That’ll teach you Farmer White! You do an analysis of Somerset’s RLODC campaign after the Gloucestershire match and point out that the opening partnership has failed to reach 50 once, that Peter Trego has made four 50s but failed to convert any of them to a three-figure score, that Somerset’s batsmen have only made one century in the entire competition and that a century tends to go with a competitive score on a flat pitch. So off I go to Southampton, the openers put on 87 before Somerset get to the end of the 12th over, someone scores a century, it turns out to be Trego and Somerset score over 350. And what a match it was especially for the person who came with me for his first match of the season. He thought it was well worth the 350-mile round trip which he took to see it. We arrived an hour before the start and found ourselves parking towards the back of the last available car park. It was the best part of an hour before we could get away afterwards but the closeness of the car park to the ground probably made up for that and after a match like the one we had just watched we didn’t want to rush away from our seats. Read More »
Author: 'farmer white'
A force of nature
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th June 2018. Taunton. Second Day.
Somerset started the second day with what had appeared to be a good total taking into account the help the pitch had given the bowlers on the first day.
Overnight: Somerset 307 for 7.
With due acknowledgement to Benjamin Franklin there are three certainties in life. Death, taxes and the Taunton pitch going flat on the third day.Read More »
Battle for the top
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th June 2018. Taunton. First Day.
Nottinghamshire came to Taunton top of the Championship table with Somerset in second place. And so began another match crucial to Somerset’s Championship challenge.
Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.
It was a day of cricket you would happily travel a hundred miles to see. I know because the person I watched the day with had done precisely that. ‘Fascinating’ he called it.Read More »
Flashback. 2009.
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Hampshire. 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th May 2018. Taunton. Final Day.
On the third day the Somerset tail had extended Somerset’s total from a good one to an imposing one. By the end of the day the Hampshire top order had made a significant dent in Somerset’s lead as the feared flattening of the pitch came to pass.
Overnight: Hampshire 231 and 178 for 2. Somerset 506. Hampshire trail by 93 runs with 8 second innings wickets standing.
“Well, what are you going to find to write about that,” I was asked two or three overs from the end. What indeed.Read More »
The pitch has its say
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Hampshire. 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th May 2018. Taunton. Third Day.
At the start of the third day the match was set for Somerset’s tail, not devoid by any means of batting talent, to stretch an already very healthy first innings lead.
Overnight: Hampshire 231. Somerset 324 for 7. Somerset lead by 193 runs with 3 first innings wickets standing.
Late arriving at the Cooper Associates County Ground I made my way to the boundary near the covers store. As I arrived the ball screamed across the grass and crashed into the boards in front of the Ondaatje Stand. Hildreth I assumed had been on the other end of it. But no, Dom Bess was making his case to move up from number tenRead More »
Hildreth and Overton take the lead
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Hampshire. 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th May 2018. Taunton. Second Day.
Overnight: Hampshire 198 for 8.
What a difference a season makes. In the second half of 2017, with Somerset 30 points adrift in the relegation zone, it was a succession of performances like those of Hildreth and Craig Overton on the second day here that led Somerset to safety. A powerful team spirit underpins such performances. In 2018 such performances are driving Somerset towards the top of the table.Read More »
A team emerging
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Hampshire. 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th May 2018. Taunton. First Day.
Somerset came into this match unbeaten after a classic rear guard action by Jack Leach and the tail had saved the previous match at Old Trafford. They had also won their first two matches and were second in the Championship table. Marcus Trescothick was unavailable for this match and would be for some matches to come after breaking a metatarsal whilst batting at Old Trafford.
Toss. Somerset. Elected to field.
Somerset started the match against Hampshire in second place in the Championship table, 17 points behind Nottinghamshire but with a game in hand. As far as such a thing can be said so early in the season they have their Championship future in their own hands. And such young hands. Only three of the side that took the field were over 30. The rest all under 27, six under 25, three aged 20. It would be a phenomenal feat if such a side could challenge for the Championship, let alone win it.
Photo courtesy Michael Williams
Horatius at the bridge
County Championship Division 1. Lancashire v Somerset. 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th May 2018. Old Trafford. Final Day.
I was late posting this report. I had made the trip back to the West Country via London and had taken in an art study day on the way. ‘The Thames in Art’ for the record. Monet, Whistler et al. My arrival in London was too late for me to write my report there because the final day of the match went its full length. And what a final day it was.
