William Edward ‘Bill’ Alley was an all rounder who played 350 first-class matches for Somerset between 1957 and 1968 (at the age of 49). He was a true legend of Somerset cricket. He was the last player to score over 3,000 first-class runs in a season (in 1961). The article below is written as it might have been in 1961 in the style of charicature articles written of London society individuals in the magazine ‘Vanity Fair’ which was published between 1868 and 1914 .
Read More »Category: Articles
‘Bertie’ Buse – Somerset CCC 1929-1953 – in the style of ‘Vanity Fair’ (published 1868-1914)
HFT ‘Bertie’ Buse was an all rounder who played 304 first-class matches for Somerset between 1929 and 1953. He notoriously selected the Championship match against Lancashire at Bath for his benefit in 1953. The pitch took vicious spin from the start and the match was completed in a single day. John Arlott described his bowling run up as being like a butler bringing in the tea. The article below is written as it might have been in 1953 in the style of charicature articles written of London society individuals in the magazine ‘Vanity Fair’ which was published between 1868 and 1914 .
Read More »Tom Abell steps down from Somerset captaincy after seven years
Tom Abell was Somerset captain from 2017 to 2023. This short post marks his place in the top echelons in the history of Somerset captaincy.
Read More »Century on a Broken Ankle – James Hildreth – Somerset Steel
Century on a Broken Ankle – James Hildreth – Somerset Steel
James Hildreth has retired from professional cricket. His career will one day, no doubt, make a classic cricket book. But now, as Somerset supporters everywhere are remembering one of the last great single-team domestic careers here, as a special tribute, are one person’s personal memories of the greatest moment of his Somerset career. A personal appreciation of more of James Hildreth’s great innings for Somerset appears in the preceding post to this one. This is an extract from that article. There is a link to the full article below.
Read More »James Hildreth – Somerset Steel – Batting Genius
James Hildreth – Somerset Steel – Batting Genius
James Hildreth has retired from professional cricket. His career will one day, no doubt, make a classic cricket book. But now, as Somerset supporters everywhere are remembering one of the last great single-team domestic careers, here are one person’s personal memories of some of the greatest moments of Hildreth’s Somerset career. There was more, much, much more that I did not see, but I hope this will give something of a flavour of the joy of watching James Hildreth, once Somerset cricketer, now Somerset legend, playing at the top of his game.
Read More »Shane Warne 1969-2022- cricketer and teacher – RIP
Somerset Legends ~ Marcus Trescothick ~ Giant of the Somerset Cricketing Landscape
SOMERSET LEGENDS ~ MARCUS TRESCOTHICK
GIANT OF THE SOMERSET CRICKETING LANDSCAPE
As Marcus Trescothick leaves Somerset to take up a post with England here is one person’s appreciation of some aspects of the contribution he has made to Somerset cricket. It consists of the author’s memories of some of the highlights of an illustrious Somerset career in first-class cricket. There was more, much more, but I hope this will give something of a flavour of Marcus Trescothick, Somerset giant, in whites with the bat and in the field. Access to the Cricket Archive database has been most helpful in identifying or confirming some of the statistics used in this article.
As you travel the highways of Britain there are iconic landmarks that capture the identity of the surrounding landscape and the history of the nation. Stonehenge, beside the A303 in Wiltshire, has withstood the winds and the rains of time in that part of Salisbury Plain for five millennia. The eight great cooling towers of Ferrybridge power station rose above the A1 and the M62 motorway for five decades before five were demolished in 2019. The three that remain are among the last great icons of the power of northern industry which once fuelled the economy of the country. Marcus Trescothick has been an icon of Somerset cricket for nearly three decades, an aeon in the life of a cricket professional, and is as much a part of the Somerset cricketing landscape and its long history as Stonehenge and Ferrybridge are of the history and landscape of the nation.
Read More »Somerset Legends ~ Mark Lathwell ~ A meteor crosses the Somerset sky
This is the latest in a series of occasional articles of the author’s reminiscences of Somerset legends. The author is indebted to the Cricket Archive database for the statistics include in the article. The reminiscences are drawn entirely from his personal recollections.
