Always Look on the Bright Cider Life - The Somerset Cricket Podcast · The Somerset Cricket Podcast

You Could Turn The Thatcher's Terrace Into A Member's Bar...

·1 hr 1 min·5 clips

The episode opens with Somerset’s six-wicket win, sealed by Lewis Gregory after a chase of 194. Will Smead did the early work. Ian Shepard then welcomes Peter Wanless into a festive episode that will not contain very much festive chat at all. The mood stays easy, but the focus is already on what comes next. Wanless is asked about the club’s preparations and a board meeting due the following day. He says there is plenty on the agenda. The key point is that a lot of money has come into the club and needs to be used carefully. The feeling is that this is not something to waste, and that the details are not for here. Instead, the conversation gives the listener a sense that Somerset are entering an important planning stage. The middle section moves into England selection talk. The discussion first circles around wicketkeeping options and the future shape of the Test side. Jamie Smith is treated as a live issue, but Ben Foakes remains the benchmark. The panel is clear that Foakes is still the best wicketkeeper in the country, if not the world. There is also a route laid out for James Rew. He does not have to be seen only through the gloves. The idea that he could bat three, or possibly open, gets real attention. That creates a different kind of England pathway. The talk then becomes stronger in Rew’s favour. His age is stressed. His first-class hundreds are noted. So is the fact that he has already rescued Somerset from trouble more than once. He is described as a player who seems to carry no pressure. The panel argues that, in most eras, a 21-year-old with that record would be treated as a serious Test prospect. The conversation stays grounded in Somerset knowledge, but it reaches outward to England’s longer-term choices. That makes this the episode’s strongest stretch of debate. The final section drifts back toward the lighter side of the club calendar. Google Calendar is, as expected, slow. Dates are checked, corrected, and checked again. There is talk of Tuesday 20 January and of making room for an event. A Christmas feast comes up again, along with the Sean Dixon party barn. The joking idea of distracting him from batting duties and getting him to open the party barn fits the episode’s tone neatly. It ends with a Merry Christmas send-off and the familiar sense of people who know the club well, know each other well, and are happy to talk cricket for as long as the clock allows.

As heard by us

A brisk Somerset check-in that moves from a winning chase into the club's future and the selection debate.

Somerset's chase of 194 gives the episode its pace, but the discussion soon shifts into board business, another season, and England's wicketkeeping puzzle.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want Somerset chat that starts with a win and ends in the boardroom.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Always Look on the Bright Cider Life - The Somerset Cricket Podcast