The Cooper Associates County Ground

Somerset v Leicestershire

(Royal London One Day Cup)

11th August 2021

I have enjoyed a number of days' cricket over years, since I became a Born-Again (no, not Born-Again, a Late-Flowering) devotee of the sport.

But, I do not think I have really enjoyed a match quite so much as I did this one.  The match ebbed and flowed are only One Day cricket can.  And the fact my adopted side Leicestershire, who were underdogs not only before the match, but for the most of the play too, came out on top was just perfect.

There were a number of fine batting displays on both sides, with the pick of the lot being that of Leicester Captain Lewis Hill.  I even persuaded him to let me take his pic after the match, me rudely interrupting as he was chatting to what I took to be relatives.

Also - it didn't friggin' rain, as it generally does on my cricketing parade.  Indeed, the only downer on the whole special day was the fact I forgot my factor 50, and ended up leaving the ground in the evening with bright red forearms and my neck tingling away maddeningly.

A tree - there are not nearly enough pictures of trees on my blog.

The Joel Garner entrance to the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton.

The River Tone runs alongside the County Ground.

The Cooper Associates County Ground - Somerset CCC

This building, which is inside the ground, houses the Somerset Cricket Museum.
It is the only remaining structure from Taunton Priory, which once occupied the site.

Leicestershire had gone into this one on a bit of a high, having pulled off a remarkable one run victory over Surrey three days earlier; courtesy of three wickets off Ben Mike's final over.  Somerset by contrast had endured a decidedly iffy One Day campaign thus far, but would still have harboured real hopes of making the quarter-finals.

And the hosts must have felt their innings total would have certainly strengthened their hopes in that direction, posting as they did a daunting looking 326 from their allotted 50 overs.  George Bartlett top scored with 108, whilst Steve Davis (61) and George Thomas (75) each put in sterling shifts.  

"It's not happening, Griffiths!" one home fan cruelly shouted at Leics. bowler Gavin Grifitths.  And at that point he was right.  

6.5 was the required Leicestershire required run rate (RRR), a number I knew to be eminently achievable in T20, but was less sure about in this format.  But, The Running Foxes made an encouraging start, and by the end of the eighth over were sitting pretty on 47/0.  

But then Harry Swindells and his replacement George Rhodes each fell in quick succession, and the visitors for a spell began to find runs more difficult to find.  The RRR drifted up to over 7, and when Rishi Patel was caught for 40 leaving Leicestershire on 85/3 things did not look good.

But Lilley and Hill dug in, and the 18 runs the pair gleaned from the 18th over did their side's cause no harm whatsoever.

Lilley was soon out though, following a bit of entertaining juggling by Somerset's Ned Leonard.  Hill was then joined at the crease by Louis Kimber, in what would turn out to be a match-winning partnership.  The pairing took the Foxes total from 146/4 when Kimber arrived, to 305/5 when Kimber fell to Ned Leonard. 

One really felt the despair in the home support as Merchant de Lange somehow managed to ship 29 runs! in the 39th over.  A whopping 10 extras were in there.  This cataclysmic (for the home side) over dropped the Foxes RRR to just 3.80.  And even the loss, finally, of Kimber for 85 a couple of overs later, barely stemmed the inexorable Foxes' march. 

Hill was eventually out lbw on 107 from 106 balls, having been out in the baking afternoon sun for almost two-and-a-half hours.  He departed leaving the Foxes requiring just three more runs to win.  Ben Mike and Rehan Ahmed picked up one each with the winning run arriving, somewhat anticlimactically, off a wide.

Panorama of The County Ground - Somerset CCC

Somerset v Leicestershire - August 2021

Arron Lilley - Leicestershire CCC

I, on first glance, misread this as "The OneDate Pavilion",
and wondered if this was a particularly unsuccessful
(or, indeed, a particularly successful) online dating site.

Will Davis - Leicestershire CCC

Not quite sure what type of shot Somerset's George Bartlett has
played here, but it clearly surprised Harry Swindells 

Gable atop the Colin Atkinson Pavilion 

Scott Steele - Leicestershire CCC

Ed Barnes - Leicestershire CCC

The Colin Atkinson Pavilion 

Gavin Griffiths - Leicestershire CCC

The Hall of Fame pictures were distributed around the ground, and I rather liked them.

I once watched Marcus Trescothick pretty much single-handedly
dismantle The Scottish Saltires (no great feat, I know) in Edinburgh in 2003.

