Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

So I was playing golf on cricket tour, and one of my tee shots hit the chapel roof, bounced off and landed four yards away from the pin, so glad I walked in that pile of dog doings earlier!!!

Just got back from a great cricket tour to Torquay, was due to play two games, but unfortunately the weather intervened, and we only managed a game against Budleigh (very posh place) Salterton, who managed to scrape home by a couple of wickets! Nice club house, cheap booze, plenty of tea and a massive TV to watch England play against Ireland.

So apart from the one game of cricket, what else happened on tour, well I have the fines book next to me, will give you a few random miss-doings, but no names:

• Cheating at golf, told his playing partner the wrong hole to aim for!
• Unable to toss properly
• Falling asleep in the pub
• Batting like a Charlie
• Waiting for a 12 year old girl to come out of the changing room
• Hitting a four through the slips, the went gardening to make it look like a good shot
• For snitching on left handed drinkers
• Standing in the nude in public and showing his **** in front of two OAP’s
• Having the wrong meal
• Constant texting and face-booking his girlfriend Ellie
• Second ball duck, first duck on tour, only duck on tour
• Being beige
• Three days late and then taking photos of someone on the toilet

I could go on, but as I said, these are just random fines I literally picked out of the little red book.

Thank you to every tourist who made it a wonderful tour, I am sure more things will come out of the woodwork over the next few weeks / months etc. Would also like to thank Ashley for organizing the tour, great organizer, where to next year? Anybody have any suggestion?

The fines collected, a grand sum of £95.45 (don’t know where the odd 5p came from), will go to a worthy charity, would just like to thank Jack, Sorty and Mikey for contributing 75% of the fine money.

So only one person guessed who the secret snitch was, not even his room mate guessed it was Sorty, done a grand job, was his great chance to get his own back, however for his constant moaning, pointing and wanting a KFC, think it may of back fired on him, oh well, he may learn, but I doubt it.

What a roller-coaster ride that T20 finals day was on Saturday, who would of predicted that both semi-finals would end up in a one-over eliminator, apparently one bookie gave odds of 10,000-1 that it would happen, I’m no so sure they will give these odds again.

It was such a disappointment that Somerset were runners-up for the third season in a row, I can barely type these words knowing that we are the best side in the country in the shorten version of the game and lose out in the final once more. You’ve done us proud Somerset; let’s go and win the CB40 and win the last three County Championship games to make it a wonderful season.

The only good thing which has come of The Set losing in the final is that I did back them at the start of the season each-way to win all three competitions and by reaching the final yesterday I start to earn some monies from William Hill. Unfortunately my planned holiday to Barbados will have to go on hold for the time being; it is now either Benidorm or Bognor now!

Right, it is 15.57, time for my Sunday roast; normal service will be resumed next week (depending on my hangover!)

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement - on a Tuesday!

Yes, a Sunday Supplement on a Tuesday, why may you ask, well went to a very good music festival; it was so good Monday was just a blur!!!

I see England have now been confirmed the number one Test team in the world after completing a white wash against India, only Australia, South Africa and India have held that mantle. Well played England, have been waiting for this all my life and I now believe they will be at that number one spot for some time to come.

I still maintain that the West Indies side of the 70’s and early 80’s was the best team I have witnessed playing Test cricket: Holding, Roberts, Croft, Marshall, Garner, Walsh Ambrose; as for that batsmen, Haynes, Greenidge, Richards, Lloyd, Dujon, Richardson, Kallicharran.

I could go on with names, dates, victories, broken bones etc. But one thing which will always stand out for me is Malcolm Marshall, he was so quick at one game I couldn’t even see the ball, and the wicket-keeper was standing about 10 yards away from the boundary and he was still taking the ball at head high, wow!

The end of the season is now getting nearer and Over Stowey are having a break from league cricket this weekend as the club is on tour, in South Devon, well Torquay to be precise.

Two games of cricket on the Thursday and Friday, followed by a free day on Saturday (it could get messy that day). With a 20 strong squad travelling down, plus some supporters, should be a quiet weekend away.

