The 8:55 from York took me to London on Thursday and by 11:30 I was in my seat at Lord's on what the weather forecast had rightly described as 'a perfect summer's day'. Missing thirty minutes play on the second day of the match between Middlesex and Somerset had not meant missing much excitement. On Wednesday Somerset had been rescued from 211 for 7 by a stand between recent overseas signing Piyush Chawla and Alex Barrow and Chawla had found another willing partner in Alfonso Thomas but, despite the proximity of the wicket to the tavern side, runs came only slowly.
'A must win game' is a rather overused expression, especially among football supporters: A Crystal Palace adherent thought it worthwhile to telephone the BBC last night to inform 606 listeners that yesterday's match with Sunderland fell into that category even though it was only the third game of the season but for Somerset I think we might just squeeze the trip to HQ into the mwg box. In this light their tactics during the morning session were a little difficult to follow: take Chawla for example, having gone to his hundred with a six into the Edrich stand he then scored just 11 in the forty five minutes before 'the luncheon interval'. Disappointingly we were not invited to 'perambulate' during the said interval.
Somerset batted on after lunch and the Chawla Thomas partnership ended on 99 when the former was out but with Overton (J), Thomas added another 32 to bring a total of 449, a sound platform for trying to bowl Middlesex out twice. How good a platform few could have guessed, for during the afternoon the Somerset attack sliced through the Middlesex batting to the point where they were 55 for 7 and Lord's can rarely have been so quiet as one after another batsmen returned through the Long Room to be met by silence. Only Rayner showed much idea how to deal with the West Country bowling and shortly after tea they were all out for 106 and following on. I was particularly impressed with Lewis Gregory and he started the rot in the second innings by dismissing Chris Rogers, recently returned from Ashes duty.
By the close Middlesex were 52 for 2, still trailing by almost 300. Readers may well be aware that they fared little better on Friday and Somerset were winners by an innings and 179 and took 23 points from the match, a very important step towards avoiding relegation. It was their first win in championship cricket at Lord's for 30 years and they would have welcomed their deserved day off yesterday for their next opponents are Derbyshire who will be at Taunton on Tuesday but are still involved at the Oval today in a game they might well lose thus giving Surrey their first win of the season. A 'mwg' for both sides?
For Middlesex this defeat followed one by Derbyshire and would seem to scupper their feint championship hopes for they are now 35 points behind Yorkshire with just three games left.
Despite problems on the East Coast network on Thursday evening I was home by 10:30 and had enough energy left to make the trip to Scarborough on Friday where Yorkshire's Antipodeans, Jacques and Williamson put together a stand that I thought would at least save the game. This we know now was not the case but what a terrific advert for four day cricket the Yorkshire Durham game has been, enjoyed by large crowds in lovely weather. Durham return to action when Sussex come to the Riverside for what is the home team's game in hand over Yorkshire. By Friday both teams will have three games left and my guess is that the title will not be decided until the last round of matches at the end of the month when Durham visit Hove and Yorkshire are at The Oval
Lord's having been the filling between two days at Scarborough I did some catching up yesterday but had time to pop along to Ouseburn to see them beat Dacre Banks by eight wickets with Sam Parker in the runs again, undefeated on 77. Nearest rivals Spofforth also won and Ouseburn lead the table by just one point with two to play. Close or what?
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