Nottinghamshire 256 and 187 for 6 (Mullaney 29*, Hutton 20*, Siddle 2-26)) lead Somerset 173 (Davey 60, Hutton 6-45) by 270 runs
There is a marvellous Finnish word, 'kalsarikännit', which literally means the sort of morbid stay-at-home feeling when you just want to get drunk in your underwear. They may look askance at the suggestion, but aficionados of county cricket are particularly prone to such a mood as they wait for the mental torture of a cricketless winter to end.
When the Championship does return, it does so slowly, not as much bursting into life as leaking, the first milky shafts of sunlight taking several weeks to take the chill out of the bones. Outside Trent Bridge, the river was high, the ground squelchy underfoot. Inside, the groundstaff and drainage systems had created miracles ("they're abandoned at Leicester already," said a Notts loyalist at 11 o'clock with grim satisfaction).
As for the spectators, most could at least now claim to be sober and clad in several protective layers, the period of kalsarikännit once more behind them. "Bring my coat, love, the cricket's starting again."
Stuart Broad vs Cameron Bancroft was presented as an early skirmish in the Ashes phoney war, but it didn't really work out like that: Broad bowled 14 balls at Bancroft, conceded five runs, including a filthy long hop that was gratefully cut for four, and then the Australian fell lbw to one from Dane Paterson that swung back. Bancroft second top-scored, but dutiful 27s from 69 balls are not about to ensure his place in Australia's Ashes party.
For all his theatrical oohs and aahs, and for all his white headband flickering behind him with the suggestion that considering such a winning look, artistry was inevitable, Broad finished wicketless after 15 overs. That was despite a bowler's morning during which Somerset, 28 for 2 overnight, escaped to 173, via the perils of 87 for eight and 117 for nine. They had to thank Josh Davey's down-to-earth 60 from 66 balls, only his second first-class fifty for Somerset, for keeping the first-innings arrears to 83, but Nottinghamshire tightened their grip in their second innings and their lead of 270 runs with three wickets remaining feels ample.
Broad maps out his preparations for an England summer with great deliberation and this is thought to be the first of four matches to get himself in optimum shape. His first excursion since the Wellington Test in late February is best described as exploratory. These days, his careful build-up is a case of needs must. The Ashes series begins a week or so before his 37th birthday, and with James Anderson now 40, England's opening attack now sounds so venerable that give it a few years and they will have something in common with the crowd. A chat about Grand Theft Auto III is only a few seasons away.
Broad will settle for a better outcome than another pre-Ashes match-up involving Bancroft at Sedburgh before the 2019 series when Anderson went in the calf, and only bowled four overs in the series. As for Bancroft, he was dropped after two unproductive Tests.
While Broad went unrewarded, the best figures fell to the medium-quick, Brett Hutton, who made the ball talk on an overcast morning and who returned a Nottinghamshire-best six for 45. The mood was set, though, by Dane Paterson, who revels in such responsive Trent Bridge mornings in the way that Andre Adams did before him, and who followed up his successful inswinger to Bancroft by dismissing Tom Abell in the following over with one that seamed away and had him caught, driving, at second slip.
Three Somerset batting tyros are missing here, not just Tom Banton, who is recovering from a broken finger, but George Bartlett and Lewis Goldsworthy, who is a bit of a scrapper and, as such, gives their recently brittle line-up a different feel. Steve Davies has also relinquished the gloves to James Rew. Tom Kohler-Cadmore, acquired from Yorkshire, but not steeped in Yorkshire obduracy, is not about to change that nature. He is very much in the adventurous "that's how I play," mode, eyes on the shorter formats, and he failed with several forays down the pitch before Hutton had him lbw to straight one.
At times, Hutton found prodigious movement, and his dismissal of Lewis Gregory was pure chicanery. There were better balls for Gregory to envisage a lofted blow over long on. What had all the makings of an outswinger suddenly made a hairpin turn and dipped through the gate. It became three wickets in seven balls as another lavish inswinger did for Craig Overton (a touch leg-sideish perhaps) and squeezed one past Rew's defence to hit off stump.
With eight down for 87, the follow-on was still possible, but Somerset righted the ship somewhat, Davey's resistance ensuring that an extra half-hour was taken before lunch to no avail. Tom Moores also relinquished the gloves - Joe Clarke deputising - after suffering a hand injury collecting a rising delivery from Lyndon James.
With a lead of 83, and cloud forecast for Sunday, Nottinghamshire had a sizeable advantage. Peter Siddle took just one ball to silence Ben Duckett at midwicket. Haseeb Hameed's responsible 34 ended unfortunately at second slip when Gregory forced a deflection of inside edge and pad and the umpires conferred before rightly awarding Kohler-Cadmore a catch. Bancroft's excellent slip catch removed Ben Slater.
When Liam Patterson-White walked out ahead of the injured Moores at No.7, the lead was 209. Somerset had done well to just about stay in the game, although their cause was not helped when Davey limped off with a hamstring injury. There was turn, too, for Jack Leach which will make their fourth innings even harder. Gregory took his ninth wicket of the match when Liam Patterson-White's thick edge was taken at gully but Hutton and skipper Steven Mullaney batted sensibly through to the close.
In an age of instant gratification, Championship over rates get more ponderous. To avoid penalties, official figures are massaged for all sorts of spurious reasons. Somerset are spritelier than many, but by the time, the Grand National began at 5.30pm - 15 minutes late because of a course invasion - there were still 30 overs left. It all drifted to a halt at 7.25pm. If protesters ever glue themselves to the pitch at a county match, nobody will get away before midnight.
