Category: County Championship 2025

Overton and Lammonby – two artists ply their trade – Somerset v Durham – County Championship 2025 – 22nd and 23rd July – Taunton – First day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Durham. 22nd and 23rd July. Taunton.

Somerset. T. Kohler-Cadmore, J.H. Davey, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T.B. Abell, T. Banton, A.M. Vaughan, L. Gregory (c), C. Overton, M.J. Leach, J.T. Ball.

Durham. A.Z. Lees (c), E.N. Gay, C.N. Ackermann, D.G. Bedingham, O.G. Robinson (w), G. Clark, B.A. Raine, G.S. Drissell, M.J. Potts, N. Wagner, C.F. Parkinson.

Toss. Somerset elected to field.

First day – Overton and Lammonby – two artists ply their trade

From the top of the Trescothick Pavilion, the pitch looked green, the sky looked grey, and the fields of the Quantocks looked brown. The Taunton outfield, protected from the ravages of an endless hot summer by attentive ground staff, must, from one of the light aircraft that occasionally fly over the ground, have looked like an emerald-coloured oasis in comparison with the apparently dead, straw-coloured fields of the hills beyond. And then, with the match ready to begin, a bolt of reality. The start was delayed for half an hour by an unseasonal, in 2025 at least, burst of rain. Then, when the umpires were finally about to make their appearance, someone behind me said, “That pitch looks very green. This will be over in two days.” A brave prediction before the start of a match, especially given the history of green-looking pitches at Taunton levelling out and taking matches to the end of the fourth day. As to the pitch in front of us, it was set well over to the Somerset Stand, the sight screen sheeting reaching to the end of the Lord Ian Botham Stand adjacent to the Hildreth Stand and two thirds of the outfield standing between the pitch and the Priory Bridge Road boundary. In the days when spectators could sit square of the wicket in the Somerset Stand for Championship matches, if you sat in the front row when the wicket was set that far over, you could hear some of the conversation in the middle.

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“A painted ship upon a painted ocean” Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Nottinghamshire v Somerset – County Championship 2025 – 29th, 30th, 31st July and 1st August – Trent Bridge – Final day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Nottinghamshire v Somerset. 29th, 30th, 31st July and 1st August. Trent Bridge.

Nottinghamshire. H.Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke (w), J.A. Haynes, L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, C.G. Harrison, B.A. Hutton, D.Y. Pennington, Mohammad Abbas.

Somerset. L. Gregory (c), J.H. Davey, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T.B. Abell, T. Banton, A.M. Vaughan, C. Overton, M. Pretorius, M.J. Leach, J.T. Ball.

Overnight. Somerset 438. Nottinghamshire 189 for 2. Nottinghamshire trail by 249 runs with eight first innings wickets standing.

Final day – “A painted ship upon a painted ocean” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” So Coleridge portrayed the ship of the Ancient Mariner becalmed in the doldrums. He could as well have used those lines to portray the second and third days of this match. So dead was the pitch, so uninspiring much of the cricket, so soft did the Kookaburra ball become after a dozen or so overs of each innings, or so it seemed from beyond the boundary, that Lewis Gregory opted not to bother with the new ball after 80 overs of the Nottinghamshire innings. Instead, he used the original for the whole innings, 159.2 overs, four balls short of double the usual allocation for a ball. Whether because of the effect of the comatose pitch on the first three days, or the reputation of the Kookaburra ball among County Championship spectators, the crowd had voted with their feet by the fourth day. At the start, I counted about 170 people in the stands prepared to continue watching. The crowd had grown to around 250 by lunch, but that was a fraction of the attendance on the first two days and only about a quarter of the attendance on the third day. The first three days had seen one of the highest attendances by Somerset supporters on the first three days of any of Somerset’s first six away matches in 2025. By the final day, perhaps a dozen remained.

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Different gravy – Somerset v Nottinghamshire – County Championship 2025 – 29th, 30th June, 1st and 2nd July – Taunton – Third day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. 29th, 30th June, 1st and 2nd July. Taunton.

Lewis Gregory was unavailable for selection for personal reasons.

Somerset. T. Kohler-Cadmore, , S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), A.M. Vaughan, K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M.J. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke, J.A. Haynes, I.P Kishan (w), L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, B.A. Hutton, F. Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas.

