Marcus Trescothick has admitted he is lost for answers when it comes to Somerset's record of falling at the final hurdle after they came up short against Surrey at Lord's in the Clydesdale Bank 40 final. It meant a fifth runner's-up position in two seasons for a county that is gaining the reputation of not being able to go that one step further.
Somerset slumped to 79 for 5 in the final - with Trescothick the first man dismissed - and although Jos Buttler's 86 carried them 214 it didn't prove enough to seriously challenge Surrey in a Duckworth-Lewis run chase. It left Trescothick fielding familiar questions which he fielded with honesty as he said everything the team had tried to overcome their finals' jinx had failed.
"What more can you say to justify it or tell you what's wrong? I don't know if I'm honest," he said. "We've looked at different things but it's not working out when we get to this point. It's another kick in the teeth
"I'm out of ideas to try and improve. I'm out of answers. We didn't bat as well as we could do, whether that's nerves I don't know. It's something we need to address and it needs some honest answers."
He also acknowledged how tough the result would be for the Somerset supporters. "I apologise for putting everyone through this," he said. "We are playing great cricket for 99% of the season and we all love coming to the big finals. We've got to give it our best - and will do - to keep fighting to get the right result."
However, despite the latest setback he still sees a bright future for Somerset and believes the fact the team keep getting close to gaining silverware shows how much is being done right.
"I take a lot of comfort from that," he said. "A lot of teams would swap. We are in the top five teams in the country and getting into positions to win things. It takes the edge off by not winning but we are doing a hell of a lot right. We could be a special team; at the moment we just aren't quite good enough."
For Trescothick's opposite number, Rory-Hamilton Brown, there were very different emotions as Surrey followed Championship promotion with a trophy. Hamilton-Brown also played a key role with the bat as he made 78 off 62 balls, although he lost out on the match award to Jade Dernbach who took 4 for 30, he was excited about the prospects for the team
"The way I see it, a lot of change has been made over the last three years at the club," he said. They are changes that needed to be made and this is just a start of what I think we can achieve. It lets the guys know that what we are doing is right and if we keep putting in the hard work we've got a very successful future ahead of us. We've worked really hard. We've had a fantastic finish to the season."