Author: 'farmer white'

Bartlett’s day

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County Championship Division 1. Surrey v Somerset. 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th June. Guildford.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.

First day. 3rd June – Bartlett’s day

In 2018 Somerset came to Guildford on top of the Championship. In three traumatic days they were unceremoniously despatched by an innings. Abell had won the toss and, inexplicably to most Somerset supporters, asked Surrey to bat. Surrey had made 459 and bowled Somerset out for 180 and 210. Surrey moved to the top of the table, never looked back and Somerset never looked like catching them. In 2019 Abell won the toss again and this time opted to bat in circumstances for batting that were less propitious than they had been in 2018.Read More »

“Never in doubt …”

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County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Warwickshire. 20th, 21st and 22nd May 2019. Taunton.

Overnight. Somerset 209 and 164. Warwickshire 135 and 103 for 6. Warwickshire need a further 136 runs to win with four second innings wickets standing.

Final day. 22nd May – “Never in doubt …”

“You can’t afford to be late today,” was the comment as I left the house. “Somerset only need four wickets.” True, but for this supporter, who has been worrying about Somerset on the field of play since the launch of the first sputnik in 1957 the Warwickshire threat to the 135 runs which Somerset still had left to defend, however distant, nettled away at the back of the mind. Yesterday’s hedge-clipping was no more, so my bus delivered me to the ground with time to spare. As 11 o’clock approached there were about 400 people in the ground, perhaps 500 with those behind glass. They were spread around the stands and there was even a good smattering in the Somerset Stand. It was enough. The atmosphere in the ground as the morning developed suggested there were several times that number, for this was a Somerset crowd in a season in which winning the County Championship is more than a fanciful dream. Winning this match really mattered.Read More »

County Championship 2017 ~ Nadir

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NADIR 

~   HAMPSHIRE   ~ 

“The difference in the way Somerset and Hampshire batted in their second innings was stark and telling.” 

Somerset’s dismal start to the 2017 Championship season continued with a third defeat in the first four matches. The cricket is described, but the reports also reflect the lively debate among supporters about the reasons for the slump and thoughts about the possible reasons. Different times to some of the heights of 2018 and 2019, and a different type of report.

Specsavers County Championship. First Division. Taunton. 26th, 27th and 28th May 2017. Somerset v Hampshire. Read More »

Somerset retain the advantage

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County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Warwickshire. 20th, 21st and 22nd May 2019. Taunton.

Overnight. Somerset 209. Warwickshire 110 for 7. Warwickshire trail by 99 runs with three first innings wickets standing.

Second day. 21st May – Somerset retain the advantage

Tom Abell must loom large in the minds of opposition batsmen when they are at the crease. Fielding at cover he forms what must at times seem to be an impenetrable wall as he dives full length to strangle ‘certain’ fours in their infancy. For the second ball of the second day of this match it was not a dive but a jump which apparently took the eye. Jeetan Patel, one of the more dangerous among lower order batsmen, drove Leach hard and high over cover. Four! Except that Abell catapulted himself upwards, reached even higher and snared the ball. Patel’s threat was ended before it had begun. It was an astonishing catch as it was described to me, for I had missed it. It must have been quite something because it was often the first thing on people’s lips for the rest of the day whenever I stopped to chat to someone new.Read More »

What a day! The RLODC Final 2019

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Somerset v Hampshire. Final. 25th May 2019. Lord’s.

The author was unable to attend the Lord’s final for reasons that transcend even cricket, and which will become apparent in the report which follows. Neither was he able to watch the live television transmission. He has however been a Somerset supporter since the days of Maurice Tremlett, and Somerset cricket runs deep through his veins. There is, therefore, no law or force of nature, from this end of the Universe to the other, which could keep his mind entirely away from cricket on such a day.

What follows is a report on a day of great spectacle, at Lord’s and in Somerset. Somerset supporters, wherever they are in the world, whatever they are doing, will always find a way of keeping up with the score, and of getting what reports of the action they can from wherever they can; and if they can, of catching some highlights or passages of play. From the author doing all those things emerges this report of a day of hope, anticipation and joy unbounded at Lord’s and in Somerset.

