It’s been a while since I could wax lyrical about Somerset sitting on top of a table, but their sixth Royal London Cup win of the summer, against Hampshire, confirmed their first place in the South division. At long last, Mahela Jayawardene and Jim Allenby shared a decent opening partnership which provided the solid foundation required. Somerset earned a home quarter-final against Worcestershire, whose victories over Lancashire and Nottinghamshire were enough to qualify from an extraordinarily close North division.
Four counties finished at the top on nine points, while bottom-placed Lancs were only three points behind. Tom Fell was on great form for Worcester, aggregating 179 runs without being dismissed. Northants topped the group after easily hunting down a target of 273 set by Derbyshire at Wantage Road. Cobb, Duckett and Keogh each passed 60. Spare a thought for the opposing opener Ben Slater. His career-best 148 not out was all in vain.
Yorkshire lost twice this week yet still contrived to make it into the knockout stage. Their heavy defeat to Warwickshire proved decisive in the group. Jonathan Trott’s century and seven wickets to the spinners Jeetan Patel and Ateeq Javid ensured the Midlanders’ progress to a home tie against Essex.
Essex lost one game to the weather but Kent capitalised by winning their final two matches and taking the runners-up slot. It was good to see Will Gidman taking a rare opportunity to snap some vital wickets for them, including 3-28 against his old side Gloucestershire.
Surrey took the fourth quarter-final position thanks to batting second in a 16-over thrash at Lord’s. Their previous match had been ruined by the rain so it was with relief that the weather relented to allow play of sorts in the money-spinning London derby. It also prevented Hampshire from going through, despite some consistent performances by Will Smith (143 runs), Ryan McLaren and Liam Dawson, who scored a rapid hundred against Glamorgan and took a few wickets at Taunton.
It’s years since Hants failed to reach the latter stages of a limited-overs competition after once dominating the white-ball game. The same was true of Somerset, although we rarely converted finals into trophies. Dare I hope 2016 will be an exception?!
Team of the Week: Slater (Der), Denly (Ken), Fell (Wor), Smith (Ham), Trott (War), Dawson (Ham), O’Brien (Lei +), McLaren (Ham), Franklin (Mid), Berg (Ham), Coles (Ken)
