In recent seasons, Somerset's bid to end their 122 years of hurt and win the County Championship have been hindered by poor starts. Therefore I gave an extra loud cheer on seeing that they had not only beaten Middlesex today but secured 22 points and headed the table.
I know it's early days but we have to cling onto such treasured moments and hope form continues throughout the season. Somerset need to make the most of Vernon Philander's time with them. His 5-43 in the first innings was critical, as was Irish spinner George Dockrell's 6-27 this morning. Last week, Middlesex Sam Robson became the first man ever to score a domestic first-class century before April. This week, when it mattered, he went for a third ball duck!
At Trent Bridge, twenty wickets fell on the first day but Nottinghamshire got the better of more batting-friendly conditions afterwards, with Riki Wessels top-scoring with 113. However, it was Worcester's Richard Jones who starred with the ball, taking 6-32 first time out. Bowlers were on top at The Oval, and it was Surrey's solid all-round attack that won the day for the newly-promoted county desopite Sussex batsman Luke Wells' defiant century.
In Division Two, bottom team Leicestershire must have feared the worst when they lost wickets to the first two balls of their season! However, visitors Glamorgan fared even worse. New arrival Richard Joseph's was the outstanding performance of the first round of matches, grabbing six wickets in each innings as the Welsh team scraped together barely 300 runs in total. First team to win in this season's competition was Essex, at home to Gloucestershire. Billy Goldleman struck 130, then their seamers, led by last year's prolific David Masters and all-rounder Graham Napier, bowled the opposition out twice for an innings victory.
Derbyshire won a Midlands derby (no pun intended), beating one of my promotion tips Northants by 202 runs. They were even after the first few days but then Martin Guptill's 137 was more than the opposition could muster between them. Yorkshire reject, David Wainwright spun his way to a career-best 6-33 to give Wayne Madsen's side a perfect start.
The only place in a cold blustery England where a decent first innings score was achieved was Headingley. The Kent top order played well enough but it was a record ninth wicket partnership between centurion Mat Coles and Mark Davies which set up a first innings total of 537. Davies also bowled well on his Kent debut and, despite a Jonny Bairstow hundered, Yorkshire had to follow on. This time the openers used up enough overs to ensure a draw.
Next week sees a full schedule of eight Championship fixture. Glen Chapple's Lancashire begin their trophy defence against Sussex, and Durham are at home to Notts. Somerset travel to Warwickshire who inflicted a near-fatal wound on Marcus Trescothick's side last April at Taunton. The home team will miss the injured Chris Woakes in particular, while Nick Compton's early sequence of 100, 236 and 99 will give the Somerset faithful something to look forward to. Promoted London rivals Surrey and Middlesex meet again, too. My money's on the former.
