All quiet on the Somerset Front
By Grockle
December 14 2021
December of 2021 - the year of franchise cricket and for some the second year of Covid restrictions (I have friends in the Middle East who are 9 weeks from being online in their teaching jobs for 2 straight years). The Ashes is happening - the West Indies seems to be on unless Omicron does for it but it is very quiet on the county scene - no regional meetings and little happening except player conditioning before the Christmas break.
'OMICRON' - will it do for a second, nay third county season? COVID 19 decimated the 2020 summer except for a truncated Bob Willis thing. It again severely cut back supporter involvement in games in 2021 - the first matches coming in June/July but the Taunton restrictions didn't really disappear even by the end of the season. 'Delta' caused a few worries about infection rates and restrictions remained. 'Omicron' may yet do the same at least at the start of the 2022 season with four day games - but we don't know because the fixture list is late and will not appear until January 2022 so even if they let you in you aren't sure WHERE they will let you in yet.
It's all a bit of a mess to be honest. Not suprisingly, there is little going on with any certainty on a county basis. What can they be certain about? Cove and Jack Leach have gone to Australia with an Ashes squad - supporters have mostly stayed at home and considered BT subscriptions - unfortunately the service has decided to go with the Aussie commentary feed and most will watch it with the 'mute' button engaged. Tom Abell is in the 'shadow' Lions squad in Aussie as well and then off to Brisbane for Big Bash 'fun'. Others are about the place. Lammonby is on the continent and training with a Big Bash squad. Lewis Gregory has been named in a Pakistan T20 side alongside his skipper. Marchant de Lange had his 'fun' in the T10 games in the UAE and some of our U19s especially George Thomas have been having some in England U19 shirts.
Alongside that we had a full T20 World Cup side of Somerset linked players with Josh Davey having a significant tournament, Devon Conway reaching the final Chris Gayle participating in his 'swansong' white ball tournament abroad.
Tom Abell has committed himself to the county with a new contract until 2024 and an extension by Josh Davey will take him to the same end date. In September Ben Green signed a new two year deal - a much more significant event than his last one probably after his much more significant season as the third Somerset captain in a strange 2021 for his county - and an excellent job he did too. Even Archie Vaughan joined the Academy!! Some of the younger guys have also come on side - Sonny Baker being a very significant part of that list.
All that is a consolidation of things about the county and the players will be returning to start their setup sessions for training pre Xmas before coming back to start to the serious move towards April 2022. However, Somerset have been very quiet in terms of other aspects. Andy Hurry, Jason Kerr and CEO Gordon Hollins have been very quiet about plans for 2022. Admittedly it can't be easy to make plans when you have uncertainty about when things are starting and who kmay be available when. The IPL is in the melting pot with speculation about when it starts and how long it will be. Franchise cricket will return but to the same 8 places? Yorkshire may still have concerns about their season after the Rafiq issues. They presently are not seen by the ECB as an international or even national venue. Some are not even sure if they will be in the Top division of the Championship, let alone a franchise base. The fixture list is therefore late but many seem more uncertain than usual about what it will look like with a number having little faith in the ECB as an adminstrator working for the benefit of the game as a whole and willing to change things to their financial advantage at a moment's notice to the detriment of the county game.
Then we have our own concerns. Our end of year performances were pretty poor, the Championship second phase was abysmal with four losses, 2 by an innnings and 1 by 10 wickets with batting collapse following batting collapse and nothing but one Lammonby century giving us anything to look at from the batsmen. Our bowling looks very thin once you remove Craig Overton from and team sheet and with the loss of Lewis Gregory for the end of the campaigns as well we looked very frail despite the efforts of the Mighty Scot Davey. We did get to the final of the Blast! Through some heroics in the semi from Ben Green and Josh Davey {felt goof foa little while didn't it?) before we were comprehensively blown away by Kent in a one sided final.
There are promising signs from the Academy boys but not realistically for the 22 season. Leaonard, Baker, Goldsworthy, Aldridge and Sale may all be looking to be considered in 2022 but they aren't going to be leading the line. We need support for the top 4 bowlers who can provide the 20 plus wickets each of those should be looking at as a starting target for the season. MdL is a limited risk and blows hot and cold. Overton may not be available for the summer and we are badly affected by that loss. Davey plays better with a new ball partner and Gregory will make up the numbers most of the time. We loser the performance of one of those and we are significantly less effective.
