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. James Rew was 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, J.T. Ball.

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.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.

First day – Goldsworthy digs in

I did not have the best of starts to my day. I had settled into my seat at the top of the Trescothick Pavilion and watched Jordan Hermann crash Ethan Bamber, opening the bowling from the Trescothick Pavilion End for Warwickshire, through square leg to the Somerset Stand and through the covers to the Ondaatje Stand for as emphatic a pair of fours as you could hope to see at the start of a day’s play. Somerset 8 for 0 after four balls. While those four balls were being delivered, I had been searching my cricket bag for my notebook and a pencil, the latter easily found among the half dozen I keep in there. The notebook however was nowhere to be seen or felt. As always when searching for a familiar object in the place where it is always kept, my search became more frantic, my hands feeling around all the places in my cricket bag where the book might conceivably be. But after three trips around the increasingly dishevelled contents of the bag, I concluded my book had been left at home.

At the end of the over, I left the ground, walked to the town centre and bought a new notebook. About a twenty-minute walk in total. No longer than I might be late at the start of a day because of a bus not turning up, not that that happens much since the local council took the bus Company to task. There is a ritual I, and I suspect all other cricket supporters, follow when I arrive at the ground after the start of play. There will always be somewhere where the scoreboard creeps into view. At Taunton it is just after you walk through the Jack White Gates and lean to look around the edge of the Trescothick Pavilion. Somerset 23 for 3. It reminded me of my second ever visit to the County Ground at the age of eight. We were late despite having travelled by car. As we entered the ground by the same entrance as for this match, my father said, “If Somerset are batting, they will be 30 for 2.” This in the days when smartphones had not even appeared in Dan Dare in my Eagle comic and the score could not be checked on the way to the ground. Somerset were not 30 for 2 in 1958. As the scoreboard appeared around the side of the old indoor school where the Trescothick Pavilion is now and near where the scorecards, then updated throughout the day as wickets fell, were sold, the scoreboard read 35 for 2 and Somerset were batting. Some things in this world do not change. I hoped that day was an omen for this match. In 1959, Somerset went on to score 450 in the day and Peter Wight carried his bat for 222. At the same stage in 2026 there was only hope

In those short moments I had been away, Josh Thomas, trying to defend, had edged Ethan Bamber to Alex Davies behind the stumps. As straightforward a catch as you will have seen a wicketkeeper offered in first-class cricket. Somerset 21 for 1. Thomas 4, a boundary, off seven balls. Tom Kohler-Cadmore, on his return to the team after being sidelined since the first match of the season with a badly damaged thumb, had stepped down the wicket to drive his second ball, also from Bamber, straight. He edged it low between first and second slip from where Rob Yates dived and scooped the ball up inches from the ground. Somerset 21 for 2. Kohler-Cadmore 0. It was as impressive a catch as the previous one by Davies’ had been straightforward. Hermann, after those two stunning drives before I set off in pursuit of a notebook, had followed with two more boundaries, one off a thick outside edge past the slips and one off an inside edge which shot across the back of the stumps. He followed that with an attempt to drive Nathan Gilchrist through the covers resulting in another outside edge, this time straight into the midriff of Beau Webster at third slip. Somerset 21 for 3. Hermann 17 from 11 balls. It had been as frenetic a start as had been my race to the shop to buy a notebook, if singularly less successful, for Somerset at least.

This was the first Championship match at Taunton for five weeks and it was now the height of summer. Three thousand people had turned up to watch. The stands that were open, all except the Priory Bridge Road Temporary Stand and three blocks of the Somerset Stand, one less than normal, were as full for a Championship match as I had seen them. The weather forecast boded well. There was a covering of greyish cloud, but it was high and unthreatening, although the atmosphere was very humid. There was green on the pitch. That Somerset had won the toss and elected to bat met with surprise whoever I spoke to. And 23 for 3 did nothing to quell the questions. A bad start to my had got worse.

As I settled into my seat for the second time, the chatter in the crowd filled the air despite those three wickets having fallen within five balls. The chatter was as loud as I had heard it at a Championship match. Three thousand people glad to be back at the cricket, many of them not having seen the person next to them since the last Championship match, make a lot of noise when they all talk together. As I and the rest of the crowd settled, Thomas Rew and Lewis Goldsworthy tried to do the same, beginning with eight singles over the next four overs bowled by Bamber and Gilchrist, two from inside edges, but the rest carefully pushed and steered into gaps. Rew played and missed with an expansive drive against Ed Barnard, but either side of it he reached the boundary twice, once with a flowing drive through the covers to the Somerset Stand, and once with an equally flowing cut which also ran for four. The second boundary took Somerset to 52 for 3, the first sign from a look at the scoreboard that my bad start might be about to get better. For reasons I suspect only a psychologist would understand, 52 for 3 looks a lot better than 48 for 3.

