The Red Telephone
Striker
Having been persuaded by all and sundry ( well... 3 to be honest
) I'll do this thread for Friday's fixture - a case of 'rumours of my retirement were greatly exaggerated' as Mark Twain didn't say.
It's frightening to think that this game will mark the half way point of the 2024 County Championship season and so far at home we've had the washout against Hampshire and a day and a session lost on a dead wicket against Essex. We go into the game in 7th place on 64 points following our brave but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to chase 475 at sunny Blackpool while our opponents, having drawn their first three games, stand in 2nd place on 96 points after successive wins against Essex and Kent.
Somerset are of course one of three counties who have never lifted the Championship trophy but they've come agonisingly close on more than one occasion. I've always had a soft spot for them dating back to the late 70s with that glorious team of not just Richards, Botham and Garner but also the unsung heroes such as Vic Marks, 'Dasher' Denning and the greatest trundler of them all - Colin Dredge aka 'The Demon from Frome' A shout out too to one of their loyal members (and often commentator) Annie Chave,the editor of County Cricket Matters, and a great defender of the domestic red ball game.
Their overseas players this season are Matt Renshaw the Aussie Test opener and someone familiar to us, the South African Migael Pretorious who was one of our many temporary overseas signings in 2023 who ended up playing three CC games and a handful of RL50 matches. He was also a fairly decent batsman as well. Also more than a decent batsman for us in his 2022 purple patch was Sean Dickson who should be opening for Somerset. Mind you we have a secret weapon to deal with Mr Dickson and let's just say I hope his owner will keep the 'secret weapon' well hydrated.
Somerset's leading scorer is Tom Lammonby with 510 runs and apparantly he is Cambo's cousin - well according to Wikipedia. Their leading wicket taker on 19 is skipper Lewis Gregory who, along with Craig Overton, seems as if they have been around forever but are only 31 and 30 years old respectively. It will be interesting to see James Rew their 20 year old WK in action as he, along with our very own Ollie Robinson, is very much a potential England keeper of the near future
Also there may be an appearance from Jack Leach who took four wickets in this week's victory over Kent in his first CC appearance in a year following his sidelining with a stress fracture of the back. If Leach does play I don't imagine we'll see Shoaib Bashir their 6ft 4" spinner who played three times for England during the winter and who knows there's a chance we might even get a rare sighting of Jake Ball as well.
As for Durham I imagine Siddle will be in for Potts who only bowled a handful of overs in the Lancs 2nd innings and maybe Carse for Coggs. although I guess Campbell won't be making any changes to the batting line up until after the T20 break but then again maybe there will be a different opener? Let's hope as well that the brilliant Bedders can keep his glorious run going.
On a historic note, the last time we played Somerset in a red ball match at the Riverside was in April 2016 when we drew in a rain affected match. The man of the match was Keaton Jennings who score a century in both innings... hmmm..I wonder if he's ever repeated that feat?
Weather forecast is mixed and could be anything. I mean they were predicting sunny weather this morning in Ch le St and its currently raining although it does look like it's nailed on heavy rain for Wednesday and Thursday before the game commences.
Haway Durham - let's bounce back and get back to winning ways!
) I'll do this thread for Friday's fixture - a case of 'rumours of my retirement were greatly exaggerated' as Mark Twain didn't say.It's frightening to think that this game will mark the half way point of the 2024 County Championship season and so far at home we've had the washout against Hampshire and a day and a session lost on a dead wicket against Essex. We go into the game in 7th place on 64 points following our brave but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to chase 475 at sunny Blackpool while our opponents, having drawn their first three games, stand in 2nd place on 96 points after successive wins against Essex and Kent.
Somerset are of course one of three counties who have never lifted the Championship trophy but they've come agonisingly close on more than one occasion. I've always had a soft spot for them dating back to the late 70s with that glorious team of not just Richards, Botham and Garner but also the unsung heroes such as Vic Marks, 'Dasher' Denning and the greatest trundler of them all - Colin Dredge aka 'The Demon from Frome' A shout out too to one of their loyal members (and often commentator) Annie Chave,the editor of County Cricket Matters, and a great defender of the domestic red ball game.
Their overseas players this season are Matt Renshaw the Aussie Test opener and someone familiar to us, the South African Migael Pretorious who was one of our many temporary overseas signings in 2023 who ended up playing three CC games and a handful of RL50 matches. He was also a fairly decent batsman as well. Also more than a decent batsman for us in his 2022 purple patch was Sean Dickson who should be opening for Somerset. Mind you we have a secret weapon to deal with Mr Dickson and let's just say I hope his owner will keep the 'secret weapon' well hydrated.
Somerset's leading scorer is Tom Lammonby with 510 runs and apparantly he is Cambo's cousin - well according to Wikipedia. Their leading wicket taker on 19 is skipper Lewis Gregory who, along with Craig Overton, seems as if they have been around forever but are only 31 and 30 years old respectively. It will be interesting to see James Rew their 20 year old WK in action as he, along with our very own Ollie Robinson, is very much a potential England keeper of the near future
Also there may be an appearance from Jack Leach who took four wickets in this week's victory over Kent in his first CC appearance in a year following his sidelining with a stress fracture of the back. If Leach does play I don't imagine we'll see Shoaib Bashir their 6ft 4" spinner who played three times for England during the winter and who knows there's a chance we might even get a rare sighting of Jake Ball as well.
As for Durham I imagine Siddle will be in for Potts who only bowled a handful of overs in the Lancs 2nd innings and maybe Carse for Coggs. although I guess Campbell won't be making any changes to the batting line up until after the T20 break but then again maybe there will be a different opener? Let's hope as well that the brilliant Bedders can keep his glorious run going.
On a historic note, the last time we played Somerset in a red ball match at the Riverside was in April 2016 when we drew in a rain affected match. The man of the match was Keaton Jennings who score a century in both innings... hmmm..I wonder if he's ever repeated that feat?
Weather forecast is mixed and could be anything. I mean they were predicting sunny weather this morning in Ch le St and its currently raining although it does look like it's nailed on heavy rain for Wednesday and Thursday before the game commences.
Haway Durham - let's bounce back and get back to winning ways!
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