Somerset County Cricket Club in 1882

Somerset County Cricket Club made their debut in first-class cricket in the 1882 English cricket season. They were captained by Stephen Newton, and played eight first-class matches, five against county opposition, two against the Marylebone Cricket Club and one against the touring Australian team. They only won one of the eight contests, that against Hampshire at Taunton. Of the other matches, one was drawn and the other six were all losses for Somerset. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described the season as "disastrous", but the publication qualified this statement with mild optimism for 1883.

Part of the reason for Somerset's poor performances was their inability to consistently field their best players; at least four of their better cricketers were unable to commit to the full fixture list, and in all the county played 30 different people in their eight matches. Faint praise was offered to the batting of

Somerset County Cricket Club was formed in 1875, and played irregular county fixtures in the years after that, during which time they struggled to remain financially solvent. Upon their formation, the club had no fixed home ground, and it was declared that they would play "on any ground in the county that may be selected by the committee."^[1] However, in 1881, they moved into the newly built Athletic Grounds in Taunton.^[a] Although it is widely accepted that Somerset's debut first-class match came in 1882, some records do include earlier matches in 1879 and 1881 against Gloucestershire as being of first-class status.^[1]

Squad

In their eight first-class matches in 1882, Somerset fielded 30 different players. Only three appeared in all eight matches:

• † denotes that the player appeared as a wicket-keeper for Somerset in 1882
• Apps denotes the number of appearances made by the player for Somerset in 1882
• Ref denotes the reference for the player details

County cricket

Summary

First half of the season: away matches

Somerset made their debut in first-class cricket against

In Somerset's second match, they faced their nearest opposition, Gloucestershire. Once again, the weather was poor, and the

Facing Hampshire in Southampton for the third match, Somerset won the toss and opted to bat first.^[45] The pitch was soft, due to the heavy rainfall through the morning, and play started shortly after midday. Sainsbury was yet again one of few Somerset players to reach double figures, and they were bowled out for 101. Cecil Currie, a spin bowler for Hampshire, collected eight of the wickets.^[46] Somerset managed to restrict Hampshire's lead to 46 runs; Francis Reed took four wickets, and Fothergill three. Fowler and Fothergill were Somerset's most successful batsmen in their second innings, played mostly in light rain, helping the county to reach 118 runs. That left Hampshire requiring 73 runs to win, which the hosts achieved without losing any wickets, to beat Somerset with ten wickets to spare.^[46]

The Somerset team travelled to Lord's in London in early August to face the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Somerset batted first after winning the toss, but lost three batsmen for ducks early in the innings. Somerset's captain, Newton – playing his first match of the season for the county, batted for the rest of the innings to score 57 runs, and shared a large partnership with Francis Reed. The MCC started well in their innings, but the introduction of Fowler into the bowling attack brought their batting to a quick conclusion; Fowler took four wickets while only conceding eight runs, and claimed a hat-trick by bowling Edward Hawtrey, Charles Burke and Thomas Mycroft in successive deliveries.^[47] Somerset had a 25-run lead going into the second innings, in which Newton once again top-scored. In addition to his total of 67, Lyonel Hildyard made an unbeaten 59, and Fowler scored 23 runs from just six scoring shots, including a six which went out of the ground.^[47] The Western Daily Press described Fowler as "possibly the hardest hitter amongst English cricketers",^[48] while his history of the county, David Foot suggests that Fowler was "perhaps the earliest Somerset batsman to parade the fundamental skills of slogging."^[34] Somerset totalled 219, to leave the MCC needing to score 245 runs to win. Principally due to the batting of John Russel, the MCC reached the target, but only had one wicket remaining; Fothergill having taken five wickets and Charles Winter four.^[49]

Second half of the season: home matches

A few days later, Somerset played their first home fixture, at the Taunton Athletic Grounds, hosting Hampshire. In contrast to many of their previous game, the weather was good, and on winning the toss, Hampshire decided to bat first. Charles Seymour batted well for the visitors, accruing 57 out of Hampshire's 146 runs, but Fowler was again the best of the Somerset bowlers, collecting four wickets for nine runs to help restrict the Hampshire total.^[50] Ramsay top-scored for Somerset in their reply, accumulating 71 runs before being bowled, while a number of other batsmen made useful scores to help Somerset to their total of 214. Edward Western, the Somerset secretary batted in his only innings of the season for the county, coming in as the last man, but he failed to score a run.^[51] Somerset struggled to collect wickets when Hampshire batted again, and tried eight different bowlers without much success. Their fielding was described by the Bristol Mercury as being "loose", but when the sixth wicket was taken, with 232 runs scored, the rest followed reasonably quickly, and Hampshire finished on 290.^[51][52] Fowler was dismissed early in Somerset's chase, but Newton and Sainsbury put on 118 runs together to help their towards victory. Sainsbury was dismissed for 63, but Newton continued to bat, putting on 80 runs before being dismissed. Somerset eventually reached the required total with five wickets remaining to achieve their first win of the season.^[53]

The next day after defeating Hampshire, Somerset faced the MCC at Taunton. The MCC had brought a strong team, including eight professionals, and on winning the toss they elected to bat. After a cautious start, the second-wicket partnership of

Somerset's final county match of the season came against the same opposition as their first, Lancashire. The low attendance at the match was criticised in the press,[56] and the Western Daily Press in particular described that "it was painfully obvious that Tauntonians, as a body, take no interest in first-class cricket."^[57] Six wickets from Evans helped Somerset to limit Lancashire to 178 runs in their first innings, but Somerset failed to capitalise; Fowler and Newton scored 24 and 23 runs respectively, but no other batsman reached double figures. Somerset were dismissed for 74 runs, more than 100 behind, and were asked to follow on by Lancashire. Batting again, the Somerset players put in an improved performance, and reached 157 runs, of which Roe scored 45. Lancashire were required to bat again, but reached the winning target of 53 runs for the loss of only one wicket.^[58]

Towards the end of August, the

References