Goldsworthy and Rew continued to improve my morning as they picked their way forward, building a base for Somerset, while selecting the occasional ball for punishment. From the final two balls of a Barnard over, Goldsworthy pulled to fine leg and drove straight back past the bowler, both for four. Five overs later, completely out of the blue, Rew exploded into a drive over long on which cleared The Hildreth Stand and landed in the Tone, big Championship sixes already becoming a forte of his. Batting now seemed relatively untroubled, although the running occasionally seemed risky to the untrained eye. When Goldsworthy steered a ball from Thompson past just past the point fielder, Rew set off like a hare. Goldsworthy, ball watching, hesitated. Rew came anyway until Goldsworthy scampered up the pitch. Had the throw, perhaps under pressure, not been awry, the outcome of the race between bat and ball for crease and stumps might have been in the lap of the cricketing gods.

Warwickshire turned to Manav Suthar, fresh from taking six wickets in an innings for India against Afghanistan in his only Test before this match. He immediately caused problems with his left arm spin, beating Rew twice and causing him to edge past slip. Rew’s six apart, his remaining runs off Suthar were fortuitous, two from a ball edged just beyond the grasp of a diving slip and four off a top edge from a cut which looped at head height a little wider of the slip fielder. It was Beau Webster though, bowling off spin, who got Suthar’s man as Rew offered no stroke and thrust his back pad towards a ball homing in on off stump. Somerset 86 for 4. Rew 35 in an hour and a half. “You bears!” the solitary Warwickshire shout. “He had been struggling a bit in the last few overs,” the Somerset comment and warm applause the general conclusion as he walked off with four overs still to play before lunch.

Eighty-six for four was bad enough, but my day was about to get even worse. Rew’s wicket was the beginning of a Somerset procession either side of lunch. Archie Vaughan was the first to go, jabbing at a ball from Gilchrist which pitched about a foot outside off and shaded away. Vaughan edged it straight into the midriff of Sam Hain at first slip. Somerset 94 for 5. Vaughan 5. And with that, the players walked off to lunch while I set off on my circumnavigation. I discovered that I was not the only one to have missed Somerset’s first three wickets. Another Somerset supporter said to me, “I went for a coffee and missed the first three wickets.” That was two of us guilty of the cardinal sin of the cricket supporter, leaving sight of the cricket when your side is batting. A responsibility shared is a responsibility halved.

And then I did it again. Stopping to chat three more times as I walked around the ground I was late completing my circumnavigation. As I walked behind the Trescothick Pavilion on my way to the entrance, I heard an ominous sounding announcement. When I emerged from behind the Pavilion, the Warwickshire players were gathered in the middle and the scoreboard said, Somerset 97 for 6. Overton 2. He had attempted to drive Webster, now bowling pace again, and edged low but straight to Zen Malik at point. Four balls later, as I waited for the end of the over at the top of the steps into the elevated section of the Trescothick Pavilion, Jack Leach attempted to keep out the final ball of Webster’s over as it targeted a fifth stump. He edged it low to Alex Davies behind the stumps. Davies reached low in front of first slip and took the catch. “Another one,” said a despondent Somerset voice. Somerset 97 for 7. Leach 0. Somerset’s day in tatters and Webster with figures of 5-2-11-4.

The only thing that kept a modicum of Somerset hope alive was that Lewis Goldsworthy, who at the departure of Leach had batted exactly 100 balls for just 33 was still there. He had been at the crease since the third over. He had been painstaking and had kept an end secure, but the batters at the other end, Rew to a degree excepted, had been unable to capitalise on the platform Goldsworthy was desperately trying to build. He had some good fortune, a thick edge past the slips early in his innings off Gilchrist, and had been badly beaten twice in succession by Barnard. But for the most part, he looked solid and determined to give nothing away. In the 12 overs to lunch, he did not reach the boundary once but survived the devastation among the Somerset batters either side of lunch. Now, with Josh Shaw, who looked detached and comfortable at the crease, Goldsworthy began to repair some of the damage to the Somerset innings. The pair batted steadily for 18 overs, adding 55 runs to Somerset’s total. Webster continued after lunch, but with the early cloud dissipating and the sky having more blue than white, Goldsworthy took six from the over, two turned to deep midwicket and four driven past the point fielder to the Somerset Stand.

Now, Warwickshire brought Suthar back into the attack. He replaced Gilchrist at the River End. He bowled with two slips and a short leg but did not look as effective as he had before lunch. Shaw took a step down the pitch to him and clipped him through midwicket for four. In Suthar’s next over, Shaw drove but edged the ball over the, now only, slip from where it ran directly towards me with a fielder in hot pursuit. As the fielder closed in, the ball disappeared from view beneath the front of the seating and those of us unsighted had to wait for the cheer from below to erupt before they could applaud.  

