Our 5th Happiest Episode Ever...

Ian Shepherd: Six needed and that could be the winning hit it is it's six for Lewis Gregory and Somerset have won by six wickets. Tremendous win for Somerset chasing down 194 to win with Will Sleed leading the way. Hello there, this is Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, the Somerset Cricket podcast. My name's Ian Shepherd, joining me this evening for our fifth happiest episode ever. I'll see if I you to work out what the other four were. I've got Somerset's head of marketing and digital and anything else that needs doing. Ben Warren. Ben, how you going, mate? Yeah, good, thanks, chap. Didn't make it to Chelmsford, I gather you're running a very exciting and well-watched live stream which we'll discuss later on Saturday? Yes, yeah, definitely. Definitely, I was still at Taunton but delighted with the result in both games. Two fantastic performances from both the men's and women's captains in two Somerset victories over the weekend. Also with me is Dan Kingdom. Dan, you were at Chelmsford over the weekend I gather, is that right? I was, yeah, Saturday and Sunday. I wouldn't have been there Monday, so was glad that we got the wind done in three days. Good stuff. Well, as you pointed out, was it all of our away winds have come in three days in the last two years? Last five years. All five of our away winds since 2022 have come in three days, which is quite remarkable. And I can't believe we don't charge for this podcast with little nuggets of information like that. And competing our happy quartet tonight is the voice of cricket on BBC Radio's Somerset, Anthony Gibson. Gibbo, ⁓ two days in the company of a rather magnanimous and gracious Don Topley, I gather. ⁓ He wasn't there for victory on the Sunday, which was rather disappointing, but I would imagine the most ⁓ enjoyable trip to Chelmsford since... ⁓ I know, 2007 or whenever it was. I wasn't there in 2007. But yeah, I enjoy working with the toppers. It's good fun. And he did actually mention Somerset and one or two Somerset players once or twice. He wasn't quite so one-eyed. Yeah, I particularly enjoyed Thomas Rue making his debut and Jamie Overton scoring 140. Jamie Overton was bowling virtually every over. Yeah, that was enjoyable. And I was also glad to hear, see we're not going to talk about cricket for at least another quarter of an hour, so go and make a cup of tea, that Essex have their own dragon versus wyvern, ⁓ where it's not Well, I think it's probably only in the mind of Don Topley, who thinks that the Essex symbol is a scimitar, which is of course an Arab weapon, nothing to do with Essex at all, whereas it is in fact a seax, which is a corruption of the word Saxon. because they're Saxons, just like the Middlesex people are Saxons and their emblem, their coat of arms is C axes as well. There we go. Right. We can't put it off any longer. So we talk about one of the most incredible games of cricket. So let's start with the most bonkers first day of cricket that I think I've ever recorded. Looking forward to seeing Alfio Born carry on his vein of form and was kind of thrust into a mix of disappointment and anger at half past ten when it was announced that he wasn't playing. Josh Shaw came in, presumed Alfie was rested. Did we ever get confirmation that he was rested? He told me it was tactical, whatever that means. Tactical? Fair enough. he didn't seem at all upset about it. I mean, he wouldn't show it. He was his usual cheerful, charming self. He's an ebullient lad, is Alfie Ogburn. Would you say that being tactical, I can only think they didn't want him whacking his big size 13s in the picture and creating a bit of a rough assignment Harmar. It could be. Good point. Potentially is the only thing. But you know, I've chilled, I've mellowed. I've been on holiday for four or five days now. I've come to terms with the decision. Obviously they know Alfie's body better than we do. Jamie Thorpe and his team, they will know that if he needs a rest, then he needs a rest. just very disappointed not to see him come on and play a second game in a row after he really caught the eye of not just Somerset, but kind of the media as well. was a lot of chat on him about on various different sort of review podcasts about how well he bowled against Knotts. Couple of weeks or so ago, mean, were you there Friday as well? No, just Saturday and Sunday. No, just Saturday and Sunday. mean, where do we start? So TKC buses Ann taking a hatch to dismiss, who was it? Molder. didn't matter, was Vianne Molder who's one of their best players and it was a good catch as well. It was a very good catch because it looked like it was travelling. It was. What do we make of the decision then not to go, I know what we'll do. TKCs are opening bat. Actually Bournes has opened the batting for us before. Archie Vaughan is sat next to me in the dressing room, which means about 200 miles away in Abergavenny. Admittedly, having just scored 200 and unbeaten 200 and 100, but against the students of Cardiff University in Abergavenny, I mean, Dan, was... slightly crazy and outside the box thinking from the powers that be. What do you think their reasoning was? Yeah, I mean, as Kurt said, he's informing the run. So we thought, OK, here's a guy who's high on confidence. Let's get him in. And I think part of the reasoning is also probably that Smead is a very aggressive player like TKC. we felt without, we don't have Banton either. So we felt we maybe wanted to replace that aggression in the lineup. But it has, it does certainly raise sort of questions, you know, among I saw like the Crook's article about the day sort of slightly questioning like, is this in the spirit of the rules, etc. I don't think anyone is saying we've broken the rules at all. Like we clearly haven't. But it is, I think it is going to be part of the argument going forward around these injury subs. It might be the in future, you have to name a squad of players and you can only name like four subs before the game and you have to pick from those four. So there are interesting elements to it. I thought it in some ways it was questionable making him travel after playing two days, he might have been tired, but it kind of worked. mean, he scored a good 30, looked pretty comfortable once he got off the mark, hadn't also got dropped while he was on nought as well. But yeah, he batted well with Craig. for a while there. He did. Ben, we've finally seen Will Smead's first-class debut. It's been a long time coming and in quite unfathomable circumstances. I mean, this is going to be a great