County Championship 2026. Somerset v Warwickshire. June 19^th, 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd. Taunton.

Somerset captain Lewis Gregory was not available for selection due to a hamstring injury. Craig Overton replaced him as captain. Also unavailable through injury were Tom Abell (hand injury). Will Smeed (finger), Tom Lammonby (elbow). James Rew was unavailable for selection due to being on England duty.

Somerset. J.G. Hermann, J.F. Thomas, T. Kohler-Cadmore, L.P. Goldsworthy, T.H.S. Rew (w), A.M. Vaughan, C. Overton (c), M.J. Leach, J. Shaw, M. Pretorius/A.R.J. Ogborne*, J.T. Ball.

*Alfie Ogborne replaced Migael Pretorius at the beginning of the second day under the ECB injury replacement regulations being trialled in 2026 after Pretorius suffered a chest muscle injury.

Warwickshire. R.M. Yates, A.L. Davies (w), D.R. Mousley, S.R. Hain, B.J. Webster, E.G. Barnard (c), Z.A. Malik, E.R. Bamber, J.A. Thompson, N.N. Gilchrist.

Overnight. Somerset 208 and 23 for 1. Warwickshire 330. Somerset trail by 99 runs with eight nine innings wickets standing.

Third day – Somerset withstand the heat

Somerset began the second day in a parlous position, 99 runs adrift of Warwickshire with already one second innings wicket gone. By lunch they had lost three more wickets and were still 18 runs behind. A little over an hour into the afternoon session they were 26 runs ahead but had lost two more wickets and the match was in the palm of Warwickshire’s hand. At the crease were 18-year-old Thomas Rew and 32-year-old Craig Overton, until the 2026 season much more of a bowler than a batter. After them would come Jack Leach and two more bowlers. If any Somerset supporters clung to any hope of salvation, it was that Rew, in only his third Championship match, already had a stunning century under his belt, and Overton, who had clearly worked on his batting, had already scored two Championship hundreds in 2026. But, faced with the reality of the scoreboard, the talk among some Somerset supporters I spoke to was of being home for tea. Alongside that, there was the heat. Searing in the sun, just bearable in the shade of the north face of the Trescothick Pavilion. By the afternoon, from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, the few remaining survivors sitting motionless in the full face of the sun on the terrace of the Colin Atkinson Pavilion looked like the stranded remnants of a lost civilisation.

The day had begun with the Quantocks and the Brendons both visible from my seat in the Ondaatje end of the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, chosen because that end of the seating retains the shade for longest. There was some cloud, but it was high, thin and wispy white. Blue sky predominated and the mercury was already racing up the glass at the start of play. By my eye, the crowd numbered perhaps eight or nine hundred, the numbers down on a normal third day, perhaps affected by the forecast of remorselessly mounting heat and the fact that it was Father’s Day. Because of the rain interruptions on the second day, eight additional overs had been added to the day.

At the crease for Somerset were Jordan Hermann in the final innings of his short-term signing, and the nightwatcher, Josh Shaw. They made a slow start against some well-directed Warwickshire bowling, at one point playing out four successive maidens against Nathan Gilchrist, River End, and Ethan Bamber. The bowlers were supported by constant shouts of encouragement from the Warwickshire fielders. Only once though did I see the ball beat the bat in those opening overs, although there were a few thick edges to suggest the batters were not in complete control. One of those came from Hermann off Bamber’s bowling and ran wide of the two slips towards the River End. Hermann and Shaw ran like the wind, turning for a second run. As Hermann raced, bat stretched out ahead of him, someone in the top if the Trescothick Stand emitted a long “Ohhhhhhhhhh!” which rose in pitch until it reached a crescendo coinciding perfectly with Hermann’s bat streaking through the crease as the ball arrived in the keeper’s gloves. The result: two runs off Somerset’s deficit and a lot of ageing hearts beating rather faster than perhaps was good for them.

