50 over Friendly - v Cornwall - Metro Intro
By Grockle
July 3 2026
Skipper Lewis Godlsworthy takes his 50 over side to the peninsular and Wadebridge for the traditional intro to this year's Metro 50 cup cmapagn which will start later on this month after the T20 standings are decided and the paid franchise serfs pop off to their new teams for the August ECB Media Frenzy Cricket Cosplay. We however will continue to cover the county doing it's domestic work while the central management abrogate responsibility in order to get their noses in the the money trough for another year. Cornwall welcome us to their county for this annual game in the glorious weather of July - a hell of a lot better than June. Presently not all players are available so we have included in our side on of those who will be travelling elsewhere - partly because he is coming back frm injury and partly because our batting resources at all levels are under pressure due to injury. Will Smeed is in this 50 over side today - another county debut for the man who has been here for quite a while. His FIRST 50 over game for the county in his NINTH season!!!
50 over Friendly v Cornwall @ Wadebridge Cricket Club Friday 3 July 2026
Cornwall won the toss and put Somerset in first. The Somerset side is a good indication of the players available for the MetroBank competition though we are hoping some players presently unfit will be back (James Theedom for example). Fin Hill will be out for the season and so the keeping job which was speculated about at the start of the season seems to have fallen to Ben Church;
The side for today is;
Josh Thomas, Archie Vaughan, Will Smeed, Sam Price, Lewis Goldsworthy (c), Kian Roberts, Ben Church (w), Oscar Coleman, Jack Leach, Josh Shaw, JT Langridge.
Josh and Archie come out to open the innings against Ryan Tonkin and Ben Ellis and they hold a tight line in the early overs keeping the openers down to 16 runs from the first 5 overs, mostly to Josh with a single boundary before he is caught for 10 by Billy Taylor off the bowling of Ellis and it is 16 for 1.
This brings debutant (he has played a professional 50 over game before but it was for the Lions) Will Smeed to the middle after a very brief excursion into the Blast before he was injured and with very little cricket in anfer since the early part of May. It is difficult to think of any non Blast player we could have played here other than him given the present injury list and the absence of Fin for the season. One would imagine this is a concern for the selectors given that the first Metro50 game is later this month and we are struggling to think of other top 6 bats we can call on over the age of 17!!
Nevertheless, Will is in need of time in the middle and so here it is. He arrives after an unfortunate wild slash from Josh which goes through to the keeper. Will gets down to setting a sinsible base with his partner against the new ball pair and then against first change bowlers Logan Curnow and Bryn Evans who comes on for the 11th. In the 12th the pair move the score past 50 with Smeed on 25 and Vaughan on 13.
By the 18th over Smeed has moved on to a 50 off Curnow at 97 for 1 off 38 balls wit 5 fours and 2 sixes. The 100 arrives in the 19th over off Evans as Vaughan moves to 36 alongside his partner's 51.
Archie also passes 50 in the 23rd over off the bowling of Ellis May at 126 for 1 from 63 balls with 5 fours and the partnership between the men moves to 110 in 17 overs. The next milestone is the 150 which comes up without further loss in the 28th over with a Vaughan boundary off the first ball of the Whitford over to move the score to 153 for 1 with Smeed having moved to 76 from 63 and Vaughan going to 64 off 78.
By the 31st over the partnership has move to 172 from 147 balls and Smeed moves to 3 figures in the next over with a single off Jake Rowe to take the score to 192 for 1 and the bat to 100 from 75 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes. A quick and very competent innings getting the young man back into the swing of being in the middle for a period of time.
Will brings the 200 up with a six off Whitford in the next over and they look to move the score along at a pace reaching 212 for 1 at the end of the 32nd. However Archie does not see another over as Whitford bowls him for 88 (93 balls 8X4 1X6) with the last ball.
In comes the captain Lewis Goldsworthy after a 193 partnership has put his side in a strong position and he looks to help his partner capitalise on tha as they move the score towards the 250 mark which they pass in the 38th over with a six off the last ball of the Curnow over moving Smeed to 129 from 92 and his skipper to 19 from the 22 he has faced.
