By my reckoning this is the 29th day of my diary of Somerset’s run to the end of the season. I’d be lying if I said that it hasn’t turned out as I hoped but that isn’t going to deter me.
September so far has turned out to be pretty bad. Two defeats and a tie is not what we had all been hoping for. But, after a day to get over the horrors of that semi-final performance against Sussex (and a trip to the cinema last evening) I’m feeling more positive.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly I went back and re-read my piece at start of the season which set out my definition of what would constitute a successful season for Somerset and was able to conclude that we’ve passed those benchmarks comfortably.
The second was my memory of a Saturday in September exactly 40 years ago when Somerset had just been beaten by Sussex, this time at Lord’s in the Gillette Cup final. The crushing disappointment of that evening was the prelude to us winning two trophies the following year and going on to a period of unprecedented success.
That defeat was one that we had all winter to brood over. This year there are two more games in the Championship and I am heading to Taunton on Wednesday to see us take on the champions. What’s not to be happy about?
So I plan to keep going for two more weeks and hope that my reward will be a winning end to the season.
