Taunton drinks in vintage Trescothick

For an illusion of an unchanging English landscape nothing beats a day at Taunton with Marcus Trescothick at the crease and blue skies draping the Quantock's rolling pastures. "Catch it while you can," you want to cry, although on this evidence you have a while yet. England's most enduring county batsman is in his most prolific form for years.

A sense of permanence is not easily found these days, not even in county cricket as a prolonged and necessary debate drags on about the future of England's professional game, but Trescothick's low-revved power comes closest to it, the harvest of his career largely taken in, his England deeds long gone and his sufferings handled with dignity, but with runs still to make and pleasure to dispense.

His switch to wearing glasses last season; the concession of the captaincy this: each can be fairly advanced as contributory factors to the fact that Trescothick is middling the ball with such conviction.

On this evidence, Harold Gimblett's Somerset run-scoring record - about 4,000 runs hence - is by no means beyond him. He narrowly missed out on his third Championship hundred this season as he made light work of Yorkshire's pace attack to leave the Taunton diehards purring that he is back to the relaxed figure who has been a central part of their lives for two decades.

"It would be easy to say my form is down to giving the captaincy away," he said, but he says it happily these days, which was not always the case when the suggestion was first mooted. "Nowadays I am solely focusing on what I am trying to do and that feels quite nice at times, to relax and not get too stressed about bowling changes and things."

The switch to glasses was a brave decision, too, because they do draw attention to a player as the Big 4-0 takes hold. "It wasn't a hard decision to switch to glasses. It was something I had been toying with for a couple of years, getting eye tests and realising things were not quite as pure as they used to be. I tried contact lenses for a bit but that was no good because my prescription was too low, so I decided to wear glasses and go with it. It's nice to think that you can adjust to something and make things better."

Better for those who watch, too. When Trescothick plays with such certainty, here is the very stuff of rural England, a scene that should take its place in the National Gallery as an enduring monument of the age. Like the monolithic stone statues recently excavated on Easter Island, one imagines he just does not rest upon the Taunton earth but is embedded deep beneath it.

Across the country this was a day for 90s - two of them at Taunton alone as Chris Rogers logged his highest Somerset score - and if the chance to record Trescothick's 61st first-class century (and 47th for Somerset) went begging as Adil Rashid held a fine return catch with the batsman trying to heave him over mid-on and the umpire Billy Taylor diving for cover, he played with the power and finesse to suggest that, even in an age when youth must have its fling, his career has many miles left in it.

It was the 50th over of the match, but Rashid's first. The legspinner struck a second time to have Rogers caught at the wicket, dispensing both left-handers - presumably the reason that he had been held back for so long.

Upon this timeless landscape, Yorkshire's captain, Andrew Gale, dubiously chose to bowl on a pitch the colour of a camouflage jacket - only to discover that what was camouflaged was the amount of runs in it. 'Twas ever thus at Taunton - although there was a little more live grass in the surface than usual, according to Trescothick, leaving the decision far from clear-cut, even if not enough to have persuaded Somerset to have a bowl.

Jason Gillespie, Yorkshire's head coach, stoutly called the decision to bowl first "a no-brainer", countering that his pace attack missed their chance in the first hour. They have also been stung by a couple of big Somerset run chases in recent years so at least that danger has been averted. They will hope to be chasing something achievable on Wednesday afternoon.

What was evident was that Yorkshire found little satisfaction. As Trescothick slapped overpitched deliveries from Jack Brooks to the cover boundary and as Liam Plunkett, unwanted by England, found no consolation as he followed in the same direction, Yorkshire needed Steve Patterson to bowl straight and stem the flow. Patterson carried most early threat, ripping out Tom Abell's leg stump as he brought one back, but the introduction of Adam Lyth's offspin summed up Yorkshire's morning.

Nevertheless, it almost reaped a reward when he sprung to his left in a valiant attempt to hold a fierce Trescothick return drive on 42. Alex Lees' miss at first slip when Rogers was 40 stopped Patterson gaining further reward.

The Championship's sponsors will no doubt delight in the fact that Trescothick and Rogers, who shared a second-wicket stand of 142 in 42 overs, both favour prescription spectacles, although Rogers only for fielding. It brings back memories of Paul Gibb, Geoffrey Boycott (early vintage) and David Steele, a throwback to a long-gone age. Grand Spectacles at Taunton, the Times might once have had it.

The foundations vigorously laid, the post-tea session surrendered to the elegance of James Hildreth, the sort of batsman who would be welcome at the most tasteful garden party, his tones as mellow as the Quantocks beyond. Jim Allenby also made a fifty, but it will take a few more to win over the crowd.

As Yorkshire's attack flagged on the opening day, a Yorkshire supporter, in his late 80s now, who had not set eyes on Taunton since 1969 remarked how much the ground had changed: there are about four new pavilions for a start, Taunton collecting pavilions rather like Imelda Marcos hoarded shoes. But Taunton, to more regular observers, has changed with Trescothick-like measured tread - a ground still, not a stadium - and by the close the jolt of progress had given way to a serene appreciation of a cricket ground updating successfully with the times.