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Somerset in the 21st Century
The Official Somerset CCC 150th Anniversary Book is now available to order.
The premium hardback book is packed with fascinating articles from a number of respected writers and contributors who each bring 150 years of history vividly to life.
From the origins of the Club right through to the present day, every aspect of the last 150 years is covered within the pages of this outstanding publication alongside some stunning images from our glorious past and a comprehensive stats section.
Contributors include: Ian Botham, Brian Rose, Vic Marks, John Cleese, Marcus Trescothick, Anya Shrubsole, Jos Buttler and many more.
Order your copy now!
To give you a taste of what to expect, here is one of the articles that appears in the book.
The following piece is about Somerset in the 21st century and was written by journalist and commentator, Sam Dalling.
As the world entered the 21st century, cricket remained pure. Franchises were the reserve of McDonalds, and there was no such thing as a tactical time out sponsor. 20-over games? The reserve of youngsters, with a score of 80 or so tending to suffice. The dominant – in fact, the only – shorter format of our great game was one-day cricket. English domestic cup tournaments remained the pinnacle, contested in cream clothing and with a red ball.
One such occasion was that Super Saturday at Lord’s in 2001. It was, for Somerset, near perfect. Having lost at the same venue to neighbours Gloucestershire two summers prior, there was no such mishap under the baking September sun against Leicestershire. Thousands of West Country folk had clambered aboard rickety coaches at dawn, hundreds more onto Paddington-bound trains. It was worth it. So very worth it.
On reflection, that Somerset side was ahead of its time. Seven bowlers (eight if you include Marcus Trescothick, and why not do just that), and a batting line up that meshed power with stroke-makers with nudgy-nurdlers (Rob Turner was the earliest exponent of the now run-of-the-mill scoop). When Steffan Jones snared that final wicket, bowling poor Scott Boswell, a Cider-fuelled roar shook north London. A second-placed County Championship washed down the main course nicely.
It had the feeling of a gateway to success, a door sliding moment. Indeed, a year on, Somerset were at Lord’s again seeking to defend their crown. But Michael Vaughan stuck out a hopeful hand at short cover to halt Trescothick’s batting stride, before a Matthew Elliot hundred saw Yorkshire lift the trophy. The dull, monotone cries of ‘Yorkshire, Yorkshire’ will haunt the author forever.
Still, the wait for further success was relatively short. Professional T20 cricket arrived a summer later. At that point it was viewed as light relief, a little relaxed fun, with hot tubs dotted around the boundary and pop bands offering pre-game entertainment.
But it developed rapidly into a serious format. The 2005 arrival of South Africa’s youngest ever skipper Graeme Smith – signed by Club legend Brian Rose who had recently taken up his Director of Cricket role – brought T20 glory on a wet evening at the Oval. Smith’s 380-run tally was Somerset’s highest, while Ian Blackwell’s canny left-arm spin was fruitful. Given the faith that was shown in his dobbly-dibblers that campaign, James Hildreth will always have a spot of softness for Smith.
But that all hid something of a crisis beneath: Somerset’s red ball cricket was a mess. Having narrowly avoided the wooden spoon in 2005, the seemingly inevitable rock-bottom finish arrived a summer later. Something was off. Charl Willoughby and Andy Caddick combined for 129 wickets that season, while Australian Cameron White passed 1,000 runs. How does a side with that talent in it contrive to be the worst in the land?
The fires of change were stoked by the arrival of steely-eyed Justin Langer. In 2006, Langer played just two games, stroking 342 of the finest runs against Surrey at Guildford in the July. It was initially a six-week deal, largely as T20 cover for Blackwell and fellow (albeit less successful) Australian Dan Cullen.
But Rose had a plan. Rose always had a plan. Knowing Langer’s international retirement was a corner or two away, he was attempting to woo Langer into making Taunton a permanent-ish home. That came to pass when, after sealing a first Ashes whitewash for 87 years in January 2007, the left-hander stood down from Australia duty alongside the late Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
Langer threw himself into Taunton life. Andy Hurry’s military background made him the perfect foil, and the pair raised standards rapidly. It was swim or leave. They instilled professionalism into a talented yet meandering bunch. The likes of Hildreth and Arul Suppiah, to name but a few, credit Langer for giving their careers direction. Red ball promotion was won by the close of that summer, and by the time Langer’s bat was put away for good in 2009, Somerset had reached, and lost, the T20 final and finished second in the now defunct one-day league.
That year was where the now common ‘bridesmaids’ tag was first affixed on the Somerset dragon. 2010 earned the squad runners-up medals in the County Championship, the one-day cup and the T20 tournament. In 2011, they did likewise in both white-ball competitions.
Further runners up spots in the County Championship were achieved in 2012, 2016, 2018, 2019 and, via the Bob Willis Trophy, in 2020. Of those, some have been tighter than others.