Somerset. T. Banton (w), Azhar Ali, P.D. Trego, J.C. Hildreth, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L. Gregory, R.E. van der Merwe, C. Overton, J. Overton, J.H. Davey.

Hampshire. T.P. Alsop (w), A.H.T. Donald, J.J. Weatherley, S.A. Northeast (c), R.R. Rossouw, G.K. Berg, J.K. Fuller, C.P. Wood, K.J. Abbott, M.S. Crane, F.H. Edwards.

Toss. Hampshire. Elected to field.

Well what a day that was! Always a worry in the lead up to such major outdoor events, the weather was perfect. Key players played their parts to perfection, and everyone involved made key contributions at key times. It was a truly astonishing day. One to be endlessly remembered, and doubtless endlessly recounted by all who made the trip. By those that is who made the trip from the South West, and all parts, to Lord’s to watch Somerset in the Royal London One-Day Cup Final; and by those who made the trip from all parts to the South West for the wedding. For that is what happens when the wedding fixture list comes out before the cricket fixture list. It turns out to be the year in which you find yourself at your son’s Somerset wedding on the same day as Somerset are at Lord’s determined not to be bridesmaids again after ten successive second-place finishes in the various domestic competitions. Fixture congestion is a common occurrence in sport, but it surely is not too much to hope that the ECB might have avoided a fixture clash with my son’s wedding.

Read More »

Somerset edge the day

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County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Warwickshire. 20th, 21st , 22nd and 23rd May 2019. Taunton.

Toss. Uncontested. Somerset required to bat

First day. 20th May -Somerset edge the day

As I walked through the Brian Rose gates I saw two sets of stumps pitched more or less in the middle of the playing area. From ground level at that distance they served as well as markers to indicate the location of the pitch as equipment necessary for a game to take place. There was no other way of locating the pitch for it looked as green as the rest of the square. From my seat, next to the sightscreen in the lower level of the Somerset Pavilion, the pitch could be discerned by its colour but it still looked very green. The news that Warwickshire had opted not to toss and had inserted Somerset came as no surprise.Read More »

The weather rules the day

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County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Surrey. 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th May 2019. Taunton. 

Final day. 18th May – The weather rules the day

Overnight. Surrey 380 and 152 for 5. Somerset 398. Surrey lead by 134 runs with five second innings wickets standing.

A final day which had much in prospect, not least that all four possible results were still very much in play, subsided into one of those frustrating weather-interrupted days where the cricket becomes meaningless in the context of the match and where the weather and conditions, as seen from beyond the boundary at least, seem marginal enough for virtually every decision of the umpires to be the subject of dispute and exasperation among spectators. Even the intervention of Somerset’s brand-new floodlights could not save the day, brightly though they shone. It was too one of those days in which the weather does not help the mood. Mizzle and drizzle rather than straightforward honest rain for the most part and at times Dickensian light to dampen the spirit.Read More »

Gregory shapes the day

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County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Surrey. 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th May 2019. Taunton. 

Third day. 16th April – Gregory shapes the day

Overnight. Surrey 380. Somerset 243 for 5. Surrey lead by 137 runs with five second innings wickets standing.

After two days spent fighting to stay in this match Somerset made this their day and are now, at worst, at parity. On the last day much will depend, as it did on the third day, on the first session. Surrey’s have five wickets remaining, four if Elgar, absent through illness on the third day, cannot bat. If they can stretch their innings much beyond lunch Somerset may be faced with a difficult equation and will need to get through Morkel’s new ball spell, and Morkel has a record for Surrey of performing at the crunch, whatever the equation. It would be a good time for Trescothick to find some form after his four successive low scores in this season’s Championship.

