They think it is all Over(ton) and it was at 7.10pm.

The London Leprecahun continues the story from yesterday. Though it takes a bit longer than expected we hear about another solid perormance, the effect of coffee breaks on wicket taking and a slighty frenetic finish to the match.

At 10am it was a lovely sunny morning, perfect for a stroll along the river and pictures of the ducks – hoping they would be an omen for the wickets we still needed.  Getting to the ground really early for once gave me  a chance to see both teams practicing (and playing football). I was not, however expecting to still be there at gone 7pm but in the end it was worth it!

Practice makes perfect

It was probably too much to hope for that we would just get the remaining five wickets in a clatter.  Nothing much happened during the opening hour; the heavy roller flattened the pitch, Trego and Butler reined in their natural instincts - apart from one wild swish each in the opening overs.  It took about forty minutes before the first ball to genuinely beat the bat, and the first genuine appeal. 

But it actually took me disappearing for a coffee to get the first wicket.  I claim the Trego breakthrough cutting to gully where Dexter took a smart catch (so I was told). When Thomas to his visible annoyance played a silly shot off Harris, Somerset were still 10 runs short of us and an early finish still looked on.  I was also hoping that Harris would take a few more wickets as I had noticed that the players were calling him Harry and I wanted to make a headline around a princely performance or the like.  (Not very original from the team and desperate from me don’t you think?)

After that Leach became a bit leech like and Butler was playing a particularly solid innings and gradually Somerset edged ahead, just as sunshine gave way to cloud.  We had a shortish rain break, we rotated bowlers, fielded with great commitment all day, Tom Smith was unlucky when he bowled with half chances, lots of edges and one definite dropped catch.  But I had to go get another coffee before he got his reward – bowling the stubborn Leach.  And then finally Butler ran out of patience and miscuing a drive hit a ball high, very high and straight towards us.  If I had had the reflexes of Chris Rogers I would have had the time to get the camera out to snap him calmly taking one of those catches that could go horribly wrong. But I didn’t sadly. 
By then the light was failing badly and though the new ball was due we had to continue with Smith and Dexter and Berg to stay out there.  After an early tea, the light improved, Murts took the new ball, and with the fifth ball trapped Kirby plumb lbw. And got his tenth wicket.  An early contender for player of the season, again? And how we will miss him at Durham.

So 71 to win in 42 overs.  And rain clouds gathering.  Sent from Bridgewater an hour earlier we were reliably informed.  So we started with intent.  11 runs in nine balls before the rain came in earnest.  And then it rained and rained. 

Nice weatehr for ducks

Various weather forecast sites suggested it would stop anytime from 5pm to 7.  And now and again it did stop briefly. Had there been any other match situation it would have been called off long before 6pm.  But it was clear that no one wanted to come back tomorrow.  So after lots of rumour, lots of taking covers of and putting them back again, lots of hard work by the supper blotter and lots of Twitter speculation, we finally had play at 6.20, with clearly an agreement to take the extra half an hour.  So we ended up with 13.3 overs to get the remaining 60 runs. And barely a soul left in the ground safe for the few Middlesex supporter who were staying till Somerset, an ever smaller handful of Somerset supporters and the stewards, all of whom were very friendly and good humoured in the inevitable defeat.

Somerset were in a difficult position – they knew the match was up, no one wanted the match to go on to Saturday, but quite rightly they had no intention of gifting us the runs.  From our point of view we clearly needed to get on with it but also had to bat sensibly and not panic just because of the pressure to win tonight. So we had a slightly bizarre but fun 50 minutes or so.  Jamie Overton bowled with considerable hostility but managed to get himself into a bit of bother – first with a handful of Middlesex spectators who told him to get on with it when Somerset asked for a ball change after just a handful of overs, and then with the umpires after some over zealous appealing and possibly some verbals with the batsmen and umpires.  Meanwhile we managed to keep the score ticking over nicely with some proper cricket shots, a few edges, and thanks to some slightly chaotic fielding involving people skidding on wet grass, balls being thrown back past fielders, overthrows, plus a few noballs, and byes that probably should have been wides.  Chris Rogers wicket – swishing at a ball from Overton just allowed Joe Denly to play a little cameo that quickly got the required run rate down, and with Sam Robson being his usual untroubled self the end finally came quickly.  A good win if in slightly odd circumstances, and it must have been the latest I have seen a match finish.  Now what to do with my day off.

Now it's all over