The two sides were trading blow for blow. When Gilchrist bowled a perfectly directed bouncer at Shaw, the margin by which Shaw pulled his head out of the way rivalled the distance by which Hermann’s bat was past the crease when the ball arrived in the keeper’s gloves. Shaw was not deterred. He had the perfect response to the fullish ball with which Gilchrist followed the bouncer, rising to his toes and driving it along the ground and through the covers to the Somerset Stand for four. Now, Hermann began to accelerate, pulling Bamber through square leg to the Somerset Stand for four more. When Jordan Thompson replaced Bamber, Hermann drove him through straight midwicket. Four again. Against Manav Suthar’s slow left arm spin he was less assured, Suthar beating him through a reverse sweep and a defensive prod. Eventually, Suthar prevailed. Hermann got under a sweep to deep midwicket and Gilchrist, fielding on the boundary, ran in to take a sharp catch diving forward. Hermann had batted three minutes over an hour and a half for 34, but with Somerset on 49 for 2, Warwickshire were on their way and Somerset were still 73 runs behind.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore soon followed Hermann back to the Caddick Pavilion. He had begun in typical Kohler-Cadmore style, emphatically driving Suthar wide of long off to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion and sweeping him to the Somerset Stand, both for four. Suthar persisted. A sweep to fine leg brought two more runs but, with a hint of top edge, looped towards the boundary before being hauled back. In Suthar’s next over, Kohler-Cadmore drove hard but the ball turned past the edge. A drive through midwicket to the Somerset Stand resulted in two more runs, but off the next ball an attempt at a sharp drive caused Kohler-Cadmore’s foot to drag and Alex Davies had the bails off before he could get back. Somerset 69 for 3. Kohler-Cadmore 12 in 16 balls. Deficit 53. Warwickshire beginning to close in.

Shaw meanwhile had kept Warwickshire at bay, focusing on keeping the ball out. At the departure of Kohler-Cadmore he had scored 14 from 72 balls with just two back foot cover drives reaching the boundary. He had looked as solid as those figures suggest apart from being beaten several times by Suthar who was finding some turn. Now he hooked Beau Webster to the Priory Bridge Road boundary and drove the next ball over mid-on for two, provoking someone to say, “I’m not sure we need this. We are still fifty-odd behind.” But when, against Suthar again, he attempted to defend against a ball which pitched on leg and straightened, it took the edge and flew straight to Ed Barnard at slip. Somerset 80 for 4. Shaw 22 in three minutes under two hours for which he received extended and generous applause as he walked off. He had done his job as someone said, but Somerset’s deficit was still 42.

That left Rew and Lewis Goldsworthy, maker of 90 of Somerset’s first innings 208, at the wicket. For the most part, and without too many alarums, they picked their way through the ten overs to lunch at about two and a half an over. Half of those runs came from three boundaries, one from Rew driven through mid-off to Gimblett’s Hill to a shout of, “Shot!” For the most part though it was careful defence with most of the other runs coming from deflections square of and behind the wicket. They steered Somerset to lunch on 104 for 4 but with still 18 runs needed to catch Warwickshire, and a finish by tea or thereabouts was still on some lips.

Before beginning my lunchtime circumnavigation, I watched the ground staff prepare the outfield for ‘perambulation’ as the Club had chosen to call spectators’ long-cherished tradition of lunchtime walking on the outfield. Virtually unique to Taunton in this regard are coloured cones. Usually, they are placed around the square. On this occasion they were placed in two, perfectly straight, parallel lines about two-pitch lengths apart on the Caddick Pavilion side of the square and ran from the Trescothick Pavilion End boundary to the River End boundary. Between the row closest to the pitch and the Caddick Pavilion boundary, one either side of the other row of cones, two bowlers were put through their paces. Spectator entry was delayed for ten minutes to allow the cones to be put in place and ended ten minutes before the players returned to allow the cones to be retrieved. A different world to the relaxed attitude to spectators walking on the outfield in all those years gone by and still in evidence in 2026 at Chelmsford and Trent Bridge. It was noticeable though that, unlike the usual reluctance to leave the outfield, many spectators, having arrived in the middle, were almost immediately driven back to the refuge of any shade they could find by the unrelenting intensity of the sun.

And then, the resumption. Two runs from the first four overs as Rew and Goldsworthy settled in. By the ninth over of the afternoon Somerset were 124 for 4 and two runs in front. The lead had come from a cut through backward point off Suthar from Goldsworthy to a single shout of, “Hooray!” followed by cheers from around the ground. Championship crowds in 2026 could still do their mental arithmetic as it was called in their far-off schooldays. But when Goldsworthy tried to turn Bamber to leg in the next over he was struck on the pad and had to depart for 20 from 79 balls in a minute under an hour and a half. Somerset had their backs hard against the wall now, still just two runs ahead with five wickets down and Archie Vaughan walking to the wicket.

