Ian Shepherd: Hello there. ⁓ a quick apology before ⁓ this week's episode. Unfortunately there was well a bug. Something went wrong with the recording software that we use to put together the podcast with the three of us in different locations. ⁓ when we were recording last night, myself, Steve, and Gibbo, we could all hear each other fine. We had a great conversation for about an hour. When it came to process it, Gibbo's audio wasn't there. So I've tried everything I can with the providers to recover it, but unfortunately It's not there. So rather than re-record it at this this late stage, ⁓ what I've done is I've edited out the the best episode I can from ⁓ from what we had with all the sort of the long pauses where Gibbo's audio should have been. So apologies again. not sure what's going on there, but we'll give it a thorough test before we ⁓ do another podcast. But ⁓ yeah, hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Thanks. Six needed, and that is could be the winning hit. It is, it's six for Lewis Gregory, and Somerset have one by six wickets. Tremendous win for Somerset, chasing down a hundred and ninety-four to win with Will Smead leading the way. ⁓ Hello there. This is Always Looking Bright Side of Life, the Somerset Cricket Podcast. My name's Ian Shepherd. Joining me this evening, I've Got lifelong Somerset fan who is rather cruelly now exiled up north, where it is always grim. Steve Tancock. Steve, how are you doing? I'm good, thank you, Ian. Good, good, good. And also with us is the voice of cricket on BBC Radio, Somerset Anthony Gibson. Gibbo, a much more fruitful and interesting trip to Trent Bridge than it was around about twelve months ⁓ ago, this time last year. Somerset victorious. At the home of the defending champions with virtually the only eleven fit players they had available to put on the park. It was indeed I mean, let's start there. ⁓ it was I I kind of thought it was one of those side those occasions where your expectations aren't necessarily that high looking for a win with the side that you have, and then they just go out there, they've got nothing really to lose. And they just went out there and they performed admirably. I thought the new ball or the the batting against the knots new ball on that ⁓ that Friday morning was ⁓ was superb. Obviously always a a few plays and misses, but I think that for me was the key period. Losing the toss, getting stuck in and then getting through that initial burst of the of the new ball from ⁓ O'Neal and Hutton was key to setting up that I think massively above par three hundred and ten. First innings total. Did you catch much of it falling morning, Steve? It was ⁓ l when I sort of saw we'd lost the toss and were batting, I'll lose the toss, lose the game with this side. So that's not being pessimistic. I don't think it's just realistic 'cause you could have seen forty seven for five at lunch on that first day, couldn't you? Yep. And I agree. I I watched quite a bit of Herman and I think he's just really organized. He clearly knows his game. ⁓ and that that was that the runs he scored in the T twenty as well. But in this innings, ⁓ Anthony summed it up beautifully. But what I like about him is he he seems to bat like a proper championship batsman, if that makes sense. I know exactly what you mean, yeah. So you know his his objective was to get through the first half hour and then it was to get through the first hour. You could you could almost see him batting in those segments, you know? ⁓ Yeah, and then of ⁓ we've lost you, Steve. This is all this is all Steve's Apple gadgets trying to be too clever and his i iPods are trying to connect to his barbecue and his oven's trying to connect to his MacBook. Are you back? I think so. Yeah, you're back. Carry on. ⁓ sorry. I no it's Google Chrome, could you make us use Google Chrome? ⁓ so I think as we said late. platform was being that organized. And and it got to the point, didn't it, where the hundred seemed inevitable, you know? ⁓ and from there on, we've seen that Rick Brothers did their bit, Archie did his bit, and you said all the time we were looking at well over the score, even with those people late wickets we lost. And from there it just got better and better, really. What I like about Herman is you mentioned he's organised. I think he You very rarely see him pushing out for the ball. He he he's a bit like Elgar and he's a bit like ⁓ Chris Rogers was. He plays very much inside what they sort of call that box. Playing very much inside the line his his eye line and very rarely, you know. Trez was one for the big sort of big drive out there and you know, he was fantastic, he was good enough to play that. ⁓ but with him he's much more it's always head over the ball, weight going into the ball that way. as you say to you a fantastic acquisition. Spoke to him last night at our game at at South Devon, which I'll I'll talk about in in in due course. But don't be surprised. Didn't say yes, didn't say no, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him for the Metro Bank and in September. But I don't think anything's been signed yet. But I believe negotiations are in progress. Touch wood. So we see a little bit more of Jordan over the next few months because you know good overseas are not easy to find in this climate. You know, we record with late season things. I think he's coming, you know, you sort of come in, you hit the ground running, you fit in well with the team environment. I think you know if you can get that that that's gold dust then I think that's what we've got with with Jordan. So ⁓ yeah. Fingers crossed he can he can do a job for us ⁓ throughout the rest of the season. Well I think that was the key. We had a many problems from four. Yeah, we had an embarrassment of of choice really of young players that we wanted to give chances to. You know, we know from ⁓ from experiences with players like Sonny Baker, ⁓ you know, if you don't give them the chances they will seek passages new. And the last thing we want is somebody like Archie Vaughan to not be getting a regular chance in in championship cricket, go, you know, go off to Yorkshire and then start scoring under us for fun and getting his his way into the England side. So it's I I I I I I can totally see both sides of of that that argument. ⁓ it's you know, you're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, aren't you? You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. I mean, I've been so busy getting this the game and sort of organizing the the testimonial game of the last few days. I haven't seen much of the game over the weekend. Wasn't there occas ⁓ an occasion where he was just sort of batting with a very, very nice calm temper and all of a sudden bang he smashed somebody into the Radcliffe roadstand. Yeah they they say don't they that the great batsmen make the bowlers bold to them. Yeah. And I think he's he's not you know get carried away here. But that that shot was a perfect example of that. He'd earned that shot with the shots he played and the way he played the bowlers in the couple of overs leading up to that. Another player that impressed me and I think also played his ⁓ his best innings with Somerset was Archie Vaughan. ⁓ unbeaten on sixty six, which is also coincidentally his shirt number. I thought the way that he recovered, the way he Shepherded the Tail, ⁓ although he got a h more runs, I think, in his that innings against Sussex ⁓ a year or so ago. ⁓ in the context of the match, that sixty six was probably worth a hundred on any other day or occasion. And I think yeah. Credit to Archie for that one. ⁓ Yeah. I've I've been able to listen quite a bit of the test match today, his dad's on cult and two things to say. One, it's not related to what you're just saying, but isn't it fun Michael Vaughan suddenly become very knowledgeable and a huge fan of championship cricket. ⁓ and but secondly, it was the typical dad wanting son to succeed because whoever we was co commentating with said they're talking about James Rue, obviously, and he said, ⁓ and Archie got some runs in that really impressive win. Yeah, got a couple, Vaughan said in his very deadpan way. And I was like, Wow, that was 'cause I'm with you, I think that sixty six was worth three figures in in the context of the game. So he made a comment today about James and they were sort of saying, you know, how well James is keeping wicket and if he makes some runs, Jamie Smith r might regret opting out of this test match. You know, Michael, you've probably seen quite a lot of James, you know, watching Somerset and he went, yeah, and I tell you what, his brother's a serious player as well. He didn't go as far as they're better player, but he went, he got over 150 in the two innings at Trent Bridge and that's no mean feat. So yeah. Did you hear the the adventures of mum and dad and the cars that the Roo family had? No. Thomas had an A level on Thursday. So he couldn't drive, come up on Team B on Thursday. So he drove up in his car on Thursday night. Mum and Dad then, when they found that James had to go to look the oval, had to drive James's car up to Nottingham. I'm not sure when, but they had to drive James's car up. James then gets in his car, obviously goes off to join up with England. And then Thomas wanted to come home on the team coach, so they had to drive Thomas's quote little car back home. So and I again it was ⁓ again on the test today, somebody said that's the things that parents do when you know you're running your kids around cricket matches. And I was like, Yeah, I'm sure Overtons think that and plenty of other families know that as well. But I thought it was quite a nice little story of them having to run cars up and down to Nottingham for them. I was gonna say the way that car insurance is these days, Tom's is gonna need every penny of that eighty grand hundred money to cover his insurance if he's on the if he's on there as a professional sportsman, that'll be a a good