SOMERSET LEGENDS ~ MARK LATHWELL
Mark Lathwell played 142 first-class matches for Somerset. He scored 7988 runs at an average of 33.84 with ten centuries.
Once in a while, on an August night, when the air is still and the clouds are away, a meteor flashes across the sky. It attracts the eye, embeds itself in the memory, and then, slower than it came, fades from view. If only it could have stayed longer, extended the spectacle, given time for the eyes and the mind to focus. And yet, the spectacle it does provide is enough for the watcher to recall the image whenever the fancy passes and to banish the ungrateful wish that it should have tarried.
Read More »My reluctant introduction to Somerset in T20 (Beckenham and Chelmsford)
Somerset played Essex in a T20 match at Chelmsford in 2017. I didn’t travel to the match. Instead, by way of a preview, I posted a description of my reluctant introduction to T20 cricket, and Kieron Pollard, at Beckenham in 2010; and my recollections of Somerset T20 matches I had subsequently seen at Chelmsford during my eastern exile. During those matches I witnessed an overpowering innings from Marcus Trescothick, an astonishing one from Chris Gayle and, at Beckenham, perhaps the moment which led to Peter Trego batting in the top three in T20 for Somerset. There is a brief note on the 2017 match at Chelmsford. Read More »
A personal memory of Godfrey Evans
A Personal Memory of Godfrey Evans
I once met Godfrey Evans, Kent and England wicketkeeper throughout the 1950s, and one of the greats of England cricket. Not a Somerset memory but a memory to be treasured nonetheless.
It was at a cricket event in London. I have long since forgotten which. It was not too long before Evans died. He was presented to the event and said a few words but his voice was weak and he looked very tired. I had taken my cricket-playing, barely teenage son to the event. I managed to corner Evans at the end of the event to introduce my son to him so that he could at least say he had met the great man. “This is my son, he is a leg-spinner,” I told Evans. Evans’ tired eyes lit up and he suddenly became animated. “Leg spinner! Leg spinner! Loved leg spinners. Lots of chances. Lots of chances, Stick with it young man.” And with that Evans went his way and we went ours, but with another jewel of a cricketing memory to bank.
Somerset legends: Peter Trego
It was the dark flowing locks that first caught my attention. It was almost as far back as the start of the current millennium. I specify the current millennium because it does seem that Peter Trego has been around an awfully long time. I was sitting in the old River Stand at Taunton and Trego was running in hard from the River End. I don’t remember the match, just the locks, and the bowler putting everything into his bowling. He looked like he had a future in the game.Read More »
Sky view of the County Ground
T20 International. England v South Africa. 23rd June 2017. Taunton.
As Somerset CCC prepare to host three one-day internationals and install floodlights at the Cooper Associates County Ground here is a reminder of the last mens’ international to be played at Taunton. Or at least of the impression its staging made when viewed on television.
I bought a day of pay tv to watch the T20 International. £6.99. It was worth every penny.Read More »
The ‘League of Nations’ and the Battle of the Shilling Ticket
County Championship. Somerset v Kent. 20th, 22nd and 23rd June 1959. Taunton. First Day.
My father was a musician and a good one by the account of those who knew about such things. The consequence was that his entire sense of timing was applied to his music. He had none left for anything else. As a result we were late everywhere we went and for everything we did. Cricket was not spared. Not even Somerset cricket.
