v Derbyshire CC2 Derby 19 May 2004

Derby isn't usually the place where people can say that important things happen but Somerset supporters may be able to look back in the future on yesterday and say it was the place where the Caddick of old returned to strike fear into the hearts of batsmen...and England selectors.

We are going into this game with a real need for a good, morale boosting and points heavy victory. The side has a few problems but it is good to see the return of Burns and Blackwell after injury worries. Bowler is out however so John Francis needs to get into the runs in this game to cement his place and repay the faith of his coach in his opening ability. Hildreth keeps his place (it would have been criminal if he hadn't) after his heroics against Durham. Cox and Edwards complete the top 5.

With the slow bowling in the hands of our one day allrounder, the Two Keith's will spend the next three days dealing with the seconds of Glamorgan at home (they made a lot for 4 and we lost two wickets before the end. Thos Hunt looked a lot more dangerous and more accurate in his bowling). No Laraman yet to add to a full seam attack of Caddick, McLean, Johnson and Simon Francis. IF everyone stays fit who will make way for him when he is looking to return?

Derbyshire have their own problems and not a lot in the storecupboard to replace injured players. Dean is out and Luke Sutton must have a juggling nightmare trying to get a side out. But they are at home and we couldn't bowl them out twice at our place last time so they should be confident of at least getting a draw from thisfixture.

The home side won the toss and decided to put something up for us to shoot down. Frabky seems to be up to this task and they find themselves at 41 for 2 within an hour as he gets Gait caught behind for 12 and the very dangerous Rogers for a mere 8 also via the hands of Rob Turner.

But it isn't really his day because Derbyshire start a recovery and hit 3 figures without further loss. Enter Mr Caddick who breaks the back of the derbyshire top five at 103. Stubbings LBW, 4 runs later Moss Caught Edwards and finally the destructive Adnan also LBW at 112. This is what he does best - flurries of wickets just when the opposition think they are settled. It breaks up the routine and keeps them from setting a base.

Sutton and Bassano make a valiant attempt to re-set and a partnership of 44 is finally broken by Nixon McLean but Bassano carries on and Welch gives him decent support. Enter Caddick for the second time BOWLING (good sign) Welch at 214 and then removing Bassano courtesy of Frank S's hands after a very useful 83. But it still isn't over. That was at 256 and although Caddy got Botha before the close (also bowled) Sheikh and Walker are putting up stiff resistance for the 9th and Derby went to sleep with 315 in the bank and one wicket still standing. We have to clear that quickly and then hit them hard and fast with a large first innings. This game needs putting to bed permanently as the beginning of our move up the table.

Caddick's performance hopefully suggests an improvement in the effectiveness of our frontline bowlers. We've had a number of seasons where the batting and the bowling haven't clicked at the same time in any one game. Could this be the start of that happening? Can it happen often enough to make this season one to remember or will Caddick's performance at Derby be the flash in the pan of an inconsistent vetran?

Day 2

Getting rid of Walker or Sheikh early was what we needed. Allowing them to hit a 103 run partnership was not.

How the hell did we allow Walker to hit 80 off 57 balls and who was bowling when he hit his 4 sixes and 11 other boundaries? Looks like it might have been Nixon - we seem to like to try him on tailenders because of his pace. Trouble is that it makes the ball fly if the number 11 connects! So, the pitch was becoming benign. We would come out and do the same obviously. Eerrr...no. Francis, in need of a good score was back for a single in 12 minutes, caught behind off Man of the Match candidate Walker. He's gotta go to the seconds to get some runs now.

Cox seems to settle but then falls LBW (for the first time in 2004?) on 37 and it gets worse with a double blow at 101. Hildreth's promising 31 off 36 is stopped by Sheikh and then Edwards goes to Walker without moviing the score on. Do we play on different pitches? Are we flashing at daft balls? (Sutton took 2) or are we misjudging line (2 LBW's). Are their bowlers just better? Burns is out at 110 and we need help.

Thank God for Blackwell and Turner who show how it should be done with a 171 run partnership with Mr 'Blastwell' taking the lead - 111 off 117 but 'Noddy' providing support witth a vital 45. They save the follow on and restore some faith in our ability to bat! Not a lot once they've gone. 299 at the end with 2 wickets left. The odds on us adding over 50 before Derbyshire start their second?

Hope ya didn't put any kind of bet on everyone...they added 8!

Day 3

Walker finally took 5 for 68 and we faced a defecit oon first knock.  But thanks to our middle order, it wasn't as bad as it could have been - we weren't following on for heaven's sake!

