Sometime around this time last
I’ve decided to start the diary now in the most unpromising circumstances, Somerset have just lost, no been thumped by Yorkshire in Leeds today and the lead we had at the top of the Championship has evaporated to the extent that Somerset now trail Essex, who won today, by 4 points.
The Championship has four games to go but it takes a break until 18th August as the first phase of the Vitality Blast takes over.
My feelings as I write this a few hours after the inevitable defeat was confirmed are not too down. While I am worried that our lead has gone we still have our destiny in our own hands with the leaders due to come to Taunton for the last game of the season.
Somerset have played wonderful cricket this season. They have won the one-day cup, the county equivalent in format to the World Cup to follow on from last season’s runners up finish in the championship to go with their appearance at T20 finals day.
This is a young homegrown side led by a young Tauntonian captain. It is a team that Somerset supporters are very proud of and feel as close to as any in my 50 years of supporting our marvellous club. As well as the captain Tom Abell, who is surely a future England captain, there are the Overton twins Craig and Jamie, big tall strong fast bowlers and capable bats, Jack Leach the left arm spinner who hails from my old club Taunton Deane, George Bartlett, Tom Banton – another future star in the making and the current England Lions captain Lewis Gregory. And there are more coming through, soon.
At the other end of the scale there is the legend that is Marcus Trescothick, the man who has opened the batting for over half of the 50 years I have been a Somerset supporter. Tres has decided to retire at the end of this season and if there is a cricketing God surely He will want such a distinguished career end fittingly with the first Somerset Championship.