Torquay always brings back some great memories of tours gone by, with our first ever tour taking place in 1992 when we first visited the English Riviera. Les Biffen (who likes a drink with his friends ….but not the whole of Marldon!), arranged our first tour, and also a 20 strong squad went down the M5. The cricket was fun, the evenings were funnier, and the mornings were one to forget – that’s if we ever got to bed.

The tour of 1996 will always be well remembered by the Club as a whole, as we went overseas for the first time (the other being the Isle of Wight and possibly Cornwall). It wasn’t the fact that we went overseas, is was the fact that opposition had a guest playing for them, a certain Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall brought the teas along for good measure!

Mick has a great love for the game, but our Dave Richardson got him out for a duck, plus he didn’t bowl very well either which was followed by a few rock n roll expletives! The whole episode made not only the local press, but the nationals as well; have even found the story on the internet somewhere.

Every Over Stowey cricketer who have been on any tour will have their favourite memory, but for those who went to France that year, that will always be special.

So Torquay here we come, fines have now been finalised, tour shirts printed, mini bus arranged, just need to unpack from the weekend and pack again for this weekend – shall I bother?

Best of luck to Somerset on Saturday in the T20 finals day, we shall be routing for you in some bar in Torquay I expect, and all the best for Wednesday when I know I’ll be in Bungle’s Bar watching them play Gloucester in the CB40.

Right, 10.57, time for a pint (things don’t change in the week you know), and I hope to be blogging on Sunday if I can!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

England run riot in Birmingham during the week, and Cook’s bat was on fire! No we are not talking about the riots and looting, England have made it to the top of the world, by becoming the number one Test team.

After the third day of the third Test at Edgbaston the result was never in doubt, as England had a commanding lead, thanks to Alastair Cook’s 294, as they piled on a massive 710 runs for just the lost of seven wickets, leaving India a mammoth task just to draw the game.

Two unfortunate dismissals on day four set up victory for England. The first when Rahul Dravid edged his bootlace and was given out caught behind; secondly Sachin Tendulkar was run out backing up – will he ever get his 100^th hundred? England go on to win by an inning and 242 runs and rightly claim the number one Test team status.

I would like to know the thought process of the England selectors in picking Ravi Bopara, apart from three centuries against a poor West Indies side, he has not had one score over 50 for England in his 11 Test matches. Surely England have given him enough chances, and with only a score of seven in this Test match, it just makes me wonder what goes on in those selection meetings. Something to do with Graham Gooch and Essex?

There are a few notable facts about the third Test: this was England’s third highest Test score, 903-7 being the highest against Australia. Cook, with is 294, becomes England’s sixth highest score in an individual innings, with Sir Len Hutton leading the way with 364, again against Australia.

Also, there was a king pair (and we are not talking Kelly Brook here – that’s a nice pair!). Virender Sehwag, after travelling 4,000 miles to play in the third Test, faces only two balls in two inning, and was out both times. Seems like a wasted journey to me! The last king pair in a Test, well it had to be an Aussie, Ryan Harris in the second Ashes Test in the winter.

England deserve to be called number one in the world in my mind, with eight series victories (including this one) out of the last nine, the only blip, if you can call it a blip, was a drawn series in South Africa. Is this the greatest ever England team? Now that is open to debate.

The last time England lost a series was in 2008/9, when they lost to the West Indies, but there was that debacle with Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores. Since then wins there have been series wins over the Aussies (twice), Bangladesh (twice), West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and now India.

With a trip to the sub-continent in the winter and South Africa visit these shores in 2012; our number one status will surely be challenged. The Proteas boast a very strong bowling attack with the likes of Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn, plus the batting of AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis, tougher tasks lie ahead for England.

Revenge is in the air for Somerset, as they have drawn Hampshire in the T20 semi-final. Hants beat the Set in last years final of the last ball, when all Somerset had to do is whip of the bails, oh well. The quarter-final last week against Notts was compelling to say the least, with four overs to go, the Set need 12 an over, that’s two a ball, and then came Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler, whack-a-day cricket and the Set march on to the semis – what an afternoon we had at Bungle’s Bar!