But we didn't hold them either, on a pitch that seems to be getting easier, they started to accumulate a decent total for us to chase or survive through.  They didn't lose a wicket until there were 73 on the board (Stubbings) and then Gait and Rogers participated in two partnerships of 62 and 96.  Bassano came in early and Adnan made runs in the second as well as the first.

Everyone seemed to participate something to Derbyshire's second innings and we took wickets too infrequently to stop the steamroller flattening our hopes of winning this one!  When Adnan went at 283 and we finally started to look at their tail, Sutton decided to produce a 71 run partnership with Welch and they went over 400 ahead.

At the end of play it was 420 ahead at 368 for 7.  Caddick took another three, but for over 100.  Francis only bowled 6, he seems to have broken down after one ball of his seventh.  Johnson took 1 for 45 but barely got into double figures and Nixon bowled tightly giving away 30 off his 60 balls - but are they both carrying problems as well?  Caddick and Blackwell put in 64 between them with Hildreth contributing a change around three. 

We've got problems in the bowling department.  Either our much vaunted attack is not as 'vaunted' as we think or we have a number of players working through injuries...and not very effectively at that.  Derbyshire will give us some huge total with a 5 in front of it to face...it is going to be a long and hot afternoon!!

Day 4

Derbyshire went in earlier than anticipated and left us the little amount of 447 to get or about 6 hours to defend the crease.  They must have expected early in-roads into our batting on our first showing but John Francis put it together for the first time (I hope it ISNT enough to save him from a bout of re-establishing himself in the seconds) and we had 42 up before Neil Edwards was the first to go bowled by that Walker man again!  Cox didn't really make an impact on this one and followed some 20 runs later.  It was Hildreth who became the solid partner putting on 50 with Frank before increasing our jitters by being LBW to Sheikh.  He doesn't always stay long, but he does tend to belt it out at a run a ball so that isn't always a bad thing!!

At 114 for 3 we were not safe and Burns arrived with a considerable job to do - make Derbyshire believe that they wouldn't win!  We don't do that often enough - sides always tend to have hope of victory against us, we don't kill them off effectively enough.

Another steady accumulation then took place.  It was another 42 runs before Francis seems to have got carried away and strays outside of his crease when Sutton has the balll in his hands.  Stumped for a very valuable 68.  He occupied and he stabalised and that is good.  he has yet to show consistency and that has to be rectified.  We have kept faith with him and my own personal opinion is that we need to try someone else - ie. make a place for Wood to show us what he can do.  Francis is not a Bryant but he needs to put in some time at the crease and we cannot afford on gambling that he will do that in first team games at the moment.

Blackwell seems to be able to occupy.  He did it in the first and came out and did it again in the second.  With his captain he took the edge off the home side's attack and with his 64 (still including 2 sixes) and 'George' adding 33, we saw the game home.  Not something we managed to do too often last year.

So we didn't lose and we got points.  That's the minimum we should expect.  But are we getting any closer to worrying our competitors?

Our batting line-up has competition and a bit more backbone than 2004.  Bowler looks good for Championship runs and Cox seems to be in the run making mood.  Burns isn't coming in to shore up a faltering score and the younger members of our batting fraternity seem to be settling in well.  I would like to see Edwards make a few more, to give him (and me) a bit more confidence.  I've mentioned Francis J above - it isn't the Bryant fiasco but he hasn't set the world alight with his blistering batting performances and I think he would benefit from a spell at the crease with the pressure off.  Matt Wood  looks to be putting some spells together but I'm not asure where he would sit at the moment. 

Hildreth has done very well and now deserves a longer spell to see if it is class and not just a flash in the pan.  He does need the experience of Blackwell to support him though - but Dutch has been a decent standin when the Blackman hasn't been available.  Turner is playing the reliability card and isn't having to save games on the same regularity as last year when the pressure on the middle order must have been massive.

But it's the bowling.  Everyone has done something.  Andy Caddick ripped through Derbyshire in the first innings.  Simon Francis took 8 in the C&G but has looked less sharp on other occasions - and now seems to be injured.  Richard Johnson has almost disappeared from the wickets and although Nixon McLean takes out people with very fast balls every now and again, he isn't taking the twos and threes he got last campaign.  They've all looked good in parts and toothless in others.  The most promising man with the ball Aarron Laraman is injured and will want his place back when he's fit - at the expense of who?  We should be feared and we should be able to keep other sides in check with the bowlers we have.  Instead we are struggling to get sides out twice and they are scoring freely while they are standing about waiting for wickets to tumble.

It's not good enough to push the top sides - we aren't leaking runs like a drain but we aren't stopping up the gaps either and we need to do that before the holes get bigger and we lose control of Championship games.  OK - on to the one day event - the side will be interesting again.

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