County Championship 2026. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. April 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th. Taunton.

Somerset captain Lewis Gregory was not available for selection due to a chest injury. Craig Overton replaced him as captain.

Somerset. J.F. Thomas, T. Kohler-Cadmore, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T.B. Abell, L.P. Goldsworthy, C. Overton (c), M.J. Leach, M. Pretorius, A.R.J. Ogborne, J.T. Ball.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke, J.A. Haynes, K. Verreynne (w), L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, R. Lord, O.P Stone, D.Y. Pennington.

Overnight. Somerset 347. Nottinghamshire 218 for 3. Nottinghamshire trail by 129 runs with seven second innings wickets standing.

Third day – Somerset’s day

Somerset began the third day facing the distinct possibility that they might end it needing to bat most of the final day to save the match. They ended it in control with some prospect that they might even push for victory on the final afternoon. After a difficult second day, they bowled as well as they had batted on the first day and then batted as well as they had bowled. The key elements of the performance, with bat and ball, were discipline and developing momentum. Craig Overton, bowled throughout with the intensity that has characterised his career and which sustains pressure on batters. He took a wicket in the first over of the day, Nottinghamshire’s last six wickets fell for 78 runs, and the Somerset batters added a further 214 runs to their first innings lead of nine for the loss of just a single wicket. It was Somerset’s day.

Curiously, the crowd was very small at the start, perhaps no more than five hundred or so. It was Easter Sunday, traditionally a family day, but clearly not a day to go to the cricket. It was also bitterly cold, especially in the wind that blew across the face of the Trescothick Pavilion, and a brief shower fell half an hour before the start which might have deterred some late deciders. As we waited for the players to appear, one Nottinghamshire supporter echoed the thoughts of most Somerset supporters when he said, “Overton was so unlucky yesterday. Kept going past the edge, cut ‘em in half, everything but hit the edge.” When the players did appear, Overton gained his early recompense with his fifth delivery. It did what Overton had done so often on the second day and swung away late. Haynes offered a straight bat, but this time the ball did hit the edge and flew straight into James Rew’s gloves. Overton let forth a roar of triumph of such force it seemed to expel all the frustration that had built up on the second day. Nottinghamshire 220 for 4. Haynes 55. Deficit 128.

The wicket was soon followed by a spurt of rain which robbed the day of three overs, but Nottinghamshire came back with a spurt of runs, 47 in the 12 remaining overs to the new ball, scored without the loss of a further wicket, Joe Clarke and the new batter, Kyle Verreynne, matching each other almost run for run. Verreynne looked, from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, as if he might have been dropped in the slips by Tom Kohler-Cadmore, but it was impossible for those of us looking down from that distance and height to be sure. Jake Ball and Alfie Ogborne replaced Overton and Pretorius, but the runs flowed at four an over, Verreynne’s drives standing out as Nottinghamshire tried to close the gap. The bat was beaten two or three times, but Nottinghamshire reached the new ball unscathed, still four wickets down and within 80 runs of Somerset.

What a difference a ball makes. At least, what a difference a new ball can make. Within two overs, Nottinghamshire were six down and only two runs nearer Somerset’s total. Ogborne, taking the new ball from the Trescothick Pavilion End, appeared to miss a caught and bowled chance off Clarke in his first over. As the ball went down, an “Oh, no!” came from the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, the disappointment magnified when the batters took a single. That was followed by a cheer when Verreynne was leg before wicket to Ogborne’s next ball, the ball swing noticeably into the right hander. Nottinghamshire 268 for 5. Verreynne 25. Deficit 79. There was an even louder cheer when, after another two balls, Clarke was bowled by Ogborne. The ball, if anything, swung even more, glanced the pad and ricocheted into the off stump. Nottinghamshire 269 for 6. Clarke 92 in five minutes over four hours. Deficit 78.

