County Championship 2025. Division 1. Essex v Somerset 24^th, 25^th, 26^th and 27^th September. Chelmsford.

Tom Abell was unavailable for selection under the ECB concussion regulations, Alfie Ogborne due to a back injury and J.T. Langridge due to a side injury. 

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, J.F. Thomas, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T. Kohler-Cadmore, L.P. Goldsworthy, K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, L. Gregory (c), M.J. Leach, J.T. Ball..

Essex. D. Elgar, P.I. Walter, T. Westley (c), C.W.J. Allison, M.J.J. Critchley, M.S. Pepper (w), N.R.M. Thain, S.R. Harmer, D.A.J. Bracewell, C.E. Bennett, J.A. Porter. 

Overnight. Somerset 433. Essex 295 for 2.

Third day – The day darkens the mood

Craig Overton led the Somerset bowlers as they took the last eight Essex first innings wickets for 138 runs to reduce them from their overnight 295 for 2 to 438 all out, just five runs more than Somerset’s 433. With only a day and a half remaining that seemed to leave little prospect of a result. But what followed in the remainder of the afternoon and an evening session shortened by some Stygian light which would have served perfectly as a backdrop for a scene in a Dracula film transformed the match. It was as dark a light as I have seen cricket played in, at least as viewed from the covered seating in the Felsted Stand. It soon developed an eerie quality which reflected Somerset’s progress in the match when the floodlights were switched on nine overs before tea.

Long before the fading of the light, my day had begun while waiting for a bus delayed for three quarters of an hour on the return leg of its previous journey by an accident which happened to occur on my route to the ground. A car with a huge gouge the full length of its side and a pair of police cars sat motionless beside the road as we eventually passed the spot. I would miss ten overs of cricket. Someone else’s day was much worse. Meanwhile, at the ground, Essex were not having the best of starts to their day either. Tom Westley had joined Dean Elgar, not out on Nelson overnight, replacing the nightwatch, Simon Harmer, out off the final ball of the previous day. Westley soon fell victim to the Overton bowling surge which had begun the night before and continued through the Essex innings. Westley failed to get fully over a short ball pitched wide of off stump and pulled it to Josh Thomas at midwicket. Essex 307 for 3. Westley 7. Essex deficit 126. Three overs later, bowling from around the wicket to the left-handed Elgar, Kasey Aldridge, with a trace of inswing, beat the inside edge of Elgar’s attempt to clip him to leg and struck the pad. The umpire’s finger went up, Elgar’s head went back in disappointment and, as he walked straight off, his bat was tossed in the air in a neat ‘such are the fates’ somersault before landing back in his hand. Essex 319 for 4. Elgar 118. Deficit 114. Somerset pushing.

By the time I had taken my seat in the Felsted Stand, Essex had reached 334 for 4, 99 behind, and every ball was being hotly contested with Essex’s virtually unhindered four and a half runs an over near-300 run charge of the second afternoon now in check. The first ball of the first over I saw from my seat, bowled by Aldridge from the Graham Gooch End, was late cut through gully by the newly arrived Charlie Allison only for it to be stopped right on the boundary by a determined piece of chasing fielding. Two runs that might have been four. The fourth ball beat Allison. Off the fifth, a cover drive was again hauled back on the boundary. Three runs instead of four. The new ball, taken by Jake Ball, soon replaced by Overton, and Lewis Gregory, harassed the batters. Allison drove at Gregory and missed before surviving a ferocious leg before wicket appeal from Overton. In response, the newly arrived Matthew Critchley struck Gregory for three fours in two overs, two square drives to the Pavilion boundary and a straight drive to the Graham Gooch boundary. It was though a fortuitous inside edge off Allison’s bat that registered the fifty partnership, Gregory again the bowler.

