v Lancashire (CC2) @ Old Trafford 13 April 2005
For those of you not in the know about characters in the Somerset support network, "Bagpuss" is our roving Liverpool vet (from Devon) who works, saves, travels to far flung places with England tours, returns and works off the debts! As she is base UPP NOORTH, she occasionally goes and see the great Wyverns in the depths of the snowy tundra and sometimes lets us know what's going on, either here or on John Fuller's excellent South West cricket site (link on the left hand side).
I don't know what she plans to do with this game, I hope we may get some info from her...but what we have got is a summary of her first impressins of the Lancs side that played a friendly while we were grappling with Gloucestershire. I've stuck it below;
"Seeing as I'm stuck in the frozen wastes of the north of the north - ok its Liverpool and its more damp than frozen, but thought I'd spend a day this last week eying up the first real opposition.
Lancashire played a 2 day practice game - Lancashire A vs Lancashire B, though each team was a mix of 1st team, 2nd team and academy players. Main attraction of the day was Freddie Flintoff hitting 119 off 99 balls - taking a bit of time over the latter stages of the innings as his 50 came off just 31. He didnt come out to field later in the day though and obviously isnt bowling yet. Rumour so far at Old Trafford is that he wont be ready for the Somerset game, but if he does play as a batsman then watch out!
New captain Chilton made only single figures, Sutcliffe was out for a painstaking 49 and Hegg seemed to be timing the ball well after he'd been in a while. Didnt see Loye or newly qualified Pommie B*****d Stuart Law bat. Hegg and Law had retired from the field during a practice match the previous week but there was no evidence of any injury niggles here.
The bowling was variable in quality - Anderson looked pretty quick and did move the ball a little; he seems to have found his radar since the tour of duty as drinks waiter and net bowler for England over the winter and could be a handful next week. Cork was his usual self and seemed to bowl best when fired up and bowling to Flintoff - no such thing as a friendly match to him!
Didnt get to see Keedy bowl but would expect a bit early in the season to get a lot of turn at Old Trafford. Murali yet to arrive so dont expect him to be fit and playing next week. Will be interesting to see who Lancashire pick as their bowling line up; they will miss Peter Martin and Glen Chapple is a doubt after getting hit on the hand during last weeks practice match - i think he will have a fitness test on Tuesday but may have a cracked bone which would probably rule him out.
The fielding was pretty slapdash at times though to be honest a better job was made by the first team regulars. Other things of note - building work going on to the front of the Pavillion, a new balcony so the visiting team are now able to sit outside and bask in the warm Manchester sunshine (bring LOTS of sweaters guys!) and a new hover cover - much excitement!
Hope there will be a few of you joining me to cheer Somerset on next week. For anyone who is interested there will be a Cricket Forum on Thursday evening recorded for radio broadcast the following evening. Details are on the Lancashire site www.lccc.co.uk otherwise I may see you at Edgbaston for the first one day game"
So there ya go....let's hope the fitness tests are a nightmare and we get a chance at a weakened rival with a bouyed up squad that needs a good start. More to come from one of us...if not both. Don't expect anything from Tractor...although he did say he might do some pictures. Thanks a lot Mr S!!
The Game
Started late but with the side we expected to see...how good are we at predicting then? Some rain but a 12:15 start wasn't bad because it hasn't exactly been wonderful here either!
Lancashire had good and bad news for us, some of it Bagpuss (above) had already told us, other bits put ugly messageboard rumours to flight! Yes we were going to have the joy of the company of Law Loye and Cork but Mr Chappell (who has really stuck it to us in the past) and Murali (awwww) were significantly absent.
78 overs in the first day and 7 wickets down by the end of it with 235 on the board. Five Lancs batsmen got a start but only Mal got over the magic 50 mark. Then it was only by seven! Caddick got 2 for 53 off 20 - a nice tight start to a season. The other three got one apiece, lovely to see them sharing and Mr Blackwell weighed in for our "weak" spin department (- BBC) with an excellent 14 overs and 2 for 27. Can't ask for a lot more really. Trescothick and his captaining alter ego Rob Turner did all the catching in a ratio of 2:4 and Johnno clean bowled his. If you were there tell us all more but we've had worse first days. Now will the rain stay off and can we bat as well?
Day 2
Batting? Well it's not there yet. Mahmoud and Cork had a bit of a fling but we cleared them for 323. Unfortunately, Cork got off to a flyer and we found ourselves with both openers gone and John Francis trudging back for a single. 23 for 3 was not the way to start our first spot at the crease in 2005.
A 40 from Mike Burns stopped the rot for a while but with Hildreth (14) and Laraman (6) going cheaply it was left to Ian Blackwell to shore up the innings with a fighting 74. Although there was some late support from Rob Turner with 21, we go into Day 3 130 adrift with only Blackie and the bowlers to come.
There's been a lot of messageboard (official and here) talk about 'tonking' and 'spanking' (mostly referring to Cork and Mahmoud and our bowling). We could do with a Johnson 'spank' or 'tonk' (not fussy really) this morning to keep this game from becoming a fighting draw. Blackwell has 74 off 113 but needs some stirring support if we aren't to be praying for rain half way through Saturday afternoon.
Day 3
Bit of rain and not a lot of sun, just the shining wonder of a Blackwell hundred to keep us in the match and not playing also rans. 122 off 173 with spirited support from Richard Johnson who clocked up 27...but not a lot from the rest of the bowling elite I'm afraid.
We came up 51 short but would have been well down from that without IB. Andy Caddick decided to put the wind further up the Lancs lads by sending Mr Sutcliffe back four balls into the second iinnings and for just a moment, 51 didn't look llike much of a lead. But Mal Loye steadied everything and they were 84 ahead on 33 without further loss when the umpires brought everyone in and we all went home for another day. The draw looks on, there could be worst first week results.
So they gave us a total, we went for it for a short while and then we took the draw. It was a good start against those predicted to win it and we go on to Brum with some confidence that we aren't going to be propping up the table this year.
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