TRACTOR'S TALES.

Okay, okay. In last week's article I explained that very large individual scores only come along once in a while.

Make that twice in a while (so far!). No sooner had the ink dried on my photo (somehow making me look larger than in real life) than our Matt Wood (the one with the Somerset Wyvern on his front), grafted a magnificent 297 against Yorkshire in the FCC, his highest first class score. There were great knocks also for Blackie (62) and Parsie (94) and Somerset amassed a formidable 581, a lead of 175. Caddick, after his heroic 6-wicket haul in the first innings, and Charl Langeveldt then bowled with real pace and accuracy claiming 2 wickets apiece leaving Yorkshire 4 wickets down still 2 runs behind at close of play Friday. With a great last day in prospect, Saturday's mixture of bad light and rain dashed the likelihood of back-to-back championship wins.

Then that TSL game last Sunday. Woody followed up his first-class best with a one-day best of 129 runs from just 105 balls. After John Francis' 28 and a quick 45 from Arul Suppiah, Captain Blackie joined Vice Captain Woody and knocked another rather fast ton - his first fifty off only 33 balls and his next off just 22. I'm sure one of his awesome blasts invited groundsman Phil Frost to play 'Heads & Volleys' (the invitation was narrowly not accepted). Somerset's 345 for 4 was surely unbeatable; hopefully more unbeatable than the total posted against Sussex earlier in the season which turned out to be beatable! With a required rate of over 7.5 runs per over, Yorkshire set about their task rather too well, but Blackie rotated his bowlers well and strangled their scoring rate to leave them almost dead and buried requiring an unlikely 25 from the last over bowled by Blackie himself. We watched in ascending horror as a six and three fours were blitzed by Yorkshireman Deon Kruis, leaving them a possible victory off the last ball. Fortunately Blackie kept his cool (while some in the crowd were biting fingernails & cider mugs) and kept them down to 2, for a Somerset victory by an ver-so-slightly uncomfortable 2 runs.

Today we welcome back Durham, down this way only a few weeks ago when they were victorious against us in the 4-day format. Well we've won a trophy and reorganised a bit since then, and with just a few games left the slenderly-challenged lady hasn't warbled to end mathematically-possible promotion hopes from either league just yet (although our chances look slenderly-challenged themselves)! As far as the TSL is concerned there's Surrey at The Oval next Sunday, the floodlit game here against Warwickshire Monday 5th September, a return trip to Durham Sunday 18th September, then Derbyshire back here for the last game Sunday 25th September. The floodlit game, like today's, is due to be televised by Sky. Local garages remain on alert just in case the same Sky commentator fills his car with the wrong type of fuel as he did when covering one of the twenty20 games earlier. With so many types of fuel to choose from nowadays (diesel or unleaded), try not to make the same Bumble Fumble yourselves!

Celebrity birthdays today include Kim (hit a 'six in the city' apparently) Cattrall, Count (handy pianist) Basie, and Kenny (You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Loose Wheel) Rogers.

With mended cider mugs and fingernails grown back a bit from last week, let's hope we can find our way, not necessarily to Amarillo, but to another Somerset victory ...

COME ON SOMERSET!!!