Overton meanwhile was still on a charge, and a perfectly angled-in ball to Allison cut in a trace more, beat the inside edge of a defensive stroke, sent the middle stump flying and Overton trotting, arms aloft, towards backward point in celebration. Essex 369 for 5. Allison 27. Deficit 64. Overton was in full flow and Michael Pepper edged his second ball wide of the slips then survived a loud appeal for caught behind off his fourth. The pressure from the bowlers was intense and Essex were threatening to crumble before it. Critchley soon fell leg before wicket trying to keep Gregory out. Essex 379 for 6. Critchley 29. Deficit 54. Somerset closing in. Next, Pepper edged Overton straight and low to Tom Kohler-Cadmore at first slip. Breaths taken by the smattering of Somerset supporters for the cheer were expelled as gasps when Kohler-Cadmore, one of the safest pairs of hands on the county circuit, dropped the catch. The batters meanwhile added insult to injury by running a single while a crestfallen Kohler-Cadmore was motionless on the ground.

An over later, Pepper edged again, this time off Gregory, again to Kohler-Cadmore. Again, the ball arrived low, very low, and again it fell to earth. This time, from my seat, it was impossible to be sure if the ball had carried. No time to ponder. Pepper drove Overton through extra cover for four and then benefitted from four overthrows off the next ball when Gregory, presumably fielding at mid-off because of his hand injury, missed with a throw at the stumps. Still Overton charged in. Before the over was out, Pepper was leg before wicket to another spearing delivery. Essex 393 for 7. Pepper 17. Overton 22.4-3-79-5. Deficit 40. Lunch. And, in a breathless morning, Overton had bulldozed Somerset back into a match that looked to have drifted away from them at the end of the previous day.

Circumnavigating the Chelmsford ground is an exercise in navigating through endlessly oncoming people where in places there is no room for oncoming people. There is a continuous walkway around the ground, but the close confines of the ground result in the walkway being narrow for much of the way. Along the entire Felsted Stand side of the ground there is barely room for one spectator to pass another. It reflects the nature of the ground as a whole where spectators are concerned. Although it has a capacity of five and a half thousand it looks well populated with a crowd of a thousand. At one point I broke off from my circuit and stood for a while leaning on the low wall at the back of the lower level of the Tom Pearce Stand at the Sir Alistair Cook End. As I looked out onto the outfield, another Somerset supporter I did not recognise approached me. He said he often sits behind me in the Trescothick Pavilion at Taunton and enquired about the notes he sees me taking. I thought it curious he had waited until we were both at Chelmsford before he had asked. Until that is, he said he lived in Tilbury and primarily watched Somerset with a friend who is an Essex supporter when they play Essex at Taunton or Chelmsford. Such are the connections which Championship supporters make.

Essex began with quiet care after lunch but Overton soon struck again. Doug Bracewell the victim, out looping a drive high to Ben Green, fielding as substitute, at mid-off. Essex 399 for 8. Bracewell 0. Deficit 34. Somerset were on the cusp of a small first innings lead but Essex were not done yet and a concerted if brief counterattack was launched by Noah Thain and Charlie Bennett. Bennett was particularly aggressive, scoring 22 from 26 balls including a four driven off the back foot through the covers off Ball immediately followed by a six which hit the boundary boards at long on. The first ball of the next over, from Leach, now bowling at the Graham Gooch End, Bennett drove straight for four to take Essex to within one run of Somerset’s score. The second, he limply lifted straight back to Leach. 432 for 9, one run behind.

Thain was now joined by Jamie Porter who settled the issue of first innings lead with his first ball, hitting it back over Leach’s head and out of the ground into the Hayes Close gardens to cheers from the Essex supporters. Three balls later, Porter tried to repeat the stroke, this time over long off. He badly miscued and was caught by Josh Thomas back pedalling hard at cover. Essex 438. Porter 6. Thain 15 not out. Lead 5. After Essex had begun the day on 295 for 2, it felt like an election result in which the winning party had been expected to romp home by a landslide but, in the end, just scraped over the line. With the fall of the final Essex wicket, it was announced that Overton had taken his 500^th first-class wicket. He had by then taken 503, Westley being his 500^th.

