The value of awarding first-class status to university matches is once again under scrutiny after Somerset completed a record-breaking rout of Cardiff MCCU in their season opener at Taunton.
Cardiff had been faced with a nominal target of 615 on the third afternoon of their match, after Somerset had completed their batting practice with centuries for
James Hildreth in the first innings and
Ed Byrom in the second.
Sixteen overs later, Cardiff's last wicket had fallen - all out for 46 as
Craig Overton (6 for 24) and
Josh Davey (4 for 21) shared all ten between them.
Sam Pearce, with 11 from 20 balls, was the only Cardiff batsman to reach double figures;
Oskar Kolk, with 9 from 29, at least managed to stay at the crease for a full half an hour.
However, the statistical gulf between the sides was among the most yawning of all time - the eighth-biggest in terms of runs in all first-class cricket, and the largest ever recorded in a first-class fixture in England.
It exceeded, by six runs, the 562-run trouncing that Australia inflicted on
England at The Oval in 1934, a match in which Don Bradman (244) and Bill Ponsford (266) added 451 for the second wicket in a first-innings total of 701, before Clarrie Grimmett's five wickets shot England out for 145 on the fourth and final day.
And it was the fifth time in which a University side had lost by more than 500 runs to county opposition, following Nottinghamshire's 541-run defeat of Durham MCCU in 2013, and a trio of defeats for Cambridge (by 523, 522 and 517 runs), one in 1984 and two in consecutive matches in 2016.
This defeat did, however, fall someway short of the all-time runs record - 685 - by New South Wales against Queensland in 1929-30, a match in which that man Bradman again made an unbeaten 452, his highest first-class score.
But, as if to prove that the student rookies have to start somewhere and that the only way from here is up, Cardiff's defeat also fell way short of the largest runs defeat ever recorded in a Test match.