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Lancashire advance. Abell rebels.
County Championship Division 1. Lancashire v Somerset. 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th May 2018. Old Trafford. Third Day.
Somerset’s excellent start to the season had received its first serious check on the second day of this match when Lancashire batted themselves into a position which threatened superiority. For Somerset’s bowlers, who had been dominant in the previous match against Yorkshire, there was some serious work to do. Read More »
The balance shifts
County Championship Division 1. Lancashire v Somerset. 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th May 2018. Old Trafford. Second Day.
Somerset entered the second day of this match with a solid base but with still some way to go if they were to control the match.
Overnight: Somerset 321 for 5.
By the end of the day I was recalling Marcus Trescothick’s adage from the early days of his captaincy that at Taunton you needed to bat last to win the match. I wondered if that applied to Old Trafford in this match for by the end of the day the prospects of Somerset taking another wicket seemed to be setting with the sun.Read More »
A giant falls
County Championship Division 1. Lancashire v Somerset. 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th May 2018. Old Trafford. First Day.
For the first time since 1993 Somerset had won their first two Championship matches of the season. After years of poor starts to the season it was with an unaccustomed glow that Somerset’s band of travelling supporters headed north to Old Trafford.
Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.
The shot Trescothick played to Parkinson looked oddly jerky, the ball bouncing awkwardly to mid on. The jerkiness perhaps explained by the fact that by the time the ball reached mid on Trescothick was on his knees.Read More »
Disciplined, determined, dominant.
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Yorkshire. 28th, 29th and 30th April 2018. Taunton. Final Day.
Somerset had worked themselves into a powerful position over the first two days of this match and the weather forecast for the final day had cleared. Even so Yorkshire had fought hard to keep themselves in with a chance with a solid performance in bitter conditions on the second evening.
Overnight: Somerset 216 and 200. Yorkshire 96 and 49 for 1. Yorkshire need 272 more runs to win with 9 second innings wickets standing.
If this match could be summed up in a millisecond Tim Groenewald’s catch to dismiss Jack Brooks on the last afternoon would serve perfectly.Read More »
Somerset’s Arctic expedition
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Yorkshire. 28th, 29th and 30th April 2018. Taunton. Third Day.
Somerset started the day in a strong position. However with rain in the forecast, a seam friendly pitch perhaps liable to ease, Yorkshire having last use of it and the first day having been lost to rain the team would have to retain is focus if victory was to be achieved.
Overnight: Somerset 216 and 6 for 0. Yorkshire 96. Somerset lead by 126 runs with 10 second innings wickets standing.
There was a chill wind at the Cooper Associates County Ground today that put yesterday’s depredations in the shade. It was so cold in the breeze that if the only habitat of the arctic tern were the top of the Somerset Pavilion the species would now be extinct. It wasn’t the wind that blew the stumps over though. It was the bowling.Read More »
A century for lunch
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Yorkshire. 28th, 29th and 30th April 2018. Taunton. Second Day.
This match was due to start on 27th April but the entire first day was lost to rain. Somerset came into this, their second match, having won their first match of the season against Worcestershire. They were looking to consolidate their good start to the season after half a decade of poor starts.
Toss uncontested. Somerset required to bat.
As I conducted my customary circumnavigation of the ground in the Lunch interval someone said to me, “You are going to have to find some new words to describe that.” He meant Matthew Renshaw’s innings of course. Had we met at the end of the day he might have said the same about the whole day’s cricket, Somerset’s performance in particular.Read More »
At last
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Worcestershire. 20th, 21st and 22nd April 2018. Taunton. Final Day.
James Hildreth’s second day century had given Somerset a real opportunity to push for their first victory in the opening match of the season for five years.
Overnight: Somerset 202 and 255 for 9. Worcestershire 179. Somerset lead by 278 with 1 second innings wicket standing.
Apart from a late flurry from the last two Worcestershire wickets this was a clinical performance by the Somerset bowlers. They may, as some have said, have looked a little rusty in the first innings; they most certainly did not in the second. It was joyous, as a Somerset supporter, to sit in the Somerset Pavilion next to Gimblett’s Hill and watch such a performance.Read More »
Hildreth takes it away
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Worcestershire. 20th, 21st and 22nd April 2018. Taunton. Second Day.
