County Championship 2023. Division 1. Somerset v Northamptonshire. 4^th,5^th, 6^th and 7^th May. Taunton.

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

Northamptonshire. R.S. Vasconcelos, Hasan Azad, S.M. Whiteman (c), Z.A. Zaib, R.I. Keogh, J.J.G. Sales, H.O.M. Gouldstone (w), T.A.I. Taylor, J.S.D. Buckingham, B.W. Sanderson, C. White.

Overnight. Northamptonshire 255. Somerset 199 for 4. Somerset trail by 56 runs with six first innings wickets standing.

Third day 6^th May – Coronation for a King

The cricketing moment of the day came in its penultimate over. Somerset had headed Northamptonshire by 157 runs on first innings. Northamptonshire had reduced that to 94 runs without losing a wicket when Jack Leach bowled to the left-handed Ricardo Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos shaped to turn the ball to leg, Craig Overton, at a wide leg slip, almost backward short leg, anticipating, began to move to his right to intercept the expected stroke. The ball took the inside edge and flew fast and low to Overton’s left. Overton responded instantly, dived hard to his left and took the catch low down with his left hand. It was an astonishing catch. Vasconcelos looked stunned as he stared back down the pitch in disbelief. It was a crucial catch too, for until then, despite some testing bowling from Somerset’s pace bowlers, Lewis Gregory and Peter Siddle in particular, Northamptonshire had looked like they were having the better of the final hour of the day. It was only one wicket, but it felt like it changed the nature of the innings. If Leach could take wickets on the final day, Northamptonshire would struggle.

The other moment of the day came at the scheduled start time for the cricket. In 1953 it rained on the late Queen’s coronation. In 2023, it rained on the coronation of King Charles. And it rained 150 miles away before the third day of this match too resulting in a wet outfield. It meant that the very small crowd could watch the coronation uninterrupted on Somerset’s scoreboards which double as big screens. Living within half an hour of the ground, I watched the coronation on television at home. I am told I watched the 1953 coronation too. I was two at the time, but my parents assured me I saw it, and were, I think, disappointed I couldn’t remember it. “Can’t you remember all the people in our sitting room?” they asked. No. There were 23 apparently. My parents had bought a television set for the occasion and 20 members of our family and neighbours crammed into our small sitting room to watch it in black and white on a nine-inch screen.

The third day of cricket finally got underway at two o’clock with the newly crowned King safely back in Buckingham Palace and enjoying a probably much-needed lunch. No doubt the King’s lunch began on time, unlike Somerset’s much-delayed start. Despite the coronation ceremony itself beginning at eleven I still managed to miss the first five overs. That included Tom Kohler-Cadmore, perhaps predictably, crowning his century with a six off the first ball he received. The ball, from White, was struck so straight that it descended, perhaps appropriately after the perfection of the coronation proceedings, straight down the middle of the screen on the footage from the fixed camera placed directly in line with the stumps. No six could be hit straighter. The bowling was from the River End and, also appropriately, the ball fell into the Lord Ian Botham Stand. It was a reminder too of what had gone previously in Kohler-Cadmore’s innings as is the statistic that Kohler-Cadmore’s century came from 72 balls.

From there, Somerset played in a way which suggested a need to score quickly after the equivalent of a day’s cricket had been lost to the weather. Kohler-Cadmore, beginning with that six, continued where he had left off, but Rew moved up into a different gear. In the first 15 overs, 79 runs came, 35 to Kohler-Cadmore and 43 to Rew, Rew passing fifty along the way. With five fours and a six in the remainder of the partnership, Rew’s timing was for the most part immaculate. The appropriately named Buckingham was driven square to the point between the Caddick Pavilion and the Priory Bridge Road Stand and then turned square to the Somerset Stand with the minimum of touch but rifle-shot velocity. There was a guide too to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion. He was dropped along the way, knee-high at second slip off White. Northamptonshire had just persuaded the umpires to change the ball. “You might want to change the ball again,” the instant advice from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion following the drop.

When Northamptonshire turned to the off spin of Rob Keogh, Rew turned on the power, lofting him for four to the Priory Bridge Road boundary and six to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion scoreboard. Kohler-Cadmore completed his innings against Keogh with another straight six. It took him to 130 before he drove Keogh straight to Vasconcelos at midwicket. There was extended applause for Kohler-Cadmore from the small crowd but not much of a celebration for his wicket from the Northamptonshire fielders, perhaps because the assault that he and Rew had carried out in the first hour had taken Somerset into the lead at 278 for 5, already 23 ahead.

