By Grockle
April 21 2006

No long net for Marcus, twice in in the day and twice out - but he wasn't near to being on his own!! Luckily, we did have someone who know which end of the bat to hold and a couple of semi-pros willing to stand with him. All Hail Cameron White!!

Day 2 - 4 v Gloucestershire CC2 @ Bristol 19 - 21 April 2006

Scorecard

Day 2

I was hoping someone would come on and give me some detail from Day 2 but all I've got is the fact that it was a mixed day in terms of the weather and we were batting in very poor conditions at the end of the day. The rest of the day is a story of working hard in the field to keep a Gloucestershire batting line-up from getting away, some newboy successes and more hard work to come.

We hoped to push them close from the start as they resumed on 262 for 4 but Ian Harvey wasn't going to go quietly against us and reached 45 before Richard Johnson opened his account having him caught by John Francis with the score 5 shy of 300.  Not a great start but we were picking them off and that is how it continued as Adshead became Cameron White's first domestic Championship wicket LBW at 325 and Hardinges went the same way to Willoughby 36 runs later.

However, all the Gloster boys were adding runs and taking up time and all were supporting Gidman as he moved towards the home side's second century of the innings.  Ball added 42 with him before being skittled by Charl W just over the 400.  We seemed to be faltering at the back end of a batting line-up again.  When Gidman went for 103 at 416 we probably thought that was it but Lewis and Kirby put on another 13 to finish the first innings at 437 heralding a debut five-fer for Mr Willoughby and a tense and nervous last session of Day 2 for our batsmen in poor and drizzly conditions.

Now the thread for the first day has been hijacked by a discussion of the relative merits of our bowling attack but the papers and the eye witnesses say that in difficult conditions the boys stayed to their task.  Gloucestershire's 437 came off 120 overs - not exactly a racing scoring rate.  Cameron White bowled little but at least had a feel for the conditions and got himself a starting wicket.  The four man pace attack kept the scoring rate under 4 for the whole innings with Charl W having the excellent figures of 33.4/7/125/5.  Everyone had a good belt at it and if this comes out as a draw that will be a positive aspect of it.  I don't know what the ball was doing, if anything.  We will see how our batsmen take to the conditions and the home bowling attack - that may be a better indicator.

Our innings has not started particularly well.  Marcus Trescothick opened with Matt Wood in poor light and changeable conditions and Lewis struck early, having Wood caught by Adshead with only 18 on the scoreboard.  It didn't get any better before the close when Lewis struck again to remove John Francis LBW at 25.  2 down with only 9.2 overs gone isn't a great way to go into the third day of this match but we have a man looking to re-establish himself at the crease on 9 with a young pretender to his "Somerset batting star" crown in James Hildreth on 6.  It is expected to be a hard day tomorrow and a test of how ready we are to play in the big leagues with the big boys.  The wicket held little threat for the home side and we now need to show that that wass because of the nature of the pitch rather than the lack of penetration of our bowlers.

This match should, if things go to plan, be a high scoring, single innings draw interupted by rain showers over the next two days.  We don't want it to become a scrap to save a game in a second innings after problems in the first.  The best we can come out of at Bristol is probably a good solid fighting draw with no quarter given or asked.  Tomorrow's report will be one description or the other unless the rain intervenes heavily.  A Trescothick double hundred would do us all the world of good I think!

Day 3

You know, no matter how many times it happens, I think it's gonna be different.  It never is but you always hope.  We won't have a 'mare' of a start to another season will we?.  The guys I know can do the business - because I've seen them do it - WILL actually do it this time.  We won't collapse.  This time it will be a glitch, this time they will steady the ship and get it back afloat and we won't go down to the ignomy of a huge defeat and have to rebuild the off season optimism that reaches rock bottom not a week after the start of the season.

Should know better really!!

But...Nope.  We're back in familiar territory and if we were honest we all expected to be here, staring an innings defeat down after a day of absolutely woeful batting from a line-up just bursting with promise.  The willow men of Somerset met John Lewis and Ian Harvey on a seamer's paradise and were totally destroyed in less than a day.  The game was effectively over before the Tea interval and only the heroics of Cameron White will allow us to leave Bristol with any semblence of pride.  We have to come back tomorrow still needing 26 runs to make them bat again with a couple of wickets remaining simply because one Australian newcomer with an ounce of backbone, a smidgen of patience and oodles of talent decided that he wasn't going to be Gloucestershire's floorcloth and would sell his wicket dearly after so many of his team-mates had given theirs away for single figures, not once but twice in the space of 2 sessions.