Overnight. Somerset 379. Nottinghamshire 214 for 3. Nottinghamshire trail by 165 runs with seven first innings wickets standing

Third day – Different gravy

As I meandered around the ground at the start of the afternoon session, extending my lunchtime walk to a second circumnavigation, stopping in the usual gaps between the stands, waiting for something to happen, someone said, “Notts are just ambling along.” He was far from being alone in expressing that view. It was that sort of day. Lazy in the heat, mainly accumulative cricket in the middle, and a match moving forward at a slow march. Even the Quantocks seemed to be asleep. Gone were the vibrant colours of spring which brought the hills to life as the cricket season got under way. Now those colours had faded as if the apparently endless summer heat had consumed their vibrancy, as indeed it probably had. But, for all that, one thing stood out above the rest of the day. An innings of sheer bliss and skill from Ishan Kishan, signed by Nottinghamshire for two Championship matches while their usual wicket keeper was away on international duty. As I had walked in the shade of the tunnel under the Lord Ian Botham Stand, a Somerset supporter who had travelled from the West Midlands said to me, unprompted, and with a hint of awe in his voice, “Kishan is different gravy. A class above anything else we have seen. Worth travelling just to see him.”

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Battling on – Somerset v Nottinghamshire – County Championship 2025 – 29th, 30th June, 1st and 2nd July – Taunton – Second day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. 29th, 30th June, 1st and 2nd July. Taunton.

Lewis Gregory was unavailable for selection for personal reasons.

Somerset. T. Kohler-Cadmore, , S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), A.M. Vaughan, K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M.J. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke, J.A. Haynes, I.P Kishan (w), L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, B.A. Hutton, F. Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas.

Overnight. Somerset 275 for 6.

Second day – Battling on

The second day of this match saw Somerset continuing to battle for match position with the Championship leaders. They did not lose ground, but neither did they gain any, the day ending with Nottinghamshire still retaining the edge, but with Somerset still in contention. Somerset made quicker progress with the bat than they had on the first day, but when Nottinghamshire batted, the first hour of Ben Slater’s innings apart, the cricket was often attritional, a form of the game which, in supporters’ minds, is becoming associated with the use of the Kookaburra ball in English conditions. Crowd numbers were well down on the first day when free members’ tickets appeared to bring hundreds into the ground. By my eye, upwards of a thousand came on the second day, but these were added to by another thousand schoolchildren in the Priory Bridge Road and Ondaatje Stands. They were organised in class blocks and for as long as they were there, the ground sounded like a school playground on an eternal last day of term.

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Somerset battle – Somerset v Nottinghamshire – County Championship 2025 – 29th, 30th June, 1st and 2nd July – Taunton – First day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. 29th, 30th June, 1st and 2nd July. Taunton.

Lewis Gregory was unavailable for selection for personal reasons.

Somerset. T. Kohler-Cadmore, , S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), A.M. Vaughan, K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M.J. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke, J.A. Haynes, I.P Kishan (w), L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, B.A. Hutton, F. Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to bat.

First day – Somerset battle

This was a key match in Somerset’s push for contention in the 2025 County Championship. After a disastrous, in cricketing terms, start to the season, which found them bottom of the Championship after four of the season’s 14 matches, they had achieved a near-miraculous turnaround when they defeated Essex from an apparently hopeless position in the fifth match. That led to three victories in succession and a climb to fifth place in the table. Then, at Edgbaston, they encountered the Kookaburra ball, notoriously resistant to wicket taking in English conditions, and a pitch which looked like it might last an eternity. Getting the better of the draw against Warwickshire, they moved above them in the table to end the match in fourth place, 21 points behind the leaders, Nottinghamshire. The outcome of their two matches against Nottinghamshire, this one, and another at Trent Bridge at the end of July, would be crucial if Somerset were to close the gap on the leaders, and on Surrey, two points behind Nottinghamshire in second place. At Taunton, in this the second of Somerset’s four Kookaburra matches in 2025, there was a bumper crowd, 3,000 at least, perhaps more. The ECB had designated this round of matches a red ball festival and Somerset had offered each member two free tickets.

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Clinical Kohler-Cadmore – Somerset v Nottinghamshire – County Championship 2025 – 29th, 30th June, and 1st and 2nd July Taunton – Final day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Nottinghamshire. 29th, 30th June, 1st and 2nd July. Taunton.

Lewis Gregory was unavailable for selection for personal reasons.

