By Grockle
May 17 2003

Nixon McLean starts the drive to send the Welsh home losers. Marcus T drives in the second nail but will the weather stop us finishing the job off? 200 behind at the halfway stage, Glamorgan must be wishing for buckets of rain!

v GLAMORGAN CC2 @ Taunton May 17 2003

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

DAY FOUR

Day 1
Where do Glamorgan fit into the CC2 setup? Well they certainly bat - and have in the past couple of seasons to great effect away from home. Bowling is not so hot, Mike Kasprowicz is their overseas guy and he didn't impress last time he was at Taunton. Crofty is a battler but is he the spinner he was and does it make a difference in changeable weather in our back yard? Harrison and Wharf I don't know lots about - but then again you rarely do with the Welshmen's attack - somebody like Dale does all the sodding damage. If you can say one thing about them, they always hit you in unexpected ways!

We go in still offering our top guns - Banger will be gone soon but for now he's still here - and in form! Burnsy needs some runs but the top bat guys seem to be getting into the swing a little more now. The jury is still out about Bryant but Blacky is firing at number 6 it seems. No Caddick in the bowling so a place for Simon Francis to return. Aaron Laraman returns in the allrounder slot - jury's still considering their judgement on him as well. But it ought to be too much for the Dragons - if we get the sun and dryness we need.

Our toss and 'George' puts us out in the field first. Nixon opens and welcomes the men from across the river with a hostile and decidedly quick session of missiles. Too much for Thomas who lasts two minutes before wafting one to Marcus T - the ball is rolling.

Well, it's actually doing more than that because Mr Hemp makes it 2 for 6 when he offers Buzz the ball off Mr McLean for 2. This brings the captain to the crease - Mike Powell took on a lot last year and did well for his side. Not so this morning. Aaron is on first change and Powell pops back to sit out the rest of the first innings after contributing 7 with his side on a measly 15. Banger takes his second catch and Glamorgan are reeling.

But, Adrian Dale is now joined by Matthew Maynard and this could be the partnership of the game - except that Nixon McLean is having a nice morning for a fast bowler. Although Johnno is having no luck at the other end, the great thing about this year is that our attack is two pronged! If Richard doesn't get ya the man from the Islands will! Maynard goes for 34 (LBW - 70 for 4) and Dale follows about half and hour later (caught Bryant 95 for 5).

The other thing is that the strike bowlers have decent backup now. Laraman isn't ripping through sides but he is there and Francis is tight when he isn't having these little two and three wicket spells - we can bowl people out if everything works, as it should. Simon proves this by adding another wicket before the hundred is up - Hughes caught behind.

Wallace and Croft start to put up resistance - we've been here before. Burnsy brings on the spin and Wallace gets one he misjudges 140 for 7. Johnson finally gets some luck after going past the bat again and again and they've only added one before Harrison is back to prepare to bowl. Mike the Aussie has a couple of lusty blows but Nixon gets a well-deserved five-fer when he swings and snicks one and Laraman puts paid to Croft LBW as they hit 200.

All out in 63 overs with Nixon M returning figures of 17/6/43/5 - non too shabby in my humble opinion. Johnno didn't get the breaks but still produced 17 overs for 23 and Laraman's 2 for 46, coupled with the work of Francis and Blackwell put us in a great position.

It got even better when both Bowler and Trescothick showed that the Glamorgan bowling was not going to cause the same amount of problems for us. We finished over the hundred mark with the loss of Marcus to Wharf - but not until he had shown he has recaptured his touch with 70 off 74 balls, including 10 fours and two sixes.

Day 2
Wet, windy and muddled because of the on off nature of the weather. But we got on with the job and in the dry spells we built a total which should give us the game and the bonus points if God will let us get it to a finish.

It was good to see Burnsy pass 50 with a stand of 128 with Peter Bowler that saw us to 249 for 2. His 82 will have put a few ghosts to bed and Bowler's own 92 may very well have done the same for Glamorgan. The middle order all cameo'd really. Cox (29), Bryant (30) and Blackwell (42) all contributed to the total but no-one went that wild. Well except for Blacky, who hit his 40 odd off 27 balls.

When the rain finally stopped us, we were 6 runs from another bonus point and two days away from a good result with the Welsh 200 behind. I think they'll get the extra batting point and then get them in....in order to get them out between the showers.

Day three doesn't look too good, Day 4 may be better but we need to have made some inroads before then.