When the sun shines, we'll shine together
Hundreds for Tom Banton and James Rew make Kent pay
If your radar was a little off, a steward glanced in the wrong direction at an opportune moment, and you happened to stumble into Somerset’s match-day dressing room, there’s a decent chance your ears would be greeted by a little bit of Rihanna. The Bajun, cricket-loving, popstar, you see, is a favourite of Tom Banton, the team’s in-house disc jockey.
For much of the early throes of the County Championship, Umbrella was an apt soundtrack. Fortunately, Taunton saw no rain on Friday. Instead, the sun beat down on the snaking queues arriving well in advance of play.
And yet the 2007 UK number one hit remained relevant. “When the sun shines, we’ll shine together,” Rihanna sang just before bursting into a homage to collapsable weather repellents. Those lyrics are very much applicable to Banton and James Rew
The day was a tale of two young wicketkeeper batters with international aspirations. A tale of celebration, not caution. A tale of twin hundreds, of a double-century partnership, of being push in and cashing in.
Banton led the day’s scoring. By the time he tickled to Harry Finch when stretching his long leavers at a Grant Stewart bouncer, Banton had accumulated a career-best 133. Four of his half dozen professional centuries have come against Kent, by the way. Sick. Of. The. Sight.
The quick tap; the KP-esque crouch; the bat pointed skyward. Banton’s languid, rangy beauty is special to behold. To those who label his approach or demeanour as lazy or disassociated, you are, quite simply, wrong. True, there might have been a point (by his own admission in a recent interview) where his training intensity was not quite where it should have been, but he was barely beyond childhood, thrust into white-ball spotlight. There is a maturity to Banton. When he speaks, it is worth listening. There is no cliché bingo: his words are honest, heartfelt and objective.
And his innate desire to succeed in first-class cricket in unquestionable. Sure, there may have been times when Banton wondered ‘why bother’. And if he did, who could blame him? The life of a flight-hopping freelancer is financially lucrative and riddled with adulation. But he has always wanted it. After a winter working alongside Hashim Amla and Shane Burger, dividends are starting to be distributed. 83 against Nottinghamshire; 92 against Worcestershire; and, finally, first-class century number two.
Initially, Banton was watchful, game aware. He knows the value, the importance, of those first 30-odd balls. At 116 for 3 shortly before lunch, Somerset had made a decent start, but there was still much to do when Banton ambled out. The juncture? Critical.
So Banton waited, waited a touch longer, before stepping into a pair of checked cover drives off Stewart in the same over. Suddenly his sandwiches, one suspects, became a little more digestible.
Certainly, there was little sign of any post-carbohydrate slumber when Nathan Gilchrist was twice driven straight, first past the bowler’s left hand, then his right. It was against Gilchrist, formerly of Somerset, that Banton reached a 77-ball fifty.
Down on the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion deck, one Thatchers clutching patron turned to his pal and remarked “doesn’t look like he fancies running many today” before yelling “keep at it, Tom.” Trescothick himself, England’s batting coach remember, was also present.
At times, Banton was playing on an 18 yard track. Only Finch stepping up to the stumps kept Banton back – and even then, not always. Just ask Marcus O’Riordan, twice smote straight over the ropes. A few overs prior, a dance down the track and biff over the top had resulted in a 2,000 strong Taunton crowd rising to applaud a fine innings. In this mood, Banton has few rivals: a bowler must simply hope he errs eventually. On 66, Stewart thought that moment had arrived. Alas, Zak Crawley’s strangely hard hands afforded him a lifeline.
Banton’s only other three figure red-ball effort came at Chelmsford in 2022. There, having come in as a concussion substitute for Lewis Goldsworthy, he and Rew added 164 together. Here their 205-run stand was a fifth wicket record for Somerset against Kent.
In the process of that partnership two summers back, both Rew and Banton celebrated maiden first-class centuries.
But after five triple-figure moments last summer, Rew went into yesterday with just a single fifty. That came against Kent in the opening round, and six further knocks have yielded exactly fifty runs.
It is not that Rew had his doubters – that could not be further from the truth – but there were a few uttering phrases like “second season syndrome.”
Factual inaccuracy aside – Rew played seven games the year before last – it is certainly true that, given cricket analysts now have more data than Apple and more spreadsheets than the average mid-sized accountancy firm, a player must evolve to maintain continuity of success.
Sometimes a batter just needs a little something to get going. Rew got that in the day’s 45th over, a trio of inviting George Garrett half-volleys all sumptuously punched through the covers. Punched is perhaps the wrong word – each boundary came with the care of a child handling a kitten. Rew’s fifty was reached in rapid time, 61-balls in fact. Hello, Mr Baz.
Any slight fault was immediately corrected. After a mistimed swish off O’Riordan, Rew watched the next ball closely. He waited. And then, with a tardiness of arrival usually the reserve of the UK train network, steered the ball down to third. That Rew scored runs came as no real surprise. That he hit three sixes? Less predictable. The first afforded him a chance in the 30s, substitute fielder Hamidullah Qadri tipping a ball over the rope. He ought to have caught it.
If that stroke from Rew had been a tad forced, the two that followed were all about timing. A jig at O’Riordan ended in a straight loft towards the Colin Atkinson Pavilion. A flick off Stewart seemed effortless, but it sailed over the (admittedly short) square leg boundary. Remarkable.
Rew’s seventh first-class hundred delighted all present, including father, Chris, who was snapping away down by the dressing room.
Friday was a good day for Somerset. One of the best days for Somerset. For Kent? Well, Daniel Bell-Drummond won the toss but not a lot else.
Videos courtesy of Somerset County Cricket Club.
The auction running in memory of Barnaby and Grace closes on Sunday evening at 8pm.
There are some wonderful lots, and plenty of chances to own a piece of cricketing history.
The proceeds will be split between the Barnaby Webber Foundation and the Grace O’Malley Kumar Foundation.
Well written. Wish I had been there
A great day to watch cricket. A privilege to have been there to see Banton and Rew at their best. Thanks for the write up!