Notts play Somerset at Taunton this week, are they looking for revenge, with a floodlit CB40 game on Sunday and a County Championship game starting later in the week.

Keen Somerset supporters, like myself, would have had one eye on the Durham v Hampshire County Championship match being played this past week. Durham needed a win to cement their place at the top of the championship, plus Hampshire was looking for their first win in the County Championship. However the rain intervened and there were only a handful of overs bowled on the first two days. Hampshire batted all day on the third day and a draw seemed favourite. With both sides looking for any kind of victory, the two captains got together to contrive a result. A false declaration, followed by two forfeited innings, a run chase was set up on day four. Hampshire bowled out Durham, hurrah, and the County Championship is again blown wide open.

Both Over Stowey sides were in action on Saturday. The 1^st XI took on near neighbours Cannington and ran out comfortable winners by four wickets with loads of overs to spare. Phil Simms smashed his way to 67, before he was out in unfortunate circumstances, the ball being clearly above waist height and no ball should have been called. However, this did not distract Stowey as they steam rolled to victory.

The 2^nd XI was not so fortunate, as they went down by 26 runs against Fitzhead a much better performance with the bat than last week.

Now with cricket tour just around the corner it’s tempting to do some reminiscing, but surely what goes on tour stays on tour! The club first went on tour in 1992, when Stowey visited Torquay. There has been plenty of laughter and silliness since then, with some cricket thrown in for good measure.

This year’s itinerary has been arranged, with a game against Budleigh Salterton and Cornwood on the Thursday and Friday respectively and then a day of leisure around Torquay on the Saturday, watching Somerset in the T20 finals in some dodgy bar I expect. I have been given the mantle, again, of fines master, so watch out, especially the tour virgins! The good thing about being fines master is that I can’t fine myself, and anyone challenging that rule will be over ruled by the fines master and will be fined themselves!

With great regret and disappointment to you all there will be no Sunday Supplement next Sunday as I’m going to a music festival, but watch out in the week. However, the following Sunday I plan to do one on tour from our hotel in Torquay (Fawlty Towers), so watch this space, as it will be the Hangover from Hell Sunday Supplement!

Ok, its 10.57, time for pint and some tour practice!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

The Spirit of Cricket has been bounded about the media this week, at first I thought they were talking about the ghost of WG Grace; instead, it was the Ian Bell incident at the Trent Bridge Test against India.

So much has been said about the Bell run out, it is difficult to know where everyone stands on this issue, including myself. The biggest fact is that the ball wasn’t Dead. Bell must off thought the ball hit the boundary and it would have been Dead, there was no signal from the umpire, so it couldn’t off been Dead. Bell was out of his ground and he was run out; followed by a correct decision from the umpires to give him out.

Now the next thing to consider is the timing of the dismissal, right on tea. If it happened the over before, I’m sure Bell would have not left his crease until the ball was returned to the wicket-keeper or the umpires while they checked if the ball had crossed the boundary ropes, the ball would have been considered Dead and he could then leave his crease.

With me so far…..? So what happened in that Indian dressing room during tea, not much eating of cucumber sandwiches I expect! MS Dhoni saying it didn’t feel right, the Indian team talking about it, plus the interference of some top brass from the England camp resulted in Dhoni giving Bell a reprieve, and out he came after tea.

Bell admits he made a mistake, a schoolboy error in fact! As for Dhoni, he claimed he done it for the Spirit of the Game, risking a fierce reaction from the Indian media (if you think our media is bad, have a look at some of the Indian papers, you can be hero to zero quicker than it takes me to drink a pint of Thatchers!).

