Somerset 171 and 171 for 7 (Claydon 3-30) lead Kent 209 (Gregory 3-26) by 133 runs
Taunton folk have warm hearts. "Hello, my lovely!" says Lucy, joint-owner of Wickets, the finest café on the circuit, as she greets each customer. And next door is The World of Bears, which is not an outlet for merchandise linked to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy but an altogether fluffier enterprise offering visitors "18,000 cuddles". So let us hope both establishments have a hug ready for Somerset's skipper, Tom Abell, should he drop in on Monday morning.
Abell's contributions to this game may seem modest but it is not so. By the game's end he will probably have batted longer (four hours) and made more runs (79) than anyone else. Until Mitch Claydon took three wickets in 19 balls deep in Sunday's final session, it seemed possible Abell's 58-run partnership with Steve Davies - their second half-century stand of the match - would ensure Somerset set a formidable target. And even now, all is not settled. George Bartlett and Craig Overton's unbroken 60-run alliance for the eighth wicket has given the hosts a lead of 133 and Bartlett's confident cover-drive to Harry Podmore's last ball of the day symbolised the game's shifting balance. One doubts Kent will find it easy to chase anything above 150 on the final afternoon.
Abell is a lovely bloke and a fine batsman who is young enough to become a much better one if he just concentrates a little more. He captains his team well and scampers after the ball with the enthusiasm of a spaniel in the bracken. His 49 was the highest score in Somerset's first innings, a feat which hardly ranks with slaying the Stymphalian birds but revealed more application than anyone else displayed.
On Sunday morning, Abell watched as his seamers bowled their side back into the match. He took a catch to get rid of the palpably dangerous Matt Renshaw and then early in the afternoon session took the last wicket himself after Kent had chiselled out a modest 38-run lead on first innings.
Yet for a few absurd moments in the afternoon session it seemed that 38 might be just about enough to see Kent to victory in their first top division game in nine years. Operating from the River End, Darren Stevens brought one back off the seam to have Marcus Trescothick lbw and next over moved one away enough to take the edge of James Hildreth's bat. Stevens possesses the craft of the ages but Trescothick's bat was far from the ball and few home supporters wondered if they heard the sound of the boatman's oar. Either way, it was the first time a bowler aged over 42 had dismissed a batsman over 43 in a County Championship since John Childs accounted for John Emburey at Chelmsford in 1996.
Things got worse for Somerset before their deficit was cleared. Azhar Ali edged a good ball from Podmore to Zak Crawley at third slip and Eddie Byrom fenced fatally at the fourth ball of Matt Milnes' first over to give a catch behind. Abell was on 8 when that wicket fell and Somerset were -6 for 4. Joined by Davies, a batsman whose totals have not always matched his ability, the captain remained as vigilant as a barn owl in daylight. This will be a low-scoring game, one in which every over has represented a tiny triumph to someone.
The pair took their side to tea without further disaster and played a little more expansively on the resumption. The lead grew and some called the situation promising. The temperature rose, too, though it could hardly do otherwise. Encouragements to the Kent bowlers from their colleagues rang out across the County Ground but Davies cover-drove Podmore for two fours and hit him straight for three runs in the 31st over. Riches, indeed. Then five overs later Abell played a mimsy cut to a ball from Claydon he could well have left alone and Ollie Robinson took the catch. Davies and Lewis Gregory soon joined him in the pavilion. We thought Kent might be batting again at a time when some people are attending evensong but Bartlett and Overton resisted and there will be vital decisions for Abell to make tomorrow.
Sunday's late sunlight and balmy air contrasted sharply with the conditions that greeted the players when they had arrived at the ground some nine hours earlier. Yet the morning's play showed how gloriously absorbing this championship can be. Kent scored 88 runs but lost five prime wickets and the cricket was so well contested it took one's mind off the cheerless conditions. Late October, you might have said, and a bleak one, had you been standing outside and not glanced at the trees. The session was neatly bookended by Hildreth's straightforward snare to get rid of Sean Dickson off Josh Davey for 43 and then by Trescothick's brilliant two-handed reflex effort high above his head which accounted for Daniel Bell-Drummond 15 minutes before the interval.
Bell-Drummond's 84-ball 33 was an essay in restraint and his 47-run fifth-wicket stand with Heino Kuhn took up almost an hour of the session. The partnership ended when Overton nipped one between Kuhn's bat and pad, then Alex Blake played a dreadful stroke somewhere between a cut and a drive but only edged the ball on to his off stump. That seemed a vital dismissal at the time and still does. Every wicket has mattered in this game and Mother Cricket is not done with it yet.
