Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

You can always tell when it is the cricket season, it is raining! Rain, rain, wind and more rain.

Rain has played havoc with Somerset’s season, in fact the whole County Championship season. Somerset looked set for victory over Notts, but the weather was the winner. Plus an intriguing game against Lancashire was disrupted by the weather yet again, even though a certain Lancs supporter called Dan was convinced that Somerset would lose, as he said: “we will bowl Compo and co out for less than 200, make you follow on and knock you over gain!” No chance!

So what to do when it rains at cricket? As a supporter, I find a bar, have a pint or two of Thatchers cider, have a chat with the nearest person and pretend I know something about cricket. There are some great little bars in and around The County Ground, Ring of Bells and The Plough to name just two, plus The Old Pavilion in the ground itself.

As a player of Over Stowey, we would run back to the pavilion for shelter, sit in the dressing room, with the obligatory can of Thatchers, and talk about what time the pub opens! Think you may be getting a theme here! When Alan Prowse played for Stowey, he would reminisce about days gone by, cheered everyone up no end.

Rain has also played havoc with Over Stowey’s pre-season. All friendless have been cancelled, plus getting on the square to prepare for this Saturday’s opening fixture has been impossible. Oh well, we shall see, and it should be an interesting selection meeting on Monday night.

Back to Somerset, Nick Compton has now passed 700 runs for the season, and I think the next best player is some 300 runs behind him, and that is a certain James Hildreth, so he fully deserves his call up to the England Lions squad. From what I can understand is that Compo is fully focused on Somerset, with the Lions call-up a bonus, loving your commitment to Somerset Compo.

With a surname like Compton, having such a famous Grandfather and scoring so many runs, there has been a bit of a media frenzy this past week. A great article in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, and a not so great one in the Mail on Sunday. Now that article in The Daily Telegraph, I wonder where they got their idea from, as if you read last weeks Supplement, I am pretty sure I mentioned about the lack of runs / low scores in the County Championship this season, apart from Compo, it does make me wonder if his Lions call-up was somewhat attributed to last weekends blog!

Does anyone know if Chris Gayle is coming to play for Somerset? There are so many rumours and counter rumours, I do not know what to believe. One thing for sure is that Somerset’s pre-season T20 membership sales increased on the back of the announcement that he was coming to the County Ground, cynical?

Right then, the week ahead: Somerset play their first CB40 game on Friday against Surrey, and it is live on TV. So a visit to the pub may be in order to watch them take revenge, but without Marcus and Tango, it may not be that easy. Then on Saturday, Over Stowey II take to the field in their first league match of the season, when they host North Curry. The cider tent (the boot of my car) will be open, and my birthday celebrations will commence.

Right then, 10.57(ish), time for a walk to the Cottage in the wind and rain, to try one.

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

First I would like to apologise for the lack of a Sunday Supplement last week, I was still coming to terms with Somerset losing away at Warwickshire. Now I hear that Tres is injured, I may need some counselling this early in the season and it’s not even May!

Now some cricketers from Over Stowey might say that I looked fine last Sunday at the club’s open day when it was announced that Somerset had lost, but it may off been something to do with the G&T’s flowing a bit too well. Great to see a number of people at the open day, really enjoyed seeing you all, hope I didn’t say nothing too derogatory!

Back to Somerset, fine win against Middlesex in their first outing of the season, good job class shone through, with Compo smashing runs all round Taunton, while others were losing their wickets. Compo then smashed a ton against Warwickshire, plus a double century against Notts, England form? Oh, the latest Compo’s Clips is ready to view, again another quality piece of work from Nick.

Also, a great debut for Vernon Philander, a wicket in his first over, which helped him to a ‘Michelle’ in the first innings. But where are you for the Notts game, I don’t believe you are injured somehow. Lastly, good to see Dockers take six wickets in Middlesex’s second innings, to set up the win.

The less said about the Warwickshire the better, a game which I believe Somerset should of won, but hey, their No.10 rose to the challenge and saw them home.

