By Grtockle
September 2 2026

Welcome to the penultimate CC1 game of the season. it seems today is the day when Grockles users who are not in the vicinity most of the time or work for a living are meeting up at the ground to watch a bit of cricket together. First I knew about it but Yay!! The weather cold be better but we do start almost on time. The clouds are grey and rain is in the air. Somerset won the toss and have put Glamorgan in with Goldsworthy joining the XI picked for Hove in the place of Ball who was in for Shaw.

CC1 v Glamorgan @ Taunton Wednesday 2 September 2026

Welcome to today's game to a number of Grockle locals who get to few games because they don't live locally or work for a living etc.  Sheffield Sabre has come in from her writing nook in Wiviliscombe.  Wickham is in for the regular visit.  LoL can't make it and had to cry off at the last moment as has Bloke for family reasons.  Big Jim may be in later in the game but is presently laid up in a hotel in Bristol after a dodgy meal it seems.  Other names were mentioned but whether they make it or not is still sure.  They join the likes of Tractor, Bagpuss, Grizzers and Farmer White who are much more regular attenders plus others who like to keep themselves more to themselves and are no less welcome because of that.  The one's here today call this 'Grockles Day' and who am I to argue.

And there's a game on.  Somerset have won the toss and have put the 'Welsh' in to bat first.  The side will be;

Thomas, Lammonby, Abell, Nicholls, Rew (w), Vaughan, Goldsworthy, Overton, Gregory (c), Pretorius, Leach

So it is the Hove side without Shaw  who was then replaced by Ball.

Mason Crane is suprisingly in the opening partnership with Asa Tribe after a late injury has taken out their usual opener.  They face Lewis Gregory from the River end with Craig taking the first from the MT and at first you do wnder whether the conditions have given eniough reason for us to take the ball first.  If you start with the ball youi hope for early wickets but as we move into the 8th over the visitors have notched up 33 runs without too much trouble.  We've even moved to our first bowling change as Migael Pretorius takes over from the captain.  However we then seem to hit our stride as Asa Tribe is caught behind for 16 at 33 in the eigth - one of those very special low diving one handed grabs from James Rew that really are worth comeing to the game for!! 

This brings skipper Carlson into the middle but he only helps move the score on to 45 by the end of the 12th over when he becomes Miggy's second victim caught by Nicholls off an edge for 4.

At the end of the next over it gets worse for Glamorgan as Crane, who has survived until now, is also caught in the slips from Craig by the ever reliable Abell for 27 and despite taking his county close to 50 he falls 1 run short at 49 for 3.

Colin Ingram and Ben Kellaway look to settle the order and get some runs on the board before the Lunch break but the rain creeps in at 63 for 3 and the umpires take the sides off for a short break of about 15 minutes before they return to move to the 1pm official break.  Gregory returns for the beginning of another phase of the game  and he and Craig continue.

Colin Ingram is always someone you want to see the back of before he starts moving the score along and before Lunch we get our wish as Lewis Gregory gets one to move away from him and he is ouched by Tom Abell for 13 from 31 at 80 for 4.  Which brings Lunch with Kellaway on 18 from 45.  Our morning probably.

Lewis finishes his over bowling to new man Sean Dickson.  Then, with a bit of surprise we see Lammonby from the MT.  The first ball hoops and we can probably understand why.  They try it for a while and then have the skipper changing ends for the 32nd over with the score moving to 3 figures which comes from the 5th ballof his 11th as Kellaway straight drives him for four to move the score to 102 for 4.  Migael takes over at the River but a disappointment arrives n the 33rd over as Dickson is dropped in the slips (third slip) by Craig Overton (his third drop in the row in that position) on 6 at 11 for 4.  There is a suggestion that his lack of confidence in his favourite fielding position means he is snatching at the catches rather than letting them come to him naturally and is therefore spilling them.  That one was to his right and really should have been held.

In the 36th, Kellaway hits at least his fourth straight driven four to go past 50 from 80 balls.  But he only gets that far as he edges the next from Pretorius into the hands of Nicholls and leaves for the 51 at 123 for 5.  In comes Cooke.  Migael has 3 for 33 from his 11 so far.

Lewis then gets another as Dickson sends one to first slip to be caught by CRAIG OVERTON who raises both hands in the air along with his captain .  125 for 6 as the ex Somerset man goes for 9 on his birthday.  Dan Douthwaite takes his place at the crease.

