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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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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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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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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September 2017 Specsavers County Championship. First Division. Taunton. 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th. Somerset v Middlesex.
Somerset faced Middlesex at Taunton for the last Championship match of the 2017 season. In all probability, one of the two counties would be relegated from the First Division at the end of the match. If Somerset were to beat Middlesex, and at least match them for bonus points, they would end the season on the same number of points as Middlesex but would finish above them because the victory would give them four wins to Middlesex’s three. For Middlesex the situation was more simple. Anything but a victory for Somerset would see Middlesex safe. For both sides there were other more nebulous permutations involving other teams, particularly Middlesex, but the outcome of the match between the two sides was by far the most likely determinent of their respective futures.Read More »
Specsavers County Championship. First Division. The Oval. 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd September 2017. Surrey v Somerset.
Overnight. Somerset 269 and 113-4. Surrey 433. Somerset trail by 51 runs with 6 second inningswickets standing.
22nd September 2017. Final Day.
Farmer White (IP Logged) 24 September 2017 12.58 p.m.
“It was a fitting end to Kumar Sangakkara’s last innings at The Oval as Surrey closed in on victory. It would have been a fitting end to his first-class career had it taken place during his final match, at Old Trafford next week. Here, he drove a ball from Dom Bess so perfectly straight and with such tremendous ferocity that Umpire Ian Gould took evasive action by tumbling flat onto his back like an upended stump. It was not Gould’s speed of reaction which saved him, but the lightning fast reaction and sureness of hand of Dom Bess who, it seemed impossibly, caught the ball. Read More »
Close. Somerset 269. Surrey 328-6. Surrey lead by 59 runs with 4 first innings wickets standing.
21st September. Third Day -Match in tatters
Farmer White (IP Logged) 22 September 2017 8.26 a.m.
“The relegation tide rose around Somerset on the third day of this match. Middlesex won at Lord’s and Yorkshire are closing in on Warwickshire at Headingley, although making some heavy weather of it. Somerset are losing against Surrey, and will need an extended effort from their remaining six wickets on the last day against a rampant Surrey to salvage the five points which come with a draw. It will require their best batting of the match, the first morning apart. Read More »
Specsavers County Championship. First Division. The Oval. 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd September 2017. Surrey v Somerset.
Overnight. Somerset 269. Surrey 42-0. Surrey trail by 227 runs with all first innings wickets standing.
20th September. Second Day – Sangakkara
Farmer White (IP Logged) 21 September 2017 8.40 a.m.
“The real world sometimes impinges on a day at the cricket. It did, briefly, today as I neared The Oval on the tube for the second day’s play. “Is this anyone’s bag?” someone shouted from next to one of the doors in my carriage. It wasn’t. At least it didn’t belong to anyone still on the train. People started to gravitate towards the two ends of the carriage. There was nothing remotely approximating to panic, just a calm though visibly anxious quiet on people’s faces. The bag looked so innocuous as it rested there, now quite alone. At the same time it looked numbingly fearsome as the implications of what it could be began to sink in.
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Specsavers County Championship. First Division. The Oval. 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd September 2017. Surrey v Somerset.
With one point covering three teams the second relegation slot was most likely to fall to Middlesex, Somerset or Yorkshire. although it was still possible that Hampshire or Surrey, a further 11 and 13 points ahead of Yorkshire, might just come into the frame, especially if Surrey lost to Somerset, Middlesex beat Lancashire at Lord’s and Warwickshire beat Yorkshire at Headingley.
19th September. First Day – Swimming against the tide
Farmer White (IP Logged) 20 September 2017 8.50 a.m.
“Somerset may just be running out of road in their late season charge to stay in the First Division. After two stunning victories against teams at the bottom and near the top of the table they may find themselves swimming against a powerful tide on the second day at The Oval. At least that is how it was starting to feel at the close of the first day from my perch in the Peter May Stand. I sat for most of the day on a line exactly square of the Pavilion End stumps. Hardly a position from which to judge if the ball was moving but during the eighty or so minutes after lunch Rikki Clarke looked as if he had the ball on a string. Five wickets fell in the space of 35 runs, all to moving ball type dismissals; and there were many more balls which were played at and missed. It was a devastating piece of bowling which left Somerset’s First Division survival hopes hanging by a thread. Read More »
MUST WIN
~ LANCASHIRE ~
Specsavers County Championship. First Division. Taunton. 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th September 2017. Somerset v Lancashire – Match Preview.
Whilst Somerset, 13 points into the relegation zone, were fighting to sustain their chances of First Division survival Lancashire came to Taunton with a slim, if unlikely, chance of overhauling Essex to win the Championship. They were 36 points behind in second place with three games to play. They would need to beat Somerset and almost certainly win their last two games to have any chance of becoming champions. Effectively this was a ‘must win’ match for both sides.
Somerset and Lancashire had previous history where Championships were concerned. The match preview I posted follows …Read More »
Specsavers County Championship. First Division. Taunton. 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th September 2017. Somerset v Lancashire.
Overnight. Somerset 335. Lancashire 133 and 247-8 (f/o). Lancashire lead by 45 runs with two second innings standing.
15th September 2017. Final Day.
Farmer White (IP Logged) 15 September 2017 11.07 p.m.
“Craig Overton stood just a little taller at the end of the Lancashire innings. The second match in succession in which he has taken wickets on a pitch favouring spinners. I was an over late to the ground. It was a good time to arrive. The first thing I saw was Jarvis’s off stump cartwheeling out of the ground propelled by a thunderbolt from Overton. I had not long sat down back at the top of the Somerset Pavilion when he speared one in at Bailey’s toes. Bailey could neither get his bat down nor his feet out of the way in time so lbw it was. It was like the days before they taught tail enders to bat a bit and in particular how to keep the pace bowler out. Somerset have a bowler who can bowl fast enough and straight enough on his day to shoot out a tail.
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'Farmer White' Somerset Cricket Writing 
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