With all eyes looking intently for another wicket, before the next over was out, the rain returned and brought with it an early lunch. As the players walked off Nottinghamshire were 274 for 6, now 73 behind. Someone I spoke to during the lunch interval reported that in the Hildreth Stand and on the Colin Atkinson Pavilion terrace when the sun shone it was pleasantly warm. Not so in the top of the Trescothick Pavilion where winter still ruled, its bitter winds still blowing. I was glad to be able to have recourse to the hot chocolate available from the hot drink van situated in front of the portrait of Marcus Trescothick inscribed on the side wall of the Pavilion named after him using the names of all those members who had donated their 2020 pandemic year membership subscription to the Club. There is nothing to beat quality hot chocolate on a cold day.

With me re-invigorated by the hot chocolate, Somerset, their bowlers applying persistent pressure, continue to wrest the match from Nottinghamshire’s grip. First, Lyndon James fell to Ogborne, his third wicket in succession. James had found the boundary twice in Ogborne’s previous over, once from an edge which flew fortuitously wide of the slips and once with a drive through the covers to the Somerset Stand. But when he pushed tentatively at a ball angled across him, the left arm Ogborne bowling over the wicket, he touched it as it passed a foot outside his off stump and Rew took a straightforward catch, at least as far as any catch is straightforward. Nottinghamshire 284 for 7. James 10. Deficit 63.

A short partnership of 30 runs from Liam Patterson-White and Robert Lord delayed Somerset a little as I undertook a rough count of the crowd again. It had grown a little, perhaps by a hundred, still small by Somerset standards. Patterson-White and Lord kept the score moving, largely through the drive, the Somerset bowlers keeping the ball up to the bat as they searched for the movement that Ogborne had employed so effectively with the new ball. In response, Patterson-White twice drove Pretorius through the covers while Lord drove Ogborne through midwicket. But the ball was still going past the bat and it seemed only a matter of time before Somerset broke through again, although looked like their chance might have gone when Patterson-White edged Ogborne to Overton at second slip and the ball went to ground. It took a moment or two to register the fact that Overton had dropped a catch. It was difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to remember the last time they had seen Overton drop a catch. It took a while for the mind to catch up with what the eye claimed to have seen.

The Somerset bowlers meanwhile kept going and Nottinghamshire succumbed to the pressure.. Patterson-White attempted to glance Ogborne, still bowling over the wicket. There was a light touch on the ball and Rew took the catch low down skipping to his left to take it. Nottinghamshire 314 for 8. Patterson-White 17. Deficit 33. Lord and Stone now found the boundary three times, but two of those fours, one from each batter, were edged drives past the two slips. It seemed only a matter of time. Then Lord drove Ball, looking like a different bowler to the Ball of 2024 and 2025. Another edge, this time to first slip and another cheer as Kohler-Cadmore swept up the catch diving low to his left. Nottinghamshire 329 for 9. Lord 22. Deficit 18. And finally, Dillon Pennington attempted to drive Ball and edged straight into Kohler-Cadmore’s midriff at first slip. Nottinghamshire 338 all out. Pennington 5. Stone 11 not out. Deficit 9. As deficits go, it was negligible, but when Nottinghamshire were cruising at 220 for 3 there had seemed little prospect of anything other than a clear Nottinghamshire lead. With the new season now properly underway, Somerset’s capacity to recover from difficult positions was undiminished.

With less than an hour over four sessions remaining in the match, Somerset began their second innings in bright sunshine, with the prospect of perhaps pushing for a declaration around lunch on the final day. Josh Thomas, who had helped steer Somerset through a difficult start in the first innings with a well-crafted 40, struggled in the second. He was dropped at first slip by Patterson-White off an edged drive, the ball running behind for a single, Stone the bowler. Then, in the next over, his defensive stroke was beaten by a straight ball from Pennington, and he departed leg before wicket. Even from eighty yards away, and from over mid-off, it was one of those strikes on the pad that just looked out. Somerset 7 for 1. Thomas 6. Lead 16.