few quid on his insurance. So I'm not surprised he's only got a ⁓ as you say, a quote unquote little car. Yeah. I just sort of pictured in my head like a little noddy car then. Well I I've got a picture of it. His mum and dad were dead suitcases or whatever they took up to Nottingham all crammed into this little you know mini mini equivalent or whatever, you know, ⁓ make of manufactured car and sort of bimbling back down the ⁓ five and on ⁓ Monday afternoon. So yeah. Wasn't it nice not having a nervous Monday afternoon though? Yeah. We've had enough those already. Well we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. I mean we've we've sort of mentioned Thomas Ruber ⁓ I think we need a a bit more of a discussion. Sixty eight in the first innings and then Maiden first class hundred or counting championship hundred for Somerset. Unbeaten hundred and twenty seven, setting knots and improbable victory target of four hundred and seventy three. ⁓ different class. I mean some some idiot on a podcast said that he looked shot in the T twenties and needed a rest. ⁓ don't know who that was, but clearly they tweet their words. ⁓ I mean fantastic, you know. I thought he was a b he was a little bit play and missy when he started in the first innings, but you know, once he settled down, that was it. Babble put away, looked completely in control. And then second innings it was that turned up to eleven. And as you said, we agree with Michael Vaughn, a serious player. What was ⁓ the Knott's contingent take on him? Presumably you've seen him for the first time, Gibbo. I haven't seen him keep for long periods of time. Looking forward to seeing him keep ⁓ the weekend. I assuming he's playing, I mean so the way our luck's going he'll probably, you know ⁓ it was it No, but I mean he'll I know but he'll probably get a severe paper cut on that last economics exam paper or something like that that keeps him out of the Worcester game. The way that our rotten luck with injuries is going. Lewis Gregory ⁓ hobbling off as well. with a hamstring is it's just the way it goes. I mean if we didn't have bad luck at the moment, we'd have no luck at all. It it's it's yeah. I mean it but the the crazy thing is we are still now in with a massive shout of winning the counter championship. What's the ⁓ where's the tape? What we thought Big point. ⁓ it just makes it so much more frustrating that if if we hadn't let those two dominant position ⁓ I'm going over it again now. Glamorgan and and Yorkshire and then, you know, if the weather gods have been a wee bit kinder to us against Sussex, go that's a ⁓ Yeah. It is there for the take I when I scribbled my notes I very capital letters don't get carried away. Let's wait till see after the weekend. And that's just I think that's all the years of being a Somerset supporter. But if we can ⁓ flip it into the positive, we can put in a performance this weekend and get another win. I think the way that the the selections go, when you say we, I think you genuinely might actually mean us three probably taken to the field with the injury crisis being that bad. But yeah, I understand what you mean. I mean I I don't wanna leave Trent Bridge just yet because there was so many fantastic little stories in that game. ⁓ I just wanna talk about I think I thought Jack Leach bowled the best that he's bowled this season. He's had a quite a few sort of rounds early on in championship. I thought he He was outstanding and Big Craig. Big Craig loves the armband. There's no two ways about it. ⁓ Yeah, absolutely. But Gibbo, you you were nostradarmous on that because towards the end of the Somerset innings, I think it was Saturday morning, you and Kit Harris were on comms and Kit Harris was saying about which version of Jack Bleach are we gonna get and you said 'Cause he said like the the wicket taking a bit expensive, but the non wicket taking but miserly. And Gibbo in his laconic way went, I just like the wicket taking miserly, Jack Leach. And then lo and behold, he rocked up for the next two and a half days. So well done, Gibbo. You you definitely ⁓ help that one along. But it's an instinctive captain. He sort of just go goes with his gut and and also he has that lovely weakness, which is a strength, which is I'll sort this out. A bit like Flinthoff. Yeah, when Flinthoff was England captain in many test matches, he bowled himself into the ground. Not always to the benefit of the side, but I don't think Craig does that. But yeah, you you know, he what what he lacks for in Lewis's astuteness, he makes up for in his his sheer, as you said, you up and atom approach. Yeah. ⁓ did a QA ⁓ yesterday afternoon in the lunch before the testorial match with Lewis. ⁓ Tom Carlo Camor and Jack Leach. And well, Tom Carlo Cadmore is such fantastic value as a speaker. If he's not snapped up in a commentary box somewhere the second he retires, the world of cricket broadcasting will be a an incredible loss. But he was sort of genuinely saying that that one of the