By Grockle
June 21 2003

Poor shot selection and 2 run outs give the bowlers very little to defend in this last gasp slogfest. Jones and the bowlers are left with too much to do and we come up just short of a run a ball. v Gloucesteshire 20/20

Lots of Somerset players in knee bandages! Rich Johnson (left), Rob Turner (right) and Burnsy (left) The side looks the same as that v Northants yesterday. With that loss and the one last Friday week, our campaign to reach Trent Bridge looks over. Today's side = Cox, Gazzard, Blackwell, Dutch, Burns, Durston, Parsons K, Andrew, Turner, Jones, Francis. The 'Glads' arrive with Harvey, Rhodes, Alleyne, but no Russell (out for 6 weeks it seems).

Big news before the game is the arrival of the 'Cadman' by helicopter for what reason I couldn't tell ya! Ain't publicity a wonderful thing? Gloucestershire won the toss and have put the Sabres in.

Smithy opens for them and Buzz is off the mark first ball, so is Gazzard. He punches the 5th ball to the River boundary and goes LBW next ball - 8 for 1. Turner replaces him as anchor. Cox faces Lewis and after a wide he puts the first to the Stragglers boundary. Rob is also off the mark with a square boundary - 22 for 1 off 2. At start of 4th Noddy flips a 6 to the scoreboard and is then bowled - 32 for 2.

In comes Mr Dutch. Smacks it straight into slip's hands - 33 for 3. Bring on KP! He's not as fast as he used to be and the 3rd umpire gives him out at the bowler's end 33 for 4.

Blackwell arrives to end the 3rd. Smith keeps them down to 1 off the 4th. 2 fours at the start of the 5th gets us into the 40's but Cox puts a drive into Alleyne's hands to bring in "George" - 43 for 5 but we don't reach 50 until ball 45 with a four to take Blackie to 18.

The 8th brings on Alleyne. Ball takes the 9th. Harvey drops Blackwell at 9.5 and we reach 62 halfway through. The second half starts with a huge six and four more 2 balls later. 10.5 sees Blacky swipe, connect and go - 75 for 6.

Wes Durston is the next man to the crease and we stagger to 76 after 11. On comes Harvey. Wes goes for the first boundary at 12.4 but we're only just over a run a ball at 85 with 12 gone. Burns is run out at 13.2 and Andrew is sent in with an awful lot to do at 86 for 7.

Andrew is bowled second ball - this is not exactly wonderful. Steffan is sent in to do something - but what the hell can you do in this situation? 86 for 8 after 13. 75% through and we MAY reach 120 if we try real hard. 94 at the end of the 15th. Jonah takes us to 100 at start off 17 and then he puts one into the Old Pavilion. 117 with 6 balls to go. Wes skies the first 117 for 9 - enter Frankie! 119 at the end - not even a run a ball. Jonah leaves with 24 and Glos will get these with overs to spare!

Francis opens to Spearman with Harvey at the other end. Most people reckon on 5 overs to spare before they get there. 9 off the first and Jonah on for the second. 19 off 2 and no worries! 25 after 3 but they are behind our run rate at the same point of the innings.

The beginning of the 4th sums it up as a quick single turns into 5 with poor backing up and 4 overthrows! 17 off the 4th and KP is on at the OP. 53 for 0 at the end of the 5th.

Andrew comes on at the River end and is treated with the same disdain. He leaks 10 runs. Blackwell tries his hand in the 7th. 71 off 7!! He didn't exactly stem the tide. Dutch fares worse next as his first delivery is put into the river over the stand of the same name. Harvey goes to 50 - 87 off 8 - 5 overs left looks woefully optimistic, they seem to be aiming for halfway!

Durston comes on at the River end and Harvey hits the Botham Stand roof with his first, puts the second in the river and the third to the boundary. He repeats the roof event with the last ball to tie the scores.

Blackwell bowls 2 dots and then loses it on a wide with 9.3 overs to go! This was steaming excrement. Thank heavens we don't have to watch any more of this embarrasment at the County Ground this year. As one supporter said as she left '...dear oh dear oh dear!'

Whatever is wrong in the camp is deep seated. It is made more obvious by the injuries to the leading bowlers but there is a singular lack of drive and application in the side whenever they use the white ball. They come out to field expecting a hammering, they walk out to bat looking like they are expecting the worst. They are not organised or galvanised in the field. They try to win the game in the first over they face rather than settling in and getting the job done over the whole innings.

There were the usual suspects shouting 'resign' and 'Shiney out' today (as well as suggesting that both umpires were in league with the Devil AND Gloucestershire) but the worrying thing is that local people who come in to see cricket for the first time see their local representatives woefully inadequate and seeming not to care about the fact - would you come back?