2010 could not have been a closer finish. For the first three days of Nottinghamshire’s clash with Lancashire, the heavens were unrelenting. It left the former needing to take their 85/2 past 400 and take three wickets on the final day to claim a title. They did it. Just. Both Somerset and Nottinghamshire finished on 214 points, but having claimed seven victories to Somerset’s six, the trophy went to Trent Bridge.
2016 was almost as close. Somerset played their hand well by battering Nottinghamshire at Taunton. But across at Lord’s, Middlesex and Yorkshire settled on the latter chasing 240 in 40 overs following some negotiations while home skipper James Franklin was using the facilities. A Toby Roland-Jones six-fer – including a famous hat-trick – later and the title had slipped through Somerset’s grasp. Again.
2019 saw Essex head to Taunton for a winner-takes-all clash. It rained. It rained. And it rained some more. Eventually, on a turning pitch, a draw meant the spoils returned to Chelmsford. Doubtless had Somerset claimed victory and the trophy, the ECB would have found the cruellest of ways to strip it away again.
However, earlier that summer there had been good times. A 14-year trophy drought was broken when Hildreth stroked the winning one-day cup runs against reigning champions Hampshire. It was the last tournament before the ECB, in its infinite wisdom, downgraded the 50-over competition – a format in which England were 2019 World Champions – to a development competition. The Hundred took priority, with the rest of cricket squeezed to the summer’s perimeters. Case in point: Somerset’s 2024 final defeat to Glamorgan which was played in late September.
Then there was T20. Losing three successive finals between 2009 and 2011 really hurt. It was a wonderful side, with Trescothick in his pomp, Jos Buttler emerging, Craig Kieswetter too good for county cricket, Kieron Pollard adding powerful swagger and the great Alfonso Thomas delivering yorkers on demand.
The 2010 final was particularly galling, with Hampshire winning by virtue of losing fewer wickets. A touch more game awareness might have brought a different result, though. Dan Christian’s hamstring had popped, and he required a runner to complete his innings. In the excitement of the final ball, Christian attempted to sprint a single off the last and could have been run out. Alas, it was not to be.
A decade later, a new look, refreshed Somerset team became a dominant T20 force. Led by Lewis Gregory, there were four consecutive trips to Finals Day between 2021 and 2024. This side had Will Smeed jabbing balls over deep-square leg for six; Tom Abell’s middle order deftness; Tom Banton’s languid, rangy greatness; Gregory’s brute force with bat and accuracy with the ball; Craig Overton hitting the top of off-stump in the Power Play and taking catches for fun at long-on; and, in 2023, the year the trophy was lifted following Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s catch at short-third, it had Matt Henry. The unstoppable bowling force.
Across the nearly two and a half decades this chapter covers, Somerset have fielded a great many fine, fine cricketers. Too many to mention. Buttler broke onto the scene as a quiet, reflective character. He remains that, but also happens to be one of the world’s most destructive with bat in hand.
Trescothick was a joy to behold, and his early international retirement was very much Somerset’s gain. In all, across 618 appearances, Tres made 29,225 runs, passing 50 a mere 217 times. That included 69 centuries. The lack of foot movement was more than mitigated by an abundance of everything else. It wasn’t just the volume of his runs, but the nature of his scoring too. He could win a four-day match in a session and did so countless times. Sit in his Pavilion on a non-match day, and one can almost hear him running the ball to third, immediately shouting ‘run’.
Not far behind him sits Hildreth, arguably the most attractive batter the Club has ever seen, and unarguably one who will always be deemed unlucky not to have played Test cricket. He finished with 27,239 runs for Somerset, including 54 centuries. Those present will never forget the hundred he made against a Durham attack including Shoaib Akhtar when he was just a young pup.
Pete Trego was a local hero returned, enticed back to Taunton during a quiet drink with Rose in their native Weston-super-Mare. “It’s time to come home, Pete,” or words to that effect were muttered. That was all it needed. Andy Caddick was a force of nature, over-after-over, wicket-after-wicket. Langer, plus a few other Aussies, rated him as the best in the world at one point. Richard Johnson, but for injury, would have been worthy of a mention too.
The current crop is peppered with stars. Abell is as Taunton as they come and may well end up falling into the Hildreth bracket. Gregory, Leach and Overton have all represented England, and it is easy to see why. Gregory is a relaxed figure and has a fine cricketing brain. Leach has battled everything from injury to doubters to prove he is a world-class talent. Overton is talismanic, one of those players you want on your team rather than against you.
Overseas? Well, we’ve been spoiled. Langer, Ricky Ponting, Cameron White, Pollard, Murali Kartik, Babar Azam, Dean Elgar, Chris Gayle, Henry, Peter Siddle, Jamie Cox, plus many, many more.
Should this team, this Club have won more in the last 20 or so years? Yes, probably.
But ask yourself this: who has a better day out – the bridesmaid or the evening-only guest?