At the heart of Somerset’s performance was an outstanding century from Gregory, his second in first-class cricket following his 137 at Lord’s in 2017. He came to the wicket on the second evening with Somerset five wickets down and still 169 runs adrift. He was still undefeated on 129 mid way through the third afternoon when Somerset ended their innings 18 runs ahead. It was a tremendous performance which had the crowd cheering and, as he ran through for the single to bring up his hundred, on their feet applauding.Read More »

The artists keep Somerset in the game – just

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County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Surrey. 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th May 2019. Taunton. 

Second day. 15th April – The artists keep Somerset in the game – just

Overnight. Surrey 330 for 6.

Somerset ended the second day more or less where they ended the first. Just behind Surrey. Anxiety still remains for Somerset supporters for Surrey have their runs on the board. However, Somerset are still in the game. Buy the end of the second day in last year’s two Championship encounters with Surrey, by the end of the second day, they were well and truly out of it.

Unable to be at the start I followed the first half an hour or so from home by when Surrey had taken their overnight score forward by ten runs without losing any more wickets. I spent a rather anxious journey to the ground wondering just how high Clarke and the Surrey lower order might take the Surrey total. Anxiety used to be ended, or increased, when the old scoreboard hove into view as you approached the Brian Rose Gates. The new scoreboard by the Colin Atkinson Pavilion is hidden from view by the Somerset Stand as you approach the gates and the anxiety is prolonged until you get into the ground. Today the kindly steward who scanned my membership card compensated for the loss of the view by saying, “Not too bad. Nine down.”Read More »

White clothing and red ball

'farmer white'

County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Surrey. 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th May 2019. Taunton. 

Toss. Surrey. Elected to bat.

First day. 14th April – White clothing and red ball

It was a curious sight that greeted me as I stood chatting on Legends Square. 13 men in white and two in white coats. Rather like a hospital ward walking onto the field. At least that was the thought that jumped into my head after a whirlwind three weeks criss-crossing the southern half of the country and the Midlands as I tried to keep up with Somerset’s 50 over campaign. I had become inured to technicolour cricket. Coloured clothing and a white ball. Now we had white clothing and a coloured ball. As if that was not enough my brain had struggled to keep up with the high-speed, almost daily, cricket watching, ping-pong travel, overnight stays and late-night writing of match reports. I can, without a hint of exaggeration, say that at one match I had to ask someone which day of the week it was. And now my brain was struggling to accommodate cricket being played in whites. Oh, what a mad cricketing world we live in. At least for those of us who remember when Championship matches started every Wednesday and Saturday and one-day matches were played every Sunday and, for cup matches, on a Wednesday in place of the Championship. There could be as long as 28 days between a quarter-final and a semi-final. This year there were not many more than 28 hours. All the old reference points have gone and the sudden reappearance of two of the few that are left, white clothing and a red ball, suddenly jarred on the mind.Read More »

Having a whale of a time

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Nottinghamshire v Somerset. Semi-final. 12th May 2019. Trent Bridge.

Toss. Nottinghamshire. Elected to field.

Having a whale of a time

Alex Hales played the first three balls of Roleof van der Merwe’s over quietly back down the pitch. It was as if he had called off Nottinghamshire’s assault on Somerset’s total, for it marked a sea-change in his approach. Until then his batting had been belligerent and had threatened to become devastating. It had reminded me of something someone said on the Somerset supporters’ coach on the way to Trent Bridge: “We don’t want to see 30 overs of Alex Hales batting.” After that third ball Azhar seemed to sense an opportunity as he shouted encouragement to van der Merwe.

The change in Hales’ approach was startling. Until then he had tried to dominate the Somerset bowling at every opportunity. It was as if he was demonstrating his ability to take control of a match. The fear of the Somerset supporter was that unchecked he would do precisely that. Now, suddenly, Hales was feeling his way, perhaps giving himself time to re-assess the situation after Ben Duckett had announced himself by mishitting van der Merwe to Craig Overton who took a finely judged catch right on the rope. It left Nottinghamshire on 125 for 3 in the 20th over, still needing another 213 runs to overhaul Somerset. The required run rate had risen past seven and a half an over. That is not insurmountable in these days of 350-plus scores, but it seemed to give Hales pause for thought. Read More »

Unity of purpose

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Worcestershire v Somerset. Quarter-final play-off. 10th May 2019. Worcester.