quiz question in a few years' time. Yeah, yeah, it a great stat and it was one of the only stats that really interested me, that most T20 matches played before first-class debut. stats that someone came out with on social media that Will Smead's the second longest gap between a T20 debut and a first class debut. Cameron Green is, sorry Chris Green, he played 164 matches before making his first class debut. Will Smead 136 T20 matches before making a first class debut. So yeah, it was a really interesting kind of period, wasn't it really? mean, I guess it was a little bit of a risk as well in terms of the, know, Richard Walsh has done a nice piece with Will on the website and he sort of said he got stuck in traffic and it took him a long time. He only arrived at six o'clock. And that's the other risk as well that instead of going for Vaughan is like you say, we could have quite easily been bowled out. You you bowled aside out for 149, it's not exactly going to be a road that you're playing on and to ask a guy to make a, I think it was a four hour, three and a half, four hour car journey, go run the M25 as well, they must have had a lot of faith that they were making the right call. Yeah, mean, even if, I mean, a lot of talk about if Somerset had been bowled out and then Will would have only had one innings in theory, but equally if Somerset had been sort of even like seven or eight down, it was no real environment to bring someone in for their first knock if he had to sort of bat with a tail. mean, I know he's a pretty aggressive player, yeah, I mean, as it worked out fabulously really, he provided great foil for Craig and Craig was as captain, think, able to sort of talk him through a lot of his innings and how he went about it. yeah, it out treating Yen, but yeah, certainly a little bit of a punt, think. You've been a champion of Will Smith for a long time. Gebo, were you? I was surprised. I was a bit. Well, I wasn't that surprised because, you know, he has been in very good form, not just for the seconds, but preseason as well. And it was more of a like for life than Archie Vaughan, you know, admittedly. I mean, the irony is that Will Smead, I think he was very, very nervous when he went out to bat and it took him a long time to get off the mark and he was anything but aggressive. Whereas Archie Vaughan in the second innings walked out there and started stroking it to all parts. It was the easiest thing in the world. It was fantastic from Archie Vaughan. yeah, it was high risk. you know, for someone who's been championing Will Smead for years now saying he ought to get his chance in first class cricket to see what he can do. I was very, very pleased. was sorry, you know, sorry for Archie, but I, you know, I bumped into Archie and again, he... You know, he seemed perfectly okay with the decision and that was actually just after he'd been told he would probably be subbing for Lewis Goldsworthy the following day. No, it was high risk, I agree, but it worked out well. Did he get dropped? Did I sort of... Yeah. Yeah, he was missed at first slip by Dean Elgar. Straightforward chance in about... Well, before he scored and only about a second over he was facing. It could have been very different story, couldn't it? It could. It could have been. mean, what I saw, seemed... He seemed to be batting differently to how he sets up in T20 cricket, which I know it sounds like a fairly obvious thing to say, in T20 cricket, seems to... When he wants to play through the offside, he kind of gives himself a bit of a gap and he really does leave a big gap between bat and pad. which I thought might be his undoing if he doesn't quite get that sorted in red ball cricket, but he looked very tight, looked very organised. Yeah, he defended well. It took him a long time to get off the mark and I thought, is he going to have a bit of red miss? know, mean, Will Smith, he's a very, very intelligent lad and I think, you know, he just, I think it sounds weird to say because he's such a destructive T20 opener, but I think in there he's he has actually probably got the temperament about for a long time. I think not a lot phases in he seems very confident, very laid back. He's got a lot of presence at the crease as well. Yeah, yeah I mean he looks like a batsman to be reckoned with you know. Well I mean the last thing you want to be as a bowler is knowing that if you stray you are going to get punished. If you've got Billy Blocker down the other end who just you know or just pats it back, great. You can settle in and just bang a length all day. But if you've got it in the back of your head that, if I get this a little bit wrong, I'm going the distance and it makes a massive difference as a bowler. I mean, where does he kind of fit in next week? We'll come on to that later. We've still got millions to talk about. I had a goodie, I had an email actually. I don't get a lot of emails. This one is from Richard Harmon, who has emailed me saying that. Hi all, when Will Smead finally made his Red Bull debut against Essex, I remember that as a younger brother he used to play for the Seconds, a la the Roos. I've looked Henry up and found he's now based in Heidelberg and plays rugby sevens for the German national side, known as the Wolfpack. Now was about this point that I thought I was getting a TMS style wind up, a bit like when we tell Gibbo in that last boring day at Lancashire that George Bell was the under 14's Lancashire high jump champion, despite him only being about four foot three. But apparently he qualifies as one of German grandmother Uta as a Buckinghamshire-born Somerset supporter who's lived in the German-speaking part of Northern Italy. I quite like this minor side note. I hope you find it of interest too. Love the podcast, keep up the good work. And that's from Richard Harmon. I did a bit of a look into this as well. Will Smead's grandma is German. She started at Penpal to his grandfather, Peter Smead, and emigrated. But Will Smead's great-grandfather... was in the Luftwaffe and he was put into an internment camp because he refused to join the Nazi party. Solidarity, well done to Will Smead's great grandfather there. if you Google that, there is a good story on BBC about all this and it's one of those sort fascinating things that you kind of find out about cricketers and people that make you of sit up and make you think. Yeah, Henry was on the academy at Somerset. Yeah, a few years ago. I he, if I remember rightly, got injured playing rugby, which took him out of cricket for a while. And then I think that sort of, I guess it probably