County Championship 2024. Division 1. Somerset v Hampshire – 26^th, 27^th and 28^th September – Taunton.

Tom Banton was unavailable due to an ankle injury.

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, T.A. Lammonby, A.R.I. Umeed, T.B. Abell, T. Kohler-Cadmore, J.E.K. Rew (w), K.L. Aldridge, L. Gregory (c), M.J. Leach, A.R.J. Ogborne, S. Bashir.

Hampshire. T.E. Albert, F.S. Middleton, N.R.T. Gubbins, J.M. Vince (c), T.J. Prest, L.A. Dawson, F.S. Organ, B.C. Brown (w), J.K. Fuller, K.J. Abbott, Mohammad Abbas.

Overnight. Somerset 136. Hampshire 62 for 5. Hampshire trail by 74 runs with five first innings wickets standing.

Second day 27^th September – Wilting under pressure

The day began with the covers on and, for the first time I could recall since the drainage had been improved in the previous winter, a pool of water just beyond the covers at the River End. It was barely enough to fill a bath, but there had been a huge amount of rain overnight and the umpires decreed an early lunch and a start at five minutes to one,15 minutes before the afternoon session had originally been scheduled to start. Twenty overs were lost from the day.

When play eventually began, it seemed as if it would follow the same grinding pattern of the first day. After seven overs, there had been three maidens, 14 runs, 12 of them from Felix Organ and two from a Lewis Gregory no ball, one boundary, one beaten bat, two plays and misses, a thick edge for two, and a single boundary. Then Jack Leach found the edge of Organ’s defensive push, the ball flew low to Aldridge at second slip and Aldridge took the catch with apparent ease. It was about par for the course after the first day. Hampshire 76 for 6. Organ 12. Deficit 60. The match still in balance.

But then Ben Brown replaced Organ and he and Toby Albert immediately set about changing the tempo of the Hampshire innings. Four boundaries and a three came inside three overs, Albert pulling Gregory through long leg to the Priory Bridge Road boundary and steering him safely past fourth slip to the Hildreth Stand. Brown swept his first ball, from Leach, square to the Somerset Stand and then swept again, fine to Gimblett’s Hill. The three came when Albert cut Leach past second slip to the covers store. That took him to his fifty, scored in nearly two and a half hours, his being dropped on nought, with the Hampshire score on 0 for 1, still niggling at the minds of some Somerset supporters. The three had taken Hampshire to 100 for 6 and the realisation that they were only 36 behind.

Leach bowled to Brown. Brown was playing the sweep repeatedly against the spinners and repeatedly picked out Aldridge at square leg. Now he played it again, sweeping Leach square along the ground. Again, Aldridge, diving to his right, fielded. Again, Brown swept. This time he connected with a slight miscue. The ball flew, slower, in the air, just to Aldridge’s right. Aldridge reached out, got both hands to the ball, but it burst through and ran towards the boundary, “He’s missed it!” the disbelieving cry from someone nearby. Adding insult to injury, Brown completed a single before the boundary fielder could return the ball. It was a toe-curling moment for any Somerset supporter watching, and probably for those playing. With Albert and Brown threatening to take Hampshire ahead in the game, the drop felt like a crucial moment and the Somerset heart sank.

Now, the partnership settled into a pattern. Albert defended while Brown attacked, sweeping and reverse sweeping ball after ball with an effect that was devastating in a low-scoring match. Two overs from Ogborne were treated with care, but when he was replaced at the Trescothick Pavilion End by Bashir, ten runs came from the over, nine from Brown, five from three reverse sweeps and a boundary driven through straight midwicket to the covers store. Bashir’s next over cost six runs including a four reverse-swept by Brown over backward point to the Garner Gates. The fifty partnership came from 67 balls from a leg bye when Brown played and missed with his third reverse sweep off successive balls from Bashir, the second having been brilliantly fielded in the slips, and Hampshire were 126 for 6, just ten runs behind.

Now Albert took the lead, straight driving both Leach and Bashir for six. When Aldridge replaced Leach, Albert pulled him through deep midwicket to the Somerset Stand for four. “Good shot!” someone said. Then, “He’s got him!” Albert had cut at Aldridge’s next ball and edged it to Rew. Hampshire 149 for 7. Albert 77 in a minute under three and a quarter hours. Hampshire were now 13 in front with three wickets still to fall in what looked like being a low-scoring match.

There were 47 more runs by the end of the Hampshire innings, a lead of 60, nearly half of Somerset’s first innings score. For one person in the Trescothick Pavilion, this was their last day of cricket for the summer and a heavy-duty working life limited his opportunity to watch cricket. “I’m going for a final walk around the ground for the year,” he said as James Fuller walked out to join Brown. And, as Hampshire racked up those final 47 runs, I watched as he ambled slowly along, disappearing and reappearing from behind the stands and pavilions to stop and watch the cricket for a while before ambling on. That final doleful walk of the season with winter bearing down is a thing familiar to us all.

As to those 47 runs, all scored while he walked, Hampshire added them in nine overs. Brown’s course was nearly run. He was beaten past the outside edge by Leach, “Oh! Lovely ball!” the comment, but in the end, Leach had his man. Brown, reverse sweeping once too often, was caught at backward point by Vaughan with an electric dive to his right. “What a catch!” someone said amidst the cheers. Hampshire 159 for 8. Brown 35. Lead 23. Brown must have been sweeping and reverse sweeping to plan, so persistently had he done it. Whoever was responsible for the plan must have been satisfied with the outcome, for Brown’s 35 was only exceeded in the Hampshire innings by Albert’s 77.

