Somerset
And Away We Go... sort of University Game v Cardiff
By Grockle et al
March 22 2023
No Tom A for this but the UK 'warmups' start with a dry day and sunshine after torrential rain in the night. There are waterloggerd parts of the surface and if there is any play before mid afternoon then we will have done well. Umpires will inspect at 12 and we'll see.
v Cardiff University at Taunton Wednesday 22 March 2023
No longer a first class game but it is an 11 v 11 setup. The Somerset side will be led by Lewis Gregory with Tom Abell working to be fit for the first Championship game against Warwickshire in early April.
The squad is a bit of 'who is here' to some extent and it could be possibly liable to change before the game one would imagine;
Gregory, Aldridge, Barlett, Bashir, Davey, Davis, Dickson, Goldsworthy, Green, Lammonby, Leonard, Overton, Umeed
No real idea who will be left out, it's more of a case of looking at who will difinitely play. Sean Dickson will play, as will Gregory and Davis (only keeper). One would assume all the seamers will play Overton, Davey and Leonard/Aldridge. It would be interesting to see Shoab Bashir the young spinner get a go, though Taunton in March? He may sit it out. Lewis Goldsworthy may get the call in the middle order as James Rew is not in this group and then its a question about where Tom Lammonby is placed. I think we'll also see Ben Green and probably Andy Umeed will sit this out unless they have plans for him up front - not sure that will happen.
The Somerset side on NVPPLAY is
KL Aldridge, GA Bartlett, Shoaib Bashir, JH Davey, SM Davies†, SR Dickson, LP Goldsworthy, BGF Green, L Gregory*, TA Lammonby, EO Leonard, C Overton, ARI Umeed
So it suggests it is NOT an 11 v 11 game and we will maybe not see the same batting line-up as bowling.
We'll see how it all pans out - welcome back to the 'summer' Grocklees
The morning has been written off. There is a huge amount of water in front of the CA which will take some getting rid of for play today... the only real solution is a 'creative' boundary.
In front of the MT there is almost no grass across the whole frontage. I(('m not sure what the umpires are thingking about it. They had a look at 12 and will have another look at 1 but it is highly unlikely that we'll see any play before 3pm at best. Meanwhile the sun of this morning has been replaced by a more grey overcast sky with little in the prospect of late afternoon light.
May be a disappointing first day.
Bit of a mess outside the MT - probably would be no prospect of play on a CC1 game - grass by April 4? The pitch probably being used for the Warwickshire game will probably be the one four over from the present cut strip which means the bowler's run ups will be in the present 'scrubland'.
Water splash in front of the Colin Atkinson so the boundary is very much a short one on bothe sides. The women would complain about this boundary it wasd already short on the Somerset Stand side but the Caddy one is six strips from the one they are playing on. Lots of boundaries one would imagine. You can see where the rope is set up to go straight down.
With the game starting at 2pm we have the first question of the season answered as Tom Lammonby opens with Sean Dickson facing Tom Rex (Yes T.Rex) who no balls on his first derlivery but there arer no scoring shots in the first over from the River End just 2 extras.
We do have a scoreboard for this game, but no stream or commentary and with most of the batsmen wearing jumpers it is going to be a joy trying to identify the players. The second over is bowled by Raghavan who is not even in the Cardiff named squad for this game... oh well. He does give Dickson an early boundary followed by another a coupld of balls later. He takes 10 off his first over faced at Taunton in Somerset colours.
Lammonby expansively drives one but gets a leading edge and is well Kellaway caught in a shortish leg position without scoring at 12. Andy Umeed is in at 3 and is off the mark with a boundary straight away. It's a big innings for him given that Tom Abell's number 3 spot may be available in the first game of the domestic season and it seems he might be aware of that as he finishes his first over with another free scoring boundary through the covers.