that age, he might have had to make a decision when they go the cricket or rugby and it sounds like he chose rugby. Yeah. And also now we have the situation where we could potentially have Will Smead and Tom Cowder Cadmore opening the batting for the German national side. Yeah, mean the regulations are relatively loose these days with players playing for other countries that they wouldn't necessarily associate them with. yeah, in 10 years time maybe. European Champions Cricket League thing, they? I mean, it's like a Six Nations thing. There's been talk of that happening, but it's where the ECB are not getting involved, are they? Well, doesn't matter if we've got Will Smith and Tom Coulter-Cabell playing for Germany. Yeah, there you go. Moving on then. Right. What else do we talk about Craig O'Byrne? Because, mean, what a start of the season he's had. Runs, wickets. I didn't feel like until that second innings of Essex is that he was kind of up to full speed. felt like the knots game, felt like he's just a locomotive just kind of leaving the station and chugging away, getting himself up to speed. Not necessarily bold and baddie, but just not quite there. And then I thought, yeah. He's back now, Kregos, he's had his warm up, he's in the groove now. 50 on his birthday, converted it to a career best, 140 the day after. mean, what more can you say? Yeah, think he's worked really hard on his batting. I guess, yeah, I hope he won't mind if I say, but he's obviously getting on a little bit in his career. So I guess, you know, from his point of view, the batting side will give him more He's only 32 for goodness sake. In his prime as a fast bowler. He's obviously got lot of wickets. Not so stark, or Jimmy Anderson. Well, yeah, mean, I'd love it if Craig Overton was still bowling at 43, but, um, I, yeah, I think that it just gives, gives, it gives him that longevity that, you know, he can, um, cause he has lost, I do think that he has probably just lost a little yard of pace. know, I don't think that, you know, I think that, um, that that's not un kind. So I think that, you know, it's great that he's got that in his locker and he's worked really hard on his batting and he, and he certainly I'm really interested in when Lewis comes back into the team, whether he'll continue at seven or drop back down to eight. I've got Craig at seven in my team, rather than Lewis. think, I mean, it was a chance at innings. And what impressed me most was his defense and the way he plays so straight with such a broad bat. as he said, when I talked to him about it, he's got over this business of sort of falling over too much to the right-hand side. As a tall batsman, that's always a risk and he's made a conscious effort to avoid that. And the result is he is playing really, really straight. Don Topley was hugely impressed with the way he batted as an impartial observer. And yeah, he's not been at his quickest. Ben's conservative speed gun was timing in at around 74, 75 miles an hour, which is probably three or four miles an hour ⁓ less than he was actually building. But even so, know, couple of seasons ago, he'd be up in the mid 80s, something like that. But pace isn't everything. And he bowled beautifully. And he got the two crucial wickets on the last morning when he got Paul Walter and Matt Critchley. At a time when Walter and Critchley, I mean, they put on nearly 100 together, they were looking as if they were getting it Essex back into contention, up steps Craig, gets both the whip, it's brilliant. And then he took a catch to get Pepper as well. You know, it was, I think it was just a fantastic, immense all-round performance. And I do think captaincy brings out the best in him. And when Lewis Gregory can't carry on because of injuries and what have you, then Craig... but is the obvious one to step up and would make a full-time permanent captain. Yeah, I think Craig speaks very well as well. just on the members day there was him and Abe's were just did a bit of slip catching and he just gave like a brief sort of summary of what they were doing. But it was just kind of the way that he spoke and the way that he kind of told you what they were doing ⁓ in sort of very clear, very concise language and got the point over kind of straight away that I just thought, yeah, you know. He has got a very, very good cricket brain. And I do think he would make a bloody good coach when he retires. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I mean, I think that the way, the way he almost led from the front in all three facets of that game was, was a, it was incredible. You know, probably, um, you know, go down as, as an innings that he'll never forget. You know, I know it's the second first class hundred and, you know, I think if he continues to bat at seven, he's got the opportunity to score more because he's definitely, he looked really, really positive, but really in control of what he was doing. And I agree on that, with the ball, to get the water out, that was a big, big, big wicket at that time. And he looked really, really threatening. Fantastic performance. What impressed me as well, Dan, is the way that he kind of sees the initiative on the end of that first day. You he took Harmer down. Did he get to... Yeah, he got to 50 before closing the play on the Friday. And then, if that was me, I'd have come out Saturday morning and gone, oh, I've got a 50 off 30 balls or 40 balls, whatever it was. This is easy. And I'd have given it the big why who sort of first up, but he didn't. Recognize the situation in the match. Recognize that... big first innings run, big first innings lead, he's going to be crucial to winning this game. you know, he didn't really go into a shell, but he just sort of took his time. As Gibbo said earlier, he guided Will Smede about where were Lewis Gold's where it was just, I don't think you can ever have a faultless performance in county cricket, but it was pretty close to it really. Yeah, I think what you said about his batting, he's clearly taking a lot more responsibility these days with his batting. I'm not saying he didn't take responsibility in the past, but another other innings that I was reminded of where it was actually home to Essex last year when he was batting with James Haroon, that match winning partnership in the second innings, you know, that was very similar when his mind, he was completely focused on the task at hand, but he had a very clear task and he was determined to prove that he is a proper batter. And it probably, you know, it's surprising really, he's only got two first glass centuries. And