County Championship 2025. Division 1. Nottinghamshire v Somerset. 29^th, 30^th, 31^st July and 1^st August. Trent Bridge.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke (w), J.A. Haynes, L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, C.G. Harrison, B.A. Hutton, D.Y. Pennington, Mohammad Abbas.

Somerset. L. Gregory (c), J.H. Davey, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T.B. Abell, T. Banton, A.M. Vaughan, C. Overton, M. Pretorius, M.J. Leach, J.T. Ball.

Toss. Nottinghamshire elected to field.

First day – An idyll of Somerset batting

The omens were not good for Somerset. The sky was overcast, the light indifferent, Nottinghamshire had a strong pace attack led by Mohammad Abbas and they had elected to bowl on winning the toss. Abbas’s second ball, from over the wicket and slightly angled in, cut in some more and kept low. Lewis Gregory shuffled across his stumps, raised his bat high to leave the ball and was struck on the pads. The appeal from in front of and behind the stumps was instant and convincing, more of a roar than a shout. The raising of the umpire’s finger was instantaneous, admitting of no doubt and Somerset were 0 for 1 with the sleep barely out of most spectator’s eyes. In Abbas’s next over, a ball, again slightly angled in, this time from around the wicket, perhaps straightened a trace. Tom Lammonby brought his bat forward to defend and edged the ball knee-high to Calvin Harrison at second slip. Somerset 0 for 2 and the cheer from the Nottinghamshire crowd of perhaps twelve hundred, perhaps a few more, reverberated around inside stunned Somerset heads.

James Rew joined Josh Davey, who had opened the innings with Gregory. With Rew batting a foot out of his crease, on top of the two wickets, it suggested Nottinghamshire were probably getting all they had hoped for out of the conditions when they elected to field. Somerset’s first runs came from a boundary off Brett Hutton, bowling from the Stuart Broad End, previously the Pavilion End, but the runs came from the edge of Davey’s bat and flew between the slips and gully. Three more came off Davey’s bat via the same route off Abbas, Rew also edged him past the slips, for two more. Although successive boundaries from Rew were solidly struck off Abbas, one driven through the covers to the Smith Cooper Stand where I had taken up residence in the 22^nd row, the other pulled square along the creases to the Fox Road Stand, the overall impression of the partnership was of vulnerability. And Abbas was not finished. Davey edged a straight ball straight to Joe Clarke behind the stumps. “Yeah,” said the Nottinghamshire supporter behind me with an element of satisfied surprise in his voice. Somerset 25 for 3. Davey 12 in what had been a torrid 53 minutes for Somerset, and Abbas had taken his 800^th first-class wicket.

Tom Abell joined Rew and edged his second ball, from Abbas, past the slips for a fortuitous single. When Abbas beat Rew, the person behind me said to his friend, “They’re struggling.” At 26 for 3, it was something of an understatement. But when, six hours later, Abell was caught by Lyndon James between fine and long leg hooking Dillon Pennington, Somerset were 338 for 4. By then, both he and Rew had passed 150, Abell had made his highest first-class score, and the partnership was the highest first-class fourth wicket partnership in Somerset’s history. “They’re struggling,” had come in the 15^th over. Abell was caught in the 94^th. The innings turned in the 16^th, the ball suddenly seeming to lose its bite. Abell turned Pennington square for two, leaned into a controlled drive to midwicket for a single and Rew clipped a ball off his toes so fiercely there was never a doubt that it would cross the rope. As if to confirm the change, in Pennington’s next over, Abell turned the ball square with such ease and speed it raced across the ground to the boundary. “Shohhht!” said a West Country voice and suddenly, it felt, Somerset were digging their way out of trouble.

Rew and Abell still played Abbas with considerable circumspection, his opening spell, lasting nine overs, cost 15 runs. Although Somerset’s fifty wasn’t reached until the second ball of the 20^th over, it was reached with some aplomb. It was Lyndon James’s first over, bowled from the Stuart Broad End. The first ball was driven straight for four by Abell. The second, Abell leaned into and drove through straight midwicket to the long Fox Road boundary for four more. “Oh dear,” the comment from the Nottinghamshire supporter behind me. It wasn’t quite “Oh dear” yet, for Somerset were three down, but the feel of the game had changed, the balance had shifted from bowlers to batters, and that comment caught the new mood.

