County Championship 2022. Division 1. Gloucestershire v Somerset. 12^th, 13^th and 14^th May. Bristol.

Sonny Baker was unavailable for selection by Somerset due to his continuing injury.

Gloucestershire. M.S. Harris, G.F.B. Scott, J.R. Bracey (w), M.A.H. Hammond, G.L. van Buuren (c) R.F. Higgins, J.G. Bethell, Z.J. Chappell, Zafar Gohar, M.D. Taylor, B.T.J. Wheal.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, M.T. Renshaw, T.B. Abell (c), T. Banton, J.C. Hildreth, S.M. Davies (w), L. Gregory, C. Overton, J.H. Davey, P.M. Siddle, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Somerset 591 for 7 dec. Gloucestershire 119 for 4. Gloucestershire trail by 472 runs with six second innings wickets standing.

Final day 14^th May – Gloucestershire overpowered

Somerset’s victory by an innings and 246 runs should not disguise the intensity of cricket which went into overcoming a weakened Gloucestershire team inside three days on a pitch which gave every impression of being capable of lasting a week. For two matches in succession now the Somerset batting has matched the bowling, and the fielding has been as exceptional as ever. The result: two innings victories with a day to spare. Much tougher challenges lie ahead against Hampshire and Surrey, but those teams may find themselves facing a different proposition to the one they faced on their home grounds earlier in the season. In this Somerset side, in this match, there was no weak link.

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County Championship 2022. Division 1. Gloucestershire v Somerset. 12^th, 13^th and 14th May. Bristol.

Sonny Baker was unavailable for selection by Somerset due to his continuing injury.

Gloucestershire. M.S. Harris, G.F.B. Scott, J.R. Bracey (w), M.A.H. Hammond, G.L. van Buuren (c) R.F. Higgins, J.G. Bethell, Z.J. Chappell, Zafar Gohar, M.D. Taylor, B.T.J. Wheal.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, M.T. Renshaw, T.B. Abell (c), T. Banton, J.C. Hildreth, S.M. Davies (w), L. Gregory, C. Overton, J.H. Davey, P.M. Siddle, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Somerset 319 for 4.

Second day 13^th May – A crowd within a crowd

The second day felt like a home match. Somerset faces, hats and shirts were everywhere. At least half the crowd, the person with me thought. I wasn’t so sure; it is difficult to assess crowds when they are spread around a ground. Whatever the actual proportions, there were significant numbers of Somerset supporters. More than I can recall seeing at an away match. The volume of their applause and cheers added evidence to that view, and as the day wore on and Somerset turned their overnight 319 for 4 into the promised position of dominance, there is no doubt that the Somerset contingent accounted for far more than half the crowd noise, and virtually all of the cheering. It was not the pockets of cheering that you often hear from opposition supporters at away matches. This was a crowd within a crowd. A Somerset crowd making itself heard. It was a day to be a Somerset supporter. A day which produced everything a Somerset supporter could wish for on a pitch brimming with runs. Of those runs, Somerset took their full measure before subjecting Gloucestershire to a severe examination as they tried to gather some runs of their own.

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County Championship 2022. Division 1. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th September. Taunton.

Craig Overton and Jack Leach were unavailable for selection for this match due to being on international duty. James Hildreth had retired from professional cricket. Matthew Renshaw and Peter Siddle were no longer available as overseas players and were replaced by Imam-ul-Haq and Sajid Khan.

Somerset. Iman-ul-Haq, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory, K.L. Aldridge, J.H. Davey, Sajid Khan, J.A. Brooks.

Gloucestershire. B.G. Charlesworth, M.S. Harris, O.J. Price, M.A.H. Hammond, J.R. Bracey (w), G.L. van Buuren (c), J.M.R. Taylor, T.J. Price, J. Shaw, D.A. Payne, A.S. Dale. 

Overnight. Gloucestershire 343 and 246 for 5. Somerset 248. Gloucestershire lead by 341 runs with five second wickets standing.