We need a solid front end bastman that can be relied on to be there after 10 overs of a Championship game and scores 40 plus runs a consistent amount of times. That 'peg' has to be there to tie the rest around. We may need another experienced hand in that top 6 as well so anyone domestic looking for somewhere to build a new career would also be welcome while our roster of raw talent sorts out their performances and get their collective acts together. We know some of them are very potenial talents with the red ball. Some may not be and may be white ball talents instead to a great extent but we have to reach more than 150 for 6 far far far more often.
It is VERY quiet at Taunton. We are hearing nothing from the rumour mill and absolutely nothing from the coaching voices or the management. Hollins has been almost silent most of this year. There seem to be no interviews, there have been almost no meetings with members - a Q and A in the autumn suggested the club were looking at available players both abroad and inside the UK. All the information says Marchant is coming back - no reason why he shouldn't. That means we have one international berth to fill. Anything else has to come from inside the present UK structure - there is little information about what is available.
So..... some counties have made signings. Most suggest that they were pretty much decided in advance rather than people pulling from the market. One would assume the market has a number of uncertainties about who is going where and with what. Devon Conway would be available for part of the season though he would have New Zealand commitments at some part of the UK summer. Babar Azam would not be available at the start of the season but might be an option later in the season though Pakistan have a habit of pulling international matches out of nowhere. Both would be excellent as all round options. Other options are being kept very close to the club chest if they exist. There are unusual levels of silence to be honest - nothing is in the ether at all concerning interests in the South West.
That doesn't cause concern yet - it is an uncertain winter as well as a crucial one. How much more nervous will we all be if there is nothing in the said rumour mill by February? Well let's hope that is not the case or Grockles will have virtual tumbleweeds rolling about or speculation reaching the stratosphere as those wiith no faith in our management clash with those who hope the men in charge have a plan to make 2021 a bad memory we don't go anywhere near again.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:20:14:24:25 by Grockle.
There's no need to panic yet, though this OMNICRON variant sounds rather more menacing than the OMICRON one. Personally, I think that the real problem is that various spiky characters are arriving in open boats from across the channel, mingling with the local population and causing maximum havoc - these, of course, are the OMACRON variant.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
I tend to blast them off and then correct them for a couple of days - totally non journalistic way of doing things (probably the reason I'm not a journalist I suppose!!). It did make me have annother look this morning and tidy the whole thing up.
Yep we've been very lucky in that the viral situation seems to have stopped SN from shutting doown sites that don't update but I can't think of a time when I have had so little to base any kind of content on in this part of the season. Very little international stuff, no ;oca; AGMs, no movements of players or even players being available to consider, few concrete tour plans. All very very quiet.
Yep domestic moves tend to happen before the end of the year so players can re-settle and organise their outside cricket life before the new season so I have to say I think the same about domestic appointments - unless they have been made and just not reported. No leaks from Taunton that I have heard.
No reports on any regional meetings either from anyone except the one for 'new members' that then wasn't where AH stated they were invetigating new signings on a national and international basis.
As I said it's tumbling tumbleweeds in the South West at the moment. Did anyone go to the North Somerset meeting? I would expect there were congratulations for Steve Snell's appointment to Gloucestershire somewhere in there bbut little more from the reponse filtering through.
Does Gordan Hollins actually exist?
I'm personally not oozing with faith that he has our best interests at heart but I'm sure we'll find out one way or the other in the end and I certainly could be wrong as I have little to base this view on.
I've had a shocking end to the year - mum going into a care home, losing my half-sister at 64 and a friend at 57 - and then my wife and I contracted Covid in late November. I tested positive the day I was due to go the wine tasting at Somerset CCC with my dad. I was quite poorly for a couple of weeks and even now cough occasionally - and that's after a double-jab.
About the only positives were that I didn't give my elderly and frail (and long-time) Somerset-supporting dad Covid, and that my mental health has somehow held up.
So thanks to everybody out there and especially Grockle for running this! And as a journalist, I've no problem with you writing quickly and then editing over a period of time. I wish some of the people whose work I sub-edit read their copy first!
Let's hope 2022 is a better year for Somerset and do take care out there!
Sorry this nightmare has hit you that hard. You are not alone but that means very little I am sure. It doesn't seem to be going away any time soon and we may be waiting for normality to return a little while yet. I'm battening down again after expecting things to get better in the second half of 2021.
