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“And then, as at the end of the last match of every season, there was the reluctance of many to leave their seats as they watched, across an empty outfield, the memories of the season past. Better memories for Somerset supporters than for Nottinghamshire ones this year.”
Notts v Som CC1 Day 3 26th Sep 2018
“Winter well”
“Those modes of dismissal summed up the different characters of the bowling of Overton and Gregory. The one seemingly forcing his way through defences to snatch wickets. The other quietly purloining them from unwary batsmen.”
Notts v Som CC1 Day 2 25th Sep 2018
Business end
“This was Hildreth at his glorious, apparently carefree, but doubtless intensely focused best. As the clouds gathered in they might have been the chariots of gods come to see who was creating such perfection in the imperfect world below.”
Notts v Som CC1 Day 1 24th Sep 2018
Of genius and the sublime
“Somerset 4 for 2. And then Hildreth. Hildreth did what Hildreth does. An on driven boundary of perfection off his first ball.”
Som v Surrey CC1 Day 3 20 Sep 2018
Fighting hard
“They be too good for we,” the comment from across the aisle. There was perhaps more truth in that than even the speaker, who I find to be perceptively knowledgeable about cricket, realised.”
Som v Surrey CC1 Day 2 19 Sep 2018
Somerset under the weather
“Somerset in the field were exemplified by Abell at cover. I lost count of the number of times a ball flew off the bat with ‘four’ written all over it only to find itself snared by Abell’s electrifying dives.”
Som v Surrey CC1 Day 1 18 Sep 2018
Surrey on the road
“If momentum means anything we have a chance,” someone said, and Somerset had picked up momentum at the end of the Sussex innings as fast as the Bungee Blast was shooting people into the air. Whether Somerset could turn the match on its head as the bungee did its rotating victims was another matter.”
Som v Sussex T20 SF 15 Sep 2018
All Wright on the night
“When you are at a match and a Test-class fast bowler gets it right at pace and settles into a wicket-taking rhythm in helpful conditions on a helpful pitch it is as if a force of nature has been unleashed on the batsmen.”
Hants v Som CC1 Day 2 11 Sep 2018
A test of class
“On the way back to the car my white wyvern hat attracted another Somerset supporter. It does that. “38 for 3 the last I heard,” he said, “What is going on?” “It’s worse than that,” I replied, “we were 72 for 5 at Lunch.” It was worse than that. “Not us. Them,” he replied. “They are 38 for 3. We were 106 all out.”
Hants v Som CC1 Day 1 10 Sep 2018
Seam from a distance
“I don’t know how much apprehension a human being is supplied with at birth but I have used up enough to fill one of those super tankers that are so difficult to to turn around just watching Somerset.”
Som v Lancs CC1 Day 2 5 Sep 2018
Four days tied up in two
“After Lunch, Leach got to work. He started to pick away at the batsmen like an examiner picks away at students who have not done their revision.”
Som v Lancs CC1 Day 1 4 Sep 2018
22 wickets and 298 runs in Stygian Gloom
“To see one Overton in full flow is a sight worth the seeing. To see both in full flow and in tandem is a sight to treasure.”
Yorks v Som CC1 Day 4 1 Sep 2018
Yorkshire outpaced
“The Yorkshire crowd cannot be faulted for its impartiality when judging the cricket. Even a loud lbw appeal against Hildreth playing well forward met with the response, “No. Thee can’t gi’ that. He’s too far forrard.”
Yorks v Som CC1 Day 3 31 Aug 2018
Perfect day
“The comments of opposition supporters, as a match unfolds, sit on the opposite end of the emotional seesaw to where your own feelings sit. At Headingley the frequency of the comments keeps the seesaw constantly in motion.”
Yorks v Som CC1 Day 2 30 Aug 2018
Not too bad a day
“The gentlest of gentle bat movements produced rocket like power in the ball as it skimmed the outfield and crossed the boundary directly in front of me. “Just look at that,” another Yorkshire voice drooled.”
Yorks v Som CC1 Day 1 29 Aug 2018
Cavalcade
“It was as if the Gillette Cup had passed through a time warp and come to visit. The atmosphere had the feel of those days again. And the match had the feel of the great cup runs of the 70s and 80s.”
Som v Notts T20 QF 27 Aug 2018
Gregory’s game
“This was a significant victory not just in the context of this season but in marking the continuing development of what has the potential to become one of the all-time great Somerset teams, perhaps, just perhaps, the greatest of them all.”
Som v Essex CC1 Day 4 22 Aug 2018
A match for the ages
“The Essex horse was loose in the paddock with no-one apparently able to close the gate other than Leach and it is too big a job for one man.”
Som v Essex CC1 Day 3 21 Aug 2018
Of stable doors
“Davey has emerged as a genuine front line bowler to be reckoned with this season. No longer a man dependent on April green tops for his wickets. The ball with which he bowled Westley was as good as any you will see.”
Som v Essex CC1 Day 2 20 Aug 2018
Bowled over
“The talk at the back of the Somerset Pavilion (elevated) was of Peter Wight. Of Peter Wight and Fred Trueman. Of the day in 1962 when Fred Trueman arrived late for the Championship match at Taunton and was sent home by the Yorkshire captain for his pains.”
Som v Essex CC1 Day 1 19 Aug 2018
1962 all over again
“Somerset started dessert with two fours from Davies and a skier from Myburgh…”
Kent v Som T20 S Group 16 Aug 2018
A testimonial to good cricket
“As I left after the match I spoke to a couple who might have watched Somerset in the 1950s and probably did. Neither of them had ever watched T20 before. “A great match,” they said, “and the fielding is a level above.”
Sur’y v Som T20 S Group 10 Aug 2018 A stellar match
“Van de Merwe examined the batsmen with the accuracy of a dentist probing with a drill. He imposed the same disinclination to make any rash movements on the batsmen as a dentist does on a patient.”
Hants v Som T20 S Group 8 Aug 2018
A Rye look at the cricket
“That was the whole match. Somerset disciplined, determined, dominant. Yorkshire determined, rocked back on their heels, fighting back, overcome.”
Som v Yorks CC1 Day 3 30 Apr 2018
Disciplined, determined, dominant.
“The light relented and after Tea out into this frozen wasteland the rules of cricket demanded the players return.”
Som v Yorks CC1 Day 2 29 Apr 2018
Somerset’s Arctic expedition
” There is no need to use superlatives because it was a superlative innings full of its own superlatives.”
Som v Yorks CC1 Day 1 28 Apr 2018
A century for lunch
I remember watching Basil D’Oliviera play and not just at the end of his career. Now I was watching his grandson. ‘Fugit inreparabile tempus’ as Virgil had it. ‘It escapes, irretrievable time” as the all-knowing internet translates it.”
Som v Worcs CC1 Day 3 22 Apr 2018 At last
“One of the things about catching up on 43 years while trying to watch the cricket is you miss the odd thing. Sometimes you miss a year, sometimes you miss a wicket. I missed Abell’s.”
Som v Worcs CC1 Day2 21 Apr 2018
Hildreth takes it away
“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.”
Som v Worcs CC1 Day 1 20 Apr 2018
Renshaw drives hard
'Farmer White' Somerset Cricket Writing 