strengths of Lewis's captaincy, particularly in the in the short form, is he just lets you go out and and do what you want. He doesn't micromanage at all in any kind of sense he he sort of He he puts his trusts in his players and they repay that in in in the captain scene. He never gets too high and he never gets too low. And it just reminds me of that line in if by Rudyard Kipling where it's ⁓ I can't remember it's like a little bit that way. But you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same. Blah blah blah blah blah. Once more you'll be a damn good somerset captain, my son. So I think that's that's one of his major strengths. ⁓ But they were just you know just absolutely full of praise to lose his cat. I it's he was stood next to them which ⁓ which always helps, but you genuinely thought they weren't, you know, they were definitely not making up a sound bite for a for a ⁓ a room full of people. It was, you know, he he is loved and respected as a as a captain. Yeah, without a doubt. Which makes it somewhat ironic. I just kinda I just sort of noticed this that he hasn't actually tasted victory as a captain yet. Because he was injured for the first two. And then he had he'd had to hobble off with a ⁓ hamstring before the victory was sealed up at ⁓ up at Trempridge. So that's a I'm sure Lewis is desperate for championship victory this season. That's no slight on his captain's yeah, it's just a a funny little coincidence that I ⁓ that I happen to notice. But like you say, it's you talk about depth in squads, isn't it great that you've got a a guy like Craig Overton ⁓ coming in and and taking over the reins if if Lewis is unavailable. Definitely. Absolutely definitely. Right. Do we have anything else on on knots then? ⁓ just what was the sort of the feeling on them? Yeah. Absolutely, yeah. I can't seem to remember. No, Dan Lawrence was ahead of him, but he went back ahead of him in Yeah, 'cause he got a two hundred and a hundred in that game at the oval. I can't Yeah. I can't seem to remember a game where Joe Clark didn't get a hundred and fifty against us in the second innings. He always seemed to thwart us when ⁓ when we're in ⁓ sight of victory. So when I saw that ping pop up on my phone at about three minutes past eleven that Joe Clark had gone, I was like, ⁓ yes, this is it. And as we sort of said earlier, th it was it was not a nail biter, it was not sorry going down to the very last couple of overs of the day. It was Done and dusted. ⁓ done and dusted by what just after lunch. Happy days. Get all get on the bus and come back to Taunton. Could not have gone more perfectly. Yeah, but you know, he's he's young, he's twenty one, his figures weren't particularly bad. I I think he he he wasn't spraying it all over the place really, was he? It was just not kind of not his day. Yeah, absolutely. And and the thing with Alfie is he's absolutely got the attitude to not get down on himself and and sort of you know, realise that professional cricket is not ⁓ your success in professional cricket is not a you know, a continuous upward gradient. You will get setbacks and you will get periods where, you know, you you bowl absolutely fantastic, you beat the outside edge three or four times and over and you end up with figures of sort of none for eighty or nineteen and other times where you can bowl a load of field and it just gets hit straight the field as so. Yeah, it's a fickle mistress. Right. On to Warwickshire then on Friday. By my maths, we have twelve fit players and a thirteenth in Tom Banton whose status currently remains ⁓ somewhat of an enigma. Given that very cryptic that very cryptic statement put out by the club last week, which was then very hastily ⁓ deleted once it sort of been noticed and started being discussed on social media. ⁓ so I mean up pr the d the twelve for you are well Rue Vaughan, Langridge, Josh Thomas, Alfie Ogborn, ⁓ Goldsworthy, Josh Shaw, Miggie P, ⁓ Crago, Jack, Jake Baught, Jordan Herman, and then Tom Banton. So I think the most important person over the next few days is going to be Nick Pepper and what sort of surface he produces. Because part of me the sort of the conservative part of me is thinking we've got a lot of bowlers available. We've got quite a few of them those bowlers can hold a bat. Are we better off producing an absolute road, loading our side with seam bowling and approaching the game that way? And having maybe Craig back at six. And then five other seam bowlers and Jack. And you've also got ⁓ Goldsworthy, Vaughan and Thomas in there to bowl some spins. Or I mean do we get Banton in? I mean, presumably no matter how focused you are on performing at your optimum level in the next couple of weeks of blast games, if your side's got twelve fit players and you are the holder of that their record of the highest ever score for your side in first class cricket, surely you need to be coming into the team. Yeah. Or and if there is something going on. If there is something going on behind