as Ben said, He could easily add more in the future. ⁓ Even if he, know, back at number eight, I'd still back him to score more centuries, you know, the speed that he can score at. So, yeah, and being captain certainly helps. was, one of his, I he only took four wickets in the whole game, but if you add up his batting, his bowling, his captaincy and his fielding, it was one of his best ever games probably. And it's just really good to see him, you know, bowling, playing well all around. You know, the last couple of years, he's not been bad by any stretch of imagination, but think he took a five for last year, which was his first one in like a couple of years or something. He's just not been quite at the heights that he was at, sort of 21, 22, around when he last played for England. So if he can get back towards that again and have a, I was about to say late career flourish, but I don't want to get told off. But he is certainly in the second half of his career, let's be clear. And he is completely motivated to help Somerset win the county championship. And him, Greg Reable, those guys who, They're all in the second half of their career. know that they, you know, time is slightly running out for them to win that title. And they know that they, you know, they are good enough players to help us get to a title. And I'm I know they all, they all desperately want it. So there is certainly that motivation for them to keep playing Red Bull cricket and, you know, and stay at the top of their game, even if their England days are probably all past them now. And obviously, Tom Able, you never know, maybe he'll get to England one day, but I mean just looking back at the winter that Craig's had as well, was it hernia surgery he had? think. was yesterday 20 I think. Yeah so he didn't play any over the winter, he had a surgery, I think it was sort of hernia but I will happily stand corrected if I got that wrong. He almost got married. And him and his wife are now expected as well, which is great news. So he's had a lot go on over the winter and you know, sometimes just end just a little few things like that happening just kind of puts cricket a little bit into perspective as how important it is compared to all the other stuff in your life. And sometimes that helps make you a better player. The fact that you suddenly realize that actually cricket isn't the be all and end all. Even though we obviously know it all is, but Do you what mean? It just helps you relax a little bit and play a little bit better. And as you say, he's worked on all the aspects of his game over the winter. So not a surprise that he's kind of started the season with such a fantastic cutlery performances. Just going back to, you sort of talked about Craig being focused. I think one of the main differences I sort of saw between the Knotts game and the Essex game is We kind of had a clear path to how to win the game from the moment that we won the toss. It was just stick them in on a green steamer, bowl them out cheaply, big run second innings and then either try and win by in innings or you know chase a small total. I'd never felt that there was it was really that clear during the knots game which may be due to the quality of the opposition, may be due to the sort of nature of the surface as well. We lost the toss against Knott, we won it against Estes. And that was one of the best things that Greg Oateson did in the three days was to win the toss. Because if we'd lost the toss, it would have been a very different story, I suspect, against Porter and Cook on that pitch as it was in the first couple of hours. And here's a quick stat as well. The last four times we bowled first in the county championship, we've won. And that was... two games against Essex. So home to Essex last year and away to Essex that's just finished and then in between that away at Durham last year and home to Durham last year. They're the last four times we bowled and bowled first in the county championship and we won them all. When we bat first, our last seven games batting first, six draws and one loss. Is this winning the toss and bowling first or just bowling first? This just bowling first. ⁓ In those games we ⁓ Chose to bowl in three of them. opposition chose to bat in one of them. Warwickster, did we bowl first in that one as well? Which one, Warwickster at Taunton where Abe's got big under on the last day, did we bowl first at that one as well? Yes, we did. Yeah, we won that obviously. I think every team that wins the toss at Taunton from now on will put the opposition in. I just can't see anyone opting to bat first at Taunton. way the pitch is. Last year, Taunton, five out of seven bowls first. And obviously, Anna gets knocked. They chose to bowl as well. So, it's becoming the trend, definitely. I mean, at least this part of the season, bit later on when they maybe start to break up a little bit in the fourth inning. But they don't break up in the fourth inning, that's the whole point. Yes. If only they did. We might win a few games at Tornton. Well, we might do, we might do, we might do. Yes, it is a hurdle that we do have to overcome. Shall we talk about James Roo as well? I mean 16 for three, whatever it was. He's in there with his shovel, the James Rue shovel digging us out of another hole again. Tom Abel batted well too, man. And Tom, yeah, Rue and Abel just seem to, you know, they just got, they'd seem to kind of get out there. Here we go again. dig the top order out the mire. There was a piece in the Telegraph today which I didn't read because I don't subscribe to the Telegraph. Basically saying England told Somerset to get James Roo to open now. You're completely wrong. It's in the Times. No, it's Nick Holt in the Telegraph. I'm sure it was. It was mentioned in the Telegraph as well, definitely. In the Times, what it said is that James Roo ought to be asking Somerset to let him back. first because that's his opportunity for getting into the England side, which is something that we've been saying for, well, last year, not just this season. it's not the. But the telegraph article, sorry. The telegraph article said the ECB have floated the idea with Somerset of James Rowe opening. OK. Well, so have we, to be fair. Only we've been in it for the last four years. yeah, I mean. Yeah, we have talked about this at length before. I mean, I just think it's I think you look at James Roo, looks like an opener. Whether Somerset ⁓ want to keep him at four just to balance the side, I don't think you could be asking him to open. And Keith, currently the way that the squad is. If England want to pick him as an opener, think looking at him, they know that he's got all the attributes to be able to succeed. I don't think you'll get picked unless he gets some runs opening for Somerset. They Dan Lawrence, didn't they, for a few games as opener a few years ago, despite he isn't opening his county. That was obviously only temporary, was probably only ever going to be temporary, but Lawrence didn't do that well, he? He going to Sri Lanka in the end of the 2024 summer. Yeah, I think they picked him because he'd been kicking around with the squad most of summer and they didn't want to bring in a fresh face. I think they just thought, we think he's our seventh best batter or whatever. he comes in now and the spare spot is opening the bat in so... Go have a Seeing as Lowis didn't do that well, that might have put them off picking a non-specialist opener, perhaps. Yeah. Potentially. It'd interesting if Jamie Smith was struggling for Surrey, maybe then Rue would actually have a real chance of getting in as the weaker keeper at number six, but as Jamie Smith is scoring a lot of runs at the moment, yeah, that's... I don't know if that is correct because you don't need... I don't want to believe everything you read on Twitter. But it said, Jamie Smith is averaging 99 this season, but the average per wicket in the games that he's played is 99.25. So he's not relatively speaking having that good a season. He's scoring runs on flat ones, he? In HBS last weekend. Yeah. Well this week. You're not going to drop Jamie Smith this side of Armageddon. He's one of the, you know, after Pant, he's probably the best wicket keeper batsman in the world. I Carey's up in the... Well, I think, yeah. He's very, very good, Jamie Smith. He's, I don't think his glove work is where it needs to be. Carey in the ashes was absolutely phenomenal. Yes, he was. was standing up. Although if you listen to Jack Russell on the Stitcher Cricket one, was bemoaning the fact that he wasn't really standing up because he was ⁓ about a foot back and I agree with Jack on that one. I mean and also let's talk about the run chase as well. So if you'd said to me that Archie Vaughan and Will Smeade are going to be your two not substitutes, they're replacements. And one of them was going to be 41 out of 25 balls and the other one was going to be five off 25 balls. I think a lot of people have lost their money. Archie Thorne came out like an absolute greyhound out the traps, making short work of that. Should not necessarily a tricky target. Let's be honest, if you're chasing 50, you've only really got to get the 20 for none and then the opposition kind of give up. But just clean striking of a cricket ball, completely clear in what he wanted to do. I mean, I'm looking now for the batting order for the utilitarian bowl. on Friday and I've got Thomas opening, Lama be at three, Abel at five. And then based on what we just talked about with James Rue and how the different ways that Smead and Archie Bourne played, I mean, they both kind of showed that they can play like the other. mean, who goes where? And then obviously we got Lewis Gregory coming back in as well, potentially. How do you know I'm doing our fit, Lewis' Ben? I heard he was supposed to be playing for the twos and having a little bowl. over last couple of days that that's not happened as far as I could see. Yeah, he had a bowl at Thornton Bell, not in the fixture, I don't think. OK. But ⁓ yeah, as I spoke to Lewis today and yeah, things are heading in the right direction, sure. So, yeah, I'd be I think he's pretty confident of playing on Friday. Good stuff. Speaking of Lewis, is testimonial season this year. The opening dinner is 24th of April, so that's next Friday. I'd love to have gone, but unfortunately I'm working so I can't make it, but it's going be a great night. think Lewis is there. It's going to be a look back at the T20 winning campaign. So you're going to hear from all the players that were involved. The only downside I think is Pete Trigo's emceeing. you'd have to put it with Triggs. Rumor is that he's going to, there's a raffle for a ride in his new Ferrari and all that sort of thing. All the usual stuff's going to be going on there. So do give that a, do get to that if you can. Details are on the website, lg24.co.uk. And there's also details of all the other golf days and cricket matches. We've got another game down at South Devon this year, which I'm just starting to get to grip to now getting that organized. ⁓ lost my training thought there talking about Lewis. Yeah, utility bar. I how do we, we presume that Alfie is going to come back in for Josh Shaw. ⁓ Actually, Josh Shaw, we'll just have a quick couple of minutes on Josh Shaw. bowled pretty tidy first innings. ⁓ One very good second innings. Yeah, that's, I think that's what you're going to get from him. If it's there, he'll nibble it about a bit. put the ball in the right areas, but I think on a flat one, I think that's where you're probably going to, I don't think he's kind of got much to offer you there. both sides. It just wasn't grooved at all. You go back to the way Pennington and Stone bowled for knots on the first day of the season. That's what we should be aspiring to, just ball after ball in the right areas. And he doesn't seem capable of doing that. Jake Ball, that did though. Very final. That's the best I've seen in both, so I'm a set. Yeah, likewise. I'd say they're probably the two that are going to make way if Lewis and Alfie come back in. mean, batting at Utility Bowl, then obviously TKC and Goldsworthy was also subbed out with a hamstring injury. Actually, I feel like we've done Lewis Colter with a little bit of a disservice there because he batted really, really well. did that really, really well. so solid, you know. And for Craig Overton as well. Yeah. It's really, really bad luck on him as well because he had the chance of a good run in the side. And now I guess he, ⁓ Jason told me it's quite a bad tear in his hamstring. So I doubt we'll see him now until, well, you know, until the the two games at the end of June possibly, which is really tough on him because he batted well against knots, ⁓ I thought as well. And he looked really, really good, solid, very tight defensive technique at a time when, know, batting was difficult on that first day. It really was. He didn't look like he was going to get out until he got out. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, just hope that it's not as... the other day, it didn't sound all that fantastic. hope touchwood, it's speaking back because I get, you know, also have an impact on the T20. Maybe it's not back in time for the 22nd of May. So fingers crossed. Yep, definitely fingers crossed to you Golders. Right. So yeah, how we fit in all these batters into the top six for you to let us know. think they're like Middvaughan and Thomas. I think they will. And then, then, ⁓ Lamondby, Rue, Able, Smead. Gregory Overton, notorious. I think I would at the utility bowl, think. Smead at six seems to make sense to me. Carl Albert nipping that back. I think I might. Mike Overvorn to take that. that on and let Snead build on what he did at six. Snead's a blocker now and Vaughan's the hitter. Well, just hope hope Vaughan plays with the same sort of freedom that he did at Chelmsford because it was a revelation. I've never seen him certainly in Red Bull cricket play as fluently as he did then. It was just a joy to behold. He looked a class above. the way he's looked to me. wasn't slogging was he? No, he was proper shots. Using his feet well, you know, he was in the right position to play whatever shot that he was. He hardly put a foot wrong. I think he played miss once in the first over that he faced from Sam Cooke. You know, it was not bad on his home pitch. And he had a look in that first over and then he decided he was going to... take on Simon Harbour, did it brilliantly, using his feet. It was terrific. I think that if that's the Archie Vaughan of the future, I think, you know, he looked, I mean, I don't want to get ahead of, he mustn't get ahead of us, but he looked really, really good. Yeah, I mean, I've thought a little bit, a couple of times watching him bat, he's not, ah, what's the word I'm looking He's not had a kind of a presence or an imposition at least a bit like you talked about Will Smith having he's kind of going out there not necessarily without confidence, but maybe not sort of you know He's been a bit sort of shoulders down at that moon for needs to be a head up shoulders back Kind of owning that owning that space and he really did look like he just looked a million bucks I mean, what was it minutes 5.4 overs to? Get rid of what was a potentially pretty Tricky, nervy run chase. mean, I can't believe how quickly they knocked them off, to be honest. Anyway, excellent stuff. Can we have a quick discussion about this new injury replacement trial then? It's not without its critics. It's not without potential accusations of abuse, not mentioning any names, Yorkshire. What are your thoughts on it? I'll start with mine to give you a bit of a chance at things. I wouldn't have it. I would just say that you can have one sub in a championship game, but you have to use it before the third inning starts. So it can be tactical. It can be injury. No, I hate it in the IPL that they have this 12th plan. No, in the IPL it's different because it's like it's one, it's you batting and then you're bowling. You do it. You've got to do it before halfway. So if you get rid of a bowler, you've got to bowl with three bowlers or if you get rid of a batter, you lose a batter for an inning. I think if you're ahead in the game... think you're ahead with a minority of one minute. Well, that's because you've not let me explain, Gibbo. I don't like the idea of tactical... It doesn't have to be tactical. If you have an injury, can use it for that as well. It gives an opportunity to you to bring in a young player for one innings. It enables you to strengthen your side to make the quality of cricket better. It's to practice matches where you get 12 people playing and retired out. This is proper serious cricket. I think there'll be somebody obviously in contention as You to make it between the second and the third innings. I don't... No. Sorry, Shet. Cricket has 11 players. Well, thankfully I've got three people who agree with me and I'm going to tactically replace the three of you and bring them in. So, cheers guys. I was going to try and do that this week. I was going to try and get Peter Wanless, Steve Tankock and Harry Everett all lined up and then just at halfway just... of injured or sort of gradually injured, replace everyone through the podcast, but I'm on hold down, I couldn't bother to organise that. ⁓ There's an art to team section in cricket, it's one of the beauties of cricket, you get 11 players and that's that. And I think that the thing is, I think people thought like Chris Woke's style injury against India last year, that's very obvious, yes he clearly cannot play cricket properly, that should really in another world have a substitution. That's the kind of thing that think maybe people were envisaging. subs to be used for maybe not quite as extreme as the Chris works one, but towards that end of things. instead, we've had all these sudden we've had two illnesses, then it's sort of thumb injuries, finger injuries. They're ones which would they have played like, if it wasn't because john Dixon the oval last year, you know, he did something to he broke a finger didn't he did come back in and bat for a bit, but was clearly in pain. So is that one where this should probably should be a sub? Perhaps? I think this has been more these it and injuries than people thought. Maybe it's just been, maybe we just need to give it a few rounds and wait for things to settle down a bit because I can't imagine, there were seven subs in the round just gone. Just you know, you wouldn't expect seven separate niggles that there were mostly niggles, that's the thing. weren't, none of them were very dramatic injuries. was a concussion as well. coelacanth more stung, you know, at the side of forearm. So I've had a brief look at the rules when they were established. If it's an injury, teens, physios have to agree. Is that not putting an undue amount of pressure on the opposition's physio? And would there potentially be some sort of legal ramification if, you know, I say that, sorry, I don't think you're injured enough, carry on playing and then that player, through the fact that carries on playing and they... suffer a career-ending injury or something like that. don't know. I think it's a good point. I think that there is going to be Irwin on the side of player welfare and player safety. Not incorrectly, but I think that you will get, you know, I think everyone's after a bar, aren't they? What was the bar of this? And I think that, yeah, you know, I'm... I think we do need to see more rounds. know, it's early April, it's cold, players are going to get hammies and finger injuries probably more than now than they might do in when their hands have hardened up and the weather's better in June and July. But equally, you know, you don't want to see a situation. I think the Sean Dixon is quite a good example at the Oval last year where could, someone said he had nine wickets in the second innings. You know, is that an unfair advantage? I think those are the sorts of questions that we need to ask ourselves, are we comfortable with a player if he breaks a finger, that okay, right? That's your fault. You've retired out that innings and can't bat in the second innings. Or do we want to see that innings continued in a football style substitution? That's ultimately, think what we as a game need to ask ourselves is if someone breaks a finger, what do we want as game? I don't think anybody wants to see, mean, look at, yeah, Chris Wokes is the great example. If he says, I'm going out to bat because I want to win a test match for my country, when he's in a situation where really a lot of damage could have been done if he'd been hit, face him. I don't think anybody's really going to say to them, no, you're not going out to bat. Those rules could be tweaked to actually have that independent physio thing to say, actually, no, Chris, you can't bat. We've run a, not just a concussion test on you, we've run a fit and proper, and you can't bat, Chris. So would we as a game rather, England have had nine wickets? I think they lost the game anyway. I remember right. Would we rather as a game that Chris Wokes not be allowed to bat or would we rather have a game that Chris Wokes been able to have someone else come in to bat for it? I think that's the, I don't think there's any question of whether players shouldn't be able to hurt themselves and continue and Chris Wokes is probably a good extreme example of that. But we don't want to see players batting with broken thumbs and things like that and making things worse and running on hamstring injuries, but we just, we either need to know are people, are people happy to accept that if they get that there is a sub or, or should there just be a, okay, sorry, bad luck. You only have nine wickets now approach. But the Lewis Goldsworthy one is interesting because he did his hamstring while he, whilst he was batting and it carried on batting with a runner. coming in on the following morning and then subsequently he was injury replaced. Now presumably the only explanation for that is that he aggravated the hamstring injury ⁓ and that led to the injury ⁓ replacement for him. But if you're injured and then you carry on batting, I would say that that rather This bars the team from having an injury replacement because you know He scored he scored runs when he was injured and then his replacement comes in and scores runs as well. Just yeah The other thing they need to look at is How long whether whether it's days before you can play again or whether it's games before you can play again I think it needs to be gained or rather Yorkshire have got a buyback They could have had 11 injury subs if they wanted to, had not been materially affected at all. I think two key things that I'm sort of keeping at the forefront of my mind when looking at all of this is, one, this is a trial. If you think back to when they first brought in DRS, that was a complete mess, but over the years, the process has been refined and refined and refined until it's more or less as good as it can be. So yes, so remember it's a trial, it's going to change and two, it is well-intentioned. This is, as you said Ben, it's got player welfare at the forefront of its objectives and that can only be a good thing. So I think over the years you'll see little tweaks as Gibbo said, you know, with that little example with Golders, whether you've got to cease, you've got to go straight off the pitch to qualify for an injury replacement or not. Anyway, it's been 51 minutes and I feel that we've been incredibly disrespectful to the fantastic knock that Sophie Duff played for Somerset Women on Saturday against Yorkshire in their first game of the Metro about one day cup. Erin Osborne's first game in charge as well. There's been a lot said about the impact that she's had with the women's side and how she wants them to play. Wow. What, we're 120 for 8 chasing 180. I only caught the last bits of it on my phone. I paying bit more attention to the men's game and sat on a coach from the airport, but you were there all day. Talk us through it. mean, is it four wickets? It's four. Griff first up, bold Yorkshire out for 180 odd, and then we were in a bit of trouble. Yeah, it was a strange game, really. It was a game full of error. The Yorkshire... You know, some are set, oh, well, don't get me wrong, but some of the shots from Yorkshire, know, lots of sort of court made offs and, know, Yorkshire Zinnings was very error, error stricken. Shout out to Lola Harris, who came in a bold leg spin on debut and it was cold and windy. You wouldn't have thought making your debut as a leg, 18 year old leg spinner would be one of the worst conditions that you'd ever want to. on her face, but she bowled brilliantly. So shout out to her. She pretty well as well from what I saw. Yeah, absolutely. She just needed to stick around with Luffy and, you know, she did that. She picked up the ones when she needed to, but she didn't ever kind of look like she was cutting headlights. And you thought when Yorkshire got 170, you thought, you know, good pitch at Taunton with a short boundary towards the Somerset stand. You thought that it was going to be a pretty, you know, with the quality, know, Danny Gibson had a night and, and, and so from the light, Bex Rogers, we thought that it was going to be a pretty comfortable performance given that they didn't really have to chase it. But yeah, some of the sets, batting was a little bit error stricken as well. um, with, with it's continued to fall under no real, you know, run rate pressure. And, um, and he got to a stage where they were, they look, they looked out of it really. mean, um, again, shout out to Lola. with it batting and, and so played a phenomenal innings really, you know, fantastic, uh, um, you know, leadership, you know, she took control of the situation. She, it was a really experienced knock. She knew that, um, there would be runs, runs on offer and, um, yeah, she got dropped. She got quite badly dropped at, uh, in short third, but, um, Yeah, to get over the line there. I actually got quite badly dropped off the last ball of the game as well as it turned out. I guess that's a big moment. You you've got to take the big moments and if you don't take the big moments, you don't deserve to win games. yeah, it