And then, down the Caddick Pavilion steps emerged James Rew instead of the expected Tom Lammonby. Someone said it had looked like Lammonby might have injured his hand in the field earlier. Whatever the reason, Kohler-Cadmore and Rew now began to build the biggest partnership of the match. They began carefully as they worked towards tea. In the eight overs and four balls remaining before the interval, they added 25 runs, eight of those coming from two boundaries, one from each batter, the second coming from the penultimate ball before the interval from Rew, a firmly struck reverse sweep, kept well down as so often in 21^st century cricket, unlike the aerial version in the early days of the stroke before batters had developed the technique to play it in a controlled manner. Somerset reached tea on 32 for 1, a lead of 41 with Kohler-Cadmore and Rew now looking in firm possession of the crease.

The evening session looked as if it was being played on a different pitch to the rest of the match. Over the years, the Taunton pitch had shown a tendency to flatten suddenly, often around the middle of the third day. Cricket logic, built up over nearly seven decades of watching Somerset play cricket, suggested a pitch could not be so accurate in timing its change of character, but the Taunton pitch has, to my eye, defied that logic time and again. Thus far, twenty wickets had fallen in eight sessions, and on the first day, Overton had passed the bat so many times as to question the evidence of the eye. Now, Somerset batted through to the close without losing a single wicket. In the process, my notes reveal the ball going past the bat only five times plus less than the normal ration of thick edges. I may of course have missed one or two, but not enough to make a difference. Forty overs were bowled instead of the usual 32 because eight were added due to overs lost to the weather on the first two days. In those 40 overs, Rew and Kohler-Cadmore added 186 runs, over four and a half an over, with some controlled attacking stroke play.

Their batting was as relentless in applying pressure to the Nottinghamshire bowlers as the Somerset bowlers had been in applying pressure to the Nottinghamshire batters earlier in the day. Rew set the tone by angling the bat and steering the first ball of the session, from Stone, down and wide of the two slips to the Trescothick Pavilion boundary. It was as delicately played a stroke as you could hope to see. Three balls later, another boundary, as perfect in its execution as the first, as Stone was driven majestically through the covers to the Somerset Stand. Majestically is the twentieth century word for such a stroke, but it is difficult to think of a better description from the twenty-first century lexicon. The bat’s flow through the arc of the drive was the epitome of smoothness, and the ball flowed effortlessly off the bat and along the ground through the covers to the Somerset Stand. Poetry in motion perhaps, perfection in motion certainly. Somerset 49 for 1, the lead into the fifties and the pattern of the evening set.

Kohler-Cadmore followed in the next over with a drive off James, as sharply dismissive as Rew’s had been classically flowing. Somerset were away, and the fifty partnership from 73 balls followed with a drive through mid-off to the Colin Atkinson Pavilion from Kohler-Cadmore off Stone, perfunctory but perfect again. A neat, understated clip off his toes from Rew off James through midwicket to the Somerset Stand kept the momentum going. There were occasional quiet overs, perhaps the batters taking breath, but the flow of boundaries soon returned. A four from Kohler-Cadmore, was driven through the covers off Stone to the Priory Bridge Road Stand. A six from Rew, driven over straight midwicket into the Priory Bridge Road car park off Patterson-White’s second ball was a statement of intent if ever there was one. An attempt to repeat the six three balls later was miscued, but the ball, as if guided by Tantalus, kept pace with and ahead of the fielder desperately running after it from long on, eyes to the sky, and rolled over the boundary for four.

Each time the ball ran effortlessly on its way to the boundary the applause and the cheers grew. On one of the rare occasions on which the ball passed the bat, Rew beaten by Patterson-White, Rew followed up with a reverse sweep which bisected the keeper and first slip, perhaps aided by a bottom edge. It took Rew to his fifty from 69 balls. Then Somerset reached 100 for 1 when Rew turned the returning Pennington towards long leg and the Hildreth Stand for a single and Kohler-Cadmore followed that by leaning nicely into an on drive wide of midwicket to the Ondaatje Stand. The century partnership soon followed with a single driven into the off side by Kohler-Cadmore off Pennington.

