v Hampshire CC2 @ The Rosebowl 18 June 2004

With a week off because of our early exit from the C&G, we seem to have had the time to get some guys fit again and we go into this four dayer with Aaron Laraman for the first time in almost two months.  The squad also includes Mike Parsons however so there still seems to be a question about his long term ability to maintain his game and he may not play.  Either that or there are doubts about his colleague Richard Johnson who also returns from injury.

The bowling line-up will be interesting, without Shane Warne, out with an injured hand, thee pitch may not turn out to be such a spinners paradise and the weather of the last coupld of days may not have helped that.  Our line-up is missing Nixon McLean so one would expect. all other things being equal, for either Francis or Parsons M to make up the foursome.  Simon bowled very aggressively in the Sunday game but has been erratic in line and length this season.  Michael keeps taking wickets in his first over and deserves consideration on a par with his team mates for that fourth place.

The batting line-up almost picks itself.  Bowler, Edwards, Cox, Burns, Hildreth - who would have thought the latter would have so easily fitted into the number 5 berth?  It would be the wrong side without him now!!  No Ian Blackwell who is on drink carrying duties for the next few weeks although he may be facing Steffan Jones in Cardiff on Saturday - let's hope he gives Steff less of a mauling than Northants opponents in the C&G mid-week!!  So the final choice is which all-rounder to pick? It may be both Francis and Parsons M get the nod and Laraman comes in here.  BUt it is more likely that Dutch will play because Blackie isn't here, as our spin option.  This is always assuming that Rob Turner is making the trip as first choice keeper and Burnsy  doesn't have to play Alec for another week.

Hampshire are on the way up unless we can put their season into reverse this week-end.  Character, guts, fight and ability is the order of the day.  We need every win from here on in and the demise of the debt ridden will not cause tears to be shed in the South West.  It would be nice to hear the 'Sweet Caroline' serenade two games running...not for music lovers of course but Somerset fans can live with it.

Day 1

Hampshire put themselves in on a pitch they expected to have a chance with on day 4 and 5 perhaps? Well at 3 for 67 with Caddick having Kendall and Kenway and Francis saying goodbye to Crawley they were probably thinking they'd made a mistake.  Wickets kept on falling on a semi-regular basis to Caddick and Dutch until the home side were 175 for 8 and Somerset were well in control.

But are we ever in control?  Just when it looked like a great first day performaance, we let another tail take our bowling to pieces.  How can you take 8 wickets for 175 and then allow the back end batsmen to add over 100?  Admittedly, Udal and Tremlett are decent players with the wand but both to pass 50 before Frank got them both was too damn much.  Hampshire finished on 290, which was not great but a hell of a lot better than under 200. 

We also lost Johnson almost as soon as we got him back to a fielding accident that has knackered his ankle ligaments with a 3 week recovery period suggested.  Bowler and Edwards came out to face about 10 overs but only got to the mid 9th before Peter snicked one behind and we went in one down with 269 still to get.  Our day for three quarters of it but we allowed them to push their way back into it and we are now a bowler down.  Who would have Johnno's luck?

Day 2

So a solid batting day for us to provide a small to medium size lead going into the third.  That was surely the plan.  The reality was something different. Edwards followed his opening partner back to the dressing room quite quickly for another disappointing score. Cox, Hildreth and Burns hung about but only Hildreth made a truly significant score - top scoring with 61.

That should give you the gist of the rest of the innings.  Wickets fell for us almost as regularly as for Hampshire...a situation compounded when Keith Parsons failed to come out in his appointed place to shore up another lacklustre display with the bat from our men.  After Burns went in the 30's, only Andy Caddick (who has been consistently adding mid to high twenties to the score this season) showed any real resistance.  With two batsmen down, we capitulated for a mere 203 and go into the second phase of this contest with an 87 run deficit.

Johnson will neither bat or bowl again in this game and we have no idea what the issue is with KP.  If this situation can't be salvaged by an aggressive spell of wicket taking bowling, we are staring defeat in the face by the end of Monday.  Do we have a saviour for this game?  Who hasn't shone yet?

At the time of writing, Hampshire are moving past 50 but they have lost one wicket.  To get this game back in our hands we want them to be in a much more precarious position before they pass 100.

Day 2 (nicked from another site - eye witness stuff is far better) Thanks to 'Riverstander'

Confusion reigned amongst the Hampshire fans at the Rose Bowl today when the umpires [ ex- Somerset pair, Roy Palmer and Tony Clarkson] and players left the field on the dismissal of Francis with Somerset only 8 wickets down. They were unaware that both Johnson and Keith Parsons were absent injured. We were aware that Johnson had twisted his ankle upon stepping on the boundary rope the day before. However, although we had already noticed that Keith had failed to bat earlier, we were unaware that he had been struck down with back trouble. The tannoy then explained the position and that Hampshire would not qualify for a third bowling point. Unbelievably, Hants had also been reduced to nine men when Watson [hamstring] and Mascarenhas [side strain] had both left the field late in the Somerset innings. Watson did come out to bat belatedly down the order when Hants batted.

Somerset’s innings began to fade following the dismissals of Hildreth and Burns. At least, a gallant rearguard action by Caddick and Francis managed to salvage a batting point. Unfortunately, Francis was out shortly afterwards. The Hants team had been extremely noisy all day with their constant shouts of encouragement and appealing at every opportunity [this really irritates me and I much prefer Somerset’s quieter and more rational approach]. However, they went very quiet during the above last wicket partnership and were obviously frustrated by it.