What followed was beyond dreams for Somerset supporters. A partnership of 313 runs scored at nearly four runs an over. Beyond dreams, but with a niggling anxiety. If the Championship leaders, Nottinghamshire, with Abbas, Dillon Pennington and the ever-reliable Brett Hutton could only take four wickets in a day, how would Somerset, despite the all-round strength of their attack, take 20 in the match? But that would be answered on another day. For the moment, this day was for the enjoyment of some peerless batting. It took place under a sky encased in light grey cloud not thick enough to entirely protect against the sun. This I discovered because I had committed the cardinal sin of forgetting my hat, white, wide rimmed with the wyvern crest in the middle of the forehead (assuming I remember to put it on the right way around). Even with the cloud, and the partly opaque and partly semi-transparent roof of the Smith Cooper Stand, once the cool of the morning had lifted, I could feel the heat of the sun on my face.

Abell’s boundaries gave the partnership momentum. Three overs later, Rew pushed further, finding the boundary three times off successive balls from Hutton, bowling from the Radcliffe Road End. The first, an attempted flashing cover drive flew off the edge, high and wide of the second of two slips and crossed the boundary just square of the Stuart Broad End scoreboard. The second was a sumptuously driven open faced drive just backward of point, and the third, the neatest of clipped on drives between mid-on and midwicket to the Radcliffe Road End scoreboard. The pitch and the ball may now have been offering little help to the bowler, but those last two strokes were the strokes of a class batter. By lunch Rew and Abell had taken Somerset to 90 for 3, the 40 runs scored since Abell’s two boundaries having come in ten overs and the fifty partnership having been registered in 77 balls.

And then, of course, my lunchtime circumnavigation, if it can truly be called that when it included something of a short cut across the outfield. Of the 1,200 crowd, a good 200 made it onto the outfield including a number of fathers with young sons playing soft ball cricket. I could not help but note how often it was the father who ended up with the bat in his hand. As some of us peered at the wicket, one Somerset supporter said to me, “That ended better than it started.” It was in part a statement of the obvious, but it was said with some relief. He and I were just two of a large number of travelling Somerset supporters in the ground, many now wearing smiles where taut faces might have been in evidence an hour before.

For Somerset supporters, the afternoon session was a batting idyll. My notes record one play and miss and two edges, both falling safely, for the entire afternoon session. No more. I cannot guarantee that I missed nothing, but compared with a normal session of cricket there was thin gruel indeed for the bowlers. For the batters, the session brought 137 runs in 35 overs, a trace under four an over. For them, it was an afternoon of making hay, virtually without let or hindrance. After they had played out two maidens to find their afternoon feet, Rew launched a six straight to the Stuart Broad End going to his fifty from 75 balls in the process, Liam Patterson-White, slow left arm, the bowler. “Let’s make it halfway,” shouted a Nottinghamshire fielder. It benefitted Nottinghamshire nothing. In the next over, Abell struck Pennington for three successive fours, a back foot square drive, a pull behind square and sharp clip off his toes just behind square to the Smith Cooper Stand boundary to my right, all played with the mastery of the classical batting style that epitomises Abell at the crease. Somerset 111 for 3. Nelson, that alleged taker of wickets,in attendance.

He did not benefit Nottinghamshire. There were a quiet couple of overs, Ben Slater, fielding on the boundary beneath me loudly clapped his encouragement, the strange acoustics of the Smith-Cooper Stand converting the claps into the fizzing whine of a rifle shot as portrayed in films of old. I have never been shot at, but David Niven, who both appeared in war films and saw action in the Second World War said, “Anyone who says a bullet sings past, hums past, flies, pings, or whines past, has never heard one – they go crack!” Slater’s claps whined through the Smith Cooper Stand but had no other impact. In the next over, there was a flowing cover drive from Rew to the Larwood and Voce Stand boundary at the Pavilion end of the Fox Road Stand, and a ball guided to fine leg by Abell for four more which registered his fifty from 78 balls, he and Rew virtually matching each other. The century partnership was reached from 151 balls with a single driven off Harrison to mid-on by Abell. Then a different role for Slater as Rew lofted Calvin Harrison’s leg spin over his head towards the Smith-Cooper Stand. “Heads! Heads! Heads!” he shouted as the ball bounced on the path in front of the stand and landed among the spectators in the rows behind. The six as it rose, was coming straight towards me, shades of Edgbaston 2024 when a six from Rew had landed in the seat across the aisle from mine. Murmurings of déjà vu, but this time the ball fell well short, and it didn’t whine. 133 for 3.

And so it continued. Another six from Rew, driven over midwicket and into the 15^th row of the Smith-Cooper Stand, fortunately at the far end from me and seven rows lower. There were fours from Abell, including two in one over off Hutton, Nottinghamshire switching their bowlers about; and then, in Hutton’s next over, two in succession, one cut through backward point to the William Clarke Stand to my left. The second of those registered the one-hundred and fifty partnership from 202 balls and took Somerset to 176 for 3.

