"ValderBlast" A competition ECB dare not speak the name of
By Grockle
May 21 2026
The ECB can now raise its head over the parapet. Something it is willing to accept reluctantly as part of its season commences on Friday. After running away from the CHAMPIONSHIP in the hope it would go away and not cause any ructions, it now faces the white ball DOMESTIC competition that causes it the most problems - the VITALITY BLAST. In direct competition with it's own clone 'baby' the franchised version in August, this T20 competition is into its 3rd decade now. The champions of 2026 - Somerset are also 'grit' in the central body's 'Vaseline' as they insist on being part of the Finals and winning it while not having a franchise team on the hallowed ground of Taunton - how dare we? It will be given marginal and grudging aceeptance of existence from the ECB and it's media buddies without the fanfare they'll wheel out in August. However, THIS is THE domestic white ball short format trophy despite their efforts to make the myopic punters who don't wake up to cricket before late summer believe differently. The 'champions' of T20 in England and Wales are NOT one of the later deasgnated and now changing named fanchise teams of mercenaries. Somerset... the T20 CHAMPIONS of England and Wales start their defence of the true T20 title on Friday in Taunton with a game against Hampshire. What can we expect?
"ValderBlast" - the name of the contest that the ECB must not utter!!
Somerset start their defence of their T20 domestic title in Taunton on Friday 22 May 2026. The emphasis of the county moves from Championship cricket to the shortest format and the spotlight moves to evening fixtures with some 'double headers' in conjunction with the Women's Somerset side as well.
Some players come into the squad who have not yet featured this year and others take a backseat for these games although there are always surprises in who get the nod and when. Our newest signing Jordan Hermann will NOT feature in these games though he will stay with us for the next 2 CC1 games within the Blast window. Daniel Sams does join us (he was bowling during the lunchtime breaks over last weekend in the Sussex game) and hopefully he is ready to go from Friday. Riley Meredith was signed to be with us by now but has been called into an Australian international squad and will now not be with us for at least the first 6 games in the qualifying tournamen - most of May then. There seems to be no present plan to fill this gap with anyone 'transitory' so we expect that Migael Pretorius will have a more significant role in the early phase of the competition than was probably expected.
We also have a couple of injury worries, specifically to most of our wicketkeepers, that will be sorted out over the first few games. We did have the possiblity that we would not have an official keeper for the start of this competition as James Rew had been called up to the England squad, Tom Banton had returned from the IPL early with a finger injury, TKC has a thumb joint issue in an early CC1 game that looked like it was more serious than first thought and Thomas Rew would be in the midst of A level examinations during the first half of the Blast. Fin Hill was going through an intensive revision programme of glovework just in case he was the only one we had who could play (as predicted earlier in the season, he probably will keep in the Metro50 games later in the summer).
The situation is a little more hopeful now however. James may not be away immediately - though Sonny Baker is NOT available to Hampshire on Friday because of his involvement in the England squad - perish the thought that the ECB would withdraw Somerset players to equal things up - doubt they even think about it any more. Tom Banton kept for the seconds during the week and smashed over 190 runs in 14 overs with his partner Thomas Rew to send Worcestershire seconds on their way by 10 wickets. He will probably keep on Friday in the absence of the older Rew. The white ball form of the younger Rew looks promising though his availablity will be based around the concentration and the frequency of his examinations. A levels can be over in a week or spread over a month depending on the subject choice. The only thing we do know is that he is taking Economics - the first exam for that was on May 11 but the last one can be as late as June 4. Others? Who knows? One can only say that home fixtures would put more pressure on the player than away ones (other than maybe Bristol) so IF he is to be involved before June it will probably be in Home fixtures - hence an expectation we may see him on Friday... perhaps.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore is not ready yet as far as we know and Lewis Goldsworthy may have a gradual but not immediate return as he played for the first time since injury in the seconds game at the start of this week. Without his bowling option we will probably be looking at the slow bowling of Archie Vaughan or Josh Thomas (or even Jack Leach). All have been part of the CC1 side though the bowling of Archie has been much more prominent. As the usual two middle order men are probably not available early, another bowling option has thrown his hat into the ring as Tom Lammonby made a significant left arm contribution to the last CC1 game against Sussex, almost turning the game in our favour on the Third day though it was finally decided by the weather. He is more than the odd 'change bowler' and will be asking selection questions from the first game.
So if we assume that Tom Banton and Will Smeed (who might be happy to get away from the demands of red ball for a while and back to his 'comfort zone') will open then the rest of the first batting line-up may very well be made up of Lammonby, the inform Abell, and some pairing from Vaughan, Thomas Rew and Josh Thomas with an outside possibility of Goldsworthy being ready. Gregory and Overton will fight over the next two batting places with Sams probably adding to the fire of that discussion as he is no mean batsman himself. Pretorius will then feature and the last name may be Josh Shaw who did not feature early in the red ball fixtures much, though he did take wickets on his debut and is seen as a bowler more suited to a white ball game. Jake Ball has also had a decent start to his season and will be saying 'what about me' as that last seamer. There is also the possibility that Jack Leach may be considered for his spin expertise during the campaign - though he has looked a little 'off the pace' in the early part of the season and may still be suffering from the neck injury that sidelined him for a game in early May.
The people who WILL start our attempt to return to Finals day are Banton, Smeed, Abell, Gregory, Overton, Sams, Pretorius - the other four? Well perm according to the demands of the opposition and availability from both Rews, Lammonby, Thomas, Vaughan, Goldsworthy, Shaw, Leach, Ball. I'm doubtful about TKC but who knows.
Whatever we put out will ask a lot of questions of any opposition. The unit will still be pretty confident of hitting and/or chasing 200+ at home and with the additions that WILL come into the equation during the progress of the games I'd suggest many teams would rather face us early rather than later on. The management do not skimp on white ball specialists and the bowling attack is significantly sped up as Sams and then Meredith join it. We have bats in form and some looking for it. 'Form' is temporary and we have a lot of 'Class' with the bat. Defending totals has never really been our strength - except at Edgbaston plus the loss of Ben Green's 'Golden Arm', Josh Davey's thrift and tail batting and most significantly Sean Dickson's Blast batting ability and intelligence has to be over come.
Can we do that? If we can't our present side will underperform and it will be a disappointing season. We ought to be looking at the quarter finals with a home fixture at the minimum and we have to be serious contenders to be there on Finals Day for another consecutive year. The ECB will not want that but they may very well have to SUCK IT UP for yet another season. Fingers crossed. See you all on Friday.
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I think I've got everyone who may be important but I usually miss someone totally obvious so let me know who it is this time.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2026:05:23:20:21:01 by Grockle.
Only Nottinghamshire (twice) and Hampshire (three times) amongst the 💯 franchise stakeholders have won more than once.