After the victory in the slips Craig is back in action with the ball for the 39th over.  Little happens so on the 46th over they try Tom L from the River end.  Nothing happens in his first and the 100 arrives in his second despite the diving efforts of Overton at mid off.  Cooke has 9 from 36 while Douthwaite has 14 from 32 so the runs are not exactly flowing.  It isn't helped by Cooke sending the first ball of Overton's 16th (49th) to Tom Abell who takes his third slip catch of the innings and Glamorgan are 150 for 7.  Then the Lammonby experiment works as Douthwaite tries to leave one and can't.  instead he edges it into the hands of Henry Nicholls for his third slip catch and Glamorgan are 158 for 8.  O'Riordan comes in to partner Van der Gugten as Pretorius replaces Overton at the MT. At the start of Tom's next, he gets one off the edge of O'RTiordan and he goes for 0 caught behind at 158 for 9.  Hamza is the last man in.  As is usually the case, the last man is the most stubborn to remove and we take the extra time to see if we can remove him before the Tea interval at 3:40.  The floodlights also come on as the grey cloud does start to build up over the Quantocks (at the Minehead end the cloud has hardly moved all afternoon).  Craig comes on at the River to help the removal along but the two Glamorgan bats refuse to be moved.

More worryingly, Lewis Gregory pulls up halfway through the 59th over and has to leave the field (though walking quite normally) Archie will finish his over.  On the basis of that we have a change at the River and after 'warming up ' for about 2 hours, Jack Leach is introduced for the first time in the innings at 194 for 9 (the partnership has now reached 36 runs).  He finishes the innings with his second ball as Hamza is caught behind (Rew's third catch) for 18.  Van der Gugten finishes not out 22 and they finish 194 ahead.

During the interval down comes the rain and the covers go on.  Therefore the restart is delayed with the umpires chatting with the groundstaff with a central sheet on at 4:30.  We return to the middle at 4:50 at the start of the Somerset innings with a loss of 9 overs and 23 to be bowled in the day if the weather does not return.

Josh Thomas and Tom Lammonby will start against Timm Van der Gugten from the River End. under lights with a mix of light and dark cloud over head. A sharp single at the end of the over almost causes a calamity but we finish the first at 3 for 0.  Mir Hamza will start from the MT his first is a maiden.  Both players are off the mark before the end of the third.  After 5 overs the score has moved on to 9 for 0 with Tom competing with the extras total on 4 and Josh  with 1 to his name.  A rain shower moves through and the umpires sort of send the players in only for the shower to disappear almost as quickly as it appeared and the rain break is over before the players get off the field.  

Josh hits the first four to a massively wide from Hamza.  He then hits two more to either side of the ground to show it wasn't a fluke. After 6 we have 22 as Dan Douthwaite comes on to bowl from the River.  With 15 overs to go in the day, we have moved on to 29 without loss.  Tom Lammonby sends the score over 50 with  a beutifulflipped four in the 12 over to take himself on to 16 from 27 and his partner one to 25 from 44.  A 50 partnership in 71 balls without any wickets being lost is a good way to start for the home side. 

Glamorgan introduce spin from Ben Kellaway in the 15th over with 10 to go after his secon they replace Van der Gugten with their overseas player for these games Connor O'Riordan at 74 for 0.  He nearly gets Thomas strangled down the leg side but the umpire decides there was no noise and at the end of the over with 5 to go  both Somerset men are in the 30s and we have 75 without loss. Can we negotiate the last 30 balls without incident?

Kellaway is on for his third and has 10 against his name.  By the end of the 20th we have 83 after a massive top edge from Thomas luckily goes for four - why with 3 overs to go?  The next two overs are much more circumspect as they moves to 90 for 0 and they leave the last Kellaway over alone so we end on 92 without loss trailing by 102 runs with 10 wickets in hand.  Josh Thomas has 46 from 83 and Tom Lammonby has 36 from 59. 

Excellent bowling in the first innings from Migael Pretorius with 3 for 45 with 2 wickets each for Gregory, Overton and Lammonby with a very succesful time being had by all the fielders behind the wicket with 3 catches each for Nicholls, Abell and Rew while Overton caught a slip catch again after a lean spell to say the least.    

We are back tomorrow at 10:30 with Somerset in a strong position to build on an excellent start to their batting part of the game.

Day 2

The morning 'mizzle' arrived at 9:30 so the start is delayed until 11:05.   Hamza and Van der Gugten open for Glamorgan in what could be a very important first hour that may decide this game's momentum.  We start in the 23rd over of the innings and there are 95 overs planned for the day as a whole.  

Josh Thomas goes to 51 at the end of the 26th over fro 86 balls with 9 fours.  We also pass the 100 to go to 102. This is their first 100 run partnership as an opening pair - Good times ahead?  Not today it seems as for no apparent reason Thomas chases an absolute 'wide pie' from Hamza at the River end and he gets an edge to go for 59.  He smacks his bat down and mumbles his way back to the dressing room, he's livid with himself and so he should be.  114 for 1 as Lewis Goldsworthy comes out at number 3.