Somerset. T. Kohler-Cadmore, , S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), A.M. Vaughan, K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M.J. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Nottinghamshire. H. Hameed (c), B.T. Slater, F.W. McCann, J.M. Clarke, J.A. Haynes, I.P Kishan (w), L.W. James, L.A. Patterson-White, B.A. Hutton, F. Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas.

Overnight. Somerset 379 and 4 for1. Nottinghamshire 509. Somerset trail by 126 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.

Final day – Clinical Kohler-Cadmore

When, with 86 overs left in the day, Tom Lammonby swept Liam Patterson-White into the hands of Farham Ahmed at deep midwicket the ball might have been laser guided so accurately did it pick Ahmed out. It had not been the smoothest of Lammonby pulls. He had looked somewhat tucked up in the stroke and Somerset were 28 for 3, still 102 runs behind. “One hundred and thirty all out,” said the voice behind me in the lower deck of the Trescothick Pavilion. That all three wickets had fallen to Patterson-White’s slow left arm spin fed the tremor of anxiety which had driven the comment. Sean Dickson had already departed, leg before wicket to a ball from Patterson-White which had pitched on leg and straightened. He had already been beaten more than once by Patterson-White, never looked settled and two of his six runs had come off the edge. Lammonby had played a perfectly controlled hook off Mohammad Abbas, square to the Somerset Stand to a cry of, ”Shot, Tom,” but it was a false harbinger and the day ahead now looked long and fraught for Somerset watchers.

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A day turned on its head – Somerset v Worcestershire – County Championship 2025 – 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th April – Taunton – First day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Worcestershire. 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th April. Taunton.

Will Smeed was unavailable for selection due to injury.

Somerset.  A.M. Vaughan, S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory (c), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Worcestershire. G.H. Roderick (w), J.D. Libby, Kashif Ali, E.A. Brookes, A.J. Hose, B.L. D’Oliveira (c), M.J. Waite, T.A.I. Taylor, B.M.J. Allison, T.I. Hinley, A.W. Finch.

Toss. Somerset. Elected to field.

First day – A day turned on its head

For much of the day there was a wind blowing across the face of the elevated section of the Trescothick Pavilion which caused most to don jackets or anoraks. Then, as is the case in those seats, as the day moved through the afternoon, the sun slowly sank below the western end of the wing roof and progressively warmed the seats as it passed along them from the Gimblett’s Hill end to the Ondaatje end. As the sun made its way along the seats, in the middle, Somerset were busy building an advantage out of a difficult start. In most of the rest of the ground spectators had the benefit of that sun, uncommonly warm in comparison to most previous Aprils, for most of the day. Somerset supporters, and a few Worcestershire ones, rewarded the sun by coming out in numbers, two thousand, perhaps a few more, by my count. It was, that chill start on the north face of the Trescothick Pavilion apart, perfect weather for watching cricket. The crowd was buoyed by it, and by the start of a new season. As a result, the buzz that marks the start of a Championship match had an extra fizz to it. Meeting old friends again, exchanging winter memories, helped fuel the atmosphere too. There were broad smiles all around, and a general sigh of relief that the cricket was back.

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Just a matter of when – Sussex v Somerset – County Championship 2025 – 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th April – Hove – Final day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Sussex v Somerset 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th April. Hove.

Sussex. D.P. Hughes, T.J. Haines, T.G.R. Clark, T.P. Alsop, J.M. Coles, J.A. Simpson (c) (w), F.J. Hudson-Prentice, D.J. Lamb, J.J. Carson, J.N.T. Seales, S.F. Hunt.

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory (c), K.L. Aldridge, M. Pretorius, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Sussex 294 and 501 for 7 dec. Somerset 201 and 125 for 4. Somerset need 470 to win with six second innings wickets standing.

Final day – Just a matter of when

“Well, that was an unexpected win.” Such was the view of one Sussex supporter expressed to a friend as they walked away from the ground after his team, newly promoted to the First Division, had won by 260 runs. They were but two of a number of home team supporters who walked along Selborne Road with a spring in their step after the match. If the discipline which newly promoted Sussex had shown, batting and bowling, throughout the match were to continue, it would not be their last win of the season was my thought. It was only the end of the second round of matches, but being tied for first place in the embryonic First Division table probably did not flatter their early season form. By comparison, Somerset had looked flat in this match, at the start at least. Perhaps they were still recovering from those gruelling 200 overs of a week before when they had failed to bowl out Worcestershire at Taunton on the final two days of that match.