By the fall of the final Essex wicket, the sun, which had occasionally bathed parts of the morning, had retreated, and the sky was overcast, if only light grey in colour. A chill wind accompanied it, reminding that autumn was awaiting the end of the season with some impatience. For Somerset, Thomas began confidently enough against Bracewell, playing him through the offside three times between point and third slip, each for four with an angled bat, if once with a hint of edge. Vaughan looked less secure against Porter, as he often does at the start of an innings. He was beaten three times in Porter’s first three overs. He did find the boundary twice, a thick edge wide of the slips and a straight drive. An attempt at another straight drive in Porter’s fourth over was beaten by a ball which cut in, went through the proverbial gate and damaged the middle stump which needed to be replaced. Somerset 22 for 1. Vaughan 8. Lead 17. Vaughan had faced 21 balls, all from Porter. “Vaughan has not learned how to get off strike. It is becoming a dying art,” one Somerset supporter said to me in another way of looking at rotating the strike.

An over later, Tom Lammonby was walking back to the Pavilion after coming down too slowly to defend against Bennett and being struck on the pad. Somerset 23 for 2. Lammonby 0. Lead 18. Now, in line with the mood of the day thus far, Thomas and James Rew immediately responded by fighting fire with fire. Three boundaries came in Bennett’s next over, two guided by Rew, one through backward point and one through deep square leg, running unhindered towards the Felsted Stand, while Thomas drove another through point with an open face to the Pavilion. With the light darkening, Bracewell replaced Porter, 11 runs came from the over including two more boundaries from Thomas, a straight and a cover drive, the latter running towards me in the Felsted Stand and taking Somerset to 51 for 2 as it crossed the rope. Both were struck with an apparent minimum of force but raced to the boundary. Rew followed in the next over with a thick edge and a steer, both through the backward point area for four. It was scintillation stuff to watch if you were a Somerset supporter, but there were too few of us to make much noise and Essex supporters seemed unconcerned as chatter filled the stands and the ball raced to the boundary.

As the score mounted, the cloud thickened and the light darkened. Rew attempted to flick Bennet through the leg side and totally mishit the ball. It flew skywards in the opposite direction to the stroke and was caught by Thain at cover after what seemed to be an interminable wait. Somerset 59 for 3. Rew 19 from 19 balls. Lead 54. The pace of the game did not relent and an over later, before he could find his bearings, Tom Kohler-Cadmore was bowled by Bracewell trying to defend. Somerset 60 for 4. Kohler-Cadmore 0. Lead 55. With Kohler-Cadmore gone, the lights came on, and the improvement in light was instantly noticeably. Perhaps it is an indication of how dark it had become that when the lights came on the bowling side’s supporters cheered. Now, with the game moving against them, Somerset reined in their scoring, adding 19 in the eight overs to tea, the only boundary coming from Thomas, driven to wide long on aided by an Essex misfield. Porter returned from the Graham Gooch End to bowl two overs before tea. He began with analysis of 6-4-8-1 and ended with 8-4-11-1. It might have been 8-5-10-2 had Elgar at first slip not let an edged drive from Thomas fly straight through his hands for a single. “Yea … Ohhhhh,” shouted the Essex crowd as an embryonic cheer was strangled as the catch went down. Three balls later, “Come on Somerset!” shouted a solitary Somerset supporter. Tea was taken with Somerset on 79 for 4, a lead of 74 but with a different mood to that which had prevailed as Thomas and Rew were on the charge.