Final day – Somerset survive to fight another day

My day began with a weather forecast littered with heavy showers, a torrential shower, a wait on the Somerset website to see if there would be a start on time, and then, when it was announced there would be, a rush for a bus which took 25 minutes to arrive. I arrived at the Brian Rose Gates 20 minutes late, just in time to reach the old Legends Square to see players and crowd looking high towards the heavens. Not for rain but trying to track a ball from Jack Brooks which David Payne had just pulled towards the Somerset Stand. Too late to pick up the flight, I looked along the flats just in time to see the ball ricocheting between one of the lower-level balconies and the back of the Somerset Stand before falling onto the concourse below.  

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County Championship 2022. Division 1. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th September. Taunton.

Craig Overton and Jack Leach were unavailable for selection for this match due to being on international duty. James Hildreth had retired from professional cricket. Matthew Renshaw and Peter Siddle were no longer available as overseas players and were replaced by Imam-ul-Haq and Sajid Khan.

Somerset. Iman-ul-Haq, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory, K.L. Aldridge, J.H. Davey, Sajid Khan, J.A. Brooks.

Gloucestershire. B.G. Charlesworth, M.S. Harris, O.J. Price, M.A.H. Hammond, J.R. Bracey (w), G.L. van Buuren (c), J.M.R. Taylor, T.J. Price, J. Shaw, D.A. Payne, A.S. Dale. 

Overnight. Gloucestershire 343. Somerset 209 for 8. Somerset trail by 134 with two first innings wickets standing.

Third day – Bemusement and the Gloucestershire caravan

This was a day of cricket which left every Somerset supporter I spoke to bemused but relieved. It was a day which moved at the pace of a desert caravan occasionally enlivened by an inexplicable burst of activity. With a first innings lead of 95, a poor forecast for the final day, and needing to win the match, Gloucestershire lost few wickets, but batted at barely two and a half runs an over. At one point, as if the caravan was passing through deep sand, they batted an hour for 19 runs. It had all the feel of a side which needed to win, batting determinedly for a draw.

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County Championship 2022. Division 1. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th September. Taunton.

Craig Overton and Jack Leach were unavailable for selection for this match due to being on international duty. James Hildreth had retired from professional cricket. Matthew Renshaw and Peter Siddle were no longer available as overseas players and were replaced by Imam-ul-Haq and Sajid Khan.

Somerset. Iman-ul-Haq, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory, K.L. Aldridge, J.H. Davey, Sajid Khan, J.A. Brooks.

Gloucestershire. B.G. Charlesworth, M.S. Harris, O.J. Price, M.A.H. Hammond, J.R. Bracey (w), G.L. van Buuren (c), J.M.R. Taylor, T.J. Price, J. Shaw, D.A. Payne, A.S. Dale. 

Overnight. Gloucestershire 320 for 6.

Second day – Somerset hold on – just

It was a day to sit in the top of the Trescothick Pavilion. Rain. Overnight and in the morning. The bane of the cricket watcher’s life, and if the forecast is to be believed, of this match. It took 45 minutes off the start of the second day, although only four overs were deducted because of the promise of an extra half hour at the end of the day. It is September though, and there is always a good chance that cloud, or even the early setting sun, will rob the match of at least some of its extra time. By the start, the sun was shining brightly despite swathes of rough white cloud which, as so often in such conditions, rarely seemed to hinder it. It was a sky to lift the spirit after the rain, although a glance at the unforgiving scoreboard was liable to deflate them again. Gloucestershire were in the ascendancy. Most in the ground on the second morning would have expected them to comfortably pass 350 from their overnight position, although the wicket of Marcus Harris late on the previous evening, conjured from a typically unexpected lifter from Jack Brooks, had removed Gloucestershire’s main threat.  

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County Championship 2022. Division 1. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 5^th, 6^th, 7^th  and 8^th September. Taunton.

Craig Overton and Jack Leach were unavailable for selection for this match due to being on international duty. James Hildreth had retired from professional cricket. Matthew Renshaw and Peter Siddle were no longer available as overseas players and were replaced by Imam-ul-Haq and Sajid Khan. Tom Abell, with the long Championship interregnum since the game against Essex, was fit again.