Ellis gets do some Cornish revenge in the next over though as he has Will caught going big again by Tom Orp for 130 from 96 at 255 for 3. A stonking innings comes to an end and Kian Roberts comes out to take his place. With 10 overs to go the score has moved on to 259 for 3 and something quite a way over 300 is looking likely.
By the 45th over, the new pair have moved the score on as Blake Tonkin returns at 288 for 3 with Roberts on 12 from 16 and Golders on 41 from 45. Evans breaks the partnership as he has Kian caught by Whitford for that 12 at 289. In comes Oscar Coleman, the promising all rounder looking to help his new captain pass the 300 score. Unfortunately Ryan Tonkin sends Lewis back to the hutch just short of his 50 at 42 trying to push it on in the 47th caught by Rowe off his 48th ball faced .
293 for 5 sees Ben Church out in the middle with 3 overs left to push the score past the 300. Church takes a single from his first and a four off the last ball from the keeper moves Somerset to 301 for 5 with 12 balls to come. It wn't be Coleman who see it out however as he is caught by Whitford for 6 off the bowling of Evans at the 301 score. In comes Sam Price (who I have no information about at all) to face the 47th from Ellis. He helps Church move to 308 with the last 6 balls to come from Tonkin. Church is nearly bowled by the 3rd as they add 2 and Price is bowled by the next for 2 to bring Jack Leach to the crease and he takes a single while Church is caught by Rowe off the last ball of the penultimate over to give Tonkin final figures of 10 overs 3 for 53.
6 balls to go from Ellis with Leach and Shaw in play. 312 for 8. They take 3 singles and a 4 to move the score to 319 before Josh is caught by Macdonald for 5 from 2 and JT arrives for the last ball and is also caught in the deep by MacDonald without changing the score 319 all out.
Ellis finishes with 4 for 40 from his 10 with the 2 wickets in the last 2 balls. There was a time when the score promised a lot more than that but a flurry of late wickets broke up the momentum and it stuttered a little. However the early scoring put the base down so it is still a substantial score to chase.
The Reply
Billy Taylor and Tom Orpe open for the Cornishmen against JT Langridge (in headband) and Josh Shaw It doesn't start well as 10 minutes in, at the end of the 2nd over JT bowls Taylor for 1 and then Shaw has Orpe caught behind off the next ball to put Cornwall at 12 for 2 after 2 overs (Orpe was distinctly not impressed by that decision).
The new pairing of John Moon and Alfie MacDonald fare better and see the score pass 50 in Roberts first over at the end of the 'Powerplay' (11th) from a second boundary in the over from Moon (21) with MacDonald on (19). The score has moved to 76 and Somerset have introduced Leach to the attack but it is Roberts who strikes next in the 17th when dismisses Moon for 35 coming forward and comprehensively bowled after 48 balls at 76 for 3.
This brings Ellis May to the crease and he helps his partner move the score over 100 in the 23rd after the introduction of the third spinner by the visitors in the form of Archie Vaughan. The skipper who brings himself on to work with his England spinning teammatea couple of overs before that sees the 3 figures in his over from the bat of May (11) as MacDonald reaches 39.
They move the score to 115 in the 28th when Vaughan tempts May to push on and he is caught in the deep by Smeed for 16 from 37. Bryn Evans comes in and he helps Alfie MacDonald to pass 50 (he was on 49 at the fall of that wicket). Captain Lewis makes him wait an over with a maiden in the 29th. He finally gets there off Archie with a single at 117 for 4. 50 from 77 with 5 fours and 1 six. Excellent knock.
Coleman gets an over in the 32nd and the Cornishmen take him for 16 off it to move to 136 for 4. Thomas takes the next one as his first of the game and he has Evans looking ro reverse sweep him and he gets it all wrong. He misses it and is LBW for 5 at 137 for 5.