When I was learning the game of cricket when I was a youngster, the main thing I was always told was to never leave your crease while batting (Law 29), as some other spotty kid could quite easily swipe of your bails (not nice for a young boy!), and you don’t get another chance. And while learning the laws of the game recently, knowing about when the ball was Dead (Law 23) was always drummed into you. Perhaps Bell should read the Laws of Cricket, and a matter of fact I wonder how many cricketers have actually read the rules, including first class players, not many I expect, in fact I would say it’s less than 1%.

So what exactly is the Spirit of Cricket?  Well the MCC remains responsible for the Laws of Cricket. However, it has long believed that the game should be played in accordance with its traditional 'spirit', as well as within its Laws. In the late 1990s, two distinguished MCC members (and ex-England captains), Ted Dexter and Lord (Colin) Cowdrey, sought to enshrine the 'Spirit of Cricket' in the game's Laws. This would remind players of their responsibility for ensuring that cricket is always played in a truly sportsmanlike manner.

So a bowler always appealing when the ball strikes the pad, is this within the Spirit of the Game? A batsmen who does not walk when he clearly edges the ball, again is this within the Spirit of the Game?

I have been in a couple of incidents myself when the Spirit of the Game could have been questioned. Notably I once ran out a non-striking batsman, while he was backing up and I was coming in to bowl. He was half way down the pitch and I was in my run up, so I felt I had every right to throw down the wicket, I did, appealed and the umpire gave him out, correctly (Law 42). This was at a six-a-side competition at Cannington, there is more to the story than just this paragraph, the upshot of it all was that it is now folklore in Stowey, and the non-striker I ran out has never spoken to me since, apart from a heated exchange on the boundary shortly after!

Did I break the Spirit of the Game? It’s in the rules and there is no such thing as giving a warning.

That’s enough about that, something more serious now; can Somerset actually win the County Championship? Three in a row now! Somerset was staring down a barrel at 93-7 against Sussex, with Monty at one stage bowling seven overs, of which six were maidens, for three wickets and only one run conceded. But he didn’t get young Jos Buttler, who scored a ton and turned the game on its head. With The Fonz taking ten wickets in the match and Somerset winning by a canter, it now looks like another nail biting finish to the season.

Now with the T20 quarter-final against Nottinghamshire today, plus a semi-final in the CB40 just a few wins away, hold on for a fast ride – do I dare look at my betting slip and work out how much?

Over Stowey didn’t have the greatest of days yesterday, with over 13 players unavailable, both sides didn’t quite get the result they anticipated. I got the call up at about midday on Saturday, so must have been really short, or desperate as someone said to me. I worked it out, I must be 37^th on the pecking order of selection, and I do hear sometimes that the selection committee even overlook position 37 and ask someone from the youth side to play! You can tell I haven’t played for a few years, as I absolutely ache this morning, all I done was walk from fine leg to fine leg, face four balls (not out though, thanks to a juggler of a wicket-keeper), and umpired for 20 overs, certainly got my £5’s worth.

Great to see Rhys Satchell bagging six wickets yesterday, a jug of cider  when you are ready please Rhys, plus Mr Sortwell still owes one…. I bet he gets lager just to spite me!

Right, it’s nearly 10.57 and time for a pint. The tour is only a few weeks away!!!!!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

Who says the camera never lies, well if you got your hands on the Mercury this week, there was definitely something wrong with that picture in the sports section, and I can’t quite put my finger on it, anyone would like to hazard a guess?

I happened to meet Gary Thomas on Friday, and he mentioned to me that his phone was non-stop on Tuesday morning, people saying that they saw his picture in the paper and they thought he had given up cricket! As I said, the camera never lies, just that the picture was that of the 1^st XI of 2010. A bit of a faux pas by someone, but my conscience is clear, but still have a lot of explaining to do.

Somerset are dragging themselves back into the County Championship race, with back to back victories against Durham and most recently an unlikely innings victory over Worcestershire. I say unlikely, as after the first day Worcester had only lost three wickets and a big score looked likely. However the Set managed to bowl them out for just under 500, and then went on a mission, especially the skipper, Marcus. Somerset blasted nearly 600 runs and after they declared just before the close on day three, a draw was still always the favourite.