However this doesn't work for him as Raghaven gets him in his second over for 12 and in comes Lewis Goldsworthy at number 4, faces one ball which he dispatches to the boundary before he becomes Raghaven's second victim of the over clean bowled for 4. In comes George Bartlett at 5 at 39... not exactly a run fest presently.
Sean Dickson can drive by the way. Raghaven sent him a couple of loose ones and he just dispatched them to the boundary with absolute disdain. George takes his first boundary off Mr Rex and we pass 50 with only 3 down!!
Tom Simmons takes over the duties at the MT end. Ben Morris makes it a double change at the River end as we pass 60. You start to get the feeling that this partnership might be an important one in a succesful red ball Somerset side. If Dickson stays in past the new ball and settles with someone like George it could be where the base of good scores comes from. We can but hope...
Just after the two have doubled the score Dickson goes to an impressive run a ball 50 with 8 fours and 2 sixes. Don't bowl loosely to this man... he will make you pay. Somerset move to 3 figures at the start of the 20th over with a six taking him to 61 with George on 20. A good start for the new man. Now can he consolidate it into a significant contribution. He is certainly putting his front foot forward as he follows the three figures with his fourth six and a boundary off the next ball. He seems to have gears as well!!
Cardiff introduce the spin of Adam Searle just before the Tea interval and after him we go in at 129 for 3 with Bartlett on 28 and Dickson on 80. We would have taken that at 37 for 3. A better second part of the session.
After the Tea interval with the floodlights on, there is an indicator that Somerset are not expecting this game to avoid the weather over the next few days. they declare their first innings and Chris Gibson and Harry Friend face Josh Davey from the River end. The light suggests a curtailed session and the rain predictions may have had a hand in this strategy. Josh is bowling with a four slip cordon but the rain takes a hand first and we are off before the end of the first over.
And the umpires call time at 4:30
DAY 2
After a damp evening with the ground fully covered, Thursday dawned with a dry clear and blustery morning. At 11 the ground is uncovered but there is more water in front of the CA (not a problem because it is behind the 'creative' boundary) and there is standing water on the sparsely grassed area in front of the Trescothick. So there was no play at the start of the day and the umpires called an early lunch at 12:30 with a 1pm inspection. Cardiff have 1 run for no loss after 5 balls of their innings and it may be doubtfuil that they will add to that on Day 2. The more worrying aspect is surface water sitting on an area which is heavily sanded and hardly grassed some 2 weeks before the start of the Championship season. The umpires yesterday were said to be saying that the conditiojns would not have justified a game unless both sides agreed to play the friendly. Not sure that will be the case at the start of the domestic season.
With a mere 15 minutes to go before the inspection, the heavens opened and out came the covers to effectively put paid to play one would imagine for the day as littlew work had been done to change the situation of the pitch so any extra moisture was not going to improve the position.
Mike Burns and Ian Blackwell came out and did their umpiringly duties at 1:20 and called the game off for the day in filthy conditions.
DAY 3
Rain an hour before the start time puts that back until after an early 12:30 lunch. Given the state of the outfield on Thursday and more rain it is doubtful whether any cricket will happen and even if it does the 3 day game has effectively been destroyed by the time lost and it is doubful what meaningful cricket can be pulled from this fixture other than a bit of practice with no real outcome from the competition. We'll see I suppose
And we saw. A 2pm inspection was promised with cricket at 2:30 if there was no more rain. It rained at about 2:28 and the game was abandoned as a draw. We'll try again on Monday against Glamorgan.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:26:12:03:39 by Grockle.
[twitter.com]
Is this still a first class game?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:21:13:20:14 by Grockle.
Seating will only be available in the following areas:
The Ondaatje Family Stand
The Ondaatje Non-Alcohol Stand
Marcus Trescothick Pavilion Lower
Marcus Trescothick Pavilion Upper
Gimblett’s Hill (partial)
Most of it a long way from the pitch.
It'll be interesting to see young Bashir bowl if they give him a run so.early in the year
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:21:17:07:01 by Grockle.