Somerset. Iman-ul-Haq, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory, K.L. Aldridge, J.H. Davey, Sajid Khan, J.A. Brooks.

Gloucestershire. B.G. Charlesworth, M.S. Harris, O.J. Price, M.A.H. Hammond, J.R. Bracey (w), G.L. van Buuren (c), J.M.R. Taylor, T.J. Price, J. Shaw, D.A. Payne, A.S. Dale. 

Toss. Somerset. Elected to field.

First day – W.G. has the edge

“I think that was the right decision,” someone who has played a lot of cricket said to me as the result of the toss was announced. As always, Somerset inserting the opposition left a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The situation, however, was not straightforward. “Given the forecast,” repeated showers of varying degrees of severity across the four days, “I suppose inserting them gives us the best chance of taking early control of the match,” my reply. In addition to the chequered forecast, the sky was overcast and there was a tinge of green in the pitch. But I reminded myself: inserting the opposition takes the pressure off their batters and transfers it to our bowlers. “I am always uneasy when we insert the opposition,” I continued the discussion, my predisposition to the W.G. Grace view of the toss pressing on my mind, “because inserting the opposition seems to backfire rather more often than it works, even where it seems justified.” I don’t know if the statistics support that view, but my anecdotal memory does. Guildford 2018 and Headingley 2019 being two crushing, and Somerset season-defining, examples that scar the memory.

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County Championship 2022. Division 1. Gloucestershire v Somerset. 12^th, 13^th and 14^th May. Bristol.

Sonny Baker was unavailable for selection by Somerset due to his continuing injury.

Gloucestershire. M.S. Harris, G.F.B. Scott, J.R. Bracey (w), M.A.H. Hammond, G.L. van Buuren (c) R.F. Higgins, J.G. Bethell, Z.J. Chappell, Zafar Gohar, M.D. Taylor, B.T.J. Wheal.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, M.T. Renshaw, T.B. Abell (c), T. Banton, J.C. Hildreth, S.M. Davies (w), L. Gregory, C. Overton, J.H. Davey, P.M. Siddle, M.J. Leach.

Toss. Gloucestershire. Elected to field.

First day 12^th May – A formidable base

The large proportion of Somerset supporters present among a smallish crowd was obvious when I arrived two overs after the start. A two-hour bus ride, a walk through the centre of Bristol and another bus ride to reach the ground my excuse for a late arrival. For the record, the scoreboard, always the first thing a cricket supporter will look for on arrival, read Somerset 2 for 0. After a lengthy meander to identify a vantage point, and looking for a bit of height, I took a seat in the second row from the back of the Mark Alleyne Stand at the Ashley Down Road End with the sightscreen to my right.

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This match was played with restricted crowd numbers due to the coronavirus restrictions in place. Tickets were initially offered in a ballot but were ultimately generally available. 

County Championship Group 2. Gloucestershire v Somerset. 20^th, 21^st, 22^nd and 23^rd May 2021. Bristol.

Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, I.A. Cockbain, R.F. Higgins, M.A.H. Higgins, T.M.J. Smith, M.D. Taylor, D.A. Payne, D.J. Worrall. 

Somerset. E.J. Byrom, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Somerset 300 for 8 dec. Gloucestershire 16 for 2.

Final day. 23^rd May – Rain-spattered but wonderful

Hardened cricket followers know a terminal weather forecast when they see one, especially when it has remained unchanged for three days and is linked to a smooth grey sky that stretches from horizon to horizon. Billowing grey clouds bring hope of better weather to come, or at least of gaps in the rain. Smooth grey cloud from which rain falls steadily offers no hope once it has set in. The final day of this match began with just such a forecast and just such a sky. Pessimists would have expected little or no play, optimists that the match might last until lunchtime. On this day, the pessimists prevailed.

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This match was played with restricted crowd numbers due to the coronavirus restrictions in place. Tickets were initially offered in a ballot but were ultimately generally available.

