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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 1d

Will Smeed yesterday opened his account for "Brampton Blitz" with 24 off 7 in the "Canada Super 60"

Former Somerset players Roelof van der Merwe and Piyush Chawla (!) are also on Smeed's team

Scorecard: www.espncricinfo.com/series/canad...

Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 3d

Somerset to the rescue

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 7d

Updated for the end of the season are all my general Somerset quizzes: www.sporcle.com/playlists/da...

Previous squad quizzes are here: www.sporcle.com/playlists/da...

Western Storm KSL players: www.sporcle.com/games/danthe...

Women's Test host cities: www.sporcle.com/games/danthe...

Enjoy!

Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 7d

Can you name every player who played for Somerset in 2025?

Men: www.sporcle.com/games/danthe...

Women: www.sporcle.com/games/danthe...

Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 7d

Can you name every player who played for Somerset in 2025?

Men: www.sporcle.com/games/danthe...

Women: www.sporcle.com/games/danthe...

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 8d

Absolutely remarkable from England

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

Percentage of wickets that fell to spin in County Championship (and Bob Willis Trophy) matches at Taunton

2016: 47%
2017: 56%
2018: 27%
2019: 34%
2020: 6%
2021: 8%
2022: 15%
2023: 18%
2024: 36%
2025: 48%

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

...Cricket Academy, a locally-qualified associate player, or a foreign player on a UK passport

Shaw should be a very useful bowler for our white-ball sides, but there is work to do if we are going to have a bowling attack that's capable of challenging for the CC next year.

9/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

Hopefully there are more signings coming, and presumably at least one, if not two, overseas slots will be used for quality red-ball pace bowlers (possibly Migael Pretorius again)

There's also the possibility of a slightly more unorthodox route - eg the South Asian...

8/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

We rightly have high hopes for young bowlers like Alfie Ogborne, JT Langridge, Joe Heywood etc but they may well end up being asked to do too much, too soon

(although whatever the situation with signings I really hope Ogborne plays more regularly in CC and Blast next year)

7/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

It seems that we did try to sign other bowlers, but none of them joined us for whatever reason. It's a bit worrying that, despite being a consistently successful county, we can't attract anyone better than Shaw.

6/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

If we have other incoming bowlers signed primarily for red-ball cricket then great, but I'm not convinced that's happening

Jason Kerr seemed to keen emphasise the young players coming through when asked about this post-Essex: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3oC...

5/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

And this is in Division 2 for a side that has finished 16th, 17th and 18th in those seasons

He doesn't seem to be a bowler who should be playing regularly for a side that has ambitions of winning the County Championship

4/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

Thing is the need for red-ball pace bowlers is far more urgent than the need for white-ball pace bowlers

And Shaw's recent red-ball record is...not good

His recent first-class record:

2025: 7 matches, 13 wkts @ 50
2024: 3 matches, 7 wkts @ 50
2023: 6 matches, 11 wkts @ 44

3/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

He may get into our first-choice T20 side, possibly as Green's replacement (which would involve rebalancing the side) or in one of the slots taken by Meredith and Henry this year. It will depend on who we sign as overseas players for T20 next year.

2/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 11d

Think Josh Shaw will be a good signing for Somerset's T20 and 50 over sides. His recent record in those formats is decent and, while they'll both be at the club for at least a season, he'll probably take over Jake Ball's role as a dependable senior bowler

1/9

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

I'll have to look into it. I don't think many counties will say they're completely happy with their opening partnership but ours is surely one of the worst ones in terms of batting average

Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

...don't get into our first-choice middle order - from getting a game as a makeshift opener. And as we have seen this season, players aren't necessarily going to stay if they know they can get more regular cricket elsewhere.

11/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

We have an abundance of middle order talent, but the need for a solid opening partnership remains - we used nine opening pairs this season

The negative of signing an overseas opener is that it reduces the chance of someone like Goldsworthy or Smeed - who probably...

10/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

Going forward, the most pressing need is pace bowlers - we undoubtedly need another domestic red-ball option, as well as the usual overseas bowler or two

We will need to decide whether to sign two overseas bowlers, or one overseas bowler and an overseas opening batter

9/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

Away wins are an issue. We had a brilliant win at Chester-le-Street, but that was our sole away win and our first since July 2023

We've won 4 of our last 32 away CC games

The last time Somerset won away without Matt Henry was against Gloucestershire at Bristol in May 2022

8/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

Somerset are traditionally slow starters, but we did win our first two games in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and our first one in 2021. Since then we've reverted to the norm

If we can find a way to hit the ground running again we should be able to mount a better title challenge

7/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

Another issue was the slow start to the season. I don't know if failing to get over the line against Worcestershire was a factor, but we really struggled in the following three games (all away), with two bad losses and an uncompetitive draw

6/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

The latter of those two games may well have been draws anyway, but we need to be better at really grinding our opponents down

To be fair there was some progress in this regard - we scored 13 individual centuries, compared to 8 last year

5/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

We also need to be more ruthless with the bat

In the first innings at the Oval, we fell from 146/2 to 283 all out

In the first innings at Edgbaston, we fell from 407/3 to 498 all out

In the first innings at Trent Bridge, we fell from 338/3 to 438 all out

4/11

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Dan Kingdom @dankingdom96.bsky.social · 12d

Think we can look back on the CC with some regret, though

There were points dropped - the first game against Worcs, the point deducted away to Hampshire and the failure to get over the line at home to Hampshire (although the weather was somewhat responsible for that one)

3/11

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