County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Yorkshire 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th September Taunton.
Somerset. T. Kohler-Cadmore, A.M. Vaughan, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T.B. Abell, L.P. Goldsworthy, L. Gregory (c), B.G.F Green, K.L. Aldridge, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.
Yorkshire. A. Lyth, F.J. Bean, M.A. Agarwal, J.H. Wharton, J.M. Bairstow (c) (w), M.L. Revis, G.C.H. Hill, D.M. Bess, J.A. Thompson, D.T. Moriarty, C. White.
Overnight. Somerset 391 for 6.
Day 3 – The weather has its say
It was half-past ten, September had broken, the forecast was dire, the sky was overcast, the air was chill and only 150 or so spectators, mostly anoraked, had braved the open stands to watch the players and umpires walk out from the Caddick Pavilion. As Ben Green, yet to face a ball, took guard at the River End, the seats behind him looked deserted, only a few recalcitrant souls defying the threat of the sky and the forecast. Yorkshire seemed to have forgotten it was a new day, for they opened not with their opening bowlers but with Matthew Revis’s medium pace at the Trescothick Pavilion End and Dom Bess’s off spin at the River End. Green and Kasey Aldridge played out the remains of the final over of the previous day and Bess’s first over of the new day as if they were suspicious of what the ball might do.
And then, in Revis’s first full over, they began to move forward. Three singles quietly played at first, a quiet pull from Aldridge to long leg for another single, and then, from Green, a straight drive for four. In Revis’s next over, Green drove him off the back foot through the covers to the Somerset Stand for four and pulled him over straight midwicket and over the Ondaatje Stand for six. White, with more pace, then replaced Revis and Green hit him back over his head for another six. In the five overs after Somerset began to score, Aldridge and Green added 39 runs, and it was clear that a declaration would not be long delayed. Two overs later, Aldridge lofted White to the long on boundary to register the fifty partnership from 50 balls before the promised rain came and drove the players from the field at eleven o’clock with Somerset on 441 for 6.
The lights were on, and the rain came and went, toying with the hopes of spectators as it did. Sometimes the rain was patchy, sometimes steady. The light darkened and brightened. Hopes of more play rose and fell. The Brendon Hills, visible from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, and usually the best predictors of rain – if they faded from view, the culprit was usually rain moving in the direction of the ground, appeared and disappeared. The covers came on and then came off before going back on again. Spectators disappeared from view apart from a dozen or so who stood, or sat, firmly at their posts in the stands. Your correspondent circumnavigated the ground more times than the captain of a three masted sailing ship might pace the quarterdeck on a watch but discovered no matter how many times a cricket ground is circumnavigated, even in an anticlockwise direction, the weather does as it pleases.
Eventually, a restart was announced for twenty minutes past three with 43 overs remaining to be bowled. Josh Davey, River End, and Lewis Gregory, Trescothick Pavilion End, opened the bowling. Adam Lyth and Finlay Bean, both left-handers, opened the batting for Yorkshire. Lyth edged Davey wide of the three slips to the Gimblett’s Hill boundary. Davey sent four byes down the leg side. Bean guided Gregory past the slips for another four and, in total, Yorkshire were off to a flying start with 17 runs on the board by the end of the second over. And then, the rain fell again. And stopped again, and started again, and stopped again. The umpires inspected but information came their none, perhaps because spots of rain again began to fill the air. And then, that note of doom for a day of cricket, the ground staff weighted the covers before the announcement came that the umpires had finally called play off for the day. With the best part of three innings and one day left in the match, the weather had had its say.
Close. Somerset 441 for 6 dec (T.B. Abell 130, T. Kohler-Cadmore 76, L.P. Goldsworthy 65). Yorkshire 17-0.
'Farmer White' Somerset Cricket Writing 