GLOUCESTERSHIRE (Friendly) @ Taunton 5 April 2005

The 'Fun' starts here!! Watch this space.

So we get to field for the first time in the season.  Nixon gets off to a flyer partnering Caddick. We have Spearman C&B to Mclean with the score on 10 and then Ali is clean bowled at 24. At 10 overs the Bristolians have managed a massive 26!

Courtesy of Richard Hingston

The sides? Wood, Burns,Francis J, Parsons K, Hildreth, Blackwell, Turner, Andrew, Caddick, McLean and Francis S. Whoops, before I mention why Gareth is playing, he cleans up Weston and Glos are three down for 26...always knew he'd come good!!

So, no Laraman and Johnson is injured but this is probably almost the side for April 17.  The absence of AL is a bit of a surprise but we'll have to wait until the weekend to see see if there is anything more related to it.

Glos have brought Windows, Gidman, Alleyne, Hardinges, Fisher, Snell, Lewis, Rudge and Adshead (12th)...plus the three already out. So it should be a good tryout.

Frank Senior comes on in the 16th, looking a lot bigger than he did, quite a few seem to have bulked up. At 42 Windows becomes Andrew's second, caught by Si Francis after clearing the boundary off the ball before.

Name that Player?  Photo Courtesy of Richard Hingston

It then went quiet for a time with Andrew and Frank turning their arms over, going for little but making no real headway. During the 25th at 66, Woody goes off with a shoulder injury trying to catch Alleyne but Andrew gets Marky boy to play on next ball and it's 66 for 5. Matt was holding his arm very straight, so it doesn't look good!

Blackwell is on for the 28th replacing Andrew after a very impressive spell of 3 for not lot. Then we see the new agile close fielding Caddick! He picks a Parson's long hop out of the air and we say goodbye to Gidman at 77.

Woody is back on, so it wasn't as bad as it looked. The score ain't bad either at 85 for 6 with 15 to go and Blacky belting through his overs.

Nixon returns in the 39th at 98 and it's still 2 short at the end. Caddick puts the pressure on at the other end in the 42nd...at least that's the theory anyway. He doesn't look all that penetrating but he isn't going for much either until Glos have 109 and Hardinge starts to give it the long handle. When he is finally caught off Nixon the score has moved to 142 with 5 overs to go.

Frankie comes back for the last push at the River End and goes for 2 as the 'press' comes on. Andrew takes over at the Old Pavilion. The 150 arrives during the 48th but with the strip well over towards the Stragglers, they should be upset with a score like this and boundaries this short, especially when Snell goes to Frank LBW at 157.

It ends at 165 for 8..not too bad but we haven't batted yet.  Gloucester lost too many early wickets and we kept the pressure on throughout.  Nixon looked dangerous at the start of the innings and Gareth Andrew was especially penetrative.  Simon Francis and Caddick applied the pressure but didn't look like they were going to take wickets and there was good support from Keith P and Ian Blackwell.  The close fielding was quite sharp as well but the Gladiators had real trouble getting the ball of the square throughout.

Burns and Wood open...good first partneship really and Woody gets straight into it taking 6 off the first over. Will this be how it works out? We could do worse than use Matt here and look to John Francis to adapt to a place in the top 5. One of our openers has to adapt, especially when our international boys arrive.  This first coupling has a lot of possible solutions but for the start of the season, Marcus Trescothick with someone until Jayasuriya arrives is definite...it could be worse than Matt Wood.  In the one dayers, the news may mean that Sanath is here for the first excursion and it will be interesting to see whether Mike Burns moves down the order to make way.  It would make sense.

Wood has 10 by the end of the second and the two are 23 off 3 after Burns smacks a 6 off a free hit off Lewis.

Needing only 166 to win, we pass 50 in the 9th and it all looks like it might be over with less than half the overs gone. Burns doesn't last much longer and the score hasn't moved. He's replaced by John Francis. The scoring rate drops dramatically and we only move forward to 62 in the next 6 overs before JF goes and KP joins Mr Wood.  John looked very tentative when we were expecting a full blooded attack on the bowling from him.  It tends to suggest that Matt may be the better bet for the opening spot in a one dayer with John supporting the later stroke makers when the flow of the game is more certain.  It seems he did look like a man in form up in Cumberland earlier in the week though so we'll have to wait and see.

All of a sudden, we go from smacking it to all parts to watching paint dry! Woody goes for 42 in the 21st which will do his claims for a permanent one day place no harm at all) and we've moved to 85. 42 off the first 7 has been followed by 43 off the next 14. In comes Hildreth.

James goes for it from the start as Parsons looks to push along now that the man with the runs has gone.  He does this so well, he plays support for the man with his eye in and then simply reverts to the main player when that man goes.  It's James Hildreth who is unfortunate thought when he is out to a fantastic catch at 94. In comes Ian Blackwell but it still goes slow. Although KP and IB keep the score moving along we still only have 124 with 20 overs to go.  In the right direction but not really at the right speed. It's helped by Parsons being dropped at 128.

At 5 o'clock Blackwell gets bored and smacks 10 off 2 balls to bring the end in sight. 150 up with 14 overs left, there's a bit of rain but with only 9 required. Parsons goes to whip it away and is stumped for a very opportune 44. Out comes captain Turner to help finish it off. Errr...no he's LBW without scoring.

In the 39th over, Gareth takes the pressure off with a sweetly timed four and the boys trundle the singles to win with 9 overs to go.

More difficult than it seemed but comfortable in the end. Blackwell finishes on 29 and everything seems right in the Somerset world.  We've beaten the old enemy with some panache, the bowlers looked sharp and the batsmen didn't panic and nearly all made a contribution.  No startling innings stands out but a solid performance from a number of people put their names in the short game frame.

The Durham game on Saturday may let us know some more and give Neil Edwards, Mike Parsons, Aaron Laraman, Arul Suppiah, Wes Durston, Mike Munday and even Mr Johnson a run out.  It would be good to see everyone before the start but I get the feeling that Mark Garraway already has his plans firmly in his mind....or at least 80% of them anyway. But we've had worse starts!

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