County Championship Group 2. Gloucestershire v Somerset. 20^th, 21^st, 22^nd and 23^rd May 2021. Bristol.

Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, I.A. Cockbain, R.F. Higgins, M.A.H. Higgins, T.M.J. Smith, M.D. Taylor, D.A. Payne, D.J. Worrall. 

Somerset. E.J. Byrom, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Somerset 45 for 1.

Third day. 22^nd May – Abell leads the way

“Shot!” The crowd had truly come alive. It is a shout which has been synonymous with watching County Championship cricket since at least 1958 when I attended my first match. It punctuates the buzz, chatter and applause that ripple around a ground as a match unfolds. It was not in evidence at all in 2020. It was not much, if at all, in evidence on the first day of this match when the cricket had to battle with a gale, poor light, flying mizzle and enveloping rain. On the first day, after a season and a half of being on the outside of the closed doors, just being at the match was enough. On this, the second day of play, although the third scheduled day, the sun shone. Not all the time, but for much of it. Enough for the skin on my face to tighten through the evening as I drew together my thoughts and notes for this report.

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This match was played with restricted crowd numbers due to the coronavirus restrictions in place. Tickets were initially offered in a ballot but were ultimately generally available and still for sale online on the morning of the match.

County Championship Group 2. Gloucestershire v Somerset. 20^th, 21^st, 22^nd and 23^rd May 2021. Bristol.

Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, I.A. Cockbain, R.F. Higgins, M.A.H. Higgins, T.M.J. Smith, M.D. Taylor, D.A. Payne, D.J. Worrall.  

Somerset. E.J. Byrom, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Toss. Gloucestershire. Elected to field.

First day 20^th May – It’s good to be back

In some ways nothing had changed. In others everything had. I arrived at the ground, as was always my wont, in a tight race with the umpires, players, clouds and rain for the eleven o’clock start. Nothing new there. I was not the only one. I arrived outside Nevil Road’s Ashley Down Road entrance with a last-minute surge of similarly anorak-attired, backpack-carrying men, most of them just beyond a certain age. Nothing new there either. What was totally new was the small element of variety that had been introduced. It consisted of an array of different colours and designs of face masks and coverings with which the faces were adorned. The new world meeting the returning old. A quick scan of my ticket and an exchanged smile with the steward who scanned it and I was in. The old world again.

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This match was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus restrictions in place. This report was therefore written following a day watching Somerset CCC’s live stream of the match, without which this report would not have been possible. The stream was watched with the commentary muted and with notes being taken to enable the author to replicate as far as possible his experience of watching matches live.

County Championship Group 2. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 15^th, 16^th, 17^th and 18^th April 2021. Taunton.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, T. Banton, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M de Lange, M.J. Leach.

Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, G.L. van Buuren, R.F. Higgins, G.T. Hankins, G.F.B. Scott, D.A. Payne, M.D. Taylor, D.C. Goodman.

Overnight. Somerset 312 and 149. Gloucestershire 309 and 28 for 1. Gloucestershire need 125 more runs to win with nine wickets standing.

Final day. 18^th April – Car crash

The final day, if you were a Somerset supporter, was like being involved in a car crash. It all happened in slow motion. The sort of car crash where the outcome is inevitable, it just seems to take an awfully long time to get to the crunch. When I finally got to bed after finishing my third day report I could see no realistic prospect of a Somerset victory. When my alarm began sounding as part of the dream I was in, I awoke up to find things looked no different. I was still in the midst of a Somerset cricketing nightmare.

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This match was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus restrictions in place. This report was therefore written following a day watching Somerset CCC’s live stream of the match, without which this report would not have been possible. The stream was watched with the commentary muted and with notes being taken to enable the author to replicate as far as possible his experience of watching matches live.

County Championship Group 2. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 15^th, 16^th, 17^th and 18^th April 2021. Taunton.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, T. Banton, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M de Lange, M.J. Leach.

Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, G.L. van Buuren, R.F. Higgins, G.T. Hankins, G.F.B. Scott, D.A. Payne, M.D. Taylor, D.C. Goodman.

