v Gloucestershire CC2 @ Taunton Tuesday 22 August 2006

Scorecard

With nothing to play for in terms of the promotion race, this could have been a dead rubber at the end of a poor season.  But it was Gloucestershire and we had a murderous beating at Bristol to revenge so it was a little more than that.  Caddick captained once more and the side had a higher level of confidence because of a couple of decent batting performances, albeit in losing matches.  So we went in with a young front end (with the exception of Mr Parsons of course - welcome back old man!) and the full veteran triumvirate in the bowling department.  The pivotal position of wicket-keeper became Mr Sam Spurway's for the first time in a Championship match.  After recovery from injury and coupled with Carl Gazzard's poor form with the bat it was decided to give the 19 year old a game and see what he could do. Robin Lett also kept his place and shows real promise.

Something of a surprise when Caddy won the toss and decided to bat first.  The weather was a little changeable (we weren't expected to get four uninterrupted days) but maybe we have a little more confidence now - mostly coming from the solid start made by Neil Edwards to the second half of the season - someone to play around is what we have been missing after all. Wood and Edwards opened and it was the newer man who was first victim, but not until we had put on 60 for the first wicket, it took the shine off the ball and got Matt established at the crease.

Going past 100 with the loss of only 1 wicket has been unusual and Woody getting past 50 has also been a brief occurence.  Both happened on Day 1 and when he became the second Somerset wicket we had set a firm base for the middle order to build on.  It wasn't anything spectacular but build the next few boys did.  From 120 for 2 we worked towards 306 for 6 with solid middle scores from Suppiah (46) an excellent knock from Hildreth (71).  Lett didn't get in this time but Parsons (47) and Durston with another gem of 60 did and had not Keith run himself out we could have gone further.  Spurway  was left in a very difficult situation by the KP run out at the end of the third session and put his mind to the job looking good and straight with the bat.  We finished Day 1 on 315

Day 2

24 overs in the day, mostly at the end of it.  Loads of inspections and little prospect of any real play.  But we got on the park and Spurway helped Durston to 391 before he went for a good 46.  The tail wagged a little to take us over 400 and we left the field with 409.  The Glads faced one hostile over from our captain before play ended for the day and we all thought "Draw".  Well you can be wrong occasionally you know!

Day 3

A more promising looking forecast for the third day and some of us hoped for a good performance with the ball to give us a slight lead going into the last day and some bonus points.  As lunch beckoned with the visitors nearing 100 for the loss of Spearman (for a paltry 18 to Willoughby) it didn't look that promising.  After lunch however things started to change as Marshall went at 106, Ali at 112 and Taylor at 117 - the first two to Johnno back after a couple of games in the wilderness while the powers had another look at Si Francis. Gidman and Weston made an attempt to steady the rocking but Willoughby had other other ideas and Gloucester wickets started to fall with alarming regularity to the lefty.

It started at 146 when Gidman went, he was followed by Adshead, Weston, Averis, Lewis and Banerjee. 6 for 15 leaving Hardinges on 6 and the opposition all out for 161!  The follow on beckoned and Caddick first executed it and then sent Spearman back cheaply again with only 24 up.  The captain was getting bounce not seen here for a while and was far too good for most of the batsmen to even get a sniff let alone a knick. He had Marshall caught behind by the tidy Spurway at 28 and before the Gloucs men could take a breath, Johnno was waving Weston back to the dressing room LBW.

All day there was the best sound on the Taunton ground.  Gloucestershire wickets being broken by Somerset bowlers.  Few were more satisfying than when CW castled Taylor at 40, although Johnson doing the same to Gidman at 57 came close.  This was turning into a rout as the men from Bristol seemed to have no answer to good incisive bowling from a trio of experienced seamers.  When they get it right together they are nigh on unstoppable and today they got it perfectly right.  Resistance seemed futile as Parsons took out Adshead LBW and Ali fell caught behind for Willoughby's 9th of the game. There was a lull as Caddick passed the bat numerous times and Tea came and went with Lewis and Hardinges holding up proceedings while taking the Bristolians past 100. We weren't to be denied however and there was still a bit of Johnson in the early evening to enjoy.  Everyone was trying to get Charl his 10th but in the end the 'coup de grace' came from the Benefit Boy. Earlier he had returned figures of 7 overs 4 maidens 9 for 2 to bring back memories of other seasons.  Now he turned that into something even more special as in 4 overs he took three more wickets for 28 to close the innings, including clean bowling Lewis (most satisfying - thinks a lot of himself the boy Lewis does) and Averis before dismissing Hardinges for a fighting half ton after he deposited a little snick into the hands of the dependable Spurway.

20 wickets in a day!!  Some batsmen dismissed twice in the same session!!  9 for 84 for the South African 7 for 67 for the Swarthy Greek and an innings and 76 run victory in 3 days (with one almost totally lost to rain) against the Old Enemy.  Good performance from our new wicky and some solid if not yet impressive batting performances.  Bristol revenged I think!!

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