County Championship Division One, Surrey v Somerset, The Oval, London, Day 3 Somerset 337 all out (Abell 150*) and 196-9 (Abell 53, Banton 52) lead Surrey 308 (Siddle 6-51) by 225 runs with 1 second innings wicket remaining
Many of you know that my Dad is the inspiration behind SomersetNorth, that I still think, 7 years after he left us, about the conversation we would have at the end of a day’s play when I sit down to write this every evening. What you may not know is that Dad was also Treasurer of Taunton Town for most of the 1970s, a time when The Peacocks played in the then Western League finishing second (if my memory serves me correctly) four years in a row, when the club launched one of the first lotteries in the country to raise funds for ground improvements and when Wordsworth Drive first got floodlights.
At a time when Viv, Joel and Beefy were propelling Somerset to their first-ever trophies, Taunton Town made it into the Southern League for the first time in their history. It really was a wonderful time to be a teenage Tauntonian.
Dad would have been feeling immense pride this evening at what Kevin Sturmey, Rob Dray and everyone at Wordsworth Drive have achieved, winning promotion to the National League. But I’m sure his joy would be tempered by a feeling that Somerset’s batting in the last session today has badly let down the herculean efforts of their captain.
When you have battled to drag your side out of a dreadful run of form for over a day making an unbeaten career best which was almost half your sides first innings total…… When you have skilfully managed your bowlers to secure a first innings lead against one of the strongest and deepest batting line ups in the country on their home ground…….. When you have made a fluent second innings 50 taking your aggregate for the game to 203 and your side to a lead of 161…..
You have a right to expect a couple of your teammates to get their heads down and bat the opposition out of the game.
Tom Abell is a class act who has gutsed out eight sessions of batting and leadership. Imagine how he must have felt when within 12 overs 132-3 had become 158-7. You have to hope that the skipper hasn’t seen the dismissals that followed his and that there weren’t any sharp objects lying around in the away dressing room.
There is some slight mitigation with some variable bounce on a wearing pitch, but Surrey were almost out of bowling options with Taylor and Curran unavailable to Rory Burns after Abell and Tom Banton’s 20 over, 89 run partnership for the third wicket.
Banton and the third Tom had supported their skipper to put their side into a position where the middle order only had to bat time and wait for Topley, Clark and Jamie to tire. They were beginning to show signs of that when the experienced heart of the Somerset middle-order gifted their wickets with poor shot selection and execution. To paraphrase Peter Trego’s earlier comments on commentary there was a lot of brain f@rt$ in a very short space of time.
This was another occasion which left me wondering what is going on in the Somerset dressing room at the moment. Why can such talented and experienced professional cricketers fail so obviously to bat the situation?
The bowlers were suddenly rejuvenated, sensing that against a side where everyone from 6 down is batting one place too high, their work was almost done.
The profligacy of their predecessors was emphasised by Josh Davey and Jack Leach who put together a dogged 31 run partnership in 12 overs.
But what had gone before left a little too long in an elongated day to bat. Leach and Siddle both departed before the close, Siddle to what became the last ball of the day. Davey is still there with a stoic 9 not out off 52 balls, showing what can be done.
A lead of 225 is asking a lot of the bowlers on the last day. If Jack and Josh can eke out another 25 and then provide threat and accuracy with the ball to support our Overton and the phenomenal Siddle then we may still stop the rot at 6 defeats in a row. But it is a big ask even if they do.
Somerset have been the most consistently successful red-ball cricket team in the country for well over the last decade without, as we all know, winning it all. Their success in the post-Trescothick era has been achieved mainly thanks to a stellar bowling unit. Time and again they have delivered wins from almost impossible positions. Well, guess what, Craig Overton, Peter Siddle and co are going to have to do it again at. Only time will tell if they have enough runs but I for one don’t have enough nails for another ride on the emotional rollercoaster that is supporting Somerset CCC
