They said smile - the worst week

Consistency
By Grockle
August 3 2003

It can't get any worse can it? I asked that last week and convinced myself that it couldn't. Then I went away for a couple of days and came back and read the paper!

“Lordy, I haven’t had so much fun since the last root canal filling. There are some sporting events that are so excruciating you can scarcely bear to watch, not so much because of patriotism as common humanity. There’s a limit to how much suffering I can take, even when it’s happening to someone else. The worse thing was that there seems no end to it…”

Tractor at Chester le Street? No, Simon Barnes on yesterday at Lords in the Times. But it could so easily have been about Somerset, this last fortnight, let alone yesterday.

On a day when Neil Edwards was part of an opening stand of 102 for England U19 against South Africa and James Hildreth hit 103 not out against Sussex for the seconds at the County Ground (with Wood, Dutch and Gazzard all passing 50) our first fell to the lowest score ever made by a Somerset side against Durham and a smallest innings total in a CC game this season of 56. They lost by 316 runs in three days. Taking into account that the majority of those runs were made by Jones Johnson and McLean puts our present batting prowess into a real clear context.

I thought that a 2 day defeat by Northants was a low point and I have to admit that the rain at Old Trafford in the NCL floodlit game was a blessed relief because it meant we had time to lick our wounds and still took two points. It was good to see Hildreth start his career and Andrew produce the best figures in the 20 over slog that actually occurred but it was a respite.

It was good to see Johnno back in the side for the Durham game and amongst the wickets. It was really good to see Jonah back to some type of consistent form with his 2 for 76 off 22 overs. It was even better to see the consistent McLean with someone to support him in the seam department. Tom Webley got a bit of a baptism of fire with Wells bowling him in the first and facing Akhtar in his pomp in the second but at least he has seen it, he won’t be surprised next time.

But this wasn’t an inexperienced side. Cox, Bryant, Burns, Blackwell, Turner – they’ve all been here before. Durham got over 300 in one innings and we had good guys putting the ball to them. We couldn’t manage that in both. 139 and 56 is just not acceptable – this is a side whose morale is in terminal decline. Threats won’t solve the problem and we just have to hope that we can survive with some careers intact until the end of the season when we can lick our wounds and start another reconstruction after shattering blows that could have tolled the death knell for some household names at the County Ground. If PA means what he says then some contracts of employment will be being revised as we speak (possibly even his) and some of those exciting prospects – who are not ready I accept – may be facing bigger challenges than they expected on a much shorter time frame than they had planned.

They said smile it could be worse…..it’s getting there and my smile can’t get a lot broader without splitting my face! I want to stay positive but you have to help me out guys…it’s getting so hard!