision had been quickly reversed for Championship matches because of a huge outburst of anger from members but it still rankles with many.  

Our discussion highlighted the tightrope which has to be walked if the smaller county clubs like Somerset are to compete consistently with the larger counties with income from Test grounds and all that goes with it. Somerset is the strongest financially of the non-Test ground counties but has income of just one-fifth of that of the larger Test ground counties. Against that, county members have provided a steady stream of income and support through the thick and thin of a club’s progress through the years and some of the cost-saving and income-raising measures have severely tested their goodwill. Income versus goodwill is a tricky equation to manage, but lost goodwill is difficult to retrieve.

And while our discussion ran on, Warwickshire ran up a challenging score. The fine detail is lost, but the eye was attuned to the cricket enough to know that the Warwickshire batting was getting the better of the Somerset bowling and that their innings was threatening to pass Somerset’s with some ease. Boundaries, especially from Davies, were uncomfortably frequent and appeals worryingly few and far between. At the wicket with Davies was Sam Hain who initially took some time to establish himself but had looked a solid as a rock at the crease. As our conversation drew to a close, a look at the scoreboard revealed Davies moving into the 90s at which he seemed to draw breath while Hain picked up the pace of scoring.

I returned to my seat in time to see Davies push Leach for a single to bring up his century to extended applause from the ever-generous Somerset crowd and take Warwickshire to 180 for 2, They were within 102 of Somerset’s total which was looking increasingly inadequate. With tea less than ten overs away, Abell turned to George Bartlett, nominally an off spinner, but one who had previously bowled only 20 balls in a first-class career stretching back seven seasons. Memorably he came on to bowl at the end of a dead draw against Hampshire in 2018 to see out time and had to be taken off mid-over for bowling two beamers which seemed to float interminably towards the batter in slow motion. Here, in successive balls, Davies cut him to the Somerset Stand and late cut him to the Hildreth Stand. Leach meanwhile was paddle swept fine to the Trescothick Stand and lofted over midwicket for four to the Somerset Stand. And then, to startled looks, Leach bowled Davies. “That looked a very odd stroke,” someone said as Davies appeared to attempt something between a reverse sweep and a reverse pull. “He got in an awful tangle.” But, with 118 runs to his name, he walked off to extended applause from the Somerset crowd.

In Leach’s next over, Dan Mousley was bamboozled by Leach and was leg before wicket before Ed Barnard paddle swept his first ball to Gimblett’s Hill to take Warwickshire to tea on 211 for 4, 73 runs behind Somerset with Hain on 38. Suddenly, especially with two batters seemingly outwitted by Leach in short order, Somerset did not seem quite so far behind in the game and something of a buzz returned to the ground.  

By the time the players returned, the temperature, which had been steadily dropping all afternoon, was becoming unpleasantly cold and the crowd had shrunk markedly. As to the cricket, there was some hope for Somerset as, before Warwickshire could properly settle, Siddle beat Barnard with a peach of a ball. Siddle celebrated but the immediate cause was not clear from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion until Barnard began to walk off and someone said, “It just took the off bail.” The stumps stood pristine with the leg bail resting in its grooves as the eyes focused on the gap between the tops of the middle and off stumps. Warwickshire were 236 for 5, 48 behind, Barnard 19. They still had the advantage, but Somerset were within range.

Still at the wicket though was Hain and he had just lazily driven Overton through the covers to the Somerset Stand for four. It was an effortless shot full of power which exuded class and Hain had looked to be in no trouble at all. A cut to the Caddick Pavilion boundary followed the departure of Barnard, and Mark Burgess, Barnard’s replacement, found the boundary twice in an over off Gregory, once off the inside edge and once from a cut through backward point to the Ondaatje boundary. When Leach was tried again from the River End, Hain cut him neatly past slip and lofted him over mid-on, both for four.

That took Warwickshire to 268 for 5, just 16 behind, with Hain on 60 and looking a fixture. But, quite apart from Warwickshire’s rising score, watching was becoming a chore. The temperature was on one of those late-afternoon plummets to which it can be subject in early April. It is a cold which permeates to the bone no matter how much clothing the watcher is wearing. The Somerset team had lost all their usual chirpiness in the field too, the usual exhortations from Abell and Lammonby long absent, and the crowd had become mute as Warwickshire and the icy temperatures took control.

And then, having taken control, a lone reverse sweep to the Ondaatje boundary from Burgess apart, Warwickshire began to drift. Just 18 runs came from the final seven frozen overs. “They are losing their way a bit,” someone said. Perhaps they were concentrating on survival, and not just of the cricketing type. The lights were on, and the temperature was still dropping. Frozen toes were the order of the day in the stands and the remains of the crowd had voted heavily with those frozen feet. By the final few overs, I counted barely a hundred souls still existing in the stands. Since the seat refurbishment in the Somerset Stand in the winter, the seating is entirely white. As Somerset were frozen out of the match, the scattered remains of the crowd looked like the detritus of a failed polar expedition. Even the lights coming on brought no hope. Then the umpires seemed to lose hope too and took the players off for bad light, calling stumps before their own frozen feet could reach the Pavilion.

Close. Somerset 284 (L. Gregory 65, C.T. Bancroft 44, J.H. Davey 42, E.G. Barnard 3-54, O.J. Hannon-Dalby 3-76). Warwickshire 307 for 5. Warwickshire lead by 23 runs with five first innings wickets standing.