Info seems to be that we should not take Omicron lightly and the announced death of a double jabbed and boosted Jethro this week pretty much highlights that.
I'd like to meet up with a number of you to watch a successful Somerset side next summer so take no chances people. Enjoy the festive season but please stay safe.
Hopefully - hopefully - I'll make it down to Taunton next year and see Somerset win a game. Yesterday I bought a book by Alan Gibson in a charity shop for £3 for my dad (Of Didcot And The Demon: The Cricketing Times of Alan Gibson, presently £43.49 from Oxfam) and all the scorecards I saw featured Somerset losing!
But not next year, no sirree...
Sunny days at Taunton (& everywhere else) will return, sooner or later.
Here's hoping it's sooner !
Grizzers
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Can't say I'm optimistic about England's Ashes hopes! I feel that Glenn McGrath's usual 5-0 prediction may come true.
Your father will love the Alan Gibson book, sfw.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
The highlight for the year for me was definitely the three days at Taunton, not so much for the cricket as for the company which was terrific.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
He is correct that he has never darkened the doors of a pub. In his part of the world he is well known for painting the doors of pubs white so that they show up better and more invitingly.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Though having said that my local in Hamilton Bermuda 'The Robin Hood' remained open for most of the lockdowns because it had a terrace with wide open spaces. Unfortunately that meant it was frequented by some 'strange' individuals who had a gun battle on said terrace some 3 weeks after I left the island over a disagreement about something or other. The bouncer come Covid regulator of the drinkers was a hero moving everyone out of the places while these idiots shot each other up - Gangland Bermuda - Rich man's Paradise!!
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
[www.somersetcountycc.co.uk]
Grizzers
I think Hildreth’s contract expires at the end of this season so maybe that will be when a bigger name comes in? It’s all just speculation at the moment anyway
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:11:20:18:17 by Grockle.
Could be wrong of course. Could just be 'tumbleweeds'
England U19 bowler Sonny Baker has been ruled out of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup.
He felt discomfort while bowling in a warm-up fixture and after subsequent assessment an MRI scan displayed some bone stress in his lumbar spine.
Sonny will now return to Somerset CCC for his rehabilitation.
Travelling reserve Ben Cliff, Yorkshire, has joined the squad in Baker’s absence.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:17:20:57:02 by Grockle.
But yep story of young fast bowler's unfortunately it seems. Good that they've caught it early... you must be surprised they've sent him back to Somerset for treatment 😀
Ref the Rehab - yep we have experience... but not at creating the injuries in the cases of Lewis, Tom A or Sonny it seems.
Others muck 'em up and we put them back together. May need other forms of rehab on Craig O and Jack L who may be back soon.
Not sure how I feel about this. Would have liked Elgar. Would have been dissappointed with AA.
Is it for the whole season?
I think in the circumstances I actually think it's a reasonable signing, as the top order definitely needs strengthening.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:19:09:08:08 by Grockle.
I think it's very unlikely that Renshaw will manage to replicate the spectacular success of last time around (I mean, it was as though the club had signed Lara or something last time! - but MR is obviously not as good as that!) but, regardless, he ought still to be a better bet than Az... no more vulnerable than Az to the moving ball (and probably less vulnerable) and more capable of putting bat to ball in a very serious way when the mood takes him and/or the pitch flattens out.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:18:13:03:46 by AGod.
I think this is as decent a signing as you could reasonably expect. I know there’s pros & cons, but I do prefer when we have someone who will be available a good chunk of the season rather than signing players for a few games here & there
For us: 3 tons in 6 games, average 51.
Then, the next year, 3 games for Kent, average 23
So I'd suggest, brt, the returns we could expect, are much more likely to be about half-way in between those numbers, than they are to again seem him average 50+.
(n.b. Matt also has a career FC average of 37... which, funnily enough, is half-way between his Somerset average and his Kent average). If he can average 37 for us, I dare say Mr Hurry would be happy. And I also say it would be more than Az would average for us.
So I'm not unhappy with it at all..... I was simply saying that it's obviously very unlikely that he's going to average 50+ again!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:18:13:14:16 by AGod.
Expecting optimism from AG is much less realistic.
Now to get the rest of the batting to settle and offer more than it did. Will he open?