Mason Crane comes on for a bowl for the first time in this innings with the 33rd.  Tom Lammonby  also arrives at 50 with the score on 125 for 1 off 99 balls with 5 fours.  The Somerset 150 arrives with a four to the Botham in the 42nd.  However, at 154 Lewis top edges a ball to Hamza at square leg from Crane to leave the middle for 11 to be replaced by Henry Nicholls with 15 minutes before the Lunch break.

Lunch arrives at 164 for 2 with Nicholls on 2 from 7 while Lammers has 73 from 130.  46 overs with 72 left in the day.

Back after lunch, Crane and Van der Gugten continue progress is still slow.  Lammonby has been tied down since the break and at 91 in the 55th from Douthwaite he is caught behind just before Somerset take the lead...  Off he wanders and then he stops.  It seems the Square Leg (Gough) umpire calls a no ball - we think because Glamorgan had 3 behind square on the leg side.  So Tom returns and sends us over 200 to 201 for 2 and himself into the 90s.  In the 57th Tom edges to the keeper only for it to be another no ball as Douthwaite oversteps at 206 for 2 with the Somerset man on 94.   He finally is out after 172 balls and three lives for 95 caught and bowled by Douthwaite - oh dear the ton was there.  But never mind 208 for 3 still has us in the ascendancy.

Henry has been advertising his sweeps to Mason Crane all the way through this innings and in the 59th he does the same and sends the ball straight to Ingram who takes the catch and sends the Kiwi back for 19 at 212 for 4. James Rew comes out to join Tom Abell to reset an innings once again.  It is heavy going but the pair put their heads down and work and we pass 250 at 253 for 4 in the 70th over Tom A is on 22 from 33 and James has 20 from 37.

The 50 partnership arrives at 262 and Tom reaches his 18th innings where he has passed 25 runs an equal top with Mark Taylor (from the last 50 years at least).  Tea will be at 3:30 and we are presently just under 6 overs from the possible new ball.  Glamorgan turn to dual spin with Kellaway from the River and Carlson from the MT just before the break.  

288 for 4 at the Tea break with Rew on 37 from 64 and Abell  on 40 from 69  a lead of 94 with 38 overs left. 

Play seems to have started almost immediately as the ground reacts to the Women side's brilliant comback against Yorkshire at Headingley and we are back for the long evening session and the work to gain at least two more bonus points the first of which is a mere 10 runs away.  Hamza and Van Der Gugten are back to bowl with the new ball as we move into the 80th over and the Somerset pair move the score past the 300 mark in the 84rd after a strong appeal from Hamza in the 83rd for Rew to be sent back caught behind is not upheld by umpire Gough even though half the slip cordon thinks he hit it.  The umpire says he didn't and James seems to be going nowhere except up the other end to face the ball from Van der Gugten that moves us to 303 with a flicked four to the Somerset end. 

So we have the first ball change after 3 and a half overs because it seems have hit a boundary board.  James goes to 50 at 306 off 78 balls and straight after that Tom is caught by Ingram at first for 45 from 78 the just lesser part of a partnership of 94.  In comes Archie Vaughan in need of some runs in red ball cricket in a sparse and patchy season for the young man.  Before he gets off the mark with a four which moves Somerset to 120 ahead with 5 wickets remaining he is the third man to be caught off a no ball at mid off - there's a debate about whether that has ever happened before.  We have 24 overs to move the score up around 450 ish or higher if they can make it.

James Rew is then strangled down the legside caught by the keeper for 52 from 87 balls.  314 for 6 brings Craig Overton to the middle.  The ideal situation tonight would be to stay in and get as closer to 500 as possible by the 110th over and then declare to have a little 6 over dart at the opposition tonight with as close to a 300 run lead as is possible. 

The third batting point arrives in the 92nd over with Overton on 21 from 20 and Vaughan on 18 from 20.  The 50 partnership arrives off 47 balls with a flamboyant four from COve at 365 for 6.  He is batting with a considerable feeling of freedom at the moment.  He just steps to the pitch of the ball and sends it on its way most of the time.  Douthwaite has changed ends and is now bowling in tandem with O'Riordan as we move to 15 overs before the bonus point off switch is reached.  Archie is also getting some time at the crease and is looking a little freer than he has in recent spells at the crease.  

Craig gets a bit too ambitious and is stumped coming up the wicket to Kellaway on 41 at 383 for 7 in the 99th over.  Out comes Lewis Gregory needing to push 67 runs in the next 11 overs for the last batting bonus point before the 110 over limit is reached.  It's a big risk but they should hopefully get the 17 that gets them the third point at 400.

The 400 arrives in the 102nd over from a Gregory mow to the Ondaatje car park nad we take the third point with Archie on 39 and Lewis on 7 from 10.  The skipper seems to be having a go for the 450  - we'll see how that pans out but why the hell not as they are presently 210 ahead. 

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