Somerset Royal London One Day Cup at Welbeck CC No Result

 

WELBECK WASHED-OUT

A thoroughly miserable day at Welbeck, where the biggest surprise was that there was any play took atall. Following a wet night and early morning, a dire weather forecast had been predicted, but play got under on time at 1100 with Somerset winning the tossand electing to bowl in front of around 500 spectators. Lyndon James was brought back in to the line-up with Hameed joining the England squad at Loughborough.

Sonny Baker (Marquee End) and Ben Green (Scoreboard End) opened the bowling on a sluggish wicket with a wet, slow outfield. In the second over, Budinger (2),having gone aerial the ball before, was caught at mid off by Drissell off Green, 6 for 1. In the 7th over, Baker had Trego leg before for 13, the Notts skipper clearly unhappy with the decision, 23 for 2. Slater and Montgomery slowly accumulated runs. Aldridge replaced Somerset skipper Green in the 10thover and slow left-armer Lewis Goldsworthy came on in the following over. Light rain started to fall, as reports of a deluge in Nottingham filtered through. Appropriately, former Gloucester off-spinner George Drissel came on in the 16th over. He bowled three tidy overs. There was just time for debutant Ned Leonard,formerly of Millfield School and a Devon player, to bowl one over of right-arm medium pace, but then the rain got heavier, and play was halted at 1216 with Notts 92 for 2 off 21 overs with Slater on 42 and Montgomery on 31. Only six boundaries had been hit throughout the 76 minutes of play. The players neverreturned. The rain kept coming in pulses and play was formally abandoned at1550. Both teams took a point apiece. Leicestershire visit the ground on Sunday, where we hope that all the home clubs great efforts will be rewarded with an uninterrupted encounter. MAG

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Latest Squad news:

Out go: Sol Budinger, Ben Slater,  Lyndon James, Peter Trego, Matthew Montgomery, Liam Patterson-White, Joey Evison, Dane Schadendorf, Brett Hutton, Luke Fletcher, Toby Pettman, Tom Barber, Dane Paterson 

and in storm Evert (possibly)

Trent Bridge are calling this game part one of the Welbeck Weekender and so they ought be careful before they get accused of trying to sell the event instead of burying it!

Somerset have had a different approach, being able to play home fixtures at their Taunton HQ, games there have had larger numbers of spectators and the matches have been accompanied by the usual razzamatazz and music - something that I've not picked-up on other streams from other grounds.

Notts' bowlers took a pounding at Guildford so a tweak there will possibly be necessary. The wheels definitely fell off the wagon on Tuesday and I suspect veteren and captain Peter Trego is still looking for at least a couple of them today on Thursday. If Pettman or Barber are bringing anything to the Nottinghamshire squad, now might be the opportunity to let them shine as it's usually the case that a seamer or two does get some reward at Welbeck. Notts will be without Haseeb Hameed who will have joined the England set-up at Loughborough.

Somerset, hit by the Hundred draft disease much like Notts, have it appears found a few new gems and it will be interesting to see how they perform away from their Taunton home at the electricity pylon-adorned John Fretwell Complex. Sonny Baker, RFM Devonian 18 year old, looked composed at the death yesterday.

In these Covid-fear stricken times and with a mixed weather forecast on Friday, it's doubtful the crowd numbers will be close to the 4.6K that watched Outlaws beat Derbyshire in 2016 but the usually magnificent cake stall is advertised as being there, so that is sure to add a few thousand calories if not spectators and inches to a few waistlines.