Day One

Words by Alex Smith, ECB Reporters Network

Liam Dawson overtook his best LV=Insurance County Championship runs tally since 2015 with an unbeaten 109 in front of England selector Luke Wright on a slow-paced day between Hampshire and Somerset.

Dawson has enjoyed a successful season with bat and ball with 667 runs and 28 left-arm spin wickets to his name in Division One.

His second century of the campaign handed Hampshire a slim advantage after day one at the Utilita Bowl, after Nick Gubbins’ lumbering 49 off 132 balls.

Fast bowlers Jack Brooks claimed three wickets and Lewis Gregory two as the Somerset attack refused to allow their hosts to score at above three runs per over. They closed on 282 for seven.

Hampshire chose to bat, but before play started the two teams stood for a minute of silence in memory of Heath Streak, who died aged 49 earlier on Sunday.

Zimbabwean Streak played 19 first-class and 21 List A matches for Hampshire as an overseas signing in 1995. Their players wore black armbands during the day’s play.

Fletcha Middleton – a star of Hampshire’s progression to the Metro Bank One-Day Cup final last month – fell to his third delivery, as Brooks found some away movement and the outside edge to second slip.

The recovery set the platform, and tempo, for the day. Watchful and safe batting, against accurate but unthreatening bowling on a slow pitch.

On his first Championship outing for Hampshire, Toby Albert showed promise in his 26 during a 50-run stand with Gubbins before tamely chipping to point.

James Vince belayed the conditions by attractively cover driving his first ball for four. His 34 in 49 was a rare attacking spell of the day, alongside out-the-blue sixes from Albert and Gubbins.

Vince overtook the plodding Gubbins in 17 overs before lunch but was given out caught behind off an inside edge before Tom Prest was leg before for a six-ball duck.

Gubbins, who has a strike-rate of under 40 in Division One this season, was particularly turgid between lunch and his dismissal.

In those 100ish minutes, he scored 20 runs before falling a run shy of his seventh half-century before Shoaib Bashir’s quicker ball crashed into the stumps. He was replaced by Ben Brown who slowed things even more, with four off 42 deliveries in 54 minutes before Gregory had him caught behind.

Dawson manoeuvred things in his typically understated style, his 111-ball fifty showing composure, skill, and a sound technique but little unneeded extravagance.

The only question mark on his innings was caught and bowled appeal off Brooks. Brooks claimed the catch, Dawson insisted it was a bump ball, and the umpires sided with the batter. Replays were inconclusive so the benefit of the doubt towards the batter proved sensible.

James Fuller accompanied him in a 54-run stand before Brooks struck him on the pads with the new ball, but Dawson marched towards the 13th three-figure score of his career and past 9,000 first-class runs.

Due to the sluggish nature of the surface, Dawson dominated his scoring square of the wicket, with all but two of his 13 boundaries coming from pulls, jabs, sweeps or cuts.

He and Keith Barker accelerated towards close, putting on 56together, to cash out the dividends earned from the earlier graft in the day.

Typically though, the final over of the day was a maiden, the 24th no run over of the day.

Day Two

Words by Alex Smith, ECB Reporters Network

Keith Barker blew Somerset away with his first LV=Insurance County Championship five-wicket haul of the season as Hampshire took control on day two at Utilita Bowl.

Left arm seamer Barker had only taken 14 wickets in his opening eight red ball appearances of 2023 but after a fine Metro Bank One-Day Cup campaign, roared back with five for 32 to see off Somerset for 137.

Andy Umeed scored 43, to follow up Jack Brooks’ first five-wicket haul of the season, but the visitors’ hopes of victory took a hefty blow.

Despite a 171-run lead, Hampshire batted again and reached 45 without loss in 23 watchful evening overs to extend their lead to 216.

After Sean Dickson had been brilliantly caught at third slip by James Vince off Barker in the third over, Tom Lammonby and Tom Abell bedded in for over an hour either side of lunch.

The pair put on 51, but Abell’s lbw to Barker sparked a collapse from 51 for one to 67 for five, from which they wouldn’t fully recover.

Barker has endured an underwhelming Championship campaign, due in part to missing matches after he fractured both his hands while batting in the early stages.

His 10 wickets in six One-Day Cup matches have warmed him up for the season's final month.

The former Warwickshire quick took a heavy-handed Lammonby’s outside edge before pinning Tom Kohler-Cadmore.

Division One’s leading run scorer, heading into the round, James Rew, prodded to short leg off Liam Dawson, Lewis Gregory played on to Mohammad Abbas, Ben Green edged Abbott behind, and Neil Wagner was bowled.

Andy Umeed – fresh from 613 One-Day Cup runs – had been in survival mode but once the eighth wicket fell, he started to unleash. He reached 43 before he missed a big swing and was stumped to give Dawson three for 61.

Barker had the final word by having Shoaib Bashir lbw before celebrating his five wickets with his trademark one-arm raised celebrappeal.

Somerset gave up a 171-run first-innings deficit but James Vince elected against enforcing the follow-on.

Toby Albert and Fletcha Middleton bedded in, heeding century-maker Dawson’s advice to bat long to score runs. It made for a lifeless final 23 overs of the day - during which Wagner attempted a short-pitch onslaught on a pitch not suited to such a tactic. Hampshire closing on 45 without loss.

Earlier, Brooks bolstered his impressive Utilita Bowl record to 21 wickets at an average of 16.85 in four matches with two morning wickets – as Hampshire added 26 to their overnight score to be bowled out for 308.

