Surrey spoil the party as Cidermen go out of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy

The Somerset dream of a quick return to Lord's was shattered when they lost to Surrey in the fourth round of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy at Taunton yesterday, but it was a close run thing.

Facing the substantial total of 281 the Cidermen appeared to be well off the pace when Marcus Trescothick was caught by Adam Hollioake who ran from mid on to take the catch after the England opener had made 17 from his thirteen overs at the crease.

Mike Burns and Keith Parsons however had other ideas and despite the mounting run rate they started to rebuild the innings. Together the pair saw up the hundred as Burns scored his runs freely, hitting James Ormond for successive boundaries in the twenty second over. However after adding 97 for the fourth wicket Burns chanced his arm once too often and edged Rikki Clarke to wicketkeeper Jon Batty.

Ian Blackwell was greeted with a loud cheer and as he strode to the wicket was no doubt aware that his side needed to score at 7.65 runs per over to reach their target.

The big hitter appeared unperturbed and quickly brought up the one hundred and fifty. Shortly afterwards he hit Saqlain Mushtaq for successive sixes into the car park by the main scoreboard.

Along with Parsons who was scoring his runs more steadily the left hander added 74 for the fifth wicket before he was caught by Mark Butcher at long off, but not before he had played his side back into the game.

Nine runs later however Parsons gave a low catch to Graham Thorpe at short extra cover having scored 83 invaluable runs, which came from 93 balls and included six boundaries, which brought Rob Turner and Keith Dutch together.

At this stage Somerset required 51 runs from 7.5 overs and with the trusty pair at the wicket a home victory seemed possible, but the introduction of the Surrey skipper into the attack that proved to be another turning point in this seesaw game.

Over the course of the final few overs amid mounting tension he bowled a very tight line and length disposing of Dutch, Richard Johnson and McLean to end with the impressive figures of 3 for 19 and despite their valiant efforts the last pair Turner and Steffan Jones could only manage an agonising six runs off the final over to give the visitors victory by six runs.

Earlier after putting Surrey into bat the Somerset skipper must have felt that he had made the right decision when on the stroke of eleven Nixon McLean bowled Ali Brown.

Steffan Jones then replaced Richard Johnson at the Old Pavilion End and with his fourth delivery enticed Butcher into playing a wild stroke that ended up in the hands of Turner.

The demise of Butcher brought Mark Ramprakash to the wicket who scored 32 stylish runs before giving a catch to Dutch at mid off.

Thorpe was joined by Rikki Clarke and the pair saw the hundred up before Parsons accounted for the young all rounder.Hollioake and Thorpe seemed well set and brought up the Surrey one hundred and fifty, but after making 33 the Surrey captain was out LBW to Johnson.

Johnson struck again in the same over when he accounted for Azhar Mahmood and at 169 for 6 Surrey seemed to be in danger of being bowled out cheaply.

Thorpe and Jon Batty had other ideas and between them they added 111 in their unbeaten seventh wicket partnership in 13 overs to help Surrey reach 281 for 6. Batty scored his maiden one day fifty off the first ball of the last over, before Thorpe brought up his century off the penultimate ball of the innings.

At the end of the match Kevin Shine said: "Of course we are disappointed because we have got ourselves into two winning positions today. First of all we had them 190 for 6, and then allowed them to recover and post a good score and later on we had two guys batting well and from there we should have finished things off. We put together some good partnerships but at the death we weren't quite good enough."

Somerset hero Parsons said afterwards: "Having got the run rate down to less than seven with 5 wickets left we fancied it, but they have got some class bowlers who put it in good places. You have to take your hats off to them they bowled very well at the end, but it was disappointing after we had got ourselves into a winning position."

Regarding his innings he said: "It's always nice to get a few, any opportunity is welcome. I felt that I bowled alright earlier on but then I was disappointed to get out at the end. The team are all disappointed, but the C and G has been a good competition for us, in fact I can't remember the last time that we lost, but it's a shame that one of this years competitions has gone already."