Somerset had the bit between their teeth and kept it there until the end of their innings. With Somerset chasing time, the last five wickets added 134 runs at over five and a half an over with the lower-order batters scurrying the score along in a series of mainly short, sharp innings. First, Lewis Gregory, as apparently relaxed as ever, pushed his first ball to backward point for a single. Two more, off Taylor were guided past the slips, the strokes as relaxed as Gregory looked. Successive fours, also off Taylor, one lofted to the covers store the other driven square and effortlessly to the Somerset Stand were almost nonchalant in their execution. When he tried a more forceful approach, advancing down the wicket to Taylor, in an attempt to to drive him straight for six, he was bowled. “I think that would have come up here if he had hit it,” someone said. Somerset 323 for 6. Gregory 23. Somerset were now 68 ahead and time was being created for a realistic attempt to bowl Northamptonshire out a second time.

Perhaps taking breath, there was a more sedate start from Kasey Aldridge and Rew. They scored their first 17 runs in singles including six from a single over from Saif Zaib. Rew was out shortly afterwards, bowled through his third attempt at a reverse sweep to Zaib, the first two attempts having been far from convincing. “Not sure why he tried that,” someone said. “He only had to wait, and he would have had a hundred.” Perhaps he was conscious of the need not to get bogged down against the spinner. Rew 89. Somerset 346 for 7. Lead 91. When Aldridge drove Keogh through the covers for four Somerset left the field for tea with a lead of 99.

With the final session came the new ball. Someone once asked me, “Why do the Somerset bowlers always get one of those new balls that flies off the bat?” They don’t always of course, but Northamptonshire did get one. The Somerset innings lasted only another eight and a half overs but the ball flew to the extent of 58 runs. Aldridge did not remain long. White went straight through his defence and uprooted his off stump. He had though added 24 and Somerset, at 379 for 8 were 124 ahead.

That wicket left Craig Overton and Jack Leach at the crease. After his Test match experiences of Bazball, Leach’s approach with the bat changed. Before Bazball he could be relied upon to defend an end often for long periods under intense pressure. Since Bazball, he attacks the bowling too, as often as not successfully. Overton can play either way too. At the beginning of his innings, just before Aldridge was out, he had called for a run with, “Maybe, maybe, maybe, Come on! Come on!” turning a single into two and making clear how he intended to play. A four was lofted square, one bounce, to the long Caddick Pavilion boundary, another hooked unceremoniously to where Legends Square used to be.

Leach for his part drove Buckingham through the covers to the Somerset Stand with such power and style that one watcher could only say admiringly, “Oh Jack!” Then a piece of pure magic. Fourteen runs from a Buckingham over. A steer past slip towards Gimblett’s Hill for two brought up Somerset’s 400 to a big cheer. Then, a four cut hard and square to the Somerset Stand followed by another which raced past a backward square leg fielder placed there for the stroke. And then, the icing on the cake to a high bouncer. Leach jumped, reached up, and spooned it over the keeper to the Trescothick Pavilion boundary. That took Somerset to 412 for 8 where they ended when Overton, caught on the Trescothick Pavilion boundary, and Peter Siddle, bowled, “Having a swipe,” as someone put it were out off successive balls. The ninth wicket had added 33 in four overs as Somerset squeezed as many runs as they could out of the time they dared bat if they wished to force a win. Somerset 412. Overton 26. Leach 21 not out. Lead 157. Time remaining, weather permitting, an hour and a half over three sessions.

There was tension in the air as Northamptonshire began their innings. Within three overs the lights were on and in the fourth Hasan Azad was struck on the hand by a no ball from Gregory, who was bowling with some threat. After some attention, Azad had left the field to be replaced by the Northamptonshire captain, Sam Whiteman. The anticipation, or hope, that Somerset might make progress could be felt. Any talk was hushed and tense and Somerset put in a leg slip for Whiteman. That picture soon began to change though as Vasconcelos and Whiteman began to score with some confidence. Bowling to four slips, Overton was driven through the off side to the covers store, “He is actually quite good,” the comment on Vasconcelos, and then straight to the Trescothick Pavilion boundary with such power that, “That is a good shot,” followed. An on drive to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion from Whiteman off Gregory had no flaws either. Nor a cut through backward point to the Brian Rose Gates. Although from there for a period the bowlers, Siddle in particular, gained some control and the runs virtually ceased, neither batter looked in any trouble.

When the clouds retreated and the sun suddenly shone, a brief period of acceleration added to the growing sense that Northamptonshire were finding the pitch easy to bat on. When Whiteman took two fours in an over with neat deflections off Aldridge, Somerset’s lead fell below 100 and it seemed that Northamptonshire would go into the final day with still ten wickets standing. And then, that stunning Overton catch changed the mood, Suddenly, the slips were full of encouragement for the bowlers and Abell was shouting, “Come on boys!” For those few of us left at the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, it felt like Somerset had a chance of victory after a day in which Tom Kohler-Cadmore had crowned that wonderful century with the perfect six, and on which the country had crowned a King for the first time in, to within a week, 86 years.

Close. Northamptonshire 255 and 66 for 1. Somerset 412 (T. Kohler-Cadmore 130, J.E.K. Rew 89, C. White 5-103). Northamptonshire trail by 91 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.