TRACTOR'S TALES.

After the Bath festival where our chaps came off second best to Worcestershire in the 4-dayer then Kent in the 1-dayer, expectations were not sky-high of a favourable result against the mighty Australians the following Wednesday.

Captain Graeme Smith led a youthful Somerset team to face a very strong Australian side which included the likes of Hayden, Ponting, Brett Lee, Kasprowicz, and McGrath. Oz chose to bat first and despite some great fielding, rather a lot of boundaries were leaked, and a total of 340-odd was well out of our reach, or so some lesser mortals thought! It was only a requirement of just under 7 an over for goodness sake! An opening stand of 197 between Jayasuriya and captain Smith, set the scene for a quite remarkable and successful run chase completed in style by young guns Hildreth and Gazzard, with over 3 overs to spare. A 4 wicket win, Somerset's second only victory against a touring Aussie side, must surely have tickled Mr Fletcher and co!

Next up was the Scottish Saltires visit. Nixon McLean returned to the side, but alas only to suffer further hamstring troubles after 4 overs. John Francis received a nasty blow to his head from a Matt Wood throw and after a visit to hospital did not bat on his return. Somerset lost by just 15 runs, a bitter pill to swallow after the Lord Mayor's show.

Totesport games now take a month's break while it's the turn for you twenty20 fans. In its early days there was plenty of confusion. School leavers, all armed with their 'A' graded GCSEs thought it was a 'Sums' test paper, and armed with their calculators were confident of answering the tricky 20+20, 20-20 or 20/20 questions (20*20 took a while longer). Others thought it was an innovative idea to play cricket on a very steep 20:20 gradient. Old British Rail timetable employees thought it would be a bit late in the evening to stage cricket at 20:20, but if the players possessed that quality of vision it might catch on. Now in its third year, twenty20 cricket seems to be ever more popular, attracting vast crowds and a lot of marketing men ready to exploit it to a greater extent!

Somerset host four games of this popular format, maybe more if we can progress to, and beyond a quarter-final.
Thursday it's the turn of the Worcestershire Royals, but bear in mind our team will have had a late Wednesday night playing those Glam rockers under floodlights at Cardiff. The Glamorgan return match is next Monday 27th June.

Both, either or neither of these games will be Sanath Jayasuriya's last game for Somerset this season. If you can't remember his 61 (tsl v Surrey at Taunton), 73 (fcc v Lancs at Taunton), 55 (fcc v Northants at Northants), or his 66 (fcc v Worcestershire at Bath), then I urge you to toast his departure with a broad beaming smile recalling him flaying the best of Australian bowling around this very pleasant small arena amassing 101 off just 79 deliveries. Cheers Jaya, and Happy Birthday Thursday 30th. Other celebrity birthdays include sadly departed Adam (What Do You Want (- a Somerset win!)) Faith, and Zinedine (Golden Ball, France '98) Zidane on Thursday 23rd, then Ross (Dallas billionaire) Perot, and Michael (give me another west end show) Ball on Monday 27th.

Sit back, don't blink, watch the ball (because it could come your way at any time), and give our boys a loud cheer ...

COME ON SOMERSET!!!