County Championship Division One, Somerset v Hampshire, The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, May 19th to 22nd 2022 – Preview
by Steve Tancock with thanks to Stephen Hill and Barry Phillips, authors of “Somerset Cricketers ….“
Somerset have turned their season around with two dominant innings victories in their last two games. Two wins that have been satisfying for their dominance, the lack of stress they have given the supporters and perhaps most importantly that they have been achieved by all-round team performances.
Now the visit of a strong Hampshire to Taunton this week gives Tom Abell’s side the chance to measure itself against a team widely tipped to be in the top three at the end of the season, a team let’s not forget that were in contention for the title last year until the last week of the season.
With Surrey having an off week this week Hampshire will be looking to complete the double over somerset and close the gap on the leaders who they currently by 24 points. Somerset are a further 25 points back.
The 13 man squad is the same as last week, the starting XI plus Jack Brooks and Lewis Goldsworthy. Fitness permitting I’d be surprised if there were any changes from last week’s side, reassuring in so far as Craig Overton’s Saturday morning injury scare seems to be no more than that.
But for a change I’ve decided to do a little more in this preview by continuing my series dipping into the Somerset cricketing heaven that is Stephen Hill and Barry Phiilips I thought I’d feature a Somerset player who was a big favourite of my Dad who was lucky enough to watch his career, someone who, through his cricketing son and grandson provides a link between Somerset and Hampshire, Maurice Tremlett.
Tremlett was a big favourite of Dad’s which indicates to me he was someone who was entertaining and played the game the right way. He notably became Somerset’s first professional captain
Tremlett’s playing career at Somerset spanned 13 years he made 392 first-class appearances including three tests early in his career. He moved to Southampton after his playing career was over, hence his son and grandson playing for tomorrow’s opponents, Tim making 207 first-class appearances between 1976 and 1991 and Chris 158 including 12 tests for England.
If you haven’t seen my (very personal) selection’s previous two items in this series on SomersetNorth you can read about Roy Smith and Cecil Buttle by clicking on their names. You can also read about Stephen and Barry’s epic work here.
360 Maurice Fletcher Tremlett
10 May 1947 v. Middlesex, Lord’s
Maurice Tremlett holds a unique place in Somerset’s history as their first professional captain. Once he had found his feet, he would lead the county to their best season since the days of Herbie Hewett in 1892. Between Hewett’s departure in 1893 and the appointment of Tremlett in 1956, the county had been led by a variety of men – from the charge-of-the-light-brigade types unversed in strategy such as Sam Woods or John Daniell to the dour and uncommunicative Jack White. Former players speak of Maurice’s ability to bring the very best out of a disparate bunch of players, generating great team spirit. Bill Alley regarded him as the finest skipper he had ever encountered and stated that, lacking a main strike bowler and therefore having to manufacture creative declarations for much of his tenure, his captain learned to judge a challenging declaration to perfection. In truth, Maurice was an instinctive cricketer who was always eager to take a risk and ring the changes. Sometimes he got it horribly wrong but he grew into the role. His cause was not helped by the fact that throughout his tenure he never gained the full support of the committee, many of whom found him too lacking in deference for their taste.
Maurice’s other contribution to the Somerset folklore was his outstanding debut at Lord’s when he took a total of 8 wickets for 67 runs and steered Somerset home to victory with a fearless knock of 19 not out. The twenty-three-year-old was applauded off the pitch by the Middlesex side.
Born on 5 July 1923 in Stockport, he was the son of Eustace Cecil Tremlett, known as Cecil, and Maude Hilda (née Carter). Cecil worked for many years as an engineer for the Postal Service, moving to Taunton shortly after his son’s birth. Maurice was educated at Priory School, leaving at a young age to become a brewery clerk at Rowbarton, working for Arnold & Hancock. The firm had been formed from a merger between S. W. Arnold at Rowbarton and the Hancock Brewery in Wiveliscombe. As a teenager, Maurice had already begun to make a name for himself playing for Stoke St Mary CC and Taunton CC. During the Second World War he served first with the Army Northern Command and in the latter part of the conflict as a trooper in the Royal Armoured Corps. He was approached by Gubby Allen at the end of the war and invited to play for Middlesex but turned down the opportunity, preferring to remain loyal to the county he lived in and had supported as a boy.
Maurice was a very useful fast-medium bowler and a forceful batsman with his powerful lofted drive a particularly effective shot. Although he bowled off a short run he was devastating, placing the ball invariably on a good length and moving it both ways. The problems began when Gubby Allen, still watching the young man’s progress and determined to draw him into the Test arena, insisted that Maurice should adopt a longer run-up and add a yard of pace. Maurice was fast-tracked into the England side and played three Tests in 1948 but took only 4 wickets at 56.50 apiece and averaged 6.66. His potency as a bowler had evaporated. Gubby Allen’s ministrations had been a disaster from which Maurice never recovered, though it is said that he remained a fine exponent in the nets. He focussed instead on his batting and topped 1,000 runs on ten separate occasions. The 1951 season, when he scored more than 2,000 runs, proved his most prolific, the achievement acting as a spur to Harold Gimblett to exceed the total the following season.
Maurice had been married in Taunton in 1948 to Melina (née Cousins). The Hampshire cricketer Tim Tremlett was their son and Chris Tremlett of Hampshire and England their grandson.
Appointed captain of Somerset in 1956, Maurice’s greatest achievement was surely to take a rag-tag team who had propped up the Championship table for four seasons – a ‘happy band of jokers’ as Bill Alley self-deprecatingly called them – and drag them to third place in 1958. The spur for this outstanding achievement had arguably been Maurice’s sacking at the end of the 1957 season for one drunken escapade too many at the Grand Hotel in Swansea. Reinstated after the intervention of Dennis Silk – a man able to bridge the divide between the more boisterous of the players and the starchier element among the committee – Maurice had become a man on a mission.
He played 353 games for Somerset, averaging 25.93 with the bat, including fifteen centuries and took 326 wickets at 29.04 apiece. He also appeared for Hawke’s Bay and Central Districts in New Zealand. After standing down from the Somerset captaincy at the end of the 1959 season – when his eyesight and his zest for the game both showed a marked deterioration – he left the scene in 1960 and, in a reprise of his earlier career with the Rowbarton brewery, was employed by Guinness.
He died in Southampton on 31 July 1984 at the age of sixty-one after a long and painful battle with cerebral cancer. This was perhaps linked to a sickening blow he had received in 1953 when he took the full force of shot from Tony Woollett of Kent which left a marked indent on his forehead. At the time, Maurice had been rushed to hospital. The trauma had affected his vision thereafter but had not dented the courage and enterprise he had already demonstrated as a captain and a player.