Logan Curnow is the next man in and he does not look all that comfortable as he digs out the rest of the over. Coleman gets some revenge at the start of the 34th as he gets Curnow caught and bowled with the first ball of his second over 138 for 6 and he now has 1 for 15.
Jake Rowe is the next man in and he helps Cornwal reach 150 in the 36th but he is then bowled by Coleman for 4 from 6. MacDonald is on 73 from 95 while Oscar now has 2 for 19 as Blake Tancock comes in, survives the over but is LBW in the next Thomas over at 151 for 1. Ellis Whiteford arrives at 151 for 8 needing to helpo couble that score. But he is stumped halfway through Thomas' next over going for it at 159 for 9 with 3 to his name.
Ellis comes out to try and help MacDonald to a 3 figure score as there are enough overs to make that. JT returns for the 42nd as they push the score past 160. Thomas who has 3 for 17 is at the other end as Ellis holds out and Macdonald reaches 80. He hits him for 6 and moves to 87 by the end of the 45th. 170 for 9.
Ellis is still on zero after 26 balls as Langridge takes the 46th and he finally gets off the mark with his 29th ball. Alfie is desperate to get there and stretches out to guide the ball to the boundary off a very wide ball to move to 92. He moves to 96 at the end of the 46th at 180 for 9. Thomas takes the 47th and Ellis takes a single off the 4th ball. MacDonald takes one off the last and is off strike again on 97 at the end of it.
Ellis takes a single from the first ball of Langridge's next allowing MacDonald the chance. He takes it and goes to 101 from 1221 balls with his 9th four to go with his 4 sixes - what a knock for his county. They now need 134 from 15 balls to win the game with 1 wicket in hand. A six and assorted scoring shots takes Ellis to 12 and Cornwall to 200 in the 49th over and a 50 run partnership arrives in the same one from another Ellis six to take him to 19 and his partner on 106 adding 30 to the 10th wicket at 208. JT bowls out with the 50th and ellis seems to have fond his wind as he moves to 29 with another six and a four. The home side finish with 219 - Langdridge finishes with 1 for 64 MacDonald has 107 and Ellis ends with 29. Somerset win by 100 runs.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:05:15:43:02 by Grockle.
Will Smeed (?), Josh Thomas, Archie Vaughan, Sam Price, Lewis Goldsworthy (c), Kian Roberts, Ben Church (w), Oscar Coleman, Jack Leach, Josh Shaw, JT Langridge
Not sure why Will is playing in this one - unless we are really short on players because as far as I know he will be off to Birmingham after the T20s and we won't be seeing him again until he looks to take Tom Banton's role in the CC1 in late August/September.
I am struggling I have to say to come up with another name now that Fin Hill is out for the season
Archie is opening with Will though I would have thought the obvious opening partnership would have been including Josh Thomas instead - but what do I know, maybe we have a plan to bring in someone for that opening spot before the first Metro game in late July.
Damn!! I missed something, they are 1 down after 16 runs Josh Thomas did open. He was out for 10 at 16 caught Taylor bowled Ellis.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:03:11:41:13 by Grockle.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Block
1 Astonishingly this turgid father and son who both played for Cambridge University were born about seventy years apart
Bowler
2 It’s not what he is for Somerset, but he is good at the other
Breakwell
3 Popular left hand bowler and batsman who always tried to do it for Somerset, his second county
Cutmore
4 Essex man who kept backward of point busy
Driver
5 Cornishman who scored 686 runs, presumably in front of square, in short career for two counties
Fielder
6 Man of Kent and England who did not need to be picked on the strength of his batting or bowling
Hooker
7 Middlesex all rounder who kept the legside busy – or did he have a less salubrious profession?
Pullar
8 Bit like the Middlesex man but for Lancashire and England (and his spelling is poor)
Scorer
9 A really useful Warwickshire man both in the pavilion and at the crease
Seamer
10 Another Somerset man, but he was not one of these, taking only as many wickets as he scored centuries
Turner
11 Yet another Somerset man, who like number two is better at another role
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter