TRACTOR'S TALES.

After the disappointment of losing that home match against Sussex, Oakham School was the venue for the next FCC & TSL matches.

The original county town of Rutland boasts a mainline railway station with one of the railway buildings transformed into a small brewery and pub The Grainstore. They were also operating the beer tent at the cricket festival. No Blackthorn, but real ale 'Cooking' was the order of the 5 days. Given a guided tour of the Grainstore brewery, I learned fishes sturgeon bladder flakes are used in the 'fines' process to draw down raw ale impurities to make it clearer. Comparing this with alleged ingredients to scrumpy I was put off for a matter of about 2 minutes. Other places of interest in Oakham: The Griff Inn, Merry Monk, Wheat Sheaf, Rutland Angler, White Lion, Railway Inn, and the Admiral Hornblower.

As for the cricket, Somerset secured a grafted draw in the 4-dayer (thanks to Frankie jnr's 104 n.o. & Burnsie's 59), but suffered a narrow 71 run defeat on the Sunday (despite 61 from new captain Smith).

Welcome everyone to a truly international week at Taunton.

On Wednesday we say "g'day cobber" to all those Bruces & Sheilas from Oz for a one-dayer. Somerset host the Australian tourists just about every time they tour England. In the last 4-dayer 13 July 2001 the Aussies sneaked a 176 run win against a Somerset side that included locals Shoaib Akhtar & Aamer Sohail, brought in (or bought in) to boost gate receipts. Australian Colin Miller seemed to be grabbing a bit of extra cash, advertising a poor quality bright pink hair dye which faded rapidly over the four days.

The last Somerset victory against the Aussies was a 3-dayer, 18th May 1977 at Bath, by 7 wickets.
Somerset:- Rose, Denning, Richards, Slocombe, Botham, Close (c), Breakwell, Burgess, Taylor (w), Garner, Moseley.
Australia:- McCosker, Serjeant, Cosier, Hookes, Walters, Marsh (w), Chappell (Greg)(c), O'Keeffe, Thomson, Malone, Dymock.

These were Tractor Driver's schooldays, but on 19th May I left school early (with permission) to catch the WEMS football special coach to watch Coventry v Bristol City in the last game of the old first division (now the obscene Premier League), where both sides fought for first division survival. Bristol, 2 goals down at half-time, somehow managed to score twice in the dying moments of full-time earning a draw, and with favourable results in other matches both sides remained in the first division for the following season. Those who returned to Bath the following day no doubt wore beaming smiles, especially when the cricket concluded with the Westcountry poms victorious!

On Friday the international extravaganza continues with the Scottish Saltires on another whistlestop tour of England which includes Taunton on Friday, Derbyshire Sunday and Leicestershire Monday. Despite being lodged at the wrong end of the Totesport League, they claimed a crushing victory over the Warwickshire Bears at Stratford-Upon-Avon a few weeks ago, cruising to a one-wicket win. Next year's C&G competition has been re-arranged into north & south leagues, so it's likely Somerset will meet Scotland again in the 2006 C&G final at Lord's.

Celebrity Birthdays for Wednesday include Oliver (five past one) Kahn (German goalkeeper), Jim (one half of the Blues Brothers) Belushi (who a lot of people think I resemble) and Demis (Forever and Ever) Roussos (who a lot more people think I resemble). On Friday, wish Happy Birthday to Eddy (on yer bike) Merckx, Ken (Indigestion / Congestion charging) Livingstone, and Barry (Cocoa Havana) Manilow.

Och Aye, Matilda!!! (COME ON SOMERSET!!!)