The Hants bowlers were in control throughout although Hildreth and Burns were going well together at one stage. Billy Taylor looks a much improved bowler from his days with Sussex. His 1-62 did not do him justice. Mascarenhas, sporting a crimson Mohican hairstyle, was the pick of their bowlers. The Australian, Shane Watson, has a beautiful flowing run-up and action. The Hants fielding was first class and Pothas very impressive behind the stumps.

Somerset fought back really well in the last session. There were still 28 overs left to bowl at 1740 when bad light stopped play. Then it started to rain. Chances of further play looked nil. Most people went home. After a while sheltering in the refreshment tent, we reluctantly made our way to the bus stop. Suddenly it stopped raining and the light improved very rapidly. We returned and to our delight play was just resuming.

There is an interesting innovation installed at the entrance to the approach road, Marshall Drive [dedicated to the memories of both Roy and Malcolm Marshall]. This is in the form of a huge set of stumps being broken by a ball with the bails flying off. It is about the same height as the top of the lamp posts and looks great.

Comments on Somerset performance as follows:
Batting
Edwards – never looked happy; seemed to be concentrating more on survival than building an innings. Comprehensively bowled by Taylor with stump knocked clean out of ground. Neil has not yet reproduced his form of last season. Perhaps spell in Second XI would restore confidence.
Cox- hit first two balls he received for four. Then went into his shell and never got going. Played and missed a lot. Looks short of confidence to go for his shots at present.
Hildreth – excellent innings of 61. Looked well set for large score and it was a big shock when Udal caught and bowled him just before lunch. This lad continues to amaze me. He is so calm and assured.
Burns – started really well and soon got into thirties with several boundaries. Then inexplicably went quiet for some time before top edging to long leg. This was a shame as we were hoping that he would be able to guide the middle order towards the Hants score. Must say that our batting looked awfully vulnerable without the stability of Blackwell.
Turner- still a great keeper but nowhere near as reliable with bat these days. Looked out of place at number six and did not last long.
Dutch – had great difficulty in putting bat to ball on this occasion and barely troubled the scorers.
Caddick – full of confidence from the outset. Went for his shots and played really good little innings of 28 not out. I have always rated Andy as a batsman and he should have made a lot more runs than he has. A lot seems to depend on what mood he is in.
Francis – only scored 5 but provided good support to Caddick for 40 minutes or so. Sensibly allowed Andy to take the strike as much as possible. Never looked in any trouble even when bounced three times in consecutive balls by Tremlett.

Bowling
Caddick – gave everything he had and more. Bowled some very fiery deliveries with no luck in first spell. Picked up 2 wickets in second spell after delay for bad light and rain. That makes 39 to date, I think. Seems as fit as ever again and still able to bowl huge number of overs eg 29 yesterday.
Francis – worked hard but not at his best today. Never really troubled the Hants batsmen.
Burns – an absolute revelation. 3 for 29! Why doesn’t he use himself more often? Settled into line and length immediately. Filled in ever so well in absence of Johnson and Keith Parsons.

Hampshire ended the day 206 ahead with half their wickets in hand.  Caddick, Francis and Burns will probably glad of the rest but we need more from them on Sunday morning to keep this game in sight.  No comment on Dutch, it will be a difficult decision to make if the seam attack can't do it.  Do you use the spinner to try and get wickets with the possibility that Hants will take a shine to him and smash the game over the horizon.

Day 3

206 ahead but with only 5 wickets standing.  It must have been tempting to think of a possible victory.  Even with our luck with injury, we still had the major wicket takers from the first innings.  Neither Johnson or Parsons had got among the victims and Hampshire were also suffering from injured bowlers.

But we've not had that kind of luck or killer instinct all season and today was not going to be different I am afraid.  Simon Francis took two early wickets and it looked possible, but Watson and Udal held the line and added over 150 for the 8th (yes the 8th) and when they were over 400 ahead, with Watson over 100, they declared and put us in.

Why you might add? With 5 sessions to go wasn't that a gamble?  Not really.  We rarely survive 5 sessions and certainly a score of that size was beyond our recorded performances.  It was a pretty sure bet that we wouldn't get close and probably would be batting for survival, and the draw ,at the end of Day 4 if we did.

No shrewd move then, just playing the percentages. It proved right as well.  The hapless Edwards was out before the ball got dirty and we were 5 down before we hit 60!  The run chase was over and so was the game, even though our tail tends to show more backbone than our frontline batting line-up.  In the end, the only real resistance came from Andy Caddick and Simon Francis with the ball and Keith Dutch with a fighting 60 with the bat.  Other than that, the optimism of Friday had changed to the usual acceptance of a pitiful performance by 5 on the third day.  We lost by 275 runs - 72 more than we got in the first innings.  We couldn't even wipe out the deficit.

On both sites, the "where do we go from here" threads have already started.  We go on with the season and we go on with the squad.  We look for hope in the future of some of the younger players and we will watch and say goodbye to those who have given us glory in the past but seem incapable of producing acceptable performances this summer.  We hope that those with injuries will soon be alright and that where those injuries are so affecting their game as to make them pointless they will stop putting themselves, and us, through this on a weekly basis. 

We hope to see better but won't hold our breath waiting.  We expect change to be attempted at some point to make this county a fearsome force again but accept it seems to be in the South West's nature to accept second best.  We expect more effort against Leicestershire on Wednesday but we are limited in our ability to rise to the occasion and in the human resources at our disposal to put things right.  It is exasperating for the management, for the coaching staff and for the fans.  It should be pretty simple for the players.  It's not good enough - do it better or accept your limits and do something else instead.

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