Some days I do like overcast mornings, as it helped the Somerset seam attack no end, as they skittled out Worcester for 95.

This victory leaves the Set fourth in the table, with five games left, four of which are at Taunton, with the last game of the season against Lancashire – a title decider?

A minimum of three victories will see them go close, but again a lot is out of their hands, especially with Warwickshire having played a game less. Another exciting end to the season and with a quarter-final in the T20 approaching, plus still leading the way in the CB40 a trip to the doctors may be on the cards, to help keep my blood pressure down!

So a CB40 away to Essex today (Sunday), followed by a home four day game against Sussex starting on Tuesday, lets hope the Set are celebrating a few more victories over the next week.

Celebrating victories is always something to look forward to. I know Somerset celebrate with a chorus of the Blackbird song, by The Wurzels; and The Sprinkler dance used down under by England when they won the Ashes has been well documented; and the players Stowey seem to do things a bit differently and it usually means, drinking loads of cider from jugs, going to a house party or Bridgwater and getting home the next morning at about ten in the morning.

However with Stowey, they will do the same if they had lost, in fact I would hazard a guess that more alcohol is consumed.

For me the journey home is the trickiest, which usually involves a mile and a half walk from the Social Club in the dark. I prefer a clear night with a full moon so I can see where I’m going, but we are in England, so it’s usually overcast and the odd hedge is found on the way back and I swear that owl is not hooting but laughing at me!

On a day when Stuart Broad got a hat-trick for England in the second Test, Over Stowey’s Jack Rich emulated that feet some 30 minutes later, as he took the first three Minehead wickets. Stowey 1^st XI went on to win by 40 runs, a much needed victory for the 1^st XI. It does pain me to say it, but Mark Sortwell hit a half century earlier in the game – I believe he was told to hit out or get out, seems that he played a lot of fresh air shots! At one stage, after Mark was playing and missing every ball, he seemed to be getting a bit hot and flustered. He turned to the wicket-keeper and said “what couldn’t I do with a bottle of beer.” Which the keeper replied “Hit it with the bat!”

The less said about the 2^nd’s the better, I do believe the game was over by 4pm and had tea early! However I do understand Rabbit owes a jug, taking five wickets in a game against a touring side on Wednesday.

The previous week I mentioned that the 2^nd XI lost, with less than two overs to go, but have since found out that they gave away nearly 40 extras, which when you’ve only got 131 to defend can best be described as quite frustrating!

In my first season as 2^nd XI captain, we added up the number of wides we bowled that season, and it turned out that we bowled the equivalent another game, yes 40 overs of wides, that’s and extra two and half hours in the field!

10.57, it’s time for a pint, well a hangover cure as went to a pretty good party last night, with loads of cider!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

How do you make an Australian omelette? First, steal three eggs….! This is said to be Ian Botham’s favourite joke, can’t think why! Did you see the documentary about the great man during the week? Cracking piece of television, brings back some great memories of 1981 and all that, at one stage I thought John Major was going to explode with the amount of hyperbole he used.

For me, there was two very poignant moments. The first was when Botham walked through the member’s area of Lord’s to deathly silence, and not one member had the nerve to look at Beefy in the eye or nothing. No wonder Beefy has such little respect for them, you can see why if you watch that documentary. He resigned the captaincy job after that Test and the rest, as you say, is history!

The second was the trance like state Bob Willis was in when he took those eight wickets, his eyes was like something out of a horror movie, just don’t realise how much Mike Brearley got into his head to make him like that, wow! If you get a chance to watch it again, do so; kids beware of those eyes.

Somerset did their best to make sure India were under prepared for the forth coming Test series against England, when they played them in a three day warm up match. Firstly, the Indian coach, Duncan Fletcher, wanted to make it a 13-a-side match, so as many of his players could get some match practice in, Somerset refused.

Secondly, Fletcher wanted Somerset to forfeit the toss so as they could bat first, Somerset refused, won the toss and batted, which gave Andrew Strauss some much needed batting practice.