Hampshire were gaining the upper hand now, and when Abbott joined Fuller they added another 31 runs in five and a half overs. As the Hampshire lead grew, each run weighed down on Somerset’s prospects. Fuller employed the sweep almost as much as Brown. “Good shot!” someone said as one sweep off Leach reached the Priory Bridge Road boundary. Abbott, always a lower order threat with the bat, was more inclined to employ the drive, reaching the boundary twice, once through backward point from an angled bat off Aldridge and once through the covers off Gregory as Somerset switched to pace. Repeated singles and a pair of twos kept the momentum going, but eventually, off Gregory, Abbott drove once too often and the ball flew straight towards Bashir’s face at cover. There were gasps when he failed to hold it, parried it forward, grabbed at it again, knocked it down, then caught it in front of his ankles before revealing a sheepish smile as he threw it up. Hampshire 190 for 9. Abbott 18 from 19 balls. Lead 54.

Gregory turned to Vaughan. Fuller lofted him over long on straight towards me, but unlike Rew’s slog sweep at Edgbaston, it fell well short although easily carrying the boundary. Six more runs to add to Hampshire’s lead. An attempt, off the next ball, to clear the extra cover boundary near the Brian Rose Gates resulted in a steepling catch caught by Tom Abell enjoying a period on boundary patrol. Hampshire 196 all out. Fuller 25 from 25 balls. “Sixty lead. Useful in this match,” someone summed up. The slightly subdued chatter added its own comment.

And with that tea, and my own circumnavigation. It ate not only the tea interval but the first hour or so of the Somerset innings as I too dawdled as I took in the ground and the cricket from different perspectives. It also took four Somerset wickets. Lammonby, opening again, drove Mohammad Abbas sharply through extra cover to the Brian Rose Gates for four in glorious sunshine. Then, trying to keep the next ball out, he edged to Brown behind the stumps. Somerset 11 for 1. Lammonby 5. Deficit 49.

Vaughan continued his promising start as an opener, striking four cleanly hit boundaries in the first seven overs. His first, a glance off Abbas to the Trescothick Pavilion boundary added to the picture of him playing that stroke with aplomb without generating the sort of anxiety that Abell does when he attempts it. Two square drives, one off Abbott to the empty Somerset Stand and one off Abbas to the Caddick Pavilion were classically struck and a steer off Abbas to the covers store took Somerset to 30 for 1 with half the deficit wiped off.

Meandering the boundary and watching your side making progress is one of the more relaxing ways to spend an hour in the sun. But from 30 for 1, the mood, and the sky darkened. Cloud began to build, the runs dried up and wickets began to fall. First, Vaughan failed to get the bat down on a ball from Abbas which cut in and struck his pads. Somerset 34 for 2 in the ninth over. Vaughan 25. By the 15^th over, Umeed and Abell had added just three more runs. The detail is lost during a dilatory meander, but the residual impression is of Abbott and Dawson probing and pressurising while the bats of Umeed and Abell became becalmed as they battled to keep the ball out.

Against Dawson the batters were wary, but it was Abbott, scourge of Somerset over a number of seasons, who broke through, twice in an over. I had reached the old Legends Square when Umeed played defensively and edged low, straight to Prest at a wide third slip. Umeed had made five from 23 balls in nearly three quarters of an hour. Somerset 37 for 3. Three balls later, Abell brought his bat down in defence and edged the ball. Albert, at second slip, dived low to his left and took the ball in front of the closing hands of first slip. Somerset 38 for 4. Abell 2 from 23 balls. Deficit 22. Hampshire were squeezing the life out of Somerset’s cricket.

It had not been a fruitful circumnavigation and so I made my way back towards the Trescothick Pavilion. Before climbing the stairs, I watched a couple of overs from behind the covers store. In successive deliveries, Abbott sent one ball so close past the edge of Rew’s bat that it brought gasps from the crowd, and the next took the edge and was taken by second slip. From where I stood, it was impossible to tell if it had carried, but there was no appeal and Rew survived.

Deciding that my circumnavigation had gone on long enough, I reached my seat in time to see a defiant slog sweep from Tom Kohler-Cadmore off Dawson. There was a hint of top edge about the stroke and the ball took a slightly higher trajectory than perhaps Kohler-Cadmore had intended but it just cleared the square boundary in front of the Ondaatje Stand to the right of the player dugouts. It also registered Somerset’s fifty but with batting looking a distinctly precarious occupation.

Then, with the score on 54 for 4 and the sun shining brightly, rain fell from a clear sky and the players left the field. It was a curious sight, the conclusion being drawn that the cloud dropping the rain must be directly above or behind the roof of the Trescothick Pavilion. With the umpires standing next to the pitch, matting and sheeting covering for the pitch was brought on. Then, as the rain intensified, covering for the rest of the square was brought out and the offending cloud appeared over the ground. Half an hour later, the players were back, their shadows stretching across two and a half pitch widths while the late September shadow from the flats reached to a pitch or two short of the cut strip. By then, the crowd were virtually gone, and the sun was shining again. England’s summer game played at the end of September.

Two and a half overs later, with a hazy sun still shining, the players made for the Pavilion and the covers were rushed back on. Rain was falling again and cloud hung over the ground with the sun reaching under it from just above the flats. Evening was fast closing in. It was half past five and still half an hour of the extended cricketing day remained, but with Hallow’een barely a month away, that was the end of play for the day with 55 out of 108 overs bowled. As to the match, with Somerset four wickets down and wilting under pressure from the Hampshire attack, the match scores level, Abbott, Abbas and Dawson awaiting on the morrow, the few survivors of what had been a thin crowd by Taunton standards made their way home.

Close. Somerset 136 and 60 for 4. Hampshire 196 (T.E. Albert 77, M.J. Leach 5-52). Scores level with Somerset having six second innings wickets standing.