Blast Game 11 - Northants Part 2 - Gregory Back?
By Grockle
July 10 2026
An evening game in the furnace that is Taunton tonight. Northants will be here with revenge on their minds and Lewis Gregory is out in the middle taking the toss as captain so we are assuming he will play. Somerset have won the toss and will bowl.
Blast Game 11 v Northants @ Taunton Friday 10 July 2026
We welcome Lewis Gregory back to the side tonight as he takes Josh Shaw's place in a side that will otherwise be unchanged from the one that turned out at Derby on Wednesday;
Smeed, Rew T, Rew J, TKC, Gregory, Thomas, Sams, Overton, Goldsworthy, Meredith, Ball
Whether Lewis will bowl or not I'm not sure but he does move the batting line-up a level. We would like to win this one and the Bristolians to lose but Northants may very well be a little unwilling to let that happen after being rinsed at their home ground a week or so ago.
Off we go. Overton bowling to Vasconcelos from the River End 8 for 0 after 1. Still we insist on bowling Meredith at the start from the MT Pavilion - why? Having said that it is a better over and he only goes for 4 leg byes with one that goes 'wayward. The other Nothants opener is Lynn and he is still not off the mark when Jake Ball comes on to take the 4th over at 23 for 0. He finally gets off the mark with a single. He then tries to go BIG, flaps at it like a Wimbledon server and skies the ball to Gregory to leave for 1 from 7 at 24 for 1. Jakes breaks though. McSweeney comes out and the game moves on.
Craig moves us on one better as he has Vascocleos going for a six into the Somerset and only finding Will Smeed on boundary. He goes for 23 from 16 at 30 for 2 and is replaced by McManus. Overton has 3 overs 1 for 23 while Jake has 1 over 1 for 3 and is continuing. His return gets a bit of a poke when Mcmanus hooks him for six into the trees behind the scoreboard at the CA end. The 'Powerplay' ends with a four to the Gimblett and a score of 45 for 2. Jake's second went for15. The number 7 spinner over is re-introduced for this game but Josh Thomas takes it and not Lewis Goldsworthy. The 50 arrives from a McManus second run and the over goes for 9. The reason for that change in the usual is that Lewis Goldsworthy comes on at the MT to double up the spin option. He goes for less than a run a ball and after 8 it is 59 for 2 with Daniel Sams into the attack for the first time.
A good first one from him (he goes for 4) is followed by McSweeney going big to the MT off Lewis G Jr and straight into the buckets that Craig Overton has for hands. He leaves with 14 to his name at 63 for 3 and in comes Willey.
After 10 Northants have progressed to 70 for 3 as Meredith changes ends for the 11th. They move to 73 but in that was frustrated idiotic quicksingle which 9 times out of 10 would have seen the bat out at the non strikers end. It didn't happen but it was close. Goldsworthy is given a third - it may not be the best decision as the Northants bats start to get hold of him and he goes for 2 sixes in the over to move his numbers to 27 for 1 off 3 and an over that goes for 15. It'sd a gamble and 9 an over still isn't to be sneezed at on the Taunton wicket.
Sams comes back on from the River shovels the slow full toss one handed straight into the hands of Thomas. Off he goes for 12 at 90 for 4 and in comes Zaib in the 13th.
Craig will bowl out with the 14th presently at 1 for 23 He finishes on 1 for 31 and Northants pass the 100 to finish the 14th at 101 for 4. Meanwhile we continue with Dan from the River and he keeps delivering qwith only 6 off the 15th.
With 15 goes and 5 left Ball has a catch dropped by Josh Thomas (not for the first time I'm afraid) on the boundary - not easy but he did get there. McManus survives and gets closer to the 50 his side need him to pass. This one is NOT one of Jake's best as he goes for 19 and Zaib gets into the game moving to 23 with most of them.
Meredith comes back and does his job as Zaib tries to work him past TKC and doesn't at 131 for 5. His 23 came off 16 and at the other end McManus passes 50 to 52 from 32. It gets batter as Sams changers ends and has the new man Kimber caught in front of the Ondaatje by Smeed for 1 at 132 for 6. Miller arrives as the new bat. Daniel ends his night's bowling work with 3 as Miller smashes the ball into his own stumps unluckily at 134 for 7 for. He finishes with 3 for 16 - excellent spell.
Now there is the conundrum. Which way to use Ball and Meredit? They go with Meredith to take the 19th with McManus and Sales at the crease and 134 on the board. Riley has 1 for 10 presently and he goes for 9 off the first 3. The 150 arrives with a miscued shot through the non existent slip field. 151 for 7 and Jake takes the last one. The first is a decent ball for 1 the second goes for six to the Ondaatje. His next is in the tram lines and goes for 1 followed by a toe end straight one for 1 and another single. The last is skied into the hands of Sams. He finishes with 162 for 8 and Ball ends with 2 for 48. We need 163 to still be in Birmingham next week.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:07:12:18:17:56 by Grockle.
Northants have taken on an beaten on of the sides that put us in this position in the first place by winning against Glamorgan this week so it is certain that they will come to Taunton with a plan to beat us.
It is interesting that we have named all our spinners in the squad for tomorrow
The full squad is;
Josh Thomas, Will Smeed, Thomas Rew, James Rew, TKC, Lewis Goldsworthy. Archie Vaughtan, Daniel Sams, Craig Overton, Josh Shaw, Riley Meredith, Jake Ball, Jack Leach
(I'm waiting until the end before posting this, but with 19 required from 44 balls even I'm confident.)
Bowling in the back end needs tightening up, but if we can pull off a win on Sunday, we'll have made a tremendous come back to qualify. Certainly beyond my hopes a few games ago.
Good to see Lewis back as well.
Grizzers
But - Somerset could still do better. If Gloucestershire, currently on 28 points, were to lose at home to Glamorgan (who lost off the penultimate ball to Warks tonight, so can't qualify themselves), then both Somerset and Gloucestershire would be on 28 points, with Somerset needing a relatively small relative change in NRR to finish above them in 2nd.
Meanwhile, in the North group, Yorkshire (who lost the Roses clash tonight) are second, on 26 points. Their final match is against top of the group side Notts (who have already topped the group). If they lose (and Somerset have won) then Somerset would have more points than the second placed them in the North group.
So the South group. Surrey and Hants both have 28 points, currently first and second, with Essex on 24 in 3rd. Surrey play Essex, so a Surrey win would put them on 32 and they would probably top the group, as they have a NRR advantage currently of 0.6 over Hampshire. If Essex win, both teams would finish with 28 points - incentive for Essex is that 28 points would mean they qualify, although they would need a large margin of victory to overtake Surrey's NRR to top the group. Hants, meanwhile, have probably the easiest match of the interested parties in the final round, a trip to Sussex. However, if they were to lose, they too would finish on 28 points, and they currently have a worse NRR than Somerset.
So, I reckon if Somerset win and Gloucestershire lose, with a reasonable shift in NRR Somerset finish second in the group.
If then Notts beat Yorkshire, Sussex beat Hampshire and either Surrey beat Essex, or Essex beat Surrey in a close match so their NRR doesn't improve by more than about 0.2, then Somerset will finish as the best second-placed side, the reward for which is (a) to avoid the group winners and (b) a home tie!
But then I read Bagpuss's post ...
(Thank you, by the way; it's much appreciated.)