County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Sussex. 16^th, 17^th and 18^th May. Taunton.

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. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Sussex. D.P. Hughes, T.J. Haines, T.G.R. Clark, T.P. Alsop, J.M. Coles, J.A. Simpson (c) (w), F.J. Hudson-Prentice, J.J. Carson, N.J. McAndrew, O.E. Robinson, J.P.H. Hayes. .

Overnight. Somerset 317 for 6.

Second day – Somerset’s day

This was a different Somerset team to the one that turned out at Hove less than a month before. It brimmed with confidence, bowled with fire and vim, fielded the ball in the inner ring like a predator springing on its prey, and on the first day had topped 300 against a strong bowling attack on a helpful pitch by batting with an intensity, patience and determination that was missing in the second innings at The Oval. Gone too was the lack of energy in the field at Hove which followed those 200, ultimately unsuccessful, overs in the field against Worcestershire. This looked a different side, invigorated by the second innings come-back against Essex, and perhaps by the presence of Matt Henry, a fired-up Craig Overton and the immaculately controlled bowling of Josh Davey.

The second day proved to be a bowlers’ day on a pitch still strongly tinged with green. In the context of the second day’s play, Somerset’s overnight 317 for 6 was a formidable performance. There were shades of what was to come from the Somerset bowlers in the efforts of Ollie Robinson and Nathan McAndrew as they wrapped up the Somerset innings. Overton, not out overnight, was soon making his way back to the Caddick Pavilion, caught by John Simpson from an inside edge off a ball from McAndrew which cut in perfectly. Somerset 325 for 7. Overton 28. An over later, Pretorius was caught by Simpson off an outside edge, this time off Robinson from a ball of similar length which cut away. Somerset 326 for 8. Pretorius 1. It was high-class bowling from an opening pair who had found their mark.

Henry and Archie Vaughan, 70 not out overnight, soon followed as they responded by attacking the bowling. Henry in his own inimitable style; Vaughan, hitting out with only Jack Leach remaining at the other end. Both were out to similar strokes. Henry, attempting to drive McAndrew straight back over his head, miscued and was caught by Robinson running back from mid-on. Somerset 333 for 9. Henry 4. Vaughan followed, nine balls later, also caught at mid-on by Robinson off McAndrew, again attempting to hit back over the bowler’s head. “He had to go for it, didn’t he?” the largely rhetorical question asked by someone in the elevated section of the Trescothick Pavilion. Somerset 338 all out. Vaughan a crucial 80 in nine minutes short of three hours.

The crowd was well down on that of the first day, perhaps twelve to fourteen hundred at the start, climbing later. There was warmth in the sun, and although it was cooler in the shade, shirt sleeves were still the order of the day. Between the Somerset and the Sussex innings I chatted to the person next to me. We discussed one of the more striking social changes that had taken place over the last couple of decades. I had been to university in the 1970s, he around the turn of the millennium. A week or two before the match, he had attended a residential event at a university. When he and I attended our courses, student life outside of lectures and study, and there was rather more of that than students are sometimes given credit for, involved spending time with friends in the students’ union bar and at hops and discos. While on his recent short course he had noticed the bar was virtually empty and the students were largely spending their spare time hunched over their phones. It is four hundred years or so since the poet John Taylor and the playwright Thomas Middleton used the phrase, “’Tis a mad world my masters.” Plus ça change. Meanwhile, in the gaps in play in the twenty-first century world of a County Championship match anything is up for discussion, but when the players cross the boundary, the focus is still as much on the cricket as it ever was.

The push and counter push between the two sides that had exemplified the Somerset innings on the first day continued into the Sussex innings. In his first three overs, Davey went past the bat three times, and found a thick edge twice, the ball running wide of the slips on both occasions. The newly arrived Matt Henry, from the Trescothick Pavilion End, took longer to settle, but in his third over beat Tom Haines. “Good ball!” someone said. Meanwhile, Sussex found the boundary, a cover drive from Haines off Henry and a thick edge off Davey. There were two more fours, a pull through midwicket from Haines off Davey, and a thick edge, also from Haines off Overton who soon replaced Henry. The ball flew high and just wide of third slip, immediately followed by a beaten bat to extended applause, the crowd warming to the efforts of their team. “Good over that,” followed at the end of the over, with Sussex on 31 for 0. With Somerset building pressure, Hughes edged Davey head high immediately to Tom Lammonby’s right at third slip. Lammonby reached for the ball, cupped his hands behind it, there was a fleeting intake of breath from the crowd, but Lammonby palmed the ball behind him, the batters running two before it was retrieved. The sinking feeling was almost palpable, but at the end of the over Davey received an extended round of applause from an appreciative Hildreth Stand as he walked back to field in front of it.  