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“The fair breeze blew …” – Somerset v Sussex -County Championship 2025 – 16th, 17th and 18th May – Taunton – Final day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Sussex. 16th, 17th and 18th May. Taunton.

Somerset. L. Gregory (c), J.H. Davey, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T.B. Abell, T. Banton, A.M. Vaughan, C. Overton, M. Pretorius, M.J. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Sussex. D.P. Hughes, T.J. Haines, T.G.R. Clark, T.P. Alsop, J.M. Coles, J.A. Simpson (c) (w), F.J. Hudson-Prentice, J.J. Carson, N.J. McAndrew, O.E. Robinson, J.P.H. Hayes. .

Overnight. Somerset 338. Sussex 152 and 127 for 4.

Sussex trail by 59 runs with six second innings wickets standing.

Final day  – “The fair breeze blew …”

“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.” Those words are written in white letters two feet high on the wall of Watchet harbour. They come from the pen of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, onetime resident of those same Quantock Hills that overlook the County Ground. The words are to be found in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a tale as full of hope and woe as Somerset’s long quest for the County Championship and were written while Coleridge lived at Nether Stowey on the sea-facing side of the Quantocks. As I stood opposite those words on the day after this match, they stared me full in the face. As I looked back at them, it struck me that, isolated from the grim tale of the rest of the poem, they fitted perfectly with the image created by Lewis Gregory’s sublime innings as he led Somerset through the final afternoon and evening of this match to a stunning victory.

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Lammonby and Abell show the way – Durham v Somerset – County Championship 2025 – 23rd, 24th and 25th May. Chester-le-Street.

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Durham v Somerset. 23rd, 24th and 25th May. Chester-le-Street.

Durham. A.Z. Lees (c), B.S. McKinney, E,N, Gay, D.G. Bedingham, O.G. Robinson (w), C.N. Ackermann, G. Clark, B.A. Raine, M.J. Killeen, C.E. Yusuf, J. Minto.

Somerset. L. Gregory (c), J.H. Davey, T.A. Lammonby, J.E.K. Rew (w), T.B. Abell, A.R.I. Umeed, A.M. Vaughan, C. Overton, M. Pretorius, M.J. Henry, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Durham 277 and 159. Somerset 172 and 71 for 1. Somerset need 194 more runs to win with nine second innings wickets standing.

Final day – Lammonby and Abell show the way  

There were hopes and fears as Somerset supporters got off the Newcastle train at Chester-le-Street on the Bank Holiday weekend Sunday morning. With nine wickets standing, Somerset required another 194 runs to beat Durham. An overnight score of 71 for 1 gave hope that the target was in range. And yet, in a match of descending totals, that the last two innings had been completed for less than 194 brought fears to match the hopes. A long morning was in prospect. As we walked out of the station, one of my co-supporters said, “We’ll know by tea,” adding, to emphasise the uncertainty, “One way or the other.” When we reached the ground, the crowd, as is usual for final day crowds, was small. There were about thirty on the members balcony as opposed to the hundred or so of the first two days. The weather, more optimistic than the forecast, was generally bright with scudding clouds, although a few spots of rain fell during the lunch interval, the match ran uninterrupted to its conclusion.

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Lightning doesn’t strike twice – Somerset v Worcestershire – County Championship 2025 – 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th April – Taunton – Final day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Worcestershire. 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th April. Taunton.

Will Smeed was unavailable for selection due to injury.

Somerset.  A.M. Vaughan, S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory (c), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Worcestershire. G.H. Roderick (w), J.D. Libby, Kashif Ali, E.A. Brookes, A.J. Hose, B.L. D’Oliveira (c), M.J. Waite, T.A.I. Taylor, B.M.J. Allison, T.I. Hinley, A.W. Finch.

Overnight. Worcestershire 154 and 280 for 5. Somerset 670 for 7 dec. Worcestershire trail by 236 runs with five second innings wickets standing.