Vaughan’s was a curious, if not unexpected, innings which had Somerset supporters looking at each other and metaphorically shaking their heads. He scored seven runs in a minute over half an hour. Four of them, all singles, were hooked or pulled, the first, a hook off his first ball to long leg for a single. Vaughan is an inveterate hooker from the outset of an innings. He immediately attracts a deep square leg, and a long leg and short balls are fed to him. He responds by frequently hooking or pulling. Often, at least in the eyes of supporters, with the result that he is caught by one of those fielders. Here, four of his six scoring strokes were hooks or pulls and another pull was bottom edged into the ground halfway to Davies behind the stumps. When he tried for a sixth time, he was not caught by one of the deep fielders but by Davies moving sharply down the leg side. Somerset 148 for 6, Vaughan 7. Lead 26. Vaughan walking off to silence.

With Warwickshire now in complete control, Overton walked to the wicket in his new-found position of number seven and, with Lewis Gregory sidelined by the hamstring injury he picked up at Trent Bridge, Jack Leach in next. No-one around me, with 57 overs remaining in the day, expressed any hope that the match would reach the scheduled close of play. Overton for his part began with a quiet push to cover, but after Rew had found the boundary twice, Overton drove Webster, now bowling off spin, straight of mid-off to the Botham Stand for four, and off the next ball, over wide long on to the Garner Gates for six. That took Somerset to 167 for 6, a lead of 45, and left people wondering how long Overton, on 10 from four balls, might last.

An over later Rew reached fifty for the third time in his three Championship matches with a thick inside edge off Thompson to backward square leg. It had taken him 95 balls and also took Somerset’s lead to 50. Thirty-eight of Rew’s runs had come since lunch. Two fours, swept, had come in an over from Suthar, two more boundaries had come from drives off the pace bowlers and another from a deflection to fine leg. There was a missed drive off Suthar, the ball perhaps turning past the edge, but overall, Rew was playing with a natural confidence which continued to belie his years and it was difficult to credit that he was only eighteen. If he showed a fault, it was a tendency to start for singles that weren’t there causing hearts to miss beats as he and his partner scampered back to their creases.

With Somerset on the brink, what followed was a partnership from the realms of cricketing fantasy. Somerset were out of the game as Overton strode to the wicket, and the prospects of him and Rew batting until lunch or beyond on the final day with, as someone so aptly put it, “Only the bowlers to come,” seemed no more than a cricket supporters’ pipe dream. The crowd though were getting behind their team. When Overton shouted, “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” Come on,” while turning a ball from Thompson to long leg, the crowd cheered as the batters turned for a second run, continued to cheer as they ran, and as they reached safety broke into applause. There were missed heartbeats too. When mid-off misfielded a drive, Rew set off up the pitch but returned to safe ground when Overton boomed, “No! No! No!” There was tension too as the partnership grew. An over of spin from Webster to Overton brought no runs and the ground fell silent as it became apparent that Overton might be intent on the long haul, however forlorn a hope that might seem.

When Overton turned a ball towards fine leg and the ball neared the boundary, “Go the ball,” someone shouted, the cheers rising in volume as the ball approached the rope and turning to applause as it crossed it. Somerset were making progress, but Suthar continued to cause problems, beating the bat and letting forth a huge leg before wicket appeal against Overton. Someone in the crowd joined in here too. “No, no,” he said as if cautioning a troublesome schoolboy. When a single from Overton took Somerset to 201 for 6, a lead of 79, a Warwickshire player shouted, “Come on boys,” repeated after the next over, a maiden played out against Dan Mousley’s occasional off spin by Overton. Perhaps it revealed some frustration at the threat of the run of Somerset wickets drying up, and Overton, as he had all season, showing every sign of getting his head down while still picking the balls to hit.