Alongside that of The Oval Gasometer, I would suggest this
view is one of the most iconic in English cricket ground.

 The tower of the Church of St Mary Magdalene

Panorama of County Ground, Taunton.

George Rhodes (I think)

Busy media bods.

Lewis Goldsworthy - Somerset CCC

The Somerset Stand.
I can think of worse places to buy a retirement home.

Lewis Hill's 100

Lewis Hill's 100

Leicestershire win by 4 wickets.

Score:
Somerset 326/7  (50 overs)
Leicestershire 327/6  (44.4 overs)

Cricinfo, who are paid to keep an eye on such things, assures us that Hill and Kimber's partnership of 158 was a record breaking fifth wicket partnership for Leicestershire against Somerset in List A cricket, eclipsing the previous record of 118 set by Darren Stevens and Jeremy Snape in Bath, in 2004.  

And who am I to argue?

Lewis Hill - Leicestershire CCC

**********************************************************************

Somerset v Leicestershire

(Metro Bank One Day Cup)

18th August 2024

Leicestershire Foxes fell just a bit short in their bid to reach consecutive One Day Cup Finals, losing to Somerset by 23 runs.  The extent to which fatigue (Excuse Alert!) may or may not have played in the loss, I shall perhaps leave to others to debate.  But this was the Foxes' fourth match in the tournament in eight days, whilst Somerset had enjoyed (a perk of topping their qualification group, admittedly) a full week to prepare for this semi-final.

Winning the toss, and putting their hosts into bat, Leics initially made a reasonable fist of keeping the Somerset scoring in check, and at one point Somerset were on 189/2 after 38 of their allotted 50 overs.  But what the Foxes had been unable to do was to make much inroads into their opponents' wickets in hand. 

Thus it was, Somerset's batsman were able to enjoy the luxury of a period of gung-ho slogging towards the end of their innings.  Their final 12 overs saw Lewis Goldsworthy and James Rew (then Sean Dickson and Ben Green) make hay and add a whopping 145 runs to their side's total.  Included in this bounty were runs/over of 11, 15, 15, 14, 15, 16 and 11.

Lewis Goldsworthy, who had turned out for Leicestershire in the T20 Blast competition earlier in the season, eventually top scored for Somerset with an unbeaten 115.

Leics in reply were actually ahead of the Somerset total for much of the match, but had shipped wickets at an alarming rate: Lewis Hill, Ian Holland and Ajinkya Rehane all going cheaply and in quick succession.  Peter Handscombe and Ben Cox put together a partnership of 131 to keep the Foxes in the hunt, but Cox then Louis Kimber and Liam Trevaskis were all caught attempting to force the run rate.  And that was pretty much that. 

It was interesting to note that only five of the starting XI from last season's One Day Cup Final played today: Sol Budinger, Lewis Hill, Louis Kimber, Chris Wright and Tom Scriven.

Of the others Josh Hull and Rishi Patel had been stolen by The Hundred.  Colin Ackermann is now at Durham, whilst Wiann Mulder was in the West Indies with South Africa.  Which leaves Sam Evans and Harry Swindells of last year's side sitting watching, I assume.  Although the latter had been coming on as a fielding sub in earlier matches in the competition, and taking a fair few important catches.     

The main entrance to The Cooper Associates County Ground along Priory Avenue.

Brian

I briefly sat on one of these seats before being huckled off by an officious steward,
who informed me they "were allocated".  Needless to say,
the benches remained empty throughout the whole match.

C'mon Chris - just 24 required off the last ball.
You can do it!

Perhaps not

Attendees were handed out these Autograph Clappers which included useful pics of the Somerset players - even if I did not see anyone using the item for either intended purpose.  Included was a pic of Andew Umeed (here to the left of Jack Leitch), a Scottish player whose career I have casually followed for some years.

He "burst onto the scene" (copyright Micah Richards) as a 20-year old in 2016, scoring a century on his County Championship debut for Warwickshire against Durham.  He never really appeared to build upon this encouraging start, and was released in 2018.  At which point he sorta disappeared from my cricketing radar (such as it is).  

But then his name popped up again in 2022, he having signed on for Somerset.  Where he had been hiding in the interim, I have no idea.  I noted totals of 60, 73, 84, 114 and 58 in various competitions this season for the lad.  Umeed scored a further half-century this afternoon, but I would suggest an even more significant contribution to Somerset's win was his catching of Peter Handscombe which effectively ended Leicestershire's challenge.