Final day – Lightning doesn’t strike twice

The Quantocks were stunning all day. They looked so close, it felt as if you could reach out and touch them. And yet, they remained, as always, tantalisingly out of reach. On the field, as the day progressed, the match seemed just as tantalisingly out of reach for Somerset. Victory was as clear in the eye as the Quantocks, and yet, by the middle of the afternoon, winning seemed a wicket too far. The Somerset bowlers kept to their task. Lewis Gregory and his close advisers tried every tactic under cricket heaven as they tried to hew a wicket out of a pitch as steadfastly unforgiving and obdurate as the bats of the Worcestershire batters. In the field, the players repeatedly shouted encouragement to each other. The crowd, a typical final day crowd of perhaps five or six hundred, shouted and clapped its own encouragement, especially in a tense final hour when the eye was as much on the clock as on the middle.

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Of omens and reality – Somerset v Essex – County Championship 2025 – 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th May – Taunton – Third day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Essex. 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th May. Taunton.

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, A.R.I. Umeed, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory (c), C. Overton, M. Pretorius, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Essex. D. Elgar, P.I. Walter, T. Westley (c), J.M. Cox, M.J.J. Critchley, M.S. Pepper (w), N.R.M. Thain, S.R. Harmer, S.J. Cook, C.A.K. Rajitha, J.A. Porter.

Overnight. Essex 206 and 163 for 4. Somerset 145. Essex lead by 224 runs with six second innings wickets standing.

Third day – Of omens and reality

When Jordan Cox reached 98 in the Essex second innings, he and Michael Pepper had added 71 for the fifth wicket, Essex had a lead of 291 and, with lunch an hour away, the only question in the air was, “How long will Essex bat?” Then, Cox took the quickest of singles off Jack Leach, bowling from the River End. Too quick. He had to complete the run by diving, virtually flying, full length at the non-striker’s end, landing with an excruciatingly painful-looking thud. He clutched his side and lay prone, not moving. Gradually players, umpires and support staff gathered around him as he continued to lie motionless on the ground. The break in play was worryingly long. “This doesn’t look good at all,” said the person next to me. Cox had been holding or clutching his side when running for some time, but eventually he stood up and, after another extended wait, prepared to continue. It was the longest break in play for an injured player who did not leave the field that I could recall. Two overs later, Cox reverse swept Leach square to the Caddick boundary, clutched his side again and acknowledged the extended applause for a century scored from 155 balls. At the end of the over, he gave way to his injury and retired with Essex on 246 for 4, a lead of 307 on a pitch still providing some help for the spinners.

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This might just happen – Somerset v Essex – County Championship 2025 – 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th May – Taunton.

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Somerset v Essex. 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th May. Taunton.

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, A.R.I. Umeed, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory (c), C. Overton, M. Pretorius, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Essex. D. Elgar, P.I. Walter, T. Westley (c), J.M. Cox, M.J.J. Critchley, M.S. Pepper (w), N.R.M. Thain, S.R. Harmer, S.J. Cook, C.A.K. Rajitha, J.A. Porter.

Overnight. Essex 206 and 259. Somerset 145 and 216 for 6. Somerset need 105 runs to win with four second innings wickets standing

Final day – This might just happen

When Craig Overton doesn’t reach the boundary until the 92nd ball of his innings you know something is afoot. And something was afoot at the County Ground on the final morning of this match. With two hours play the most that could be expected, and perhaps no more than half an hour, in a bitterly cold wind if it found your seat, perhaps seven hundred and fifty people gathered to watch the dénouement of this match. At the start, Somerset needed another 105 runs to win with four wickets standing in a low-scoring match. At the end of the third day, most I spoke to had thought those odds, plus a new ball due after 12 overs, heavily favoured Essex. But cricket is about more than odds and statistics. It is also about strength of will if you have a bat or a ball in your hand, and intuition if you have a seat beyond the boundary. As people walked to their homes, buses, cars or trains on the evening of the third day after a long recovery from 78 for 5 to 216 for 6, a still, small voice must have been whispering in their heads, “Something is afoot. This might just happen.” In response, the brain would have quoted the odds and Somerset’s catastrophic collapses on the first day at Southampton, the final day at The Oval and twice in this match. And yet, that bit of intuition seeded by that long third day recovery by Lewis Gregory, James Rew and Craig Overton will have kept insisting, “Something is afoot. This might just happen.”

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A crushing defeat – Surrey v Somerset – County Championship 2025 – 25th, 26th and 27th April – The Oval.

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Surrey v Somerset 25th, 26th and 27th April. The Oval.

Surrey. R.J. Burns (c), D.P. Sibley, O.J.D. Pope, J.L. Smith, B.T. Foakes (w), D.W. Lawrence, R.S. Patel, J. Clark, A.A.P. Atkinson, J.P.A. Taylor, D.J. Worrall.

