Cricket, like life, has it’s ups and downs.
Sometimes it’s a time to weep and sometimes it’s a time to laugh – sometimes it’s time to mourn and sometimes a time to dance. None of us live lives that are devoid of tears, and few of us, even in the darkest of times, are unable to find something to make us smile.
And sometimes we can be both happy and sad at the same time. We don’t have to wait until there’s nothing that makes us sad before we allow ourselves to be happy, any more than we need think we shouldn’t be sad, just because there are some things that make us smile.
So at the end of another cricket season which, because of what might have been, has, on occasions, been disappointing, here are some things that I’ve enjoyed. Because for every dropped catch there’s been a sharp run out, for every early dismissal, there’s been a spirited rearguard action.
Because whilst there are those who, on account of Somerset not having any silverware to show for their endeavours, say that this season has been a failure, there has, nonetheless, plenty that has shone brightly these last six months.
1. Craig Overton clean bowling the Nottinghamshire opener, Haseed Hameed, in the opening over of the season.
2. Tom Banton, Tom Banton and Tom Banton – somebody who has excelled this year – with a white ball, with a red ball, and with his recently acquired set of crutches. Watching him make his way to the middle to celebrate with the rest of the team after that win over Surrey, left me wondering if he needed Tom Lammonby as a runner! And seeing him hugging Craig Overton almost moved me to happy tears!
3. Archie Vaughan. Who knows if one day Michael Vaughan will be known as Archie Vaughan’s Dad, but the eighteen year old has already moved out form under his father’s shadow. We’re told he’s a better batsmen than he is a bowler, and given his maturity in a number of innings this year that may well be the case. Even so he has particularly impressed with the ball this year and I was privileged to see him take his maiden first class wicket when he trapped Durham’s Ben McKinney from the last ball of his first over in championship cricket.
4. Sean Dickson and James Rew – for that fantastic partnership in the T20 semi-final taking us from 7-3 to by which time the game was all but won. Securing that second win over Surrey in two days was perhaps the high point of the season, after which things may have dipped a little – but what a high point it was!
5. Runners up in both the T20 and 50 over competition – the latter achieved without our bigs names present. A fantastic achievement in anyone books. And with it seeming likely at the time of writing, that they’ll finish third in the county championship, it surely means that, despite not actually winning anything, Somerset can still be said to have had the best all round season of any county side this year.
6. The small things that are actually the big things. I’m thinking here particularly of the club’s support of Jacob Lunn, when he was treated so cruelly on the social media platform formally known as ‘Twitter’, and the presentation to Mary Elworthy-Coggan, for her many years of fundraising for the club and other worthy causes.
7. TKC’s interview after the T20 final where, rather than making excuses for the teams defeat, he sportingly acknowledged Gloucestershire as the better team and congratulated them as worthy winners of the competition
8. Tom Lammonby’s oh so welcome return to form. It’s been a pleasure seeing him bat this season at number 3 – even if he has, rather to often, had to walk out to the crease sooner than he or we would have liked.
9. Lewis Gregory’s captaincy. I don’t know much about cricket, but I’m pretty sure that Louie G knows plenty. And, given he always seems to be smiling, it seems to me he knows how to enjoy the game too whether the teams under pressure or cursing to victory, whether, as today, he’s hitting a straight six into the Marcus Trescothick stand on his way to a belligerent 57 or, having reduced the opposition to 2-2 off 2 balls, seeing James Vince, on his hatrick delivery, dropped dropped in the slips. He’s had a terrific first season as Somerset’s red ball skipper.
10. Making several new friends as I’ve chatted with fellow supporters and discovered, on a number of occasions, that we have more in common than just our love for Somerset.
11. The support shown on the Somerset Facebook Page. Yes there are those who only seem able to criticise, but such comments always fail to attract much support, unlike those that seek to get behind the team even after the more disappointing performances.
12. That epic game against Surrey – one that some are describing as one of the greatest of all time. Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words!
13. Other fantastic games – remember that victory over Essex inside two days, and the partnership of 134 between Matt Renshaw, and Andy Umeed to beat Kent in May – a match that saw both James Rew and Tom Banton, two of the country’s finest wicket-keeper/batsmen, score brisk centuries in a fifth wicket partnership worth more than 200 runs.
14. Whoever it was who, at the one day game against Lancashire, played ‘Crashed The Wedding’ as the most hirsute bride I ever saw was wrestled to the ground by security – the choice of being song infinitely more amusing than the stunt that inspired it.