20th June 1959 dawned full of expectation and my heart beat fast. It was the day of my second visit to the County Ground in Taunton. I was eight and Somerset cricket was already burned into my soul. A fact that drove the emotion, the elation and the anguish, of all that followed. My grandfather and father had come armed with Somerset membership cards. The only flaw in the plan was that getting to the ground depended on my father driving us. His sense of time absent, as always, we arrived 35 minutes late. Details like that stuck in the mind when it was only your second Somerset match.Read More »
Cider and hops ~ 1967-83
Somerset v Kent in one-day cricket – from the 1967 Gillette Cup Final to the 1983 NatWest Trophy Final
From 1967 to 1983 Kent were one of Somerset’s main one-day rivals. It was a decade and a half marked by periodic set-piece matches between two great one-day sides. The Somerset teams of the time contained such great Somerset names as Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Tom Cartwright, Peter Denning, Vic Marks, Joel Garner, Hallam Moseley, Derek Taylor, Roy Virgin, Mervyn Kitchen, Peter Roebuck, Graham Burgess, Colin Dredge, Brian Close, Brian Rose and in the very first match Bill Alley and Ken Palmer. For Kent there were Colin Cowdrey, Mike Denness, Asif Iqbal, Alan Knott, Derek Underwood, Alan Ealham, Bob Woolmer and John Shepherd; and for both sides, as they say, many others.Read More »
Memories. Two cricketing colossi
County Championship. Somerset v Worcestershire. 23rd, 25th and 26th July 1977. Taunton.
The prospect of Marcus Trescothick opening the Championship batting for Somerset at the age of 43 in 2019 brought back memories of two other emeritus England batsmen playing in a Championship match at Taunton. It was in a different age and the nature of Championship cricket was as different as the age. Matches were played over three days instead of four, there was no promotion or relegation and so no external pressure on most matches. Declarations to set targets where hard cricket could not force a result were part of the cricketing landscape. Fitness regimes were an undreamt-of thing of the future and players playing into their forties was not an uncommon occurrence.
Read More »Memories. When the heavens wept.
Gillette Cup Semi-Final. Middlesex v Somerset. 17th, 18th, 19th, 24th, 25th and 26th August 1977. Lord’s.
Forty or so years ago a one-day match at Lord’s was rained off. Nothing exceptional about that you might think. Except in this case there was. Not least that the match was effectively rescheduled five times before it could be played, involved the movement of a Championship fixture to another date and to another ground in another county, and may even have affected the outcome of that year’s County Championship. Even Elvis put in an appearance, of sorts at least. Read More »
Memories. Greg Chappell and the elders.
John Player’s County League. Somerset v Yorkshire. 10th August 1969. Taunton.
Some memories of the format of the iconic John Player League in its first season and of the first match attended by the author. An Australian teenager by the name of Greg Chappell had been signed as Somerset’s overseas player.
Toss. Somerset. Elected to field.
2019 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the John Player League, or as it was formally called in 1969, the John Player’s County League. Like T20 three and a half decades later the new competition was designed to attract a new audience.Read More »
Somerset Legends. Hallam Moseley.
A view from beyond the boundary…
Around Christmas 2016 some memories of Hallam Moseley were posted on the grockles.com website after some footage of the John Player League appeared on one of the discussion threads. It brought back my own memories of Moseley and his time with Somerset. In response, I wrote the following, now expanded, article as a tribute to a player who gave his all to Somerset and touched the hearts of a generation of Somerset supporters.
Memories. A Close run thing.
Gillette Cup Semi-Final. Kent v Somerset. 14th August 1974. Canterbury.
As the ECB confirm arrangements for the ‘100’ competiton in 2020 a return to a different world in my ‘Memories’ series. Return to 1974 for images imprinted on my memory of a gripping match which was played in a 60 overs a side competition at less than three runs an over.
Toss. Kent. Elected to field.
The 1974 Gillette Cup semi-final at Canterbury is burned into my memory and vivid images abound there. I re-run them often. The impact it made perhaps reflects the importance of Semi-Finals, and for that matter Quarter-Finals, in the two one day cups of the time. They were major set piece events which bestrode the domestic cricketing landscape like Glastonbury Tor, Dunkery Beacon or the Wellington Monument bestride the landscape of Somerset.
Memories. Maurice Tremlett imagined.
Maurice Tremlett was one of Somerset’s greatest captains. In the late 1950s he wrought a renaissance in Somerset cricket comparable with that wrought in the 1970s by Brian Close and in the 2000s by Justin Langer. In each of the three cases the renaissance continued into the following decade under different captains.
Here the author recalls some imaginings of his young self about a player he had at that time never seen.
Somerset v Derbyshire. County Championship. Bath 1958
'Farmer White' Somerset Cricket Writing 
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