I'll be That Bloke Without The Dog this season unfortunately. She had to be put down in October - nothing traumatic, just being ill too often. I'd got her from Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard in 2009, and according to her microchip record she'd been chipped in Sept, 2005, so she was at least 17. We were still walking the two or three miles beside the river to the County Ground on summer mornings right into her final year, so I don't think she left anything behind.
The pitch is not quite as far over that I first thought.
When I read that only Part of the "Gimblett’s Hill (partial)" will be available, I had a Look. They are still working on the new scoreboard, even though it was working this afternoon, about a third of the Hill was fenced off.
The Marcus Trescothick Pavilion is not far away from the pitch.
Why they felt the need to downgrade them like this I have no idea. Even though they are still expected to be played as "proper" matches with set hours and so on it still takes away an extra competitive edge which was there before.
Also playing them crammed in a few days in March is not to be welcomed either - before they were all played in April and some even left over to May. It should be remembered that these matches are not just for the counties' benefit but for the universities as well, whose excellent set-ups have seen around 25% of county cricketers having attended a UCCE (formerly MCCU).
Obviously there is the argument that there are cheap runs and wickets available for county players, but that is also the case in many spheres where cricket is first-class. For example, domestic cricket in Zimbabwe is first class, where Ben Compton recently helped himself to hundreds in four successive matches, including a double ton. I dare say the better UCCEs would give a decent account of themselves if they played a Zimbabwe or Irish domestic side.
You are correct about these games, they used to be after the friendlies, usually in the gap if there was an early spare CC1 week. I assume it is still an 11 v 11 games rather than whatever the other two will be in terms of structure.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:22:11:05:53 by Grockle.
Sorry it showed as Dickson but it is Andy Umeed out for 12. And now Goldsworthy is walking back in after being bowled first ball.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:22:14:33:25 by Grockle.
The declaration tends to suggest that this may be the main aspect of this game. The next two days are not particularly promising either but we'll see how it develops.
Somerset v Cardiff UCCE first day Photos.
Anything short Sean Dickson seem to love to pull the ball.
.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
Sean Dickson looked so good playing the ball, he knows where the middle of the bat is.
Sean Dickson scored at a good pace, this was one of his 4 runs.
Sean Dickson hitting one his six's.
.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
George Bartlett look good, 4 runs.
I thought Andy Umeed look good, until he play this shot, caught Ben Kellaway (low down) bowled V V Gaghavan.
We will see what Somerset can do with the ball tomorrow.
Any talk or info. as to the state of the outfield & what the underlying problem is ?
From the photo's that have appeared online, it really does look pretty ropey indeed.
Grizzers
I don't remember having any problem last season with drainage. Removing a layer off the top and then trying to reseed it, was always going to be down to the mercy of the weather. (Grass will not grow in water).
The water in the CA pavilion area didn't seem to get any less all day, it was there up until we had rain after tea. The shower we have just had at 8.30am will not have help in improved it at all.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:23:12:10:10 by Whome.
For those looking for play today, 15 minutes before the inspection and it is belting down with all the covers being put on the pitch again. Highly unlikely that there will be play today as the groundstaff seem to have done all they could to improve the situation before 11am... no activity to deal with surface water and whatever after that point.
The sheets are on though the wicket has been covered since the advertised start of play. It's grey and not looking like there is any prospect for it to become less grey any time soon.
I'm not in a hurry to go anywhere as I was in Taunton anyway this morning. I'll wait to see if there is an anouncement and post it if there is one in the next 40 minutes or so.
Highly doubtful it will be good news
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:23:12:55:38 by Grockle.
I can see the Quantock Hills, just. It is a bit lighter in that direction.
You wouldn't believe it, as I type, the sun came out.
Early lunch at 12:30
After that who knows but it's pretty pointless now
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:24:12:11:02 by Grockle.
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