By the time the players returned after tea the air had turned bitterly cold under the lowering cloud, especially if you faced the wind. Cold enough for shoulders to hunch and anorak zips to be pulled to chins. Lewis Goldsworthy began by driving the first ball of the new session, a wide full toss from Bennett, through the covers to the Pavilion boundary. But there was to be no continuation of the Somerset revival. Three overs later, with a ball which cut in sharply off the seam, Porter beat a rushed defensive swish across the pads from Thomas’s and the raising of the umpire’s raised finger quickly followed. Somerset 89 for 5. Thomas 39. Lead 84. It was Porter’s 550^th first-class wicket. And now as, like Overton before him, he bowled a spell of searing pressure, His 551^st wicket came five balls later. Aldridge pushed at a delivery which moved away a trace off the seam. Aldridge looked reluctant to leave the scene, perhaps disappointed to have touched the ball, his head having swung round to see the ball landing in Fernandes’ gloves. Somerset 89 for 6. Aldridge 0. Essex supporters were cheering now. And cheering again in Porter’s next over when a ball angled in on Overton’s leg stump beat him and struck the pads. Somerset 91 for 7 and in total disarray as Porter overwhelmed the middle and lower order in that Stygian gloom . Overton 2.

Leach, capable of being the rock that steadies a collapse lasted seven balls. His departure brought disbelief. He pushed the ball from Porter straight to Allison at short cover and set off for a run which was the very definition of impossible. He started, hesitated, ran, reached halfway before, with Goldsworthy at the non-striker’s end keeping his head and soon his ground, making an effort to regain his. For Essex, Allison kept his head and threw the ball straight over the top of the stumps and into Fernandes’ waiting gloves with Leach two yards short. Somerset 95 for 8. Leach 1. Lead 90. It was very dark now and the Somerset mood matched it. I told the online watcher. “It must be dark if Leach couldn’t see the fielder at short cover,” his response. When I looked beyond the confines of the ground and beyond the range of the floodlights it really did look very dark, at least in cricketing terms.

The umpires conferred but play continued with Essex resorting to the spin of Harmer and Critchley perhaps after an intervention from the umpires in response to the light. As far as can be told from beyond the boundary, and the light will look different in the middle, it would have been an intervention entirely justified. It made no difference to Somerset. Before the first over of spin was out, Harmer had pushed Goldsworthy back and bowled him. Somerset 97 for 9. Goldsworthy 19 from 58 balls. Goldsworthy had battled for two minutes under an hour and a half without ever looking like dominating. He had seen five wickets fall and 37 runs come in two minutes short of an hour and a half at the crease, but no-one had proved able to stay with him to stem the flood of Essex wickets. Harmer had turned the ball sharply to him from a foot and a half outside off stump and hit middle which might have given Somerset hope had they had another hundred runs on the board. He repeated the ball in his next over, this time to Ball. This time it pitched a foot outside off and hit off. Somerset 99. Ball 1. Gregory 2 not out. Porter 12-5-4-18.

With Essex needing 95 to win, the players walked off through the spectral gloom that was now enveloping the ground. It darkened by the minute as the ten-minute interval between innings ticked by and the announcement that there would be no more play that evening surprised no one. It didn’t seem to matter. There was a whole day to come, and a good enough forecast for 95 runs to be scored. And I doubt anyone thought 95 runs would trouble Essex unduly despite 18 wickets having fallen on the third day, and even with the lateral movement evident as the day progressed.

Whatever the outcome, it would not affect Somerset’s fortunes. Warwickshire had succumbed to the new Champions, Nottinghamshire, and Somerset would finish third whatever the outcome at Chelmsford. Essex, statistically at least, were still in jeopardy, but for them to be relegated they would have to fail to score 95 and Durham would have to force an unlikely win against Yorkshire in a match in which they were 135 behind with the third innings was yet to start. I doubt anyone leaving the ground, particularly the few Somerset supporters among them, thought either of those outcomes within the bounds of possibility.                                                           

Close. Somerset 433 and 99 (J.A. Porter 4-18). Essex 438 (P.I. Walter 158, D. Elgar 118, C. Overton 6-88). Essex need 95 runs to win with ten second innings wickets standing.