The return of Abbas, at the Radcliffe Road End, in partnership with Hutton heralded a period of a dozen overs without a boundary. It reduced the scoring rate for a while, but the singles still flowed and both batters took advantage of the long boundary on the Fox Road side of the ground to push into the gaps for two. Rew reached his century off 138 balls with one of the twos, driven through extra cover off Hutton. The runs may have slowed, but there was little sign of a wicket, the nearest being a solitary edge from Abell off James, replacing Hutton, which fell just short and wide of the only slip. Abbas, looking less effective than in his nine-over opening spell, had already given way to Patterson-White after five overs. There were two more fours from Abell, one off James clearing a jumping midwicket. Then a three, driven through the on side off Harrison which brought up his century off 165 balls and the two hundred partnership off 305. Then tea with Somerset on 227 for 3, and the struggles of 25 for 3 seemed an age away.

And then, the evening session with yet more of the same, although now with the cloud closing in and thickening and the floodlights coming on. Nottinghamshire began with the leg spin of Harrison, Radcliffe Road End, and the off spin of Freddie McCann, Stuart Broad End. The scoring was not quite so frenetic as at times in the afternoon. It was though remorseless. There were fewer boundaries, but the ball ran endlessly across the outfield and across the evening session for singles and twos. Of the boundaries, a four from Abell off McCann was pulled to the Fox Road boundary following two singles earlier in the over. The following over, bowled by Harrison, produced five singles, “Come on Calvin,” the attempt at encouragement from the field. That was followed by two singles from the next over and two singles and a two from the next. And not a ghost of a chance in sight. There were another 20 runs in the following seven overs, including a boundary from each batter, with the rest driven, pushed of steered quietly into gaps. By the end of the 80^th over, Somerset were 281 for 3, Rew on 135 from 218 balls, Abell on 125 from 207 balls. Across their partnership, they had matched each other virtually run for run.

And then, the new ball and Abbas, Radcliffe Road End, and Hutton, Stuart Broad End. The overs on the ball might have been wound back to zero, but Rew and Abell just carried on regardless. Abbas’s first over cost six, Rew driving him through extra cover to the William Clarke Stand to my left for four. “Come on lads, halfway,” shouted a Nottinghamshire fielder. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” shouted Abell as he and Rew ran two. And then the steady rotation of the strike before a lightning-fast off drive off Hutton to the Hound Road Stand from Rew took the score past 300. Somerset supporters were buzzing, many sitting forward in their seats. Nottinghamshire supporters, buzzing themselves at midday were now leaning back in their seats seemingly resigned to the perpetual motion of the Somerset innings.

And still the fours raced to the boundary among the singles, five in the final eight overs of the day. Abell went past 150 from 245 balls with a late cut for four off Pennington. That boundary also registered the three hundred partnership from 467 balls, the Nottinghamshire announcer working overtime. Abell passed his previous highest first-class score, 152, when he opened the face to a ball from Pennington and steered it past backward point. And then, with the light really beginning to bear down, Abell hooked Pennington, the ball flew high, looped straight to James at long leg and Abell was gone for 156. Somerset 338 for 4. There was extended applause from Somerset supporters around the ground with a generous contribution from the Nottinghamshire crowd too. The view from the online watcher was more prosaic, “Abell will be kicking himself for that.”

As Jack Leach walked to the wicket as the deputed nightwatch, a group of younger Nottinghamshire supporters chanted, “One run for the Engerland!” a reference to the one run Leach scored at Headingley in the third Ashes Test of 2019 in a tenth wicket stand of 76 with Ben Stokes which completed an iconic England victory. The chant was followed by a cheer when Leach defended his first ball. There was no single. Leach had faced only two balls when the umpires finally gave way to the light and took the players off with 15 balls of the day remaining.

It had been an astonishing day’s cricket, from a Somerset perspective at least. An all-time first-class wicket partnership is not an everyday occurrence, although slightly more likely to happen in four-day cricket than in the three-day variety of old. The record had stood for 45 years since Peter Denning and Ian Botham added 310 for the fourth wicket against Gloucestershire at Taunton in 1980. It left a bounce in the step of Somerset supporters as they left the ground, and a question in the mind for the walk back to the hotel: would Somerset be able to bowl Nottinghamshire out twice with the Kookaburra ball on a pitch capable of producing an all-time county batting record?

Close. Somerset 338 for 4.