PHILINFRANCE

An excellent finish, to be fair.

And the Gillette Cup. Probably my favourite ever match was when Somerset beat Surrey (John Edrich, Robin Jackman, Geoff Arnold) at Taunton in the 1974 quarter final. Ian Botham played, but didn't bat, former England wicketkeeper, Jim Parks, played but didn't keep wicket, Brian Close and Sir Viv Richards only contributed a few runs each and the star was the unsung hero, 'Dashing' Peter Denning. A wonderful day out with more than 500 runs scored - a rarity back then. Also a lovely story about Hallam Moseley, but that is a different subject altogether.

I just popped on to CricInfo to see if there was any comment about the pitch or news about the teams. Not yet, but they have announced the two commentators: I'm Matt Roller, and I'll be joined by Vishal Dikshit to talk you through this one. I'm sure he will provide an insightful commentary and talk a lot of sense, though.

Oh, of course. I wasn’t disagreeing with you, simply noting that a batsman with perhaps a poor technique (at international standard) batted particularly well against Somerset.

Maybe, but it seemed to work against Somerset (unfortunately).

Some suggestion Broad was showing dissent. Everything is relative.... https://www.crictracker.com/shakib-al-hasan-uproots-the-stumps-to-show-dissent-at-the-umpires-decision-in-dpl-2021/

I was just looking at Surrey's scorecard for yesterday's match against Middlesex - a very impressive 20 over line up: Jason Roy, Will Jacks, the Curran brothers, JOVE and, of course, our old friend Gareth Batty. It should be an entertaining game this evening.

Firstly, I am a Somerset fan through and through - dating as far back as Bath and WSM festival weeks: does anybody on here remember walking up from the 'beach' to spend a lazy afternoon watching Fred Rumsey or even Bill Alley? I understand the piss-taking of young James Bracey, but bear in mind he is a young man and, I would imagine, extremely embarrassed at his batting performances in his first two Tests. Give the lad a break and just hope that he scores well in the second innings, but is out for a duck when he next plays against Somerset and drops a few catches/misses a few easy stumpings.

But excellent in the field every game, apart from this evening.

Jack Brooks, first start in T20, takes a wicket before conceding a run ?.

Are you lucky enough to be there, or watching on a stream?

Interestingly, Ben Green was top scorer with 43 NO (three sixes).

It's available here should anybody need it, unfortunately it is still 4 wickets down no matter where you watch it.

Is (was) anyone watching the live Somerset stream? My stream has just been cut abruptly, with a message saying it is for copyright reasons.

Still on the Ollie Robinson story, this is a very good article by our friend, George Dobell. Quite long, but I recommend reading it should you have a spare 5 minutes (depending on how fast you read). https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ollie-robinson-controversy-amnesty-may-offer-solution-as-english-cricket-catches-up-with-society-s-shifting-values-1265598

Not any more it's not. It has been adjourned! Apologies, I was typing at the same time you were updating your original post.

I am not on, nor do I follow, social media, so would not be able to comment on your observations. By a process of elimination, however, I believe there are only a few possible candidates, i.e. the 'culprit' has to be one of the younger members of the squad - current or any time this past year - and, apparently, has only played a few Tests this year. I do have two further observations, though. 1. There was some suggestion that the ECB powers that be were of the mind to send OR home after the close of play on the first evening, i.e. when his historic tweets first came to light. It would seem that, for whatever reason, they had a change of mind, perhaps because all players in that Test were white? I wonder what the outcome might have been were, for example, Moeen Ali or Adil Rashid in the squad. I have not mentioned Jofra Archer as I believe there was no racist tweet about black people, 'just' Muslims. 2. My second observation is that DB has just been called up to the squad for the second Test as cover for Jack Leach. It will be interesting to see whether that changes over the course of the next few days, perhaps due to a niggling calf injury. Of course, my ideal scenario would be that the culprit is somebody else, both JL and DB play at Edgbaston and the latter takes a few wickets and scores a century....

I’m just hoping it’s not Dom Bess.

I doubt it (hope not). COVE's 'indiscretion' was some years ago and, more importantly, was on-pitch and, thus, dealt with at the time. Heaven forbid he had/has continued to post similar comments If so, there comes a time, surely, when the 'cricket' authorities must say, 'OK, Come clean with what you have posted as a youngster and we shall deal with it - disclose it now and we shall try and help you'. HEAVEN FORBID YOU SHOULD TRY AND HIDE IT, FOR WE SHALL FIND (BE INFORMED OF) IT AND YOUR INTERNATIONAL CAREER IS OVER. Apologies for shouting, but, inadvertently, my caps lock was on and I am too tired to go and correct it.

Was he the rather distinguished gentleman in a white dinner jacket who got banned for discussing recipes for gravy? Or were there more than one?

À propos creative defences, I am sure you recall Sir Alex Ferguson’s totally credible excuse for speeding/driving on the hard shoulder of a motorway, i.e. he had an extreme case of diahorrea (spelling) and was desperate to get to a toilet. He was acquitted.

He wouldn’t, though, would he? He is ‘quIte’ hard himself and has money. He also has influential ‘friends’, including a convicted Police killer. Should he be imprisoned, which I doubt, he will no doubt be feted by his fellow prisoners.

But this current offence is surely less serious than the previous one (OK, previous two or three or four....?) My understanding is that JB has simply pleaded Not Guilty, i.e. not even that the alleged offence was committed in self defence. My bet is 12 months suspended (maximum).

But was subsequently acquitted.

For a category three offence?