About Cider Press
Cider Press aims to be the go-to independent “media outlet” for all things Somerset cricket. We will cover as much of it as we can within our spare time.
This Substack page was started by Sam Dalling and he does the majority of the writing. We also have guest writers, while our “Somerset & I” series contains first-person pieces penned by former and current Somerset stars.
We also have the Cider Press podcast co-hosted by Sam, Charlie Taylor and Harry Everett. The trio have become firm friends during their time commentating on the Somerset live-stream. They all love cricket. They all love Somerset. And they all love writing / journalism.
If you’ve come here looking for breaking news, you’ll be disappointed. But at Cider Press we aim to entertain, to never make it bland and to try and tell you something you can’t get from the scorecard.
About us
Sam Dalling
Sam moved to Taunton as a toddler but doesn’t live locally anymore. He was a long time Junior Sabre, spending summers playing tennis ball cricket in the car parks of the CACG and collecting autographs. Alas his cricketing career never really got going, and he retired at the age of 17 having never reached three figures (with the bat!).
He is a pensions lawyer who got into journalism in 2020. It was lockdown and he wanted to find a way to get into live sport. And so he wrote for The Cricket Paper and then The Cricketer, covering county cricket for the latter for four summers.
Past interviewees include:
Tom Abell, Tom Banton, Pete Trego, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Peter Siddle, Shane Burger, Lewis Gregory, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Steve Kirby, Dom Bess, Jack Brooks, Max Waller, Justin Langer, Devon Conway, Nick Compton, Pete Trego, Matthew Wade, Marnus Labuschagne, Sam Billings, Ross Taylor, Rachin Ravindra, Nathan Lyon, Luke Wells, Haseeb Hameed, Luke Fletcher, Fawad Ahmed, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Ian Holland, David Payne, James Faulkner, Amy Satterthwaite, Naveen-ul-Haq, Billy Stanlake, Joe Denly, Jafer Chohan.
He was the first person to pen exclusive written interviews with James Rew, Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed.
He covered Somerset’s 2023 T20 triumph for The Guardian, filing copy from the stands, while he has also written for Wisden Magazine, ESPN Cricinfo, The Sunday Times and BBC Sport.
He is a regular on the in-house live-streams of both Somerset and Durham. He has also commentated for BBC Radio London, BBC Radio Yorkshire, Essex CCC, Northants CCC, Middlesex CCC, The Blaze and the ECB.
Over the winter, he writes about football for The Telegraph and The Guardian. The biggest challenge? Typing at 10pm at night in sub-zero temperatures.
Harry Everett
Harry got into cricket late after failing to follow his Dad’s footballing steps. However, he has made up for lost time, badgering cricket in every way possible for the past 16 years.
Back in 2012, he scraped into the Richard Huish Cricket Academy. This allowed him to train alongside his now idols, and he often finds himself commentating alongside them as part of his role with the award-winning Somerset livestream.
Harry’s sports journalism degree at Huddersfield was timed perfectly as it enabled him to commentate on Premier League football, while he also wrote for Town’s match day programme.
He has worked various freelance roles for BBC Sport, covering the Rio Olympics, the 2019 cricket World Cup and England’s Test tour of the West Indies. More recently, he has covered county cricket and the EFL for the Beeb, and was the first to break the news of Jake Ball’s arrival at Somerset.
Harry’s mantra is ‘the wackier the better’ and this has led him to cover cricket in Iceland and commentate on a Lashings match. He has previously MC-d the Somerset Foundation end of year awards and Bridgetown CC centenary events with commentary colleagues Sophie Luff, Jack Brooks and Vic Marks.
Harry is also the current player / coach of Wembdon CC in the WEPL. As a batter he can be described as boring, while James Rew once likened his leg-spin to that of Romanian star Pavel Florin. Harry thinks this is a compliment but he isn’t 100% sure.
Harry’s technique is often rinsed by Charlie and Sam on the Somerset live-stream during breaks in play.