With Somerset in full flow, a fusillade of boundaries, five in three overs, followed. A glance from Rew off Pennington passed within a foot or so of Verreynne’s glove, but crossed the River End boundary, fortune favouring the brave. A sweep off Patterson-White from Rew to deep square leg crossed the boundary between the Caddick and Ondaatje Stand boundaries. Three boundaries in three balls followed from Kohler-Cadmore off Patterson-White, one lofted over wide mid-on, one pulled through midwicket to the Priory Bridge Road boundary and one driven straight back to the River End. The first took Kohler-Cadmore to fifty from 81 balls and the last took Somerset to 132 for 1 in the 32^nd over, a lead of 141. It was a glorious exhibition of batting to watch if you were a Somerset supporter, but it was a watch tinged with the thought that the pitch was flattening fast with time running short to bowl Nottinghamshire out a second time.

There were though still 22 overs remaining in the extended day during which Rew and Kohler-Cadmore added a further 82 runs. Again, there was a quiet period or two, and once Rew drove at Stone and missed twice in succession. “Oh dear, oh dear,” the reaction from behind me. There was an edge too from Kohler-Cadmore off Lord which flew wide of the slips before running to the boundary in front of the Botham Stand and another past slip off Patterson-White for two. But then, the certainty returned and the firmly played boundaries flowed again. A square cut to the Somerset Stand from Kohler-Cadmore off Lord brought a cry of, “Shot!”. A lofted drive followed soon afterwards over wide mid-on to the Hildreth Stand, Kohler-Cadmore again, off Patterson-White. Rew used an angled bat to steer Lloyd through backward point past the slip fielder and the reverse sweep to send Patterson-White to the boundary between the Trescothick Pavilion and Gimblett’s Hill. It was relentless and Nottinghamshire seemed to have no answer.

As the close approached, the scoring finally slowed, coming mainly in carefully placed singles, one of those singles bringing up Somerset’s two hundred when Kohler-Cadmore turned Patterson-White square. But, despite Somerset’s virtually unhindered progress Nottinghamshire remained buoyant in the field, constantly shouting encouragement to one another. With the evening drawing in, the floodlights came on and Rew reached his century from 147 balls when he drove Patterson-White back past Kohler-Cadmore at the non-striker’s end to the boundary in front of the Botham Stand. There was tension as Rew approached his century and it remained after he passed it, for Kohler-Cadmore was on 92 at the other end. An over after Rew reached his century, a single from Kohler-Cadmore registered the double century partnership from 290 balls, Somerset milestones being passed one after another.

Somerset reached the second last ball of the day on 214 for 1, a lead of 223, with Kohler-Cadmore, on 94, about to face Lord. He was probably still catching his breath after Rew had turned the fourth ball of the over into the on side and set off for the sharpest of sharp singles. It left Kohler-Cadmore catching his breath after running through the crease so fast that he did not stop until he was halfway to the boundary. Two balls remained with six needed for Kohler-Cadmore’s century.

The tension was now enough to bring silence as Lord began his run, especially for the final ball of the day, Kohler-Cadmore still on 94. Given Kohler-Cadmore’s propensity for big hitting, I doubt anyone in the ground had discounted the possibility of his trying to reach 100 with a six. Except perhaps that is, Kohler-Cadmore, who made no effort to deposit either of the last two balls over the boundary. For the briefest of moments, the tension could almost be heard as the final ball struck Kohler-Cadmore on the pad resulting in a leg before wicket appeal. Then, a sharp exhalation of breath around the ground as the umpire called time. After losing so much ground on the second day, Somerset had fought their way to a dominant position. But, with only three sessions remaining and the pitch in benign mood, converting that dominance into a victory and 21 points, especially against some equally determined County Champions, would be more easily said than done.

Close. Somerset 347 and 214 for 1. Nottinghamshire 338 (J.M. Clarke 92, J.A. Haynes 55, M. Pretorius 4-65, A.R.J. Ogborne 3-81) and 214 for 1. Somerset lead by 223 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.