Now the best news to come out of The County Ground recently was Thatchers Cider becoming Somerset’s main sponsor. Quality from Somerset, quality from Thatchers and a quality pint to drink after work in The Old Pavilion! Well done to you both.

The start of the County Championship season has seen quite a few low totals, with scores over 350 very rare at the moment, a bit like Rocket buying me a pint! Glamorgan, in their game against Derbyshire were all out for 102 in their second innings, losing their last eight wickets for 21 runs. Durham University were all out for just 18 in their First Class game against Durham, with extras second top score with four.

I must admit playing for Over Stowey I have been in some games where the scores have been particularly low. A trip to Dulverton one season, the journey there and back was longer than the game itself. Also a game against Fitzhead, I arrived at the game with Stowey batting first, and as soon as I got there, was asked to pad up and get in to bat, Stowey were 27-6. At least Steve Darch and myself occupied the cease for some time, batting for 20 over s for about 12 runs, and six of those came in one shot! At least we made it tea!

But my favourite story about low scores which involved Over Stowey was from a former Stowey legend, Fred Ham. Talking to him one evening in the local, he told me the story when Stowey played Fiddington in a pre-season friendly back in the 70’s. With the ground somewhat unprepared – the outfield was about ankle high – batting proved tricky, so much so Stowey could only manage 11 runs. Fiddington thought they had the game in the bag, already talking about an early tea and another game after. However, the smile was soon wiped of their faces when Stowey bowled them out for ten, and therefore winning by one run. What a game indeed.

Over Stowey’s 2^nd XI has been going strong for about 20 years now, with myself leading the side for the first two seasons. Now I have played and watched quite a lot 2^nd XI cricket over those years, and have been racking my brains for Over Stowey’s all time 2nd XI. Now I know I will be skipper of course, so just need to find ten more players which fit my criteria. I have already some 15 names written down, so the task is already pretty difficult, however if anyone has anyone has any nominations and why, let me know as I am bound to off left someone out. Oh and you can nominate yourself if you want.

Ok, it is now 10.57ish, time for a pint of Thatchers, Somerset’s main sponsor.

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

You can always tell it is the cricket season, the weather deteriorates. After a fantastic last few weeks in March, the weather turned for the worse right on the start of the new season.

The start of the match at Taunton was delayed, due to rain (plus it was cold), but they did start in the afternoon. I popped into The County Ground after work for a couple of hours, it was so cold I swear I could see my breath as I spoke to Julian, proprietor of The Cottage Inn at Keenthorne. Julian told me he had been there for most of the afternoon, the only reason he was drinking a tea was to keep his hands warm, shame they didn’t sell soup!

With the weather being pretty shocking for the start of the cricket season, it made me wonder what extraordinary things have actually stopped play in cricket.

I know you will get the odd wild animal, fox, squirrel etc, which amuses the crowd, plus the odd dog running on the pitch. Swarm of bees and flying ants in places such as Asia. I have even seen a load of ducks at Taunton, thankfully not the cricketing type, but the ones which go quack!

Snow has actually stopped play here in England, in the middle of June! I believe it was a County Championship match between Derbyshire and Lancashire back in 1975, the whole ground was covered in the white stuff. Snow also delayed play between Essex and Kent on the same day.

I believe Headingley, the day before their game against Kent earlier this week, was under snow, but miraculously and credit to the ground staff, the ground ready for a prompt start the following day.

At Over Stowey we had to run for the safety of the pavilion when it hailed, not just your ordinary size hail stones, but some as large as golf balls, wow they were big and hurt a little too. Lightning was flashing around in one game at Marsh Mills, now that was scary and every player raced off the pitch to the sanctuary of the pavilion.

Now camels’ moving behind the bowlers arm was quite amusing, and this wasn’t a game in the desert! Camel trekking on the Quantocks was quite popular a few years back. At one game at Over Stowey, they suddenly appeared in the field next to the ground, the game halted why the opposition gazed in amazement. As for cows moving behind the bowlers arm, I don’t think this side from London, who were on tour here in Somerset, had seen one before the way they justly suddenly stopped playing and stared, when the played Over Stowey back along.