the scenes because part of this part of sort of what we do is is speculation. And I don't one of the things that I feel somewhat uncomfortable with is is speculating and maybe criticizing when you don't quite know what's going on in in the player's personal life. And I think sometimes clubs I'm not singling some set out for this, ⁓ but it does make it more difficult when you try and come up with a cryptic way of of you know saying something is is you know, there's nothing to see here when when perhaps there might be. If you if I think like for reasons that ⁓ Thomas asked us not to make public or Your person personal reasons. I mean that's absolutely yeah. I mean, everybody understands that there is a there is a big fat dividing line between a professional sports person's personal life and, you know, the things that you perhaps I wouldn't say deserve to know about, but you know, if they have got a broken finger, you kinda you you you know, that's not something that you don't know. If it's related to the sport they play, that's fair game. But if it's ⁓ family illness or you know Yeah. There's a hundred other things that we can just that you know we wouldn't want to share amongst ourselves when we chat before after we record the pod necessarily. And therefore they're perfectly entitled for that privacy. ⁓ but you're you're absolutely right. When you put out a cryptic message like that, it just it tries my brain to be honest. They can't help the individual either. No, exactly, 'cause there's I mean, I I kind of tried again sort of bearing in mind what what we've just said, I sort of tiptoed into it and then it was kind of and was kind of met with I'm not really sure this, that and the other so I thought okay, something's you know, it's I won't sort of poke any further so ⁓ but it w yeah, but if all all things being equal he Rocks up on Friday morning in that side. ⁓ yes, I mean it is it is literally what's on paper. Herman, Thomas, Goldsworthy, Tru, Archie, Banton, Craig, Miggy, Alfie or Josh Shaw. They may rest Alfie if he's been game on, game off. ⁓ Jack and Jake Ball. And if Banton isn't available, everybody shifts up, why don't we give a debut to JT Langridge? Yeah. Absolutely. Sorry. ⁓ Didn't get ⁓ no, he was ⁓ well ⁓ yeah Gibbo, he was he got a brilliant forty against the same attack the first game of the season. He's got a hundred and ten. I think he's like we say you'll you'll have your your setbacks. You'll have your ups and downs. You know, what's important is if a player's shown that they can do it, you need to back them and you need to, you know, sort of tap into them and get them get them more consistent. But that's to be expected. You know, he's a twenty, twenty one year kid, just coming into the game, he's played half a dozen first class games. He will only get better. I mean we can't really discuss much about this type because there's Unless I mean you could go a little bit a little bit wild card. ⁓ I know they they rate Zach Vikusic, ⁓ one in the Academy lads, ⁓ brother of Erin who plays Summerstet women. They rate him very highly. They could bring him in as a bit of a wild card selection. ⁓ yeah, Herman Thomas Goldsworthy, T Rue, Archie and Craig at six. And then the covers looking Jack Leach, the new the new The new Proactive ⁓ Yeah, they did it ⁓ they did it at Chelmsford to kinda keep everybody in situ at sort of three and down, didn't they? You could put Jack at six. I mean you Remember this is the county that opened not long ago with Josh Davy and Louis. So Jake Ball and Josh Gore to open the batting. Well we'll go on to Josh Shaw's batting in a minute. ⁓ yeah, I mean I presume ⁓ James James Thedham's got fractured hand. I we're not gonna go through them all, but they they are numerous. I mean poor old Kear Roberts would have been in line for a debut and he did a did something in the warm up one of the days. So touch wood it could be worse than it looks. 'Cause sometimes with ankles they can you do that, it can hurt like buggery for a little while and then bit of ice and it it's right it's rain. Fingers crossed, that's what it is. ⁓ very I mean we win the county championship after the this little round of games, it's gonna be a phenomenal effort. Well if we can it's there, it's there for the take it's there for the taking. If we can keep in touch and I hope that this catalogue of injuries recover by the time this next red ball things, then who knows? But Yeah, I mean Lewis should be back by Lewis will be back by then. I think yeah. I think especially with eight points for a draw, I think you've got to you've got to go for a road. Pack your pack your ⁓ where are they in the table at the minute then? There it's ⁓ so they are well they are two points behind us in in fourth, so and they've lost one less game than we are. So their their woes very much in white ball cricket, championship cricket looking not too shabby. ⁓ what should we talk about next? Anybody like to ask me about my Somerset debut? Well, it's about