At the other end, Rew was assiduously rotating the strike, taking singles, if not at will, with impressive and controlled regularity. Since Overton had come to the wicket, Rew had rarely seemed to be on strike for more than two balls at a time. Even so, he found the boundary twice and then, in the over before tea, from Gilchrist, twice more. “Hooray,” someone said, followed by loud applause, as he turned the first to Gimblett’s Hill. The second, he drove through cover to the Caddick Pavilion boundary. “Rewie!” the admiring shout to more applause. A single came off each of the final four balls, one a leg bye, enough to take Somerset to tea on 224 for 6 and a lead of 102. The certainty, the control and the steady progress of the partnership had by now engendered a tinge of optimism in the Somerset mind, but seasoned supporters to knew keep their hopes in check for there were just the bowlers to come.

After tea, the hope, now accompanied by its uncomfortable stable mate, tension, continued to grow as Overton and Rew matched each other ball for ball and run for run. Two overs into the evening session, Overton cut Bamber through backward point to the Garner Gates for four to register his fifty from 87 balls. With the crowd fully engaged, Rew pushed Bamber to mid-off for a perfectly judged quick single, “Well run,” someone shouted as the applause rippled. “Hooray,” the shout when Overton opened the face to send Bamber through backward point for four more. Next, Rew brought up the century partnership with a sweep fine to Gimblett’s Hill. “Yes! Come on. Come on,” followed when Overton pushed Bamber to midwicket for another sharply run single and more applause. The engagement from the crowd was total. When Rew pushed Suthar to point for another sharply taken single, the applause was tempered by a concerned shout of, “Careful!”

When Rew missed a cut against Suthar there was a loud appeal, “Not out!” said the umpire in the stands. That was quickly followed by a sweep and a reverse sweep off Suthar, both for four as Rew moved into the nineties. A single from Overton took the lead to 150. “Still a long way to go,” someone said, “But …” the implied hope of more to come unspoken. Now Rew brought up his century from 171 balls with a four driven through straight midwicket to the Ondaatje boundary. He celebrated with a swish of his bat towards the Somerset dressing room where players were on their feet applauding before holding the bat up to the crowd, also on their feet. And then, as is inevitable in long partnerships, a period of retrenchment, 12 runs in seven overs, before another milestone. Rew cut Gilchrist to deep point on the Somerset Stand boundary to bring up the 150 partnership and a lead of 177.

With the usual spurts and periods of retrenchment, Overton and Rew had scored at around three runs an over. As the close approached they accelerated, and Warwickshire, whose fielding had not reached the very high standard which Somerset set, began to show signs of the fatigue inevitable after a long, unremittingly hot, and in the end, frustrating day in the field. When Rew drove Gilchrist through extra cover, the chasing fielder slid headlong after the ball as it approached the rope, got a hand on it with a couple of feet to go, fumbled, and the ball rolled over the line. When four leg byes were signalled off Overton’s helmet, about half the Warwickshire players sank to the ground and there their remained until Overton had passed the concussion test, they seemingly more in need of respite than he. “It’s been a tough day in the field in this heat,” someone said.

When the ‘overs remaining’ figure dropped to nothing most around me stood up to leave, and then stopped as the players just changed ends, lethargically, it has to be said. Eventually, the penny dropped. When time lost on earlier days is being made up, the regulation states that 104 overs must be bowled in the day or play must continue until half past six, half an hour beyond the scheduled close, whichever is the later. A look at the digital clock at the bottom of the scoreboard revealed another fifteen-minutes remained to be played. So rarely is the end of a Championship day reached ahead of time that most thought the end of the overs, of itself, meant the end of the day. Some sank back into their seats. As many, after a long day in the heat, left. The players seemed reluctant to continue, and with Suthar bowling at one end and Rob Yates with his off spin at the other, they managed four overs of spin over those fifteen minutes with Rew and Overton content with seven singles and a two, ending with a Somerset lead of 219. And still the bowlers to come. Such a lead had seemed an impossibility four hours before. But, and Somerset undeniably have a habit of being at their best when pinned firmly against the wall, somehow, by dint of sheer determination, discipline, shot selection and the coolest of heads, Overton and Rew had kept Warwickshire out, kept the score moving, and, above all, kept Somerset in the game.

Close. Somerset 208 and 341 for 6. Warwickshire 330. Somerset lead by 219 runs with four second innings wickets standing.