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2025 Season Launch Press Conference
One of the largest ever gatherings of the local and national press corps turned out to attend the Somerset CCC Media Day at the Cooper Associates County Ground today.
Members of the media gathered in the 1875 Club this morning to attend a press conference that featured representatives from both the Women’s and the Men’s teams at the top table.
Andy Hurry, the Somerset Director of Cricket was joined by Women’s Head Coach, Trevor Griffin, Somerset Women’s Captain Sophie Luff, Men’s Head Coach Jason Kerr and Men’s Captain Lewis Gregory.
Last season the Men’s team reached two one-day finals and were in contention for the County Championship up until the last two weeks of the season. Regarding last summer, Lewis said: “Hopefully, we’ll be in a very similar position come the back end of this season where we’ve got trophies on the line. Last year will be a good learning experience for the guys to do things slightly differently.
“For the vast majority of the season we were outstanding but come crunch time we didn’t get things quite right. I’ve got no doubt that guys will want to put that right this year.”
Jason said: “The reality is that everyone is a year older, and they’ll benefit from those experiences. We’ve invested a lot of time on individual skills, but probably more importantly in the growth of people.
“Mentally, it’s hard when you’re challenging in three competitions, and you’ve got 15 or 16 to pick from. The demands on the players are incredible from a mental point of view so we have invested a lot of time around that and the growth of the individuals. We’re in a fantastic position to have another crack this year.
Andy Hurry added: “The hurt and disappointment at not being able to get over the line after being so competitive for such a long period of time was clear to see.
“We should be very proud of the fact that we were competing for such a long time. Every player now has that extra year of experience under their belt and I’m confident that we will continue to keep growing.”
For the first time ever Somerset will be fielding a fully professional women’s team, that will be captained by Sophie Luff.
How did Sophie feel about being appointed to lead the side?
“I’ll have a great sense of pride to be able to lead out Somerset Women for their first match. I feel very connected to the Club. It’s part of my DNA and feel very invested in everything that this Club is all about. To be the first Women’s Captain here in the professional era is very special.”
What is Sophie hoping for in this first season?
“I guess we want to be in the mix for qualification and it’s really exciting now that in the Vitality Blast that the top four can qualify. That means that there will be two semi-finals, which gives you a bit more of a chance.
“We want to be playing entertaining cricket so we can get as many people as possible coming to watch Somerset Women.”
Trevor added: “To be able to wear the Wyvern and walk out onto the park with the badge of Somerset gives me a huge amount of pride.
“There has been quite a change coming from Western Storm, where we were a bit nomadic, to coming to Somerset where there’s a huge history and experience which has enabled our players us to grow.
“Underneath that, the Club has the infrastructure to drive the women’s game forward, and to have 750 Women’s Members is phenomenal and is a testament to the passion that there is in the Club. The support’s been fantastic and I don’t think we could have asked for anything more.”