your Somerset debut, Ian. Well, you know, they well they the the the injury crisis was that bad. I've still got my shirt on. I've still got my hat on. It was it was great fun. ⁓ so yesterday we hosted Somersets. ⁓ they could only actually muster nine ⁓ players to come down, such was the injury crisis ⁓ being ⁓ being so bad. So ⁓ Myself and ⁓ Lewis's testimonial chairman though and Irish ⁓ were were ⁓ drafted in. and yeah it was well mentioned Miggie P's ⁓ woes with the bat. He he opened the batting was out for about ⁓ for two. Let me get the scorecard up a minute. ⁓ by ⁓ one of our young players, fifteen year old Finn Murphy. ⁓ took five for I think it was fifteen. Let me just ⁓ find the The score for you one second. ⁓ yeah, Finn, great lad. F ⁓ sorry, five for thirty-eight from his four overs. Family the top five. Jordan Herman, bold for two. Fayel Pretorius, bold for six. Jack Leach, bold for thirteen. Young Finn doing what the Aussies couldn't do in twenty nineteen. Archie Vaughan, great court and bold, and then Alfie Yogbourne caught in the deep seventeen. So well bowl Finn. So yeah, Somerset's white ball woes continuing, lumping to sixty six for seven, against South Devon, who are currently bottom of the C division. But the unlikely saviour well the one of the likely saviours, Craig Oberton, ⁓ forty five of twenty, and then Josh Shaw, a hundred and three not out from thirty seven balls, including a last wicket partnership of ⁓ sixty four with I Shepherd, who finished on nine not out. ⁓ so there we go. So that was that was great fun. ⁓ It was yeah, the the the w the forecast was a bit iffy. So I think maybe a few people that would've maybe come down sort of from Taunton Way a little bit put off by the forecast. We had a few very light showers though, so we got away with it. So Yeah, was a very good day. We mentioned Craig Overton's skillful captaincy. Well, he engineered it, so Somerset one by one run. ⁓ I only only six fives as well, one something. ⁓ I think the bat's done a little bit, so probably probably might not be keeping wicket again too much until I get some yoga in. But ⁓ just fantastic sharing a dress room with the boys. Neil Warnut was there as well. He's ⁓ we've sort of got connections with him through our our our main sponsors. This is our South Everton, our Somerset. ⁓ although Wallins do have to Somerset as well, so you know it's all great. ⁓ very close knit well, but ⁓ their sports all division they look after talking night as well. So Neil Warnock came in, ⁓ gave us a team talk in the dressing room, was giving Archie shit for being a Sheffield Wednesday fan. It was all ⁓ yeah, all real good day, real good spirit. ⁓ they all threw themselves into it, obviously we'll signing all around so ⁓ great QA at the lunch. Like I said, look ⁓ Lewis. ⁓ Pepsi and and and chat were all great value. Can't do enough for you. Stayed for ages after the game. sat down having a beer and a chat with all the lads. So it was ⁓ great fun. ⁓ an experience I shall never forget. We didn't sing Blackbird though. I was I didn't want to sort of stand up and say are we going to sing Blackbird but, you know, a little bit disappointed. But I suppose we did get to sing it with him at Edgewiston. ⁓ ⁓ finals day so that's probably a wee bit better than beating South Devon. ⁓ yeah the lads that came down it was ⁓ yeah Golders, Josh Thomas, ⁓ Archie, Jordan, Craigo, Jack, Miggy P, Josh Shaw, were the contracted players. ⁓ I mean I'm you know, I I like that he was very nervous, ⁓ sure, but getting to his under I was there, I was calming him down, you know, just saying, you know, look, it's fine, we keep there, you know, beat your head, he got there. I mean I think I've got to get them in fours 'cause I'm not running any quick singles for you. Exactly, yeah. I was I was ready to go. He got off the last ball he got off the last ball ⁓ of ⁓ Somerset innings, so that was ⁓ a nice way to finish and walked off to a raptor's tours. Lovely bloke. They're all lovely blokes. just yeah, just pleasure to you know, credit to the club. ⁓ one thing that that Neil Warnock and sort of Lewis sort of talked about is is sort of the culture, the team environment and and being good people. one Neil Warnock talked about when he was at Man City. ⁓ he sort of talked about how they were you know they had all the all the budget in the world for analysts and data and IT and biometrics and this, that and the other. But he sort of looked around and said that they were a bunch of millionaires that didn't really know each other. And there was sort of a lack of team real lack of team spirit there. And he thought and his philosophy is always You g it's kinda free to create Team Spirit. You don't have to spend millions of pounds to create a good Team Spirit. If you're if you're a good manager, you can kinda do that for free. And I think that's something we've got at ⁓ at Taunton in Spades and it and it kind of showed with the way that the lads all interacted with each other and