Starting the day with Marcus Trescothick and James Hildreth at the crease, a bit battered after a windy start to the innings at the end of the second day, we had hopes of a solid performance and an honourable draw with a bit of a rain contribution.  In overcast and 'muggy' conditions, Lewis and Harvey disabused of that notion by quickly removing the England opener at 61 and his replacement Durston at 68.  White's first innings top score of 36 didn't hold them up long as he went at 85. Carl Gazzard did try and make a game of it and took us over 100 but the removal of Trego, Carl and Caddy within 3 runs of each other between 108 and 111 effectively put paid to innings number one and ushered in innings number two (after a bit of spirited defence by Willoughby who made his highest score and put our front end 'batsmen' to shame by managing to score more than our much vaunted operners did together).  Johnno was 9 not out and we were unceremoniously shafted for a mediocre 143 - almost 300 runs behind.

OK - we could start again. There was still time to get this show back on the road.  It was going to rain and we would bat out the remaining day and a half and post a score that might make them think in the final session of Friday.  Marcus, rusty though he seems, would not fail twice.  Wrong! 6 runs in and 4 to the England man and we lose him LBW to Lewis - who already has 7 for 38 to his name off his 14 and a bit overs in the morning!!  John Francis is run out at 10....RUN OUT!  Chasing 300 to avoid an innings defeat!!  Well it was one of those unfortunate straight drives that hit someone and cannon into the stumps so it wasn't as bad as first thought.  But at 10 for 2 our predicament was exactly that and more.

Hildreth doesn't stick around but Wood puts on 27 and Durston adds 21 before they depart and we have 100+ with only 5 wickets down - and that's an achievement?.  Are we getting this sorted?  No-one has made a decent score but at least some are making it into double figures.  White must be wondering what he has let himself in for.  He seems at least willing to play balls on their merit and starts to push the score along.  Unfortunately nobody really stays with him and although he reaches 50, he loses partners regularly; Gazzard puts on 30, Trego adds 43 but only the Aussie is staying around as we stagger towards and then over the 200 mark with a century contribution from the man from Down Under. 

But it just isn't enough. the lack of support means that although White is scoring freely, we are still losing ground in the overall game and despite another 26 run partnership with Johnson, we are still behind when Caddick comes in at number 10.  Despite the fact that the home side invoke the extra time and Caddy only manages 6, we finish a mere 26 runs short of the Gloucestershire first total of 437 with our new boy on a career high score of 154 off 193 balls with 22 fours and 3 sixes.  OUr batting is in disarray and will not survive long tomorrow.  Maybe Caddick and Willoughby can hit career best scores as White passes 200 or even 250.  It won't matter a lot even though it would be a brilliant achievement and may whet our appetites for later in the season when we may see him partnering Ian Blackwell. 

But this is not better.  It is more of the same.  We've done this for seasons now and it isn't good enough.  It's sloppy and it's demoralising and it needs to improve and improve incredibly quickly.  Andy Hurry has set his sights on Championship promotion.  He must have a flaming big gun if he thinks he is going to hit a long shot target like that with performances even half as bad as this!!  

Day 4

Well it doesn't last that long and doesn't get us the one crumb of comfort, seeing the Glos batsmen having to take the field to score something.  Caddy and Whitey (!) put on 64 and our first 2006 hero has reached 172 when Harvey combines with Lewis (who else?) to have him caught.  After that it's done.  The last pair add one before Charl W gives Harvey his third and the home side the victory by and Innings and 7 runs.

Well we've seen White and we've seen something we can use there.  We've had a bit of a surprise from Willoughby who may be more of an asset to the bowling attack than some posters gave him credit for before this game.  Other than that?  Some unlucky breaks (wrong words really for him) to Johnson who probably should have had 2 wickets more.  An unlucky dismissal to JF in innings 2 but what happened in innings 1?

Besides that absolutely nothing worth writing home about!

Take the medicine, learn the lessons, turn the page, on to Canterbury and Worcester.  Ho Hum!