By Grockle
May 2 2003

Wet and windy, dull and dreary in Derby - but not the cricket - at least not the Somerset bit. The Kiwi returns as Mr Caddick stretches his mighty frame and the Aussie makes good with a century to help us try and beat the weather - again! Oh the joys of the Midlands now that summer is almost here! I drove through Derby for about four years on a regular basis and I can't ever remember anything but rain!

Somerset arrived to build on their Durham win and get the Championship rollercoaster moving towards the First Division. the likes of Mr Di Venutom Mr Cork and Mr Afridi were waiting to welcome them along with some 'old boys' like Luke Sutton who did sterling work at Taunton - no sign of Mr Kerr though who is still struggling to break into the four day side after a season here.

Our 'old boy' ex-Derby favourite, Peter Bowler was probably also hoping for a good game but had to wait as Burns won the toss and put them in.

Johnson, Caddick, McLean - there's scary then! Laraman won the fourth seamer spot ahead of Francis (not so sure myself) and Dutch plays as the spin option. Keith Parsons also misses out.

Gait and Di Venuto open against Caddick and Johnson and it is first blood to us as the swarthy one has both the big scorer and his replacement Bassano both out with the score on 20. Even better 2 runs later when Johnno makes it three to get Hewson in before they''ve hit the half ton.

Hewson and Gait put up a fight though and it isn't until 94 and the return of Caddick that he opens his county account and Derbyshire are 94 for 4. Nixon McLean then gets in on the act by removing Mr Danger himself - Afridi - skittled out for 4! 101 for 5. OK says Andrew, lets play some more games - 105 for 6 as Hewson plants a Caddick ball into the hands of Jamie Cox.

Sutton - ex 2nd team wicket-keeper - has come a long way since he left the hallowed shores of Somerset. He seemed to relish being 'back against the wall' with his captain Dominic Cork is a 'save the innings position'. Together they put on 46 before Johnson had Cork caught behind and he then marshalled the tail against a rampant seam attack to coax the score to 190 all out when he was the last man out and Laraman's first wicket of the day.

Caddick got the plaudits with 17/1/66/4. Nixon showed his tight personality today with 14/5/32/1 and Aaron came in with 1 for 38 off 6 and a bit.

But we are going to lose him! With 4 for 47 in 15, Richard Johnson just carried on where he left off and brought his total to 18 for the season. He is THE English bowler at the moment and we'd all better hope that Anderson and Harmison keep the Zims down or they'll look elsewhere and the gaze will stop at Taunton!

Rain affected the day but not enough to allow Bowler to walk out once more on a ground he thought he'd seen the last of. Didn't see much of it though because he was back in 4 minutes and we were a totally uncharacteristic 1 for 1!

Luckily, the captain got some time in the middle. He needed it too. Unfortunately he was out at the close for 40 and we ended the first day on 62 for 2 with a commanding hold on the day but with the chances of a full three more days looking unlikely!

Second Day? Run by us - Marcus made 69 - a 94 run partnership with Coxey. Bryant helped the Aussie past the Derbyshire score and into a lead with only 3 wickets down and finally went for 26 with the score at 240 for 4. Laraman scored only 24 but added another 90 with Buzz to move past 300 to 330.

Jamie Cox was finally 6th man out for a storming and solid 126. Not the fastest he'll ever score (276 balls 15 fours) but really good stuff at this time in the season. Wait until it gets warm!

337 for 6 should have become something about 430 or more but desppite the best efforts of Rob Turner to hold the tail together, only Nixon got into double figures and the Somerset innings finally ended at 397 all out. A mere lead of 207 with over half the game to go.

No home side wickets before the close means that we all hope it stays dry and that the seam boys (will they use Dutchy?) can put this game to bed between the showers by ensuring that Derbyshire don't add 169 to their overnight total of 38 and make us put on the pads again.

It is starting to roll a bit. One day everything will fire and we will take some team apart fully! This isn't a bad rehearsal for that day. Everyone pray for the rain to stay away and for the ball to do those things that our bowling boys do so well at the moment!