Toss. Worcestershire. Elected to field.

Unity of purpose

In the old days this match would have been a major event on the cricketing landscape. Quarter and semi-finals were anticipated for weeks in advance. The great set-piece battles of the domestic cricketing landscape. Victory or defeat remained enshrined in the memory of the county supporter for weeks and months afterwards. Sometimes years, even decades afterwards. Read More »

A Somerset performance to match the splendour of the Quantocks

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Somerset v Surrey. 5th May 2019. Taunton.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.

A Somerset performance to match the splendour of the Quantocks

And so, it was all or nothing on this match. From a Somerset perspective it was an old-style knock-out match. Realistically, a win would mean a place in the quarter-final play-offs, a defeat would mean elimination from the competition. That focuses the mind. No second chances. No next game in which to rectify matters. Just win or have a week watching others trying to reach the final. For Surrey there was nothing to play for but, as they say, pride. I have often wondered about that. How focused teams really are when there is nothing on the game for them. As far as I could see there was no lack of effort or focus from Surrey. They came at this game hard. Read More »

Outplayed

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Somerset v Hampshire. 5th May 2019. Taunton.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.

Outplayed

Bewilderment and dismay would best sum up the feelings of every Somerset supporter I spoke to after the Somerset innings and again after the Hampshire innings. It had been as if the two innings had been played on different pitches. The Somerset innings was a disjointed, directionless, stop-start affair which fizzled out with barely a single coherent passage of play. The Hampshire innings knew exactly where it was going and went there virtually untroubled and at speed, doubtless helped by the fact that it did not have far to go. A target of 217 in a 50-over match, in this day and age, is unlikely to trouble any team on any but the most troublesome of pitches. By the end it was clear that the pitch for this match did not provide a reason for this defeat.Read More »

Nightmare on Watling Street

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Middlesex v Somerset. 1st May 2019. Radlett.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to field.

Nightmare on Watling Street

It was like the reverse of being in one of those nightmares in which, however fast you run, the plodding steps of the chasing ogre always closes the gap until you wake up in a cold sweat. At Radlett it was Somerset who did the plodding in pursuit of the Middlesex ogre which raced increasingly far into the distance and never really looked like being caught. There was no cold sweat. Just a sinking feeling, which started when the Middlesex openers snatched control of the game, and which sank deeper and deeper as the day wore on. There was never any respite for Somerset.Read More »

Slow pitch blues

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Gloucestershire v Somerset. 28th April 2019. Bristol.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.

Slow pitch blues

“Does this bus stop at Nevil Road for the cricket?” I asked the bus driver. “I hope so, because I don’t know what I am going to do with this lot if it doesn’t,” was the reply as he pointed to about a dozen assorted men all dressed more or less as I was. Observation is not necessarily my strong point it seems. “We can expect some fireworks today then, can we?” was the question put to me by a Gloucestershire supporter when I told him, in answer to his previous question, that Somerset had topped 350 from 39 overs in their last match.Read More »

Trego and Azhar make their mark

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Somerset v Essex. 26th April 2019. Taunton.

Somerset. T.Banton (w), Azhar Ali, P.D. Trego, L. Gregory, J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, C. Overton, T.B. Abell (c), R.E. van der Merwe, J.H. Davey, T.D. Groenewald.

Essex. Sir Alistair Cook, P.I. Walter, T. Westley, D.W. Lawrence, R.S. Bopara, R.N. ten Doeschate (c), S.R. Harmer, R.G. White (w), P.M. Siddle, M.R. Quinn, S.J. Cook.

Toss. Essex. Elected to field.

