The President’s View
As Club President, Sir Peter Wanless outlines below, 2025 was certainly to remember for Somerset CCC:
This was the season in which I finally retired the line: “my job is in London, my house is in Kent, and my heart is in Somerset.” At last, all three are aligned! My family is happily installed only 10 minutes from the Cooper Associates County Ground. It was a relocation achieved just in time, because in 2026 we have no fixtures at all in the Capital. Instead, we will be restricted to beating Surrey twice in Taunton.
Back in April, however, I was still in South East England, more conveniently located than most of you to attend Somerset Women’s inaugural professional fixture against our Surrey rivals. Liberated from full-time work I could nip across to Beckenham without difficulty. It was a cold and dreary day, weather wise, and after a lengthy rain delay the stars of Surrey compiled an imposing 243 off 33 overs. It was tough going. I was so cold I almost bought a Surrey bobble hat to protect my wind-chilled ears. But resilience was the order of the day and sometimes we must suffer for our loyalty to the Somerset dragon. And then, despite being well behind the game, up stepped Amanda Jade Wellington (Wello) to hit every one of her first six balls to the boundary. Fran Wilson finished the job. The details are preserved forever on my handwritten scorecard (now defrosted) in the wonderful Somerset Cricket Museum. An historic day when very few of us can say “I was there.” I am fortunate to have been one of them.
My family moved house to Somerset in mid-August, just in time to celebrate the Club’s 150th anniversary. And what a special occasion it was for all those who made it across to Sidmouth for the celebratory game in the town where SCCC was founded. Seeing Hildreth and Trego rolling back the years was quite something. Our Chief Executive Jamie Cox showed he still had it, with a six and a caught and bowled he couldn’t get out of the way of. Well done and huge thanks to Richard Brice and all at Sidmouth Cricket Club. To cap it all, I won a signed bat in the raffle, now on display at our new home. A sign of good fortune for the final part of the season?
Attention turned to the climax of the 2025 Men’s Vitality Blast competition. As President there are often hosting duties to perform and our quarter final game against the “Bears” saw me looking after a dozen dignitaries from Birmingham – forming a tiny enclave of unbridled enthusiasm for their team at the end of the Long Room, within a ground otherwise packed with thousands of Somerset fans. Warwickshire host T20 Finals Day at Edgbaston year after year, but for each of the last four seasons their Bears have fallen one step short of attending their own party. In every one of those four years, Somerset have won our quarter final and qualified for what my guests consider to be their big occasion.
My attempts at small talk were not landing well (“Why are you voting to reduce the number of T20 games? Why do you want to remove our London-based fixtures? Look at the atmosphere we generate for games like this. Why is your place so empty so often?)
But their confidence was high. And they had every right to feel that way when after 10 overs the Bears had smashed a record number of boundaries. With Somerset regularly losing wickets in pursuit of 190, we looked out of it. My visiting dignitaries were far from dignified in their enthusiastic celebration of an apparently inevitable win. I found myself stranded within the only jolly part of the ground. Could someone do a “Wello”?
You know what happened next. Sean Dickson’s remarkable knock stunned my guests into silence, barely capable of believing what they had seen. And we were off to their party once again. We chased down a record high score to win a Final and we all enjoyed, I’m sure, the crucial role played by Will Smeed to get us over the line.
In 2026, we seem to be playing Warwickshire almost every other week. I’m nervous as to whether their dignitaries will want to see me again after my undiplomatic quarter final celebrations. I will do my best to behave better.
Winter well and see you in and around Taunton this coming season. All that’s really missing from an idyllic life in Somerset now is the presence of the County Championship trophy.