Somerset came into the second day with a slim advantage over Worcestershire. The question of whether the customary poor start to the season could be avoided still hanging in the air.
Overnight: Somerset 202. Worcestershire 153 for 8. Worcestershire trail by 49 runs with 2 first innings wickets standing.
James Hildreth produced an innings of determination and class on the second day of this match. Every century stands out in some ways but in the last three seasons Hildreth has produced three innings that have made a particular mark.Read More »
Renshaw drives hard
County Championship Division 1. Somerset v Worcestershire. 20th, 21st and 22nd April 2018. Taunton. First Day.
The new season started with memories of the closest possible brush with relegation in 2017 still raw in Somerset supporters’ minds. At the end of the previous season the Director of Cricket had left the Club. During the winter the Chief Executive had followed after less than a year in post and the Club Chairman had left after a decade in post. The Director of Cricket had been replaced by a Director of Cricket and a Head Coach. In the winter Somerset’s new first choice of overseas player had been involved in a ball tampering incident in a Test match and had been replaced by Matthew Renshaw.
With the exception of Tom Abell, continuing as Club captain, continuity had not been the order of the day. The issue now was would Somerset start the new season with an unwanted form of continuity, their usual clutch of poor results?
Jamie Overton was unavailable for the early matches of the season due to injury.
Toss Uncontested. Somerset required to bat.
The first day of Somerset’s 2018 season. It started disastrously. The patisserie on Paddington Station where I used to start my journeys to Taunton during the years of my eastern exile had gone. Replaced by empty floor space. No Black Forest gateau to fortify me for the rigours of the train journey let alone the first day of a season watching Somerset. The chocolate brownie with which they furnished me on the train was hardly a worthy substitute.Read More »
County Championship 2017 ~ Middlesex ~ Final day ~ Floating on air
September 2017 Specsavers County Championship. First Division. Taunton. 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th. Somerset v Middlesex.
In short, Somerset needed to defeat Middlesex to retain their First Division status. Victory for Somerset would also mean the relegation of Middlesex. Any other result would reverse those roles.
Overnight. Somerset 236 and 250-9 dec. Middlesex 142 and 40-3. Middlesex need a further 305 runs to win with 7 wickets standing.
28th September. Final Day – Floating on air
Farmer White (IP Logged) 28 September 2017 11.11 p.m.
“I normally set off for a Somerset match filled with trepidation and deep foreboding about the outcome. It was like an out of body experience this morning as I set off, for I had no such forebodings, just a quiet confidence that Somerset would do an efficient professional job of retaining their place in the First Division. Difficult to explain why my psyche should let me have such an easy ride. With so much hanging on the day I should have been paralysed with anxiety. As it was I floated on air. Read More »
County Championship 2017 ~ Middlesex ~ Third day ~ The value of Hildreth
September 2017 Specsavers County Championship. First Division. Taunton. 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th. Somerset v Middlesex.
Overnight. Somerset 236 and 159-3. Middlesex 142. Somerset lead by 259 runs with seven second innings wickets standing.
27th September. Third Day – The value of Hildreth
Farmer White (IP Logged) 28 September 2017 8.28 a.m.
“Well what a day that was. From the first ball there was no doubting Somerset’s intent with the bat, or the weather’s. Middlesex’s in the field soon became clear too. By the end of the day we saw the mettle of Somerset’s new Chief Executive for we knew that by the end of the next day the Director of Cricket will have departed. Steven Davies had been awarded his county cap. By next week a new Director of Cricket will have been announced, and a new post of Head Coach created and filled. And Craig Overton is off to the Ashes too.*
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County Championship 2017 ~ Middlesex ~ Second day ~ Two old hands excel
September 2017 Specsavers County Championship. First Division. Taunton. 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th. Somerset v Middlesex.
Overnight. Somerset 236. Middlesex 18-3. Middlesex trail Somerset by 218 runs with seven first innings wickets standing.
26th September. Second Day – Two old hands excel
Farmer White (IP Logged) 27 September 2017 1.30 a.m.
“We started ten minutes late on the second day amid mist, mizzle and misgivings about the pitch hanging in the air like the sword of Damocles over Somerset’s First Division status*. By the end of the day the sun had despatched the mist and the mizzle, and the bats of Hildreth, Abell, Trescothick, Stirling and Malan should have seen off Damocles and his sword.
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'Farmer White' Somerset Cricket Writing 
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