15. The return of Jack Leach – and in T20 cricket too! It’s always a particularly warm round of applause that greats the announcement that the new bowler from the River end is the one sponsored by Joseph Casson Estate Agents. But these days it’s not just with his bowling that the slow left armer impresses – as, these days, he’s more than handy with a bat, as was shown to be the case today as he made a useful 33 not out.
16. The Second XI – winners of their T20 competition and the home of many who, if they haven’t done so already, will no doubt take their place in the first. The future really is bright with likes of Alfie Ogborne, Ned Leonard and a certain James Rew’s younger brother – because you can never have too many Toms in a Somerset team!
17. Sophie Luff being the first player to be given a professional contract with Somerset’s new women’s team – no doubt she’ll be as brilliant as she is as part of the excellent commentary team on the Somerset Livestream.
18. Learning that the news of Brian’s demise had been greatly exaggerated!
Somerset may not have won any honours this season, but it has been an honour to sit and watch them play. Thank you to the players, the coaching staff, and all the many, many others who together have once again afforded us such wonderful entertainment. It has been a joy.
Winter well everyone – until we do it all again next season!
This seasons’s other cricketing blogs:
To read ‘First of the Summer Wine’, click here
To read ‘Safe and Sound at the County Ground, Taunton’, click here
To read ‘Is Cricket Amusing Itself to Death’, click here
To read ‘A Purr-fect day at the cricket’, click here
To read ‘Worth Every Penny’, click here
To read ‘The Somerset Cricket Emporium – 2024’, click here
To read ‘One Fine Day’, click here
To read ‘WWFD – what would Freddie do?’, click here
To read ‘A Shady News Story’, click here
To read ‘The Abolition of County Cricket’, click here
Cricketing blogs from 2023:
To read ‘20 Things we have learnt this summer’, click here
To read ‘When rain stops play’, click here
To read ‘Only a game’, click here
To read ‘The Hundred: is cricket amusing itself to death?’, click here
To read ‘The Somerset Cricket Emporium – 2023’, click here
To read ‘for the third time of asking, CRICKET’S COMING HOME…surely’, click here
To read ‘Twas the week of the final’, click here
To read ‘Sharing the important things: on introducing your grandchild to cricket’, click here
To read ‘Somerset v Nottinghamshire T20 Quarter Final 2023’, click here
To read ‘Breaking News’, click here
To read ‘Lewis Calpaldi – Retired Hurt?’, click here
To read ‘Cricket: It’s All About Good Timing’, click here
To read ‘Bazball, Bazchess, Bazlife’, click here
To read ‘Online criticism: it’s just not cricket’, click here
To read ‘Cigarettes, Singles, and Sipping Tea with Ian Botham: Signs of a Well Spent Youth!’, click here
To read ‘A Historic Day’, click here
To read ‘Cricket – through thick and thin’, click here
To read ‘Stumpy: A Legend Reborn’, click here
To read ‘my love is NOT a red, red rose’, click here
Cricketing blogs from previous years:
To read ‘A Cricketing Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story’, click here
Previous years cricket posts:
To read ‘Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Deseted Cricket Ground’, click here
To read ‘Brian and Stumpy visit The Repair Shop’, click here
To read ‘A Tale of Two Tons’, click here
To read ‘A Song for Brian’, click here
To read ‘A Somerset Cricket Players Emporium 2022’ click here
To read ‘A Cricket Taunt’, click here
To read ‘A Song for Brian’, click here
To read ‘At Season’s End’, click here
To read ‘A Day at the Cricket’, click here
To read ‘The Great Cricket Sell Off’, click here
To read ‘On passing a village cricket club at dusk one late November afternoon’ click here
To read ‘How the Grinch stole from county cricket…or at least tried to’. click here
To read ‘How Covid-19 stole the the cricket season’, click here
To read ‘A Cricket Tea Kind of a Day’, click here
To read ‘Life in the slow lane’, click here
To read ‘Frodo and the Format of Power’, click here
To read ‘If Only’, click here
To read ‘I’ve got a little CRICKET list’, click here
To read ‘Eve of the RLODC limericks’ click here
To read ‘It’s coming home…’, click here
To read ‘A Song for Ben Green’, click here
To read ‘Enough Said…’, the last section of which is cricket related, click here
A Jack Leach Trilogy:
To read ‘For when we can’t see why’, click here
To read ‘WWJD – What would Jack Do?’, click here
To read ‘On Playing a Blinder’, click here
To read ‘Coping with Disappointment’, click here
And to finish – a couple with a theological flavour
To read ‘Somerset CCC – Good for the soul’, click here
To read ‘Longing for the pavilion whilst enjoying a good innings’, click here
Some musings 