The morning after the four days before and CPHQ is still buzzing. The podcast has now dropped - listen in for the views of co-hosts Sam, Charlie and Harry, plus debutant Zeb Baker-Smith. As an added bonus, we have a guest appearance from Somerset starlet Alfie Ogborne. Enough? Not quite. Harry couldn’t sleep he was that excited. He spent the night re-watching the County Championship streams from around the ground and penning his thoughts and feelings from a wonderful day at the CACG.
What a day! For Somerset, for Gloucestershire and Glamorgan, and for Hampshire. The South/South-West counties ended the last County Championship round of summer in serious style with three cracking final session chases taking our Premier first-class competition well past 6pm. Sadly, we will not see it again until late August.
I highly recommend rewatching – as I have spent most of last night and this morning doing – the highlights, the County Championship reels and clips of the special moments. From Tom Abell taking 17 off four balls from Michael Booth to win the tie – dare I be slightly vain and remind readers and listeners of the Somerset stream that I (for once) called that in advance. To that Bobby Bracey catch. To Liam Dawson – the promoted pinch hitter. To my ole university mate Hugo Hammond’s superb story of him and his father watching the Gloucestershire vs Glamorgan finish from home on YouTube on their TV, jumping around in amazement and disbelief, despite neither having any affiliation with either club. Raw emotion, this is what four-days of build-up can do to you in the final crescendo.
I should calm down – take a breather – see if my heart rate can come down after the final four balls from Booth to Abell yesterday and reflect on the whole four days. As it is actually very rare these days that a stream commentator (there are seven of us now, with Vic (Marks) on board officially this year, who rotate) commentates on all four days. I certainly have never done it before this match. I thought it might leave me absolutely exhausted and/or slightly ‘done’ with cricket. I think it actually made me enjoy the moment even more.
Vic, Stephen (Lamb), Pete (Trego) and I all admitted at different times on days two and three that the cricket was getting fairly stale and boring. We were perhaps lamenting the flat pitch and the likelihood of another bore draw, similar to the one I attempted to BBC live text commentate life into at Trent Bridge last week. But that is why the longest form of the game is so great – there are so many twists and turns over four or five days (note Craig Overton’s call for five-day Championship cricket) that can set up a result.
There seemed to be a certain inevitability about this chase and win. Shane Burger spoke to me more confidently than I have ever heard anyone speak about chasing 400+ in a fourth innings, both on camera and then for even longer off camera, on the night of day three. Firstly, what a lovely, sincere, genuine, passionate bloke he is. Burger has received criticism for some of Somerset’s batting, but the ‘bravery’ and ‘commitment’ (two of his buzz words) came through in spades yesterday.
Speaking to TKC (Tom Kohler-Cadmore), 15 minutes after Blackbird was sung raucously, he wanted to applaud Andy Umeed’s 30. Yes, only 30 – from an opening batter chasing 409 – but it broke the back of the chase and allowed the man we thought would be the aggressor in the partnership to be just 27 off 28 overs. I remarked a few times that TKC was “on one today”, perhaps because we have never seen him bat so slowly in any format for Somerset in a chase where we needed more than five an over, but it oddly made me more confident he was going to play a pivotal role. He only got 49 and frankly played a hideous, potentially ‘that’s the way I play’ shot to get out, which had the press box pulling their hair out again, but he had done his job. Somerset were 144-3, not 10-2, and the top five all earned their pay.
I have written and said plenty over the years about the fine, fine stroke-play of Abell, but I want to talk here about James Rew. That Craig Overton opted to send Rew out after the sensible pinch-hitting attempt of Miggy Pretorius did not quite come off was a great confidence boost for the young left-hander. It proved a masterstroke. Rew has far more shots than Championship viewers may have witnessed, even with memories of him bopping Muhammad Abbas into the Somerset stand with aplomb last year. Just ask Heathcoat CC or Bridgwater CC players and fans regarding his ridiculous Taunton St Andrews knocks, with sixes over extra-cover both left and right-handed. This week I had great conversations with Mother Rew about Thomas’ deserved U19 call-up, three years younger than the other boys, and older brother Charlie, who had waited all through day four to watch James bat. It was worth waiting for – his 360-batting taking pressure off our former captain and easing it into gaps all around the ground, such that even returning test legend Chris Woakes could not stem the flow.
It was a great game of cricket. I do fear for the ramifications of this loss to Warwickshire fans and players but am delighted with the confidence that Somerset will surely take into the rest of the season. We must not forget the parts that Pretorius (on day one) and Overton (on day three) played with the ball too. There is so much to digest from this game I could write 1000 more words but I will try to leave it there...
Long live County Championship cricket.
Harry Everett
Instagram: @Harryweverett
Twitter: @HarryEverett_14
Chucking apples at Bears