Thirdly, Fletcher again, wanted Somerset to declare overnight after the first day, Somerset again refused and Arul Suppiah went on to score 156. They eventually declared on 425-3 and went to work on the Indian batting line-up. At the end of day two, the Tourists were staring down a barrel, eight wickets down with only 138 on the board.

Lastly, with the follow-on target looking out of reach, Fletcher asked if Somerset would enforce the follow-on so his players could gain some valuable batting practice. Somerset refused again, decided to bat themselves, enabling Andrew Strauss some more time at the crease, where he hit a ton, getting him ready for the Lord’s Test which started on Thursday.

Well played Somerset, it shows that Counties can work with the ECB, not only did it help Strauss find his form and it rattled the Indians, who thought they were going to have it all their own way. Could this be a blue print for future matches against visiting touring sides? Especially the Aussies!

Special mention must go to Peter Trego, who smashed 85 of 57 balls, his 50 of 32 balls and he took 28 of an over, which included four sixes! That’s it Pete, get ready for the Nott’s quarter-final!

Could things get any worse for the Indians? Well they won the toss at Lord’s decided to stick England in which, at the time, looked like the right decision, but no one told Kevin Pietersen, who scored 202 not out and England declared on 474.

As for Stuart Broad, well the selectors are fully justified when they dropped him recently, told him to go back to Nott’s to get some County Championship wickets. He did, against Somerset (git), and now he took four wickets in the Indian first innings, plus having two catches spilled. India all out for 286, somehow I think England will bat today until about tea time (unless they are all out), to set up a good last day on Monday. I always said the last two days of a Test match are the best.

Over Stowey had a bit of a torrid time of it all over the weekend, losing to a touring side on Friday and both league sides going down on Saturday. One of Trull’s batsmen was none to impressed with the way he was out, blaming the pitch. When he came off I was waiting for the Matt Prior moment, as he was livid. Fortunately for him there was no sound of breaking glass. Crikey, it’s only Division Four cricket of the West Somerset League!

Good to Elsie still doing the teas, thought all the media frenzy she has encountered this week might off gone to her head or something, but there she was, cuppa’s at the ready. Stowey are so lucky to have someone like Elsie.

Couldn’t go up the club last night, had an 18^th birthday party to attend, beach wear was the theme, and I thought I was back in Ibiza! Wow, wish I was 15 years younger! Oh well, they had a fridge full of Thatchers, so was quite content!

Gladstone Small (his brother is called Disraeli Big!), was on Cricket AM on Saturday, and whenever I see him I think of the joke about him, as follows:

Ian Botham and David Gower are in a restaurant overseas and both decide to have the "special of the day."  This special turns out to be the local delicacy of sea turtle.
When they both order it the waiter goes to check they have enough left. He returns five minutes later saying there is a problem, they only have two left, but one is still alive but the chef can’t coaxes the turtle out of his shell, so he can chop his head off and cook him. Beefy then steps up to the mark and tells the waiter he will deal with it.
The waiter tells beefy he is welcome to try - but the chef being a seasoned expert hasn’t been able to sort it, so doesn’t think he will.
Beefy gets the turtle in one hand and with his other sticks his index finger into the rear of the turtle, the turtle then stick his head out and the chef chops it off....job done. Amazed, the waiter asked how Beefy knew what to do?
Beefy: "I'm used to it.....we use the same technique to get Gladstone Small’s tie on for the post match Gala's!”

Ok, 10.57, time for a pint, and now I don’t have to sneak around the back!

Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

You can always tell when it’s the holiday season in these parts, northern accents are heard in the pub. One such family from Birmingham was in The Cottage recently yapping away, and it dawned on me what they were talking about, ducks (see the link?). Yes ducks, have they not seen one before?

It seems they have about a hundred pictures of this one duck, and guess what, to such hilarity of that family, it flew! Quote from Mrs. Brummie, “I never knew ducks could fly!” followed by bouts of giggles. Oh how I wanted to join in that conversation.

