Relegation stalemate suits Somerset the better

For all that they could not drive home their advantage and win this game on the final day Somerset's players can take considerable comfort from the match. For all they batted obstinately for the draw, Hampshire's cricketers may have been troubled men as they returned from the West Country on Saturday evening.

Arithmetic and the fixture-list explain these judgements. Somerset gained 13 points, the maximum possible, from the draw, which was agreed at 4.20 with Hampshire holding a lead of 21 runs and still having six wickets to fall. At that point Marcus Trescothick reasonably conceded that his side could not force the victory after a day in which his bowlers had taken one wicket in each of three sessions.

Eighth-placed Hampshire took seven points from the game at Taunton and they are now 11 points shy of Somerset and Sussex, who meet at Hove on Monday. On the same day Hampshire entertain Yorkshire, the re-crowned champions, who scarcely make a habit of losing successive games and will be smarting following their embarrassing defeat at Lord's. There is still a lot of cricket to play but it seems fair to suggest that it is Hampshire who need to win at least one of their final two matches in order to put pressure on the two counties above them.

Yet Hampshire's attempt to avoid relegation will be far from hopeless if they can play with the same technical skill and mental strength their batting evinced on Saturday. All the batsmen dismissed made at least fifty and the only batsman to give his wicket away when it really mattered was the captain James Vince, who cut Craig Overton straight to Tom Abell in the sixth over of the morning.

That, though, was the high point of Somerset's day: rain trimmed eight overs from the allocation; Jimmy Adams and Will Smith batted carefully until lunch; and the next wicket did not fall until the fourth over of the afternoon when Adams, having laboured six-and-a-half hours over his 136 runs, pushed forward and feathered a ball from Peter Trego to Luke Ronchi.

Yet again, Somerset supporters in their many pavilions wondered if that success would herald others. Shoppers in town hoped that another wicket would indeed go down, thus curtailing their sojourn in the land of Buynow and leaving them free to wander down James Street. Flags tugged at their poles and even the larger birds were forced to bank in the capricious breezes. Hampshire resisted still and both Overtons retired from the field, Jamie with a slight sickness, Craig with an ankle twinge. Both are expected to be fit for Monday's game at Hove.

The next wicket was taken after tea by Tom Cooper when Smith drove him to substitute fielder Calvin Harrison at mid-on. By then, though, people were making plans for the evening and assessing what a draw might mean for Somerset and Hampshire's chances. The first two sessions of this game had seen ten wickets fall; the next ten sessions yielded a mere 13. Slow left-armer Jack Leach bowled 51 overs in Hampshire's second innings and he will display his skills on more responsive surfaces. Taunton wickets do not crumble like dry cake.

Yet there were deeper reasons for Somerset and their followers to be encouraged on Saturday evening. To understand them one needed to visit the Priory Barn which lies some fifty yards behind the Ondaatje Pavilion. The barn houses of the very best county cricket museums in the country and some would argue that its atmosphere is superior to the the famous museum at Lord's.

Indeed, they can throw up all the glossy new stands and pavilions they like at the County Ground; the best building will be one that was originally constructed as a gate-house for the priory in the early 15th century and which now contains a salmanazar of delights. One of the reasons why the Priory Barn is worth many visits is that one can trace the succession of cricketers who have represented Somerset since its formation in 1845. Mere antiquity never supplants the human.

There are seam bowlers: Woods, Wellard, Alley, Caddick…..and now the Overtons, who bowled well in this game. There are opening batsmen: Palairet, Gimblett, Atkinson, Roebuck, Trescothick…..and now Tom Abell, whose century will remain many spectators' clearest memory from this match long after its details and even the season itself have been clouded by time.

"Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on," says Hector in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys. On Thursday evening as Trescothick sat alongside Abell in the post-match press conference, it seemed clear that passing on what he knew was just one of his reasons for signing another contract. That such an attitude prevails should hearten Somerset supporters as a tough season draws to a close.