Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

There is one phrase I can describe about Somerset this season: Jekyll and Hyde. All the good things they do on the pitch, and just when you think they’ve turned a corner, something disastrous happens.

A crushing victory over Lancashire, then getting hammered by Sussex, bouncing back against Essex and now being beaten by Warwickshire, heavily, for the second time this season in the County Championship.

Talk about suffering supporters. Every morning I look at my pin board and stare at the slip of the bet I made on Somerset at the start of the season; for them to win all competitions – in fact a bet I’ve placed for the past four seasons without much joy.

Last season was the worse, two finals, two defeats and narrowly missing out on their first County Championship.

This season, a slight change in strategy, I’ve done my bet on them each way; talk about putting me (along with others) through the mill. One bright spark mentioned that I should stop betting on them and they’ll win something, maybe a thought for next season, but I doubt it.

Oh well, we do have over half the season to look forward to.

On Friday evening at the latest T20 game against Sussex, I was hoping to bump into a gentleman by the name of Phil Pickard – a name which you may or may not be familiar with. He is the brother of Over Stowey’s Simon and Phil is heavily involved with running the village club, Storrington, back in Sussex where he lives.

Over Stowey have visited Storrington on two occasions, while on tour around that part of the country and they’ve recently returned that gesture touring Somerset and having a fixture against Stowey. We’ve always been made warmly welcome, as Storrington are such wonderful hosts. Visiting clubs like this, gives you a great insight in how clubs across the country run their clubs, you tend to hear the same tales: not enough players, lack of finance, vandals etc. However it is great that you can bounce ideas of each other, what has been successful, what hasn’t, ideas to bring up at the next AGM or whatever.

Back to Phil, I say I was hoping to bump into him, in fact I was tracking him down, as I needed to make my peace with him, as I believe he has some kind of death threat over me. The exact wording: They’ve done-in Bin Laden, Sellsy is next on the list!

Watching England can be just as frustrating as following Somerset, having decided to spend some of my hard earned cash on a trip to Bristol, to see them take on Sri Lanka in a T20 international.

Bristol, as an international ground can be described in one word for me: amateurish! Poor facilities (esp. the toilets), poor stewarding, poor seating, poor bars (in and out of the ground) and why is it so far from the train station? Had to walk through Stokes Croft without mentioning the word Tescos!

Enough have been written in the column inches this weekend about their performance on Saturday, but why do they keep on picking Ravi Bopara? He has never done anything to write home about at international level; plus a massive question over Stuart Broad still lingers in my mind – how bizarre they're talking about that on TV as I write!

The highlight of the day for me was off the pitch, we had the usual stuff, plastic pint snakes, fancy dress, even a Tamil protest outside the entrance to the ground.

However one thing stands out for me (apart from those sexy hen parties): Mark Sortwell walking down a flight of stone steps, “be careful of these steps Sellsy”, he says, then falling down the bottom three and landing amongst the wheelie bins! Priceless!

Congratulations to Over Stowey 2^nd XI, winning their second game of the season, beating West Monkton by eight runs. Simon Pickard top scored with 58, supported by Roger Shepherd with 36. Ben Enever performed with the ball, taking four wickets, well done.

The 1^st team didn’t fair so well, losing to Dulverton by one wicket, ending their recent good form.

Don’t forget next week, The Charity Weekend at Over Stowey, with music, barbecue, bar etc on the Saturday, with the six-a-side tournament on Sunday. It’s only £5 on Saturday, so it would be great to see you there.

Well, it’s 10.57, time for a hangover cure!