An away trip to Stoodleigh was probably the longest the Stowey cricketers had to make in the West Somerset Cricket League, this one year I was surprisingly called up for the 1^st XI to make this trip – I did hear the teas were great, so no hesitation there then! But what happened that afternoon was even more surprising and somewhat hair-raising, and the game had to be stopped.

Stowey lost the toss and was put into the field, as Stoodleigh batted. Half way through the innings a very loud engine roar could be heard coming from this barn a few fields away. All of a sudden this biplane shot out of this barn and done a low fly pass over the cricket field, in which all of us hit the deck.

We realised that this biplane was one of these display / stunt planes as it shot up vertically, stalled the engine, came spiralling back down towards us on the cricket pitch when the engine then cut back in (thankfully) and it shot of at a very low height as we all ducked.

After a few more manoeuvres, it landed and the game of cricket then continued. At tea we all made light of the incident, with their tea lady saying, “haven’t you heard of Stoodleigh International Airport?!!”

So England managed to retain their No.1 spot for Test cricket virtue of beating Sri Lanka in the final Test of the winter, but there are a few cracks beginning to appear. I am not wishing to be too critical on England as reaching the number one spot in purist form of the game is something they have strived to achieve for a number of years; staying there will be tough as this winter has shown.

Effectively England lost the winter Test series 4-1, trial by spin, with a lot of batsmen found wanting, especially against these mystery spinners. Off the 92 English wickets to fall over theses five Test matches, 76 were to spin, so straight away you can see that England have a problem against spin, especially in the Indian subcontinent. Guess where England are on tour next winter, India.

For me the bowling attack, plus backup, is fine. Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann are just a formidable trio, who are backed up by the likes on Monty Panesar, Steve Finn, Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett; plus waiting in the wings are guys like Jade Dernbach, Chris Woakes and James Tredwell.

Incidentally Tim Bresnan has played in 11 Tests for England and has been on the winning side in all 11; that tells me pick him and England will win!

There is also no problem with the wicketkeeper position, Matt Prior holds the gloves at present, rightly so, but one bad performance and the likes of Steve Davies, Jonny Bairstow, or Craig Kieswetter will grab those gloves without hesitation.

The cracks are beginning to appear within the batting, especially in positions five and six. The top four are fine, they just ooze class and just leave Andrew Strauss alone, he is doing a great job with his captaincy, plus his form will be back, without a doubt. Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen have proved their worth in Sri Lanka. But when it comes to five and six, the opposition bowlers must think they are already in the tail.

Ian Bell should off stayed at home and played County Cricket for Warwickshire; and is still baffles me why England do pick the likes of Samit Patel and Ravi Bopara.

The question has been said, who do you pick instead? Plus who do you pick if one of the top four gets injured? Good questions, who? Who exactly is waiting in the wings to fill gaps in these positions? The answer to numbers five and six is easy, anyone but Patel and Bopara. I wouldn’t even go back to Eoin Morgan, not until he gets some First Class runs under his belt.

I may be a bit flippant there, but there is no one waiting in the wings that is nowhere near the quality of England’s top four to challenge them for their position, or even step in when needed.

We do have good youngsters coming through the Lions, but are they the finished article yet? Give one or two of them a game against the West Indies in May, the likes of James Taylor, Joe Root, Tom Maynard and Alex Hayles, why not. The bigger tests will come when England play South Africa and India, blood them now and make them ready.

Lastly, back to Somerset, Vernon Philander has had a cracking debut for Somerset, let’s hope he can blow them away this morning (Sunday) and lead Somerset to victory. He must be feeling the cold though!

Right, 10.57, time for an Easter Thatchers!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

Can anyone tell me what a proper hangover is? Jonathan Agnew, during the first Test, mentioned that one of the Barmy Army sent him a Tweet about how hot it is on the ramparts of the fort overlooking the ground at Galle and that she has one of these, a proper hangover. In which Agers replied “compared to what?”