Keith Barker was caught off his inside edge before Liam Dawson was pinned by Brooks to end his 115-run stay. Kyle Abbott swatted back-to-back boundaries to gather a second batting bonus point but chipped to cover.

Brooks returned five for 56 – his third five-wicket haul on the ground – and first in four Championship appearances this season.

Day Three

Words by Alex Smith, ECB Reporters Network

Nick Gubbins effortlessly struck his third LV=Insurance County Championship as Hampshire ground Somerset towards submission on day three at the Utilita Bowl.

Left-handed batter Gubbins gracefully hit an unbeaten 139 – his highest score for Hampshire since joining from Middlesex – to move past 900 runs in the Championship this season.

Together with Fletcha Middleton and James Vince’s half-centuries, Gubbins led Hampshire to a 501-run lead having forced Somerset to wallow in the south coast heat.

Facing a minimum of 128 overs to bat out, the visitors slumped to 38 for two but Sean Dickson’s unbeaten 63 held them together. They reached the close on 102 for two, 400 still required to win.

Hampshire’s title ambitions had been ended by 11am by Surrey’s victory over Warwickshire.

Their openers Toby Albert and Middleton had tediously scored 45 runs in 23 overs the previous evening, but their lack of adventure paid dividends, having taken much of the lacquer off the ball.

They batted with more intent as they took their partnership to 80 with little fuss, with Middleton reaching his fourth fifty in his debut season.

They both fell within four overs of each other, Middleton bowled two balls after reaching the milestone and Albert was caught and bowled by New Zealander Neil Wagner, on his Somerset debut.

Gubbins had been incredibly slow, on an even slow pitch, in the first innings to take his seasonal strike rate to the third lowest in Division One – only Dom Sibley and Luke Proctor were slower for those who had scored more than 200 runs.

This time around he showed an attacking flair, taking part of a cover-drive battle with Vince as he reached 50 in 81 balls.

The 135 balls his subsequent century came in, were the fastest of his sixth tons for Hampshire.

Lewis Gregory, although on the pitch, was not used at all on day three, while fellow opening bowler Jack Brooks only bowled five overs before the declaration.

As such, Gubbins and Vince – whose 50 came in 66 balls – found going easy with little pressure built to stop them from scoring at will. The run rate from the morning session 3.94 before moving to 4.97 in the afternoon.

Vince was caught from behind to end a 162-run stand, but Tom Prest continued where he left off to continue the flow of runs with Gubbins – who is enjoying the second-best Championship season of his career.

The pair added 79 together before the long-awaited declaration came at tea.

Liam Dawson was the main worry for Somerset, with the occasional spin more threatening than pace on a feather-bed. And it came to pass as the left-armer had Tom Lammonby stumped with his third delivery.

Tom Abell followed when James Fuller’s extra pace was edged to second slip, where Vince took a sharp catch.

Dickson and Andy Umeed showed tenacity and a backbone vital to save Hampshire from defeat. Dickson, in particular, looked in good order to reach his half-century in 86 balls.

Day Four

Words by Alex Smith, ECB Reporters Network

Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored a well-made 84 but Hampshire’s patience was rewarded with their sixth LV=Insurance County Championship victory of the season.

Kohler-Cadmore and James Rew’s 107-run stand threatened to frustrate odds on favourites Hampshire – who had taken two early wickets.

But Liam Dawson plugged away with four for 85 before the second new ball opened the visitors up as Hampshire won by 185 runs before tea, with 33 overs shy of survival.

Hampshire, whose title ambitions were ended by Surrey’s victory the previous day, took 21 points to Somerset’s three – with both sides only battling for prize money in the final month of the season.

Hampshire needed eight wickets, Somerset a less likely 400 runs on the final day at the Utilita Bowl.

Somerset were rolled for 137 in the first innings and when Sean Dickson – who had completed a half-century the previous evening – was castled by Mohammad Abbas to the 11th ball of the day, it felt like a landslide victory was coming for the hosts.

Andy Umeed, who had played his part in the 68-run stand with Dickson, edged a rising Abbas delivery to second slip two overs later to make the lunch orders start to feel redundant.

But Kohler-Cadmore and Rew bedded in and ate away at the overs.

Kohler-Cadmore was skittish and refused to err from his aggressive tendencies, with plenty of plays and misses in the early part of his innings exciting the Hampshire cordon.

His lack of fear might not have been the traditional way to save a match for his team but benefited both his side and himself – with his fourth half-century of the season coming in 67 deliveries.  

Rew took 16 balls to get off the mark, and at various points was three of 31 and 11 off 49 but never seemed bogged down or frustrated.

The pitch remained as slow and flat as it had been across the match, with Dawson finding some significant turn, and very occasional spit out the rough, but it was much too slow to provide a stern test.

However, the left-arm spinner did break the 107-run alliance between Kohler-Cadmore and Rew.

Rew had retaken his place as the highest run-scorer in Division One, he now has 1,077 runs, but a drive away from his body found an inside edge and was caught by wicketkeeper Ben Brown.

Kohler-Cadmore’s resistance ended on 84 with a brilliant off-spinning delivery from Tom Prest five overs before the second new ball. It caught the edge of the rough wide of off stump to turn back and bowl the slog-sweeping batter.

It was the former England under 19 captain’s maiden first-class wicket.

The second new ball pulled the rug out from under Somerset’s resolve. Lewis Gregory edged Kyle Abbott behind to the fourth ball with the new cherry.

Neil Wagner was castled by the South African quick in his following over, before Dawson bowled Jack Brooks and had Shoabib Bashir lbw to complete the victory. Somerset bowled out for 316.