April Shower or not as the case may be
By Grockle
May 4 2023
Well the 2023 season is up and upon us - a newish lineup with faces replacing the old favourites and a pitch that has less grass than some I've seen in the Middle East on it. What are our prospects of picking up the Championnship this year? Bet you can't guess!!
For a number of years Somerset has had a penchant for first innings 4 day collapses. An opening partnership that sets a base for the middle order to plunder has not been a Taunton experience all that often. We've tried a few opening partnerships in the last decade though the presence of one of the greatest English openers of all time did not actually help in our search for a pair to take us into the 2020s. Marcus probably stayed in the top two a number of years too long and that hindered our production of a new 1 or 2.
Anyway, after trying a number of overseas imports we finally bit the bullet last year and looked to enhance our batting line-up. During the season we signed up Andrew Umeed a front end specialist who was looking promising in the seconds. At the end of the season we announced the arrival of Sean Dickson from Durham a man with a batting reputation that the people in the North East hated to lose and Tom Kohler-Cadmore from Yorkshire, a middle order batsman of formidable figures in primarily white ball but who certainly looked like an all round good man with the bat as well as in the field and even with the gloves. A bit of bite in the top 5? We'd nailed our intentions to the flag by using Tom Lammonby in the top pair for all of the 2022 season (except for 1 game), We were losing James Hildreth (who may have also been in post a little too long and admitted that he'd lost a little of the love for it) and Steve Davies, who never really consistently provided the runs we hoped from him when he arrived as a nailed on 'run machine' for other counties, was coming to the end of his time with us though he had a year to go on his contract.
We even picked up Cameron Bancroft for four games at the start of the season after a truly excellent Australian summer who came with creditable hopes of getting his name into the initial Ashes squad and so had things to definitely play for.
Hopes were high, even without Tom Abell for game one after he came back with an injury from his white ball international stint (unlucky as ever that it happened before he got the chance to play). We had a batting line-up where local lads George Bartlett, Lewis Goldsworthy, Ben Green, Kasey Aldridge and Tom Banton were fighting to get in from a batting point of view with 3 of them pushing to be the last member of the top 5.
So how did April go? Well the weather didn't exactly help things with an almost complete washout of the friendly games planned at Taunton and in Bristol where a 3 day game became a 2 day game and then a no day game because of surface water. Taunton looked like a lake and a desert at the same time depending on where you were looking from with surface water a problem at the CA end and a lack of grass a problem at the MT end. No dry spells coupled with Mr Hollins 'torrential rain' assessment made the Warwickshire opener a mess with no day 1 and our batting not performing much on day 2 or 3. Dickson did not get in, Bancroft got in and then out and TKC was always going to be a gamble if in early in a red ball game. Tom Lammonby saved us from a defeat and we went into week two uninspired but undefeated.
Off to Notts for the first away game with Stuart Broad having an unusual four day run out for the opposition. Things getting better and better then? They didn't as we underperformed once more. Hameed and Ducket got the homeside off to a decent start and we didn't pass 200 in either innings while they did. Result? A loss by over 150 runs with only Josh Davey showing any real resistance with the willow.
So on to Lancs at home with James Anderson also having a run out with his county at the start of an Ashes season. He had a decent game as did Keaton Jennings with the bat on a flat pitch.
We lacked both Josh Davey and Craig Overton so our bowling lacked teeth with Peter Siddle and Lewis Gregory manfully taking up most of the load but not completely doing the job. Jack Brooks, Kasey Aldridge and Jack Leach were there but found little to make them happy.
And the batting? Well Sean Dickson just can't find runs, Cameron Bancroft may not provide a decent return from his spell as he got in and got out again and TKC worked hard but is on a hiding to nothing if the front end does not do it's job. The skipper did show some form along with our promising James Rew's debut home century - there is hope and we did manage a draw with not enough time allowed by the weather to get four innings in. Jack Leach in the first innings and Kasey Aldridge in the second showed some spine with the bat but the front end still weren't at the races unfortunately
The side is 'managing' - not a lot more than that. There is no doubt that Dickson has the chops to come good and it is a form thing. However, it is presently exhibiting itself at the front of our pretty fragile batting line-up. Tom Lammonby has shown some grit but we need that consistently and we have given it some time now and are things getting better?
Tom Abell will be where he is, its where he does his best and his 151 against Lancs was a real performance. TKC is a middle order bat and will be that when we give him room to work with a three figure base and an older ball. Cameron has one game to give us something and then he is gone. He did not get into the Aussie initial squad and we need to think about our number 5 and 6 for the next game in Manchester. James Rew will definitely be one of them - he may even move up the order with a bit of swapping and changing. The other place becomes open for the young guys to fight over. George Bartlett put his name there with a couple of decent second innings and Lewis Goldsworthy also has reminded selectors of his prowess in the last seconds game and what of Tom Banton? Matt Henry will be arriving next week but he won't be top 6 at least to start with.
We hope for better against Northants but without a significant move upwards in scoring totals there will be questions asked about which players make up our true best front six. The weather on the first day hasn't given us much hope that this game will end with our first victory as Northants make more runs than they expected after being put in by us.
Our Championship prospects? On a home pitch that has suggested very little in terms of help for bowlers and with a front end still struggling to make a Somerset first innings anything impressive, the 'middle of table' assessment will be the most promising we can offer for 2023. The initial poll assessments of 'title chasers' is very far from a description we could put on the side at the moment and we may be too far into the CC1 year to get anywhere near it should things change any time soon. The 'R' word will rear its head if we lose or draw with Northants this week and it may be more relevant than in some years past at this point of a season.
We shalll have to wait and see I suppose.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:05:10:17:39:32 by Grockle.
Have a look at it now and see if it makes more sense as a piece of history
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023:05:04:20:24:43 by Grockle.