As so often, with a bowler of Davey’s persistent accuracy, with pressure building it was others who reaped the benefit. First Overton. The first ball of the next over induced an edge from a Haines defensive stroke, the ball flying straight to James Rew. Sussex 37 for 1. Haines 24 from 31 rather frenetically played balls. Deficit 301. Then Henry, from around the wicket in his first over after coming back, replacing Davey, beat the defensive bat of the left-handed Tom Clark and struck the pads. Sussex 45 for 2. Clark 4. Deficit 293. And then, as the to and fro between the sides continued, the riposte from Sussex. Three fours, a sharp back foot drive through point to the Priory Bridge Road boundary from Hughes off Overton and an extra cover drive to the Somerset Stand off Henry among them. In total, 23 runs came from the five overs to lunch, ending with the badly beaten bat of Hughes by Overton, “Come on Craig!” the shout as the crowd responded to the tightness of the game. Sussex left the field on 68 for 2, still 270 behind, under pressure but pushing back.

“That’s a lovely shot,” the comment in the first over after the interval as the left-handed Alsop drove Davey through extra cover to the Somerset Stand. A single apart, it was his last scoring stroke. Three overs later, he was walking back to the Caddick Pavilion. Miguel Pretorius had defeated his defensive prod and the ball had flown off the edge straight to Overton at second slip. Sussex 75 for 3. Alsop 13. Deficit 263. An over later, Davey was rewarded for his persistence. Hughes opened the face to the first ball to steer it neatly past the three slips to the Gimblett’s Hill boundary, “Delicately played,” someone said, and then took a single bringing the newly arrived James Coles on strike. Before the over was out, Coles was back in the Caddick Pavilion, caught low down at second slip, again by Overton. The cheers were instant and deafening, the buzz which followed electric as Sussex wilted under the constant pressure. Sussex 80 for 4 Coles 0. Deficit 258.

The pressure did not relent. Just 16 runs came from the next seven overs. John Simpson, so often Sussex’s saviour with the bat, was beaten to applause by Davey and then played and missed with a wild drive against Pretorius. “What was that shot?” someone asked. A back foot cover drive off Henry to the Somerset Stand did follow, but a perfect ball from Overton soon accounted for the Sussex captain. Angled in from around the wicket to the left hander it cut in a shade. Simpson, with an uncharacteristic misjudgement, left it and it struck his off stump full on. Looking at the pitch and with a tossed bat, he walked off. Sussex 97 for 5. Simpson 6 in a torrid four minutes over half an hour. Deficit 241.

Fynn Hudson-Prentice to the wicket. He was quickly beaten by Henry to applause. A confident clip off his toes to Gimblett’s Hill followed before he was beaten again. The crowd, at least metaphorically, were now on the edge of their seats. Overton to Hughes, around the wicket to the tall left-hander, angled in, pitched just outside off and cutting in a shade, the bat raised high. The ball struck the off stump and ricocheted towards second slip from where third collected it on his way to congratulate Overton. The cheer huge. Sussex 104 for 6. Hughes 38 in 16 minutes over two hours. Deficit 234. “Another one!” the incredulous comment, followed by, “Come on Craig!” When the new batter, Jack Carson, left a ball in Overton’s next over, someone advised, “Careful with that shot.” For Sussex, Hudson-Prentice looked more secure, but Carson brought a gasp or two with a top edge for four which flew over the empty gully position. A maiden from Overton to Hudson-Prentice brought more applause and a shout of, “Well bowled.”

Then, a brief Sussex fightback. Hudson-Prentice drove Leach, from the River End, through extra cover to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion scoreboard boundary to a shout of, “Shot!” Meanwhile, Pretorius replaced Overton at the Trescothick Pavilion End. The return of Henry to the side was now being felt with a front-line pace bowler always reasonably fresh and available. Hudson-Prentice tried to steer Pretorius’s third ball, wide of off stump, past the slips, barely moved his feet and edged it towards Overton’s feet at second slip. Overton reached down and scooped the ball from just above the ground as if it were a routine action. Hudson-Prentice looked hard at Overton, but from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, there was a clear view. The catch was clean. Sussex 129 for 7. Hudson-Prentice 14. Deficit 209. Talk among Somerset supporters of enforcing the follow-on was gathering.