and with ⁓ the public ⁓ in in ⁓ Newton Abbott last night. The game is on YouTube if you look Well well Abes did actually come down as well, which is Yeah, well Pepsi was fifty fifty to play last night, so he he is close. He's not he's not gonna play against Warwickshire. But I think he will be there's a very, very good chance he'll be back for the ⁓ next block of blast games. Abes was down there, he's still got his finger in like a a sort of a splint, so ⁓ he's a good few weeks more at least, ⁓ and sort of nothing on the others really. But yeah. A great night. And if you look at the video, I was the only one wearing my allotted fielding shirt. All the others were fielding in the batting shirts. Go and have a look. It's on the South Durban Cricket Club YouTube channel. A really great night and ⁓ yeah. Great fun was had by all. Looking forward to doing it all again. I'm I'm not gonna say what it is, but Lewis is pla ⁓ trying to get sorted ⁓ a T twenty game ⁓ at Taunton. against another professional sports team who are not a cricket team but they are a big professional sports team. So I can't say any more than that. So but that's true a good night if that comes to fruition. Thanks so with its south done. Thanks everybody that came. Hope you enjoyed it and had a good night and hopefully we'll see you again in the future. Should we talk about Somerset women as well? Yeah. What a win they've had today. ⁓ so taking on Warwickshire at Exmouth. ⁓ well they did have a bit of a a bit of a setback down at ⁓ at Taunton. They lost to ⁓ when was it thirty? Losing to Hampshire on Saturday. But ⁓ emphatic spanking of Warwickshire at at Exmouth today. They were going well. ⁓ Surankuma and Redmain, thirty two and fifty eight respectively. ⁓ yeah, scores ⁓ what they get to four for hundred and fifty one, hundred and sixty all out. Liv Barnes, Lola Harris. So Spin twins combining. Both picking up career best, four for twenty four for Liv Barnes, four for thirty two for the legs to Lola Harris. And then a chase anchored by an unbeaten seventy from Annika Leroy. Sophie Love continued her free scoring form 34 off 32 and then Jess Hazel smacking 32 off 25 at the end to see Somerset women home. We talked ⁓ I mean ⁓ about the le ⁓ the Erin Osborne effect. It just it just keeping just keeps it just keep coming. They just keep putting out these performances. ⁓ Well may it continue. I didn't I didn't really see much of it to be honest, but I was I was sort of dipping in and out of the school updates, so just my analysis is basically She is absolutely something something's clicked. Yeah, absolutely. Because I mean, yeah, if you when she started off, she was kind of being talked about as possible England material. Then she kind of didn't quite sort of live up to that. She's still having a very, very ⁓ good ⁓ a good career as a as a yeah, very, very solid county pro, and then now all of a sudden she's just taking it up a level again. So fantastic. Well you yeah, you'd have thought you you kind of know sort of what's you would have seen what sort of site she was going into. ⁓ sort with the with the Somerset players. ⁓ and you know, if if you're within a system you kind of know the the value player that you can pick up that maybe somebody might might not be aware of. Right, let's dive into some listeners' questions then. ⁓ James Roo, of course we've got to do that. So came off the field after fielding ⁓ last night with the Somerset Boys. As is the case in modern dressing rooms, the first thing you do is you sit down and look at your phone. ⁓ Rue's been pit for England. Fantastic news. So fully deserved. ⁓ Jamie Smith is on paternity leave and it has been a flipping long time coming. But finally James Roo is wearing the three lines proper and I for one could not be happier for James. ⁓ for Chris, for Debbie, for Thomas, for the whole Roo family, what the moment and yeah, absolutely fully deserved. Just gonna quickly have a look. The only Gibbo Maker, the only one I could get close to was I believe Harold Stevenson went on a tour for England, but as the second wicket keeper and never got to play a test match. But I don't think Well you will You will not be surprised to find out who has tweeted out the actual answer to that question, Steve. Let me guess. Does his name begin with D? It does begin with a D, yeah. So Dan Dan has answered your question. It was ⁓ Leslie Gay in the eighteen ninety four to ninety five ashes. A couple of years before mine. Gay's only matches for Somerset were just prior to that. So sorry. James Drew becomes the second man to take the gloves in a test for England while a Somerset player. The first is Leslie Gay, who played one test in the eighty ninety four ninety five. Ashley's gay's only matches with Somerset were just prior to that. Test in the eighty ninety four season, but the clubs say he's their first England Test cricketer, so I guess he counts. Jim Parks kept wicked for England in Test before joining Somerset. Joss Butler did so after