SCOTLAND v SOMERSET, Edinburgh, 7th May 2004
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This tour followed a day trip to Exmouth on the Wednesday where I was hoping to see Devon beat Leicestershire, but there was not a ball bowled that day (but a pretty good second day I hear).
Somerset were busy annihilating Derby by a massive 14 runs before making their way up north. My journey was by way of another cheap Easyjet flight on the Thursday from a cloudy Bristol to a rainy Edinburgh for a shortened tour this year, just 2 nights. I met up with Richard from Exeter and Geoff from Dawlish who had arrived earlier on their flight from Exeter. Unfortunately, I'd left booking accommodation very late again, so we were stuck with digs in Leith, about 2 miles away from the cricket ground. Having booked in at the B&B there were a 'few' pints of McEwans 80 shilling and Deuchars (3 pints for £3.87) in the Wetherspoons pub The Foot Of The Walk, complimented by a fairly decent portion of haggis, neaps and tatties. We ventured a little further to another, rather ornate pub (I'll remember the name soon) for more of the same only nowhere near as cheap, before retiring for the evening.
It was an overcast Friday morning, but at least it was dry. We took a bus ride to Princes Street, took refreshment in a pub in Rose Street, then a slow walk to Stockbridge to get to The Dean pub. One of the locals (there were only 2 in the pub!) swore, literally, that he recognised me from last year, and his mate confirmed this when he said, "Aye, he was just talking about a wee Jesse from the south!" Perhaps 'WEE JESSE' might be my next tee-shirt offering. After another swift 80 shilling we went to the ground and into the bar run by the same very friendly staff from last year. After brief chats with their ex-Chief Executive, PA announcer/scorer, and the Dee-jay (who didn't seem to have any wurzels cds), we settled down in front of the pavilion alongside fellow supporters Dud from Doncaster, Tim and his mates from Taunton, and Dasher and his good lady who had travelled direct from Holland where Gloucestershire had just scraped through their C&G match. Along with at least a dozen from Swindon, our PA announcer Peter Lane, and ex-chairman Richard Parsons, Somerset were well represented. Fond memories were shared of last year's support which included our sadly departed CrouchEndWyvern, Hugh.
The fall of a wicket seemed to be accompanied by The Communards "Don't Leave Me This Way", and boundaries with "Oh, Ho, Ho, It's Magic" by Pilot, interspersed with a few other 'hits' from the 70s/80s. Was it Fred Trueman who once said, "Cricket's not cricket without a bl**dy good Dee-jay"? Just to make the N19s / N7s jealous we ventured up on to the roof and basked in now glorious sunshine with a brilliant view of the game and the rest of Edinburgh.
Somerset: Wood (replacing Burns), Francis J, Gazzard, Cox (Capt.), Parsons, Dutch, Hildreth (replacing Laraman), Turner (wkt), Francis S (replacing Johnson), Caddick, McLean.
Scotland: Wright (Capt.), Williamson (replacing Brinkley), Lockhart, More, Hoffman PJC, Smith (wkt), English (replacing Hoffman P), Yasir Arafat (replacing Stanger), Sriram, Watson, Watts.
Umpires Cowley and Clarkson.
Somerset posted an impressive 248 for 7, with 43 from Gazzard and fifties from Cox & Parsons. This was more like it; a full day's play in prospect, a decent total to defend and plenty of McEwan's 70 shilling on tap.
Looking at the scorecard, Mr Watson, who practically won the game for Scotland last year, was down at no.10. Was this some sort of joke? Yes it was. He came in at 50 for 3 and with Sriram got things going in a slightly worrying way for Somerset supporters. They added a quick 74 for the fourth wicket before Sriram was run out for 35 and Watson followed shortly afterwards caught behind off Parsons for 45. Apart from a bit of resistance from Smith, the Scottish innings rather fell apart after Watson's dismissal, full credit to our bowlers, including Dutchy who bowled his full 9 overs for 6 runs less than his two overs last year, but I'm sure he's heard enough of that particular analysis. Scotland all out in 40.1 overs, Somerset winning by 55 runs, the second totesport victory from 2 games played. Parsons was made man of the match (I think). After a few celebratory jars in the pavilion bar, there were some more in another Wetherspoons pub The Standing Order, plus a last one in the Foot of the Walk.
That last one must have been a bit dodgy, because I wasn't feeling terribly bright and sunny at 6am Saturday morning, slowly making my way to the airport for an early flight back to Bristol.
It proved to be another very enjoyable trip north of the border. Will there be one next year? Perhaps Somerset and Scotland will win promotion? I do hope so.