was a good win. I'm sure it was one of those wins that they'll celebrate the next day the coach would be in the office and saying, right, OK, there's a few things we need to work on here in the next game. they had that fantastic win at the first game. last season. yeah, I hope they can kick on and travel up to Southport on Saturday to play on Sunday against Lancashire who look strong. that'd be another big test, but yeah, a great win. Great knock. I mean, instead of just, you've sort of echoed the, win at Beckham. I mean, the, big difference for me that it was the captain, the homegrown player, the Somerset through and through Sophie Lough that, that saw them home in the match winning innings rather than, um, Amanda Jade Wellington did sort of the overseas signing. I think it was massive for this new leadership group as well, because there's been a lot of not necessarily hyped, probably the wrong word, but Erin Osborne's come in, she's talked about how she wants the side to play. It's sort of a more sort of mature brand of cricket, owning the game, taking responsibility, being the one to see your side home. And then if that hadn't happened first game, I think it would have had a massive effect with the fact that the skipper's gone out, took the game by the scruff of the neck. You mentioned sort of being dropped. think you look back to, I mean, I always think of Ben Stokes when you look at these innings that way, he just gets the game, grain. It's the Cruz Campo. It's good stuff. Gets the game by the scruff of the neck and just drags, drags the team to victory. You look at Ben Stokes World Cup final. He was bad at bad mistake by Trent Bolt on the boundary, dropped him and it went for six. Little bit of luck with the ricochet that went for four. I just think sometimes when you go out there, you kind of create that aura that I'm winning the game and the opposition just kind of sort of noticed that and sort of, ⁓ and I think Luffy did that on Saturday. I just think she was, you know, taking the sort of this new method of playing that the leadership group come up with on board and was just set right. we aren't losing this game. And then you've got a couple of bits of luck, yeah, absolutely massive that they won that game. Absolutely made up for Luffy that she was able to see the team home as well. I should just mention as well, it's only three teams that go through from nine in the Women's One Day Cup this year. Last year was four that go through from eight with two semis. This year it's winner goes straight to the final, then second and third play-offs. So you've got to be not perfect, but you can't afford too many losses to go through this year. it was important to beat Yorkshire, who are, you know, they have just come up from Tier 2. They are not that strong. So it was very, very important that we got over the line against them, to be honest. And this I think is, as we saw last year, 50 other Crook is our stronger format. So we did it. By hook or by crook, we did it. hopefully we can build on it and just sort of... The main thing is we got over the line and that's what we need to remember, even though it was a flawed performance. Hopefully we can learn from it and go again against Lancashire, which will be a tough test because obviously they're the holders. Yep, absolutely. Best of luck to Luffy and the girls for the rest of the season then. As a deed, best of luck to Lewis and the boys as they travel up to Utilita Bowl on Friday. Do we have any other business chaps? I'm just reading Steve's email. He's got a couple of questions. I think we've all ⁓ pretty much covered. ⁓ Anything on Twitter from our listeners? See that way. Andy Cleve mentions about the injury substitutes. ⁓ Simon Hancock is assuming that Smead and Vaughan... ⁓ Smead and Vaughan replace TKC and goals with the Who opens. I mean, you could open with Smead and Vaughan and drop Josh Thomas down to six. Probably not going to happen. Rob Reed... That'd be a new opening partnership there, so that'd be fun. It would be, yes. I wish I'd never done this stupid joke about the T-flip now. I could be doing like, you know, I could be in the middle of like the most important bit of work. I could be like doing the wages or whatever at work and like, ⁓ new opening partnership, right? New t-shirt. No, I think I'm going to get it made either because it will be out of date within a week probably. ⁓ Rob Reid wants to give a shout out to B Willis who's doing very well with Batamble for England under 19s out in Australia. And Peter Wandus, our esteemed president, is finishing us off today with ⁓ Not echoes of 2019 Somerset County Cricket Club top after two games. How do we stop Kyle Abbott taking 17 for 86? Perhaps I should make him my fantasy crickets captain. Please do that, Peter. If you're that certain that you're going to put the kibosh on, on the big Kyle. mean, just, I mean, I'm, I'm summing up Friday as probably our batting and their bowling. being the two strongest elements of the game. interesting to if Sonny Baker plays. He's had a great record against us in a couple of times. He hasn't played against us in first class though, he? No, he hasn't first class. He'll be very, very desperate, I'm sure, to make his mark. He has played two in a row now, hasn't he? I just wonder if they'll be looking to give him break. does play. It'll be good to see how he's getting on. Last year... We had Hampshire in game three and Sonny had played the first two matches of the season and then got rested against us at the request of the ECB because of course he's under one of those pace bowling development contracts. So the exact same thing could happen this year. Yeah, that's quite right. It could well indeed. Anybody know how the Gloucesters are doing? ⁓ come on, we're all West Countrymen. Are they on zero points? They are in danger of getting relegated now. They're in serious danger of having Division 3 created just for them. They are on zero I mean, as you say, Givbo, you shouldn't enjoy too much their current woes, but I mean, it's difficult to see how they win a game. They've just got no bowlers, they? They've all left. Yeah, no points after two games. Very sad indeed, but Somerset's sitting pretty at the top of Division 1. Let's hope it stays that way, well, until the end of September, which would be very nice. Gents, it's been a pleasure as always. I'm off to the Mini Disco to get my choo-choo-wah-wah-wah and my chuk-a-chuk-a-batch-a-batch-a-chuk-a-chuk-a-vee-a-vee-a on. You not heard that? Well... Enjoy. Have a good time. Cheers, See you all next week. Thank you.