Four wickets each for Caddick and Johnson at Derby

Somerset ended the first day of the championship match at Derby in a good position. After dismissing the hosts for 190, the Cidermen had reached 60 for 2 just before the tea interval when the rain came down and prevented any further play for the day.

Mike Burns won the toss and put the opposition into bat first and their early batsmen struggled against the Somerset pacemen. Derbyshire had slipped to 22 for 3 before Andrew Gait (41) and Dominic Hewson took the score onto 94 for 4 when they shared a fourth wicket stand of 72.

Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, and only the sensible batting of Luke Sutton who was playing against his old county and was last out after making 38 and Dominic Cork who made 25 enabled Derbyshire to reach 190.

Andy Caddick who was playing his first game of the season for Somerset took 4 wickets for 66 runs , and Richard Johnson took 4 wickets for 47.

The Somerset reply got off to a disappointing start when Peter Bowler, who was returning to Derby for what could be the last time in his career, was caught at the wicket by Sutton off the bowling of Kevin Dean with just a single run on the board.

Marcus Trescothick and Burns took the score onto 60, but in the final over before tea the Somerset skipper was out LBW to Dominic Cork after making 40 runs.

During the tea break heavy rain started to fall, which prevented the players form returning to the field.

Tomorrow Somerset start the day 130 runs behind Derbyshire with 8 first innings wickets in hand.

At the end of the day Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "It's been a good day for us at Derby, We bowled very well indeed as we have done all of the season, and our bowlers were well supported by some good fielding and catching."

He continued: "We were a bit disappointed to lose Peter Bowler early on, but Mike Burns played an aggressive knock for his 40, and with the strong batting line up that we have got we will be looking to get on with the game in the morning and get a lead, because it looks like the weather is going to play a part in the result."

Meanwhile Somerset Seconds went down by nine wickets in their one day friendly against their Hampshire counterparts.

Batting on a difficult surface the Somerset openers took the score onto 60 in fourteen overs before wickets started to fall.

The visitors were eventually all out for 162 with Adrian Noott, who plays for Falmouth and who was making his first appearance at this level for Somerset, adjusting to the difficult conditions well and batting for a long time.

Coming in at number four the Cornishman was the eighth wicket to fall after contributing 25 runs.

Somerset Seconds are next in action on Friday when they take on Exeter University at Exeter CC in a one day friendly.