Anyway, ducks, the cricketing ones, I’ve had loads of them and some golden ones as well, but never a diamond duck. I can also say with some pride, I’m a fully paid up member of the Primary Club, and have a tie to honor this achievement.

One particularly high-profile example of a duck came in 1948, when Don Bradman was playing his final Test match for Australia, against England at The Oval. In Australia's first innings, Bradman was bowled for a duck by Eric Hollies, causing his test average to fall from 101.39 to 99.94; had he scored just four runs, his average would have been 100. Shame! To make things worse for Bradman, Australia won by an innings, and he didn’t get another chance. Bigger Shame!

However, I’ve had some important nought’s in my distinguished career. Probably my greatest nought, was when I was picked to play for Haygrove School 1^st XI against Brymore School. Usually a run chase of 120 was never a problem for Haygrove, as had some excellent talent in that year, some of which went on to play for Bridgwater. However, with five top order batsmen out, and still needing another 50 to win, I stepped to the crease. At the other end was Paul ‘Fred’ Eckley, the last of the recognized batsmen, he came up to me and said, “Give me the strike as much as you can.” So I did. So much so, that after Fred smacked the winning runs, I worked out that I never faced a ball, as on the last ball of every over we scrambled a single to give Fred the strike! Nought not out, without facing a ball, of which there was a 50 run partnership to win the game! Thank you to my mathematics teacher for teaching me to count to six!

What an interesting week it has been for Somerset, having reached the quarter-finals of the T20 tournament, it was an issue whether they could be guaranteed a home tie. With matters out of their hands due to the fact they had played all their games, they could only sit and watch, with Sussex, Kent, Surrey and Essex scrap it out for the last two places.

With both Kent and Sussex winning their last games, The Set now have an away trip to Nottingham in the quarter-finals, as they could only finish fourth in the group, thanks to the rain. They must be sick of the rain at the County Ground, with four of their matches being decided by the weather, and surely a top two spot would have been a formality, ok, admittedly they did throw it away against Middlesex last Sunday when they could only tie.

So who fancies a trip to Trent Bridge in a couple of week’s time?

What a great reception Andrew Strauss received from the Somerset supporters when he walked onto the pitch on Friday to bat against the touring Indians. And how he repaid them, smashing a rapid 78 in an opening stand of 101 with Arul, and hopefully getting back his form ready for First Test on Thursday.

I do hope he does thank Jimmy Cook, the Somerset batting coach, as I believe he was with Cook for some time during some net sessions earlier in the week. Thank you to my most reliable source within the County Ground that week, Jack Rich, who I also believed told Strauss where he was going wrong!

With a tame draw against Nott’s in the County Championship, where Hildy, Kies and Compo all hit tons; plus Tres escaping a two match ban for failing to control his players, it’s just been a normal week at Taunton.

I see The Set are on TV again on Monday, where they take on Lancashire in a Pro40 game at Old Trafford. Somerset return to Taunton to take on Durham in a County Championship game, starting on Thursday.

Jugs of ale a plenty up The Club on Saturday night as young as Over Stowey got back to winning ways with victory over Hinkley Point by five runs. Young Lee Villis was the star, by taking six quick wickets, ripping the heart out of the Point middle order; earlier he scored a quick fire 37 to get Stowey off to a flyer. Also young Jack Rich made good use with his new bat (thanks to Ebay and his kind father who let he borrow his credit card!), smashing some quick runs towards the end of the innings, so that Stowey posted a respectable target.

Lee wasn’t the only one to buy a jug, as Neil Buller (for a jug avoidance) and Spud Hillman (who was at the bar at the right time) also delved into their pockets to set them up on the bar. I wasn’t complaining, but my head is this morning!

Great to catch up with an old school colleague of mine, Nick Clarke, who played for Point yesterday. Nothing changes with Nick, always as competitive as ever, even at the bar in the evening, it felt like a race who could down their cider quicker! Good to see you Nick, we’ll have to blow the froth of a few in September when Stowey travel to Point for the reverse fixture.

Right, its 10.57, time for a hangover cure!