Shaw was using his feet to Suthar to some effect, two more fours being driven to the boundary through mid-off, the second through the hands of a diving fielder. A drive off Thompson, straight of mid-on, was stopped by a diving mid-on but not before Shaw and Goldsworthy had completed a quick single. “Well run,” the comment from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion. Before the over was out, Goldsworthy had steered Thompson neatly past the two slips and began to run. The ball raced towards the Hildreth Stand chased by a fielder who dived after it just short of the rope. H reached it with outstretched hand, but pushed it over the rope. Cue a cheer from the Hildreth Stand crowd. Somerset were fighting back, if from a very low base.

But such lower order partnerships usually have a term. Off the first ball of Suthar’s next over that term was up. Shaw drove hard, miscued and the ball flew high over and beyond Sam Hain, the mid-on fielder. Hain half back-pedalled, half turned and ran but stayed under the ball all the way. Finally, with the Hildreth Stand boundary racing towards him, he took the catch, fell and rolled, but stood up a yard or so inside the boundary ball in hand. Somerset 152 for 8. Shaw 28 in five minutes over an hour. “You bears,” the single shout again. Migael Pretorius to the wicket. Pretorius had not scored the lower order runs in 2026 that he had scored in his previous two seasons with Somerset. This was a different sort of innings to many of those. There were none of the hard-hit boundaries following one another in quick succession, but he stayed with Goldsworthy while Somerset’s score was stretched by another 39 runs before driving the ever-dangerous Suthar straight back at waist height. Somerset 191 for 9. Pretorius 15.

Goldsworthy, meanwhile, still pushing on, had found the boundary four times, two of those coming from successive balls off Thompson, both driven through the covers to the Somerset Stand, the second to an emphatic shout of, “Shot!” Suthar did not escaped Goldsworthy’s attention either. He was lofted unceremoniously over mid-off to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion. Four more to Somerset’s total. With carefully nudged and pushed singles adding to the mix, Goldsworthy and Pretorius added those 39 runs at over four an over. With Jake Ball now joining him, Goldsworthy found the boundary twice more, a cut through cover which nicely bisected the deep cover and deep point fielders in front of the Somerset Stand, although the gap between them barely seemed wide enough. A pull to fine leg reached the Botham Stand boundary, but when Goldsworthy, clearly in a hurry with the last man at the crease, pulled again. This time he connected only with the top edge and sent the ball steepling, it went high over the gully area to be caught when it finally came down, another catch falling from the sky for Sam Hain. Somerset 208. Goldsworthy 90. Ball 6 not out. My day was a little better than it had been when Somerset were 97 for 7.

It had been an innings of two halves. A stuttering start leading to a collapse comparable to a row of falling dominoes and then a fighting recovery from Goldsworthy. He saw seven wickets fall at the other end before he was finally out. In addition to Goldsworthy’s stubborn resistance there had been some steady resistance by the last three batters. Shaw in particular had shown determination and skill. Goldsworthy was at the crease for two minutes short of four hours while Suthar was causing repeated problems. He troubled Goldsworthy too at times but it was a thin maroon line innings typical of Goldsworthy when he gets in and others do not. A score of 208 was perhaps a hundred or more under par, but it was enough to give Somerset a chance of staying in the game. As the players went off to tea, my day was feeling somewhat better than it had been when Somerset were 97 for 7, if still fragile.

Somerset had a chance of more than staying in the game it seemed when Warwickshire were 14 for 2 with my day threatening to keep improving. Overton was involved in both wickets. A good catch, low to his right off Ball to remove Alex Davies and a return catch straight to him off a leading edge from Robert Yates. Davies 3. Yates 11. Deficit 194. After ten overs, the score was 16 for 2, Ball with figures of 4-2-3-1 and Warwickshire under pressure. After 12 overs, it was 34 for 2, Dan Mousley and Hain taking boundaries from Pretorius as he replaced Overton at the Trescothick Pavilion End and the pressure was beginning to turn Somerset’s way again.

From there, the Warwickshire score began to mount, and Somerset’s partial recovery began to fall into perspective. Hain and Mousley seemed to be in little trouble as they took 17 runs off three over from Shaw who replaced Ball. That brought Leach on at the River End to immediate and warm cheers from the crowd and then Overton on at the Trescothick Pavilion End. Leach bowled to the close conceding eight runs from six overs but beating the bat just once as Warwickshire, minimising risk, played themselves to the close, reaching the safety of the Caddick Pavilion on 92 for 2 with the Somerset total now coming within range. Somerset had left themselves much to do on the morrow.

Close. Somerset 208 (L.P. Goldsworthy 90, B.J. Webster 4-23). Warwickshire 92 for 2. Warwickshire trail by 116 runs with eight second innings wickets standing.