McAndrew drove Pretorius off the back foot through the covers to the Somerset Stand, but in the next over, chipped Leach to Lammonby at cover. Sussex 140 for 8. McAndrew 8. Deficit 198. Two balls later, Robinson drove Leach over long on to the Hildreth Stand for six. In the next over, from Pretorius, Carson drove the ball hard into the ground, from where it flew high  towards cover where it was brilliantly stopped by Leach stretching high above his head. No run. It was typical of Somerset’s fielding as they kept the pressure on Sussex. In Leach’s next over, attempting a lofted straight drive, Robinson edged to Gregory at slip. Sussex 151 for 9. Robinson 6. Deficit 187. Last man, James Hayes, edged his third ball from Leach straight towards Gregory at first slip, but Overton, from second, dived across to intercept the ball and dropped it. It was a rare error. One of those things, Gregory’s smile suggested. It did not delay Somerset. Two balls later, Pretorius beat a late defensive bat and bowled Hayes who had looked out of his depth. Sussex 152 all out, Hayes 0. Deficit 186. Tea. My end of innings note says quite simply, “A different team than that which turned out at Hove.”

With 37 overs remaining, the crowd was buzzing. When the decision to enforce the follow-on was announced, it received an enormous cheer. By the end of the tenth over, with Sussex 52 for 0 with only an occasional beaten bat, it was clear that removing Sussex a second time would, as it so often is when a side follows on, be an altogether different task than it had been the first time around. Haines and Hughes had had the largest partnership of the first innings, and they proceeded to build another in the second. There was no attempt to grind out a score as had been the case for parts of the first innings. Boundaries began to flow, 11 in the first 15 overs.

The first, a back foot drive from Hughes off Henry to the T20 dugouts in front of the Caddick Pavilion raced off the bat. A cover drive from Haines off Overton, bowling from the Trescothick Pavilion End, to the Ondaatje boundary brought a cry of, “Shot!” The fifty partnership came off Davey with a pull behind square from Hughes to the Ondaatje boundary. An on drive from Haines to the Brian Rose Gates for another four brought another shout of, “Shot!”  Two straight drives from Hughes off Gregory to the Lord Ian Botham Stand boundary and one from Haines off Overton took Sussex to 82 for 0 in the 15^th over, 104 behind. It had been a stunning response by Sussex to their first innings mauling and heads in the crowd were beginning to look at one another. Then, as so often after a torrent of runs, the batters took breath, and for the next six overs, Vaughan, Pretorius and then Leach applied the brake, although then, Hughes swept Leach to long leg on the Somerset Stand boundary. It brought up the century partnership from 130 balls in 85 minutes and the gap between the sides had closed to 86 runs. It had been a stunning response from the Sussex openers.

But then, everything changed. Hughes attempted to defend the next ball, it turned a shade into the left-hander and Rew took the smartest of catches off the inside edge. Rew, following the momentum of his gloves, ran past the off stump and up the side of the pitch in celebration. Sussex 100 for 1. Hughes 40. There was warm applause as he left the field, and more for Leach as he returned to field in front of the Hildreth Stand. Eight balls later, Hughes’ opening partner, Haines was also walking off, leg before wicket to a quick ball from Pretorius from around the wicket, the left hander failing to get his bat across in time. The delay in the umpire raising his finger seemed interminable, but was probably little more than a second, and probably helped fuel the huge cheer from the crowd which followed. Sussex 100 for 2. Haines 50. The crowd were buzzing again like they had through most of the Sussex first innings. Clark to the crease. Six overs, and only 11 runs later, Carson, batting five places higher than he had in the first innings, jabbed at a shortish ball from Henry, now on at the Trescothick Pavilion End. and was also caught by Rew off the inside edge. Sussex 111 for 3. Carson 6. Deficit 75.

With the Sussex first innings collapse threatening to repeat itself, Alsop came to the crease. Three overs later, Clark drove Leach straight for four but was beaten by the next ball to a huge appeal for caught behind. Not out. “Come on!” the shout to the umpire from one impatient Somerset supporter. “One more,” the plea to the Somerset bowlers. The answer was quick in coming. The next ball, Clark attempted to sweep, another big appeal for caught behind. This time the umpire’s finger went up. Another deafening roar. Sussex 121 for 4. Clark 8. “Halfway tonight boys!” shouted Tom Lammonby, piercing the incessant buzz from the crowd. That though was the end of the excitement. Alsop and the nightwatch, Hayes, who had looked so out of his depth in the first innings, got their heads down and ground their way to the close, six runs coming from the final five overs. Sussex ended the day still 59 runs behind Somerset, having lost four wickets in the space of three quarters of an hour before the quiet of those final few overs restored some order to their innings. But it had been Somerset’s day, and those four wickets and the exceptional Somerset bowling performance in the Sussex first innings left the Somerset crowd walking on air as they left the ground.

Close. Somerset 338 (A.M. Vaughan 80, T.A. Lammonby 60, J.E.K. Rew 46, N.J. McAndrew 4-71, O.E. Robinson 3-70). Sussex 152 (M. Pretorius 3-24, C. Overton 3-30) and 127 for 4. Sussex trail by 59 runs with six second innings wickets standing.