Somerset. S.R. Dickson, A.M. Vaughan, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (c) (w), K.L. Aldridge, L. Gregory, M. Pretorius, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Somerset 283. Surrey 321 for 7. Surrey lead by 38 runs with three first innings wickets standing.

Final day – A crushing defeat

It happened quickly when it happened. Somerset had gone into lunch already in difficulty at 30 for 2, still 54 runs behind, with Sean Dickson unlikely to bat. Those two wickets were only the beginning. Less than six overs after the restart, Somerset were 38 for 7, the first two of those wickets falling within four balls of the resumption. As had been the case throughout the match, the Surrey bowling was accurate and piercing. Rarely did a ball present itself to be hit, there was always something to keep out, and all were bowled with more pace than Somerset had been able to muster in the Surrey innings. Surrey’s catching was exceptional too. It all spoke of a team bursting with skill, discipline and the belief of a side which had just won three consecutive County Championships. Given that Somerset had lost a bowler of the quality of Matt Henry just before the start of the season, and Craig Overton just before the start of the match, they had come out of the first two days remarkably well. They were behind in the match, Surrey were 38 runs ahead with three wickets standing at the start of play, but on the first two days Somerset had started well, fought back hard after a first innings middle order collapse and were still in the game when the third day started.

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Rearguard action – Hampshire v Somerset – County Championship 2025 – 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st April – Southampton – Final day

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County Championship 2025. Division 1. Hampshire v Somerset 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st April. Southampton.

Hampshire. M.G. Stoneman, F.S. Middleton, N.R.T. Gubbins, T.J. Prest, T.E. Albert, B.C. Brown (c) (w), L.A, Dawson, B.R. Hampton, J.K. Fuller, K.J. Abbott, B.T.J. Wheal.

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (c) (w), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M. Pretorius, M.J. Leach, A.R.J. Ogborne.

Overnight. Somerset 184. Hampshire 194 for 3. Hampshire lead by ten runs with seven second innings wickets standing.

Final day – Rearguard action

The forecast for the day was not good, and the weather was worse. The stoppages came mainly in the form of bad light aided by some strategically timed rain. As I walked up the hill to the ground a quarter of an hour before the start, the floodlights were already on, and they never went off all day. And the sun didn’t shine until after the players had left the field for the last time. It was a day of waiting as much as watching. Twice the umpires led the players out to restart after a stoppage, once to find themselves leading them off again before a ball could be bowled, and once to lead them off three and a half overs after the resumption. Only 26 overs and three balls were bowled during the day and Somerset survived those for the loss of Tom Lammonby, although not without some anxious moments. In the end, Sean Dickson and Tom Abell, with some determined batting, held the crease for 22 overs and 56 runs in a pincer movement with the weather to hold Hampshire off.

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A chill wind blew – Hampshire v Somerset – County Championship 2025 – 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st April – Southampton – First day

'farmer white'

County Championship 2025. Division 1. Hampshire v Somerset 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st April. Southampton.

Hampshire. M.G. Stoneman, F.S. Middleton, N.R.T. Gubbins, T.J. Prest, T.E. Albert, B.C. Brown (c) (w), L.A, Dawson, B.R. Hampton, J.K. Fuller, K.J. Abbott, B.T.J. Wheal.

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (c) (w), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M. Pretorius, M.J. Leach, A.R.J. Ogborne.

Toss. Hampshire. Elected to field

First day – A chill wind blew

It was a morning of two halves, a morning because that is all the play there was, steady rain after lunch saw to that. Somerset lost the toss on a day made for bowling and found themselves batting. After an hour, they were 57 for 1 and Archie Vaughan and Tom Lammonby looked like they were getting the measure of the pitch and the bowling, and like they were beginning to take control of proceedings. An hour later, after three wickets in 11 balls the players were walking off for lunch with Somerset six down, still six runs short of their hundred. They were in disarray, and their disarray was fixed on the scoreboard as if in aspic to bore into the minds of their supporters as the afternoon rain wiped out prospects of any further play. At the start, the cloud had been high and white, but it was soon formed of a smooth blanket with a forecast predicting an afternoon of the sort of steady rain which goes with that sort of cloud. On this occasion, the forecast did not err, and Somerset, in their distress, had to bear it, or thank it.

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