Blackwell and Bryant see Cidermen home to six wicket victory at Hampshire Rosebowl

Somerset duly recorded their third county championship win of the season to keep themselves right up at the top of the Division Two table, but they didn't have things all their own way on the final day at the Hampshire Rosebowl.

Resuming this morning on 239 for 6, the hosts lost Derek Kenway without further addition to his overnight score of 94, when he was caught by wicket-keeper Rob Turner off the bowling of Nixon McLean.

The Hamphire lower order batsmen proved quite difficult to remove, but eventually Simon Francis accounted for Shaun Udall (34), whilst McLean bowled Chris Tremlett for 43, and then removed Alan Mullally for no score as the hosts were dismissed for 306 just before lunchtime.

McLean ended the second innings with 4 for 64 to give him match figures of 8 for 95, Mike Burns ended with 3 for 64 and Francis 2 for 81.

Requiring 128 for victory, the Cidermen were struggling at 35 for 3, after losing Matt Wood, Rob Turner and Jamie Cox cheaply. Burns was out with the score on 59, but a sensible innings from James Bryant (39 not out) and a typically hard hit 41 from Ian Blackwell saw the visitors home to a six wicket victory and twenty valuable points.

At the end of the game Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "It's always to good to get a win and this was an excellent all round effort from the team. This morning Hampshire had a couple of niggling partnerships, and then they bowled well."

He continued: " From our point of view Nixon McLean and Simon Francis, supported by Mike Burns and Gareth Andrew bowled well for us, and then James Bryant played very well in a difficult situation, before Ian Blackwell came in and took the game from them."

The two sides meet again tomorrow in the National Cricket League at the Rosebowl, and with each side having one victory under their belts both side will be looking for victory.

Somerset recall Steffan Jones, Keith Parsons and Carl Gazzard for the NCL match in place of Matt Wood, Peter Bowler and Nixon McLean.