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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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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