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County Championship Preview: Somerset v Surrey
THE MATCH
Somerset welcome Surrey to the Cooper Associates County Ground this week in Division One of the LV= Insurance County Championship.
Day one of this fixture is tomorrow (Tuesday July 25th).
SCHEDULED HOURS OF PLAY:
Morning session: 11am to 1pm
Afternoon session: 1:40pm to 3:40pm
Evening session: 4pm to 6pm
Tickets for this match are still available.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Gates will open at 10am.
Bag searches will be in operation and spectators are reminded that no glass or sharp implements will be permitted within the Cooper Associates County Ground.
Ticket buyers can print and download their online tickets via their SCCC account.
All ticket or Membership collections will be from the Jack White Gates (St James Street).
The Club Enquiries Desk will be based in the Reception of the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion and not in the Andrew Caddick Pavilion on matchdays.
Due to the busy nature of a matchday, our telephone lines will reopen at 12pm.
Information on everything that you will need for a matchday at SCCC, including how to redeem your guest passes, how to download your e-tickets and how to use the SCCC Ticket App can all be found in our Visiting Guide.
Scorecards will be available from the SCS Shop and Reception in the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion.
On day three, only Block 5 of the Somerset Stand will be open to the public. The Somerset Stand will be closed on day four.
CATERING
Matchday food and drink will be available from Stragglers Coffee House (for the duration of the match) plus the Lord Botham Stand and Salt & Malt (days one and two only).
Matchday dining is also available in the County Room. We offer breakfast, a carvery lunch and afternoon tea.
HOW CAN I KEEP UP TO DATE?
Our live stream will once again be available for fans to watch via this website and at our YouTube channel.
You can also keep up to date using our dedicated matchday blog via this website’s Match Centre and on our Twitter feed.
In association with Vertu Motors, Somerset County Cricket Club will be providing radio ear pieces to enable Members and supporters to enjoy our live ball-by-ball match commentary. These will be available to purchase from Reception in the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion at a cost of £12 and these will last all season.
In addition to this, a report on the day’s play along with quotes will be posted on this website.
THE OPPOSITION
Surrey
Captain: Rory Burns
Head Coach: Gareth Batty
2022 finish: Champions (Division One)
2023 Current League Position: 1st
2023 leading run scorer: Jamie Smith (625)
2023 leading wicket taker: Sean Abbott (37)
TEAM NEWS
Somerset are still without Jack Leach (back), Josh Davey (rib), Roelof van der Merwe (hand) and Sonny Baker (back).
The starting XI will be selected from the following: Tom Abell (c), Tom Lammonby, Sean Dickson, George Bartlett, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, James Rew, Lewis Gregory, Ben Green, Kasey Aldridge, Lewis Goldsworthy, Craig Overton, Matt Henry, Shoaib Bashir, Dom Bess and Jack Brooks.
VIEW FROM THE DRESSING ROOM
Ahead of the match, Somerset Head Coach, Jason Kerr said: “We’re looking forward to the game and confidence is incredibly high in the group at the moment. The way we won at Northants was very comprehensive and it gave us an extra day off after what had been a taxing week on the back of winning the Blast.
“It should be an exciting week and both sides will be going out there trying to win it. From a competition point of view, if we can get the right result it will certainly throw the cat amongst the pigeons and it will make it nice and tight at the top of the table. It would certainly make for a very exciting September.
“All we can do is concentrate on the cricket that’s in front of us. If we can get some positive results going into the back end of the year, it will make things incredibly exciting. We would probably need to win all of our remaining games, and if we do that we’ll have to see what happens.”
CLASSIC MATCH
Our classic encounter between the two sides takes us back to 2016 and an extremely dramatic encounter at Taunton which saw Somerset come out on top by just one wicket.
Surrey Captain, Gareth Batty won the toss and elected to bat first, but the Somerset bowlers restricted the visitors to 264 all out. Steve Davies top scored with 49, whilst Jack Leach was the pick of the Somerset attack, claiming four for 34.
Marcus Trescothick and Tom Abell shared an opening stand of 46 but Batty took seven for 32 as the home side were bowled out for just 102.
Batting for a second time, Surrey were all out for 138. Leach again impressed with four for 63, but it was Jamie Overton who did the damage, finishing with figures of four for 18 from 11.1 overs.
Requiring 301 for victory, Somerset were nine down still needing more than 30 runs. The crowd were on the edge of their seats as Leach (24*) and Tim Groenewald (18*) saw Somerset home by the narrowest of margins.
MEMBER Q&A
A Member Q&A will be held in the County Room 20 minutes after the close of play on Day Two (July 26th).
The guest speaker for this event will be SCCC President, Sir Peter Wanless.
WPA PREDICTIONS LEAGUE
So, you think you know your cricket do you? Here’s your chance to prove it!
Powered by WPA Health Insurance, the new game allows you to score points on every Somerset matchday.
Collect points throughout the year for correct predictions and make your way up the leaderboard to prove that you are the font of all cricketing knowledge!
The top Scorers for each competition will receive a prize.
Watch. Predict. Win!
NEXT MATCH
Somerset’s next match is on Sunday July 30th when we take on Devon at Bovey Tracey in a 50-over National Counties match.