Overnight. Somerset 312. Gloucestershire 301 for 8. Gloucestershire trail by ten runs with two first innings wickets standing.

Third day. 17^th April – Gloucestershire ask some tough questions

After two days of this match Somerset and Gloucestershire had fought themselves to a virtual standstill. At the start of the third morning Marchant de Lange, with two wickets in the space of five runs, Payne returning a low catch from a leading edge and Taylor having no answer to a full ball which struck his pads, gave Somerset the narrowest of margins over Gloucestershire on first innings. It was so close that had this been an election rather than a cricket match Gloucestershire would have been within their constitutional rights to request a full recount. Of all the innovations cricket is to be subject to in this second season of the coronavirus, that, mercifully, is not one of them. By the end of the third day, recounts were no longer in the thoughts, for Gloucestershire were threatening to win by a landslide such was the scale of the destruction of Somerset’s top and middle order either side of lunch.

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lThis match was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus restrictions in place. This report was therefore written following a day watching Somerset CCC’s live stream of the match, without which this report would not have been possible. The stream was watched with the commentary muted and with notes being taken to enable the author to replicate as far as possible his experience of watching matches live.

County Championship Group 2. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 15^th, 16^th, 17^th and 18^th April 2021. Taunton.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, T. Banton, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M de Lange, M.J. Leach.

Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, G.L. van Buuren, R.F. Higgins, G.T. Hankins, G.F.B. Scott, D.A. Payne, M.D. Taylor, D.C. Goodman.

Overnight. Somerset 312. Gloucestershire 13 for 0. Gloucestershire trail by 299 runs with ten first innings wickets standing.

Second day. 16^th April – Working the clay

I know not whether I suffer from ill-luck or bad judgement, but wherever I have lived in this country I have found myself tending a garden consisting of heavy clay soil. There is no quick way of working clay. You just have to put your back into the job, digging systematically along one unforgiving row after another, ploughing doggedly on until the job is done. It was like that for the Somerset bowlers on the second day of this match, and perhaps for the Gloucestershire batsmen too, although they might have felt they ended the day just ahead with only 12 runs needed to overhaul the Somerset total and two wickets still standing. The movement in the air and off the pitch which had been plainly evident for much of the first day had, apart from the occasional remnant, faded like the melting of the morning frost. There was nothing for it but for the Somerset bowlers to work their way through one unforgiving over after another on what had become a mainly unforgiving pitch.

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This match was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus restrictions in place. This report was therefore written following a day watching Somerset CCC’s live stream of the match, without which this report would not have been possible. The stream was watched with the commentary muted and with notes being taken to enable the author to replicate as far as possible his experience of watching matches live.

County Championship Group 2. Somerset v Gloucestershire. 15^th, 16^th, 17^th and 18^th April 2021. Taunton.

Somerset. T.A. Lammonby, T. Banton, T.B. Abell (c), J.C. Hildreth, G.A. Bartlett, S.M. Davies (w), C. Overton, L. Gregory, J.H. Davey, M de Lange, M.J. Leach.

Gloucestershire. K.C. Brathwaite, C.D.J. Dent (c), J.R. Bracey (w), T.C. Lace, G.L. van Buuren, R.F. Higgins, G.T. Hankins, G.F.B. Scott, D.A. Payne, M.D. Taylor, D.C. Goodman.

Toss. Gloucestershire. Elected to field.

First day. 15^th April – Testing Newton’s Law

It was a glorious April day. Warm sun, with just enough chill on the breeze to remind that we are still nearer the equinox than the solstice. Perfect for watching cricket this early in the season. So it felt in my Somerset garden ten minutes or so before the start of play. The expanse of the Quantocks beyond the Lord Ian Botham and River Stands visible on my laptop and the bright blue sky dappled with a legion of sheer-white tufts of cloud suggested it must be so at the Cooper Associates County Ground too. The Blackdowns, also bathed in sun, and looking on through the window beyond my laptop added to the lifting of the spirits which always accompanies the start of a County Championship match on such a day.

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