Trego and Azhar make their mark

The text I sent said, “Lost toss. Batting. Green pitch. Lights on. Overcast. Rain forecast.” The unspoken part of it referred to the conventional wisdom that in one-day cricket, with the DLS system in play and rain about, it is best to bat second when any effect of the weather might be better known. In this match, and the last, Somerset have shown that where the first innings is uninterrupted, and a large score is posted, the loss of early wickets by the team batting second can have a devastating effect on their prospects when DLS is applied.Read More »

A batting and bowling masterclass

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Sussex v Somerset. 24th April 2019. Hove.

Sussex. P.D. Salt, S. van Zyl, L.J. Evans, H.Z. Finch, B.C. Brown (c) (w), D. Wiese, C.J. Jordan, G.H.S. Garton, W.A.T.Beer, D.R. Briggs, Mir Hamza.

Somerset. T. Banton (w), Azhar Ali, P.D. Trego, J.C. Hildreth, T.B. Abell (c), L. Gregory, C. Overton, G.A. Bartlett, R.E. van der Merwe, T.D. Groenewald, J.H. Davey.

Toss. Sussex. Elected to field.

A batting and bowling masterclass

Tom Paxton was at it again. Last year a concert of his ended up causing me to be involved in one of those mad rushes to Taunton for the first day of the season, from the wrong end of the country, that had marked the days of my exile. This year his concert put me at the right end of the country for the match, but having to re-live the London commuting days of my exile. Would I had known in those days the antidote to a twelve hundred-strong tide of people pouring off a train and threatening to swamp you. A Wyvern hat on your head and a Somerset umbrella held out before you cuts a swathe through the most determined flood of people late for work. One of them even managed a shout of “Somerset!” and a thumbs-up. Read More »

Back to the edge of my seat

'farmer white'

 

 

Royal London One-Day Cup. Glamorgan v Somerset. 21st April 2019. Cardiff.

Glamorgan. C.R. Hemphrey, C.A.J.Meschede, M.Labuschagne, D.L. Lloyd, W.T. Root, K.S. Carlson, C.B. Cooke (c) (w), G.G. Wagg, M. de Lange, L.J. Carey, T.van der Gugten.

Somerset. Azhar Ali, T. Banton (w), P.D. Trego, J.C. Hildreth, T.B. Abell, L. Gregory, R.E. van der Merwe, C. Overton, D.M. Bess, T.D. Groenewald, J.H. Davey.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.

Back to the edge of my seat

This was a Somerset win of the old kind. Not to be bestowed on supporters without an extended, stomach-wrenching occupation of the narrowest of narrow edges of the seat. Not to mention an assault on the blood pressure which ought to be illegal in this day and age. “Self-inflicted,” the extent of the sympathy I received when I finally arrived home and slumped in a chair.Read More »

Relentless

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Royal London One-Day Cup. Somerset v Kent. 19th April 2019. Taunton.

Somerset. Azhar Ali, T Banton (w), P.D. Trego, J.C. Hildreth, T.B. Abell (c), L. Gregory, R.E. van der Merwe, C. Overton, D.M. Bess, J.H. Davey, T.D. Groenewald.

Kent. Z. Crawley, S.R. Dickson, M.T. Renshaw, O.G. Robinson, A.J. Blake, A.P. Rouse (c) (w), D.I Stevens, H.W. Podmore, H.E. Milnes, Imran Qayyum, F.J. Klaassen.

Toss. Kent. Elected to field.

Relentless

“Kent didn’t really turn up did they?” said the person with me as Davey caught Milnes to give Craig Overton his fifth wicket, Somerset their tenth and the match by 264 runs. It was true in both senses of the phrase. Firstly, in the literal sense, five key Kent players were unavailable for various reasons. Secondly, in the sporting sense, the Kent team that did enter the field of play, at least when it came out to bat, did not appear to perform. The truth of it though was not that Kent did not ‘turn up’, but that Somerset did not permit them to play. It was an utterly uncompromising Somerset performance cast in the mould of the Championship victory over Nottinghamshire the previous weekend. Somerset simply overpowered Kent.Read More »