On the Brink
By Grockle
February 17 2024
And so we move into February. The first game against Kent is in about 6 weeks and it is time to turn towards the 2024 season - our thirtieth season of coverage though most of my records go back to the early 2000 swhen we moved from Rivals Net to Sportnetwork and the present format location. We've come some way since then. Any changes since we last looked at the summer prospects?
Somerset must be starting to put together the preparations for the new season, other than working on the grass (which looks much better than this time last year to be honest).
Our new groundstaff under Nick Pepper (who has replaced Scott Hawkins) are working hard to keep the Colin Atkinson 'Deep End' dry and the 'Costa Trescothick' green so something has improved.
Gordon Hollins is in his last month as CEO and Jamie Cox must be looking forward to taking over at the end of March - have to say I have more optimism about him than a number of the last people inhabiting the balcony of the Caddyshack.
Lewis Gregory has been announced as the Club captain replacement for Tom Abell though there was a load of Dean Elgar speculation before he signed for Essex. Tom has been celebrating a bit of freedom by becoming an important bat for the Sunrisers in the South African T20 league taking the MVP award in the final and coming out with silverware as well. We wish Lewis all the best and hope fervently that he goes one better than the Vitality Blast by taking us to the Championship title this year.
We have been looking for news of new players to help us get there but there has been pretty much silence on that front from Taunton. Jake Ball has arrived for pre-season training after his move from Nottinghamshire and initial reports are promising about his commitment and his edge. He will take the place of Jack Brooks as a rota bowler to join Craig Overton, Josh Davey and the rest of the boys. It is hoped that he will be used more than Jack was in the early season and he also adds to our injury support net which becomes more important as these bowlers get older.
COve has not featured in any international work this winter partly because of injury so it is hoped that he will be fit, fully refreshed and available for most of the season. Jack Leach returned to the England side for the Indian tour but has then had to remove himself because of a knee injury and may be ready to be an integral part of the Somerset side in the early CC1 season as he will be looking to get himself back in the window. Shoaib Bashir will also start next season as an England Test spinner - a surprise to many but he certainly didn't look out of placeas he took Rohit Sharma as his first scalp. Kasey Aldridge was taken on a Lions tour in the winter though his use was a little more sparing and it might have been more of a 'let's have a look' plan after his batting improvements last summer. He joined James Rew in the international shop window and got some winter work.
Our other new intake for the summer is Will Sutherland the Victorian all rounder and present Aussie ODI player on their West Indies tour. He fits into the 'Matt Henry' sort of role for 2024 and adds to our bowling and late order batting resources. The rest is silence presently. No rumours about any other signings though with a T20 World Cup taking place in and around North America during the English season there may be a level of uncertainty about who or what is available either side of June. This does not seem to be affecting other counties announcing signings all over the country however so we can but hope. We still have a bit of an opening partnership issue for four day games.
Speakig of which, Andy Umeed has been added to the Scotland squad preparing for their World Cup campaign in the same group as my favourite Associate country Oman My second option, Bermuda came 'close but no cigar' losing out to Canada on the last day of their qualifying tournament in October.
We will look at the opening squad a little nearer to the beginning of April. There seems to be only one 'friendly' outing before the start of the four day campaign in Canterbury. A university game at Taunton Vale late in March though I am assuming the side will be going away for warm weather training before that within the next four weeks or so.
Presently news is scarce and the preparation for next season is a 'damp squib' as nothing particularly exciting is happening. Tom Banton, Tom Lammonby and Will Smeed have been involved in a UAE T20 tournament with almost no news.... think RvdM was there as well. TKC was signed for the IPL and will miss about 4 weeks of the start of the season - we knew that a while ago and it makes selection a little easier believe it or not while prepping him quite well for the T20 Blast on his return.
We look forward to seeing more of our Academy players Ben Church, Bertie Micheal, Oscar Coleman, Fin Hill, JT Langridge, Blaise Baker, Seb Linnitt and Tom Rew during this season while welcoming back to fitness Alfie Ogborne, Ned Leonard and Sonny Baker after injuries kept them out of important parts of last season. All rounders Lewis Goldsworthy, Ben Green, George Thomas complete our present squad. People not on our club website lists are Josh Thomas - no idea what that means presently. Archie Vaughan is not featured either either though I hope both are part of future claculations. Three serts of brothers though with the Baker Boys being joined by the Rews and the Thomas lads.
So this is an intermediate assessment of the position we are in at the end of the winter. There are questions still un-answered about the immediate future and quite a few that need to be dealt with by the end of this year/season but we are where we are now and hopefully in about a month we might have a few more dots on 'i's and crosses on 't's as the pace towards the cricket season speeds up.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:03:09:12:50:31 by Grockle.
As for warm weather training... There's no need to go further south than ...
Sidmouth.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Hope he particularly comes back stronger this year and Sonny Baker gets the chance to show his merit injury free!
Still concerned that we have no plan concerning our first innings weakness in 4 day games but you have to hope they think they have the solution in-house or a late addition is in motion as I type.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
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