If you want to see a proper hangover you need look no further than Over Stowey’s finest, Mark Sortwell. He is an absolute connoisseur of hangovers; sometimes you won’t see him for days after having one or two after a game of cricket. It is also rumoured that trying to eat a Sunday lunch, after a tough days’ cricket the day before, is a bit of a chore, his one and first sprout results in a trip to the bathroom.

My greatest memory of Mark having a proper hangover is the day after the 2001 C&G Cup Final at Lord’s, where Somerset beat Leicestershire in the final – “We want Boswell!” All Somerset fans know that Somerset won that day, quite comfortably. Stefan Jones takes the final wicket - let the party begin.

Luckily our hotel was a five minute walk from Lord’s, so after the celebrations of seeing Somerset lift the trophy, a short and fast trip back to the hotel and the hotel bar was the first (and in my case the last) stop. Drinking all day, celebrating all night, plus England beat a certain side 5-1 in football, wow, did the alcohol flow – that poor Slovenian girl behind the bar, I don’t think she knew what hit her.

Now the next day was very interesting, the eyes at breakfast were a sight to behold, as for Mark, well, death warmed up was an under statement. Now for the journey back to Somerset.

Jim Hatt drove back that morning, luckily I had the passenger seat, but poor old Gareth Duddridge and Steve Easden had the pleasure of Mark’s company in the back seats. We barely left Marylebone and we had our first unscheduled stop. There were at least three more stops on the way home, and one stage I wondered he was still alive, he was very white!

Did anyone really believe England would chase down 340 to win the first Test against Sri Lanka? History was well against them, plus England’s batting has been less than adequate throughout the winter, losing was never in doubt.

If they did pull it off I would have been one of the first people to pop open a bottle of Thatchers in celebration, and believe me I wanted England to do it, it was a very mighty ask indeed.

Perhaps they should be getting the basics right, i.e. catching and not bowling no-balls and then perhaps a run chase of 200 would have been more realistic. One of the prime culprits, Stuart Broad, is now on his way home. I have no doubt he is a talented player, however his temperament lets him down. Trying to claim a run out when the ball was clearly dead after he over stepped made him look just plain stupid. Get the basics right and make things easy for yourself. Plus did Samit Patel play in that Test, I know he was picked, did he actually turn up?

Somerset’s season is now in full flow, currently playing Cardiff University at Taunton Vale CC. The first County Championship is on Thursday with Middlesex the visitors to the County Ground. No doubt I will be in and out of the Old Pavilion doing some quality control checks on the cider.

Somerset had a good week beating Surrey in a forty over game on Monday and then thumping the same opposition in a three day game. With all the top batsmen in the runs (apart from Arul), and with the bowlers finding their length and line, all is looking promising for my bet.

Vernon Philander flies in next week, Lewis Gregory will be back from his trip with the MCC in Dubai and George Dockrell has staked his claim for a start on Thursday by taking six Surrey wickets in the week, am I starting to feel optimistic? It is Somerset you know, the runners-up of everything over the past three seasons. Hit the round running boys and let’s have a spectacular season.

Previews and predictions are always good fun at the start of the season, and let’s turn the clock back 12 months ago. Nearly everyone then predicted Somerset would break their duck and win the County Championship in 2011, and it seemed no one saw Lancashire as any type of threat, experts eh? Now 12 months on, it seems that all those so called experts have got into bed with Surrey and it will be they who win everything.

Division One of the County Championship is the strongest I have ever seen it, not only Somerset and Surrey, we have Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Durham, Sussex, Middlesex and the champions Lancashire All are very strong and will be knocking on the door to be County Champions. No disrespect to Worcestershire, but how did you stay up?

Oh well, we shall see I suppose. I’ll see you on either Gimlett’s Hill or in the Old Pavilion on Thursday and we will see how things go. Rollercoaster!

It is now 10.57, time for a trip to The Cottage Inn, Keenthorne (that will keep Over Stowey’s main sponsor happy) to try a few Thatchers (another sponsor perhaps?)!