Somerset. Instantly I'm drawn to Marcus doing it for a session, maybe if somebody was injured. I know he he's done it in one day cricket as a fool keeper. I'm sure I've seen them do it in a test match. Yeah, but I think we're talking about a specialist team. Yeah, but anyway. Well and James. ⁓ I'm just they were probably still playing when I came in to start. They weren't 291 for seven. So Rui I saw he took the one catch off ⁓ former Somerset man Devin Conway. ⁓ there was another one wet which was a ⁓ was a bump ball which ⁓ was given not out on DRS. ⁓ sixteen buys. Mind you that could that that could be anything. Boys covers a multitude of sins in in ⁓ in Red Bull. Yeah, that's probably why there was ⁓ I think Archer that went over his head for four buys. And I think there was another one they said that was should have been four wives went. Yeah. I think he had from when I heard he had one which was a fumble. They were still praising his keeping on the commentary when I was listening earlier, so yeah. Good stuff, yeah. From what I saw, absolutely entirely. Also, congratulations, Sonny Baker as well. ⁓ would have been lovely if he made his ⁓ test debut as a Somerset player, but not to be, but anyway, congratulations also to Sonny. ⁓ right, a couple of listeners' questions. I've done our team for Friday. ⁓ done that. Are we gonna go into the loan market? I think Sarge's probably in that WhatsApp group as we speak, just seeing what's out there. You know, it's a bit like it's a bit like overseas. If the right player's there, you've got to take you gotta you've gotta sign him up. ⁓ Azim Rafik, that tweet Azim Rafik, how long would you wait to get him in the England team? He's got he's gotta consistently make runs at championship level before that becomes a conversation. Would you talk white ball? I mean sort of the things to me is what each England team tests T twenty ODI in what batting slot and in sort of what role? It's not to say it's all very old and good saying sort of ⁓ we'll pick him for England. It's a bit like the old Lampard Gerard thing from back in the day. Both great players but you know one great player and one who played for Chelsea. Alright, alright. It's the Liverpool fan. But you you sort of get my dear y it's it's all you've got to You've got to put him in a role that he he's got the best chance of succeeding at. You can't just, you know, it's square peg you start square peg round holding players. You you're not giving them the first chance. Yeah. Let's get carried away. ⁓ let's always get carried away. We'll be you know, we'll be sat here in ⁓ you know in In September going, ⁓ we're twenty points clear of the top of the county championship but we might not win 'cause both ruse are playing for England. So that'd be a nice problem to have. Would be a nice problem to have. Radio, ⁓ do we have any other business before we knock this on the head tonight? I've I've got one very You better it was very quick, Steve. We can't we can't you've gone again. You've gone again. ⁓ no, the laptop's connected up with an airing cupboard or something. Hold on, the ironing board's come out. ⁓ yeah, you're back. That game you mentioned about Surrey when we came from nowhere to when you said about satisfying wins, you tweeted out, I looked at that scorecard. Who was our overseas fast bowler in that game? Remember it was September twenty four. Yeah, it's the it's the it's it's the one it's the quiz question where Yeah. ⁓ run. I had absolutely zero recollection. I I've no recollection of of him playing in that game. Maybe it's just the euphoria of the game and he just got air broken. No, he it was Well and it was you know it was Archie was bowling magnificent at the time, so was Jack. So yeah, they bowled probably like sixty percent of the overs in that game between ⁓ And when you've got Craig and Lewis and and other people like that to ⁓ to bowl as ahead of him in the in the scene bowling department, it was probably you didn't get a go, but yeah. Yeah, I mean that game will be repr you know, for Tom Banton's batting on one leg for the the incredible late surge. ⁓ probably won't be remembered for Brett Randall's four overs to eighteen or whatever. No offense, Brett, do you know what I mean? But yeah, when you know, it ⁓ the quiz question of name name the eleven, they'll be you'll get ten of ⁓ easy and then you're you'll be sat there for three quarters of an hour plus Brett Randall. No. But it goes back to my earlier point about Jordan Herrman. You come in, good environment, score runs from from the get go, it's it's gold dust. You cannot put a quite on it. Fantastic stuff. Right. ⁓ let's knock this on the head then. ⁓ best of luck to Crago and the boys ⁓ taking on Warwickshire at ⁓ at Taunton on Friday. Also best of luck to what Somerset Women Got. They are away ⁓ at Yorkshire on the twenty first on Sundays. Best of luck to Sophie Love and the girls to that one. ⁓ I think we'll catch it up next week. See you later, guys. Have a good one.