By Grockle
July 29 2002

The game that could redeem our season is on Thursday. The support is ready for it...the stands are up but do we have a chance? Lots of people see this as the easiest route to the final but can we be so sure? Anyone remember Kent from last season? Did anyone expect them to be a walkover? On Thursday we face them in what is the most important game of our one day season (unless of course we beat them!).

There will be a full house at Taunton to see us try and redeem some of our reputation as a formidable one day outfit. A description that hasn't really been apt too many times in 2002. We looked the part a fortnight ago against Worcestershire and we breathed a sigh of relief when we didn't draw Surrey or Yorkshire and we got a home draw. But are Kent such pushovers?

The plus points are that we took the best one day side of the season without either of our international stars and with a depleted side to boot. Kent arrive on Thursday in the same kind of situation. They may be without Fulton and Fleming...but they will have Key and Saggers and a few other no names to give us problems.

Who will we be without? The rest that some players got during the Windies A side could be vital. Will Cox play with both hands this week? (He seemed to be nursing the one with the broken thumb against Sussex.) Will Jonah have got back his 'bite' which was lacking because of the overs he was having to bowl? Will Johnson be back and thirsty for play? He took 10 wickets in his last comeback - that would be nice! How fit is Matt Bulbeck and how much trouble will he give the Kent boys? When will Blackwell produce that devastating one day innings we all know he is capable of? Will Caddick play? If he does will we sacrifice the guts of Jones or the left arm variation of Bulbeck? Can the top end fire for once on what will probably be Frosty's greenest wicket of the season?

All these questions leave doubt in the mind. The one thing that isn't really in doubt is that if we lose to Kent then the last two months of this season will not be all that satisfying. We'll be fighting to stay where we know we should be but don't really deserve to be on showings up until now.

If we beat Kent then it really doesn't matter who wins on Wednesday. At Lords the form books go out of the window and the day is all that is important. We need something to sustain us through what might be a very cold winter. This could be all there is so support the boys at the ground or on the telly, on the radio, via 'Annanova' or any other internet access site. Positive energy may not be enough but it can't do any harm!!