Anderson announces new Patron's Trophy as Cidermen warm up for Twenty20 Cup

The County Ground in Taunton was a dangerous place to be on Wednesday morning as the Somerset county cricketers brushed up on their big hitting ahead of the new Twenty20 Cup competition that starts on Friday when Warwickshire are the visitors.

Batting in pairs the Somerset players warmed up for the inaugural match by blasting a succession of their own bowlers to all quarters of the ground and beyond. In fact one ball sailed over the Colin Atkinson Pavilion headed for the Priory Road Bridge never to be seen again and could easily have reached the cattle market!

All spectators who are attending the Cidermen's first encounter in the new short form of the game should be warnedkeep your eyes on the game and don't park your car in the car parksuch is the ferocity of the hitting that there is likely to be out in the middle.

One of the players who should be ideally suited to this from of cricket is Ian Blackwell who told me at the end of the morning session: "It should be very interesting indeed for both the players and the spectators and along with everyone else I'm really looking forward to it."

As he looked across the ground where the players were being put through their paces Somerset boss Peter Anderson told me: "The telephone lines in the office have been busy now for sometime and tickets for the match that begins at 5.30pm are going well, so with a fine evening forecast we are hoping for a big crowd which is very good news."

Mr Anderson also talked about a new trophy that has been donated to the club that will give an extra edge to all future matches between Somerset and the tourists.

He explained: "Christopher Ondaatje our patron has donated an ornate silver plate which will be called the Patron's Trophy and that will be played for in matches between Somerset and the touring side. The trophy will be kept in the Somerset Cricket Museum and will be inscribed with the result of each fixture as a lasting record of all the matches between the county and the tourists."

The county boss continued: "The first time that the trophy will be played for is the one day match against Zimbabwe at Taunton on June 17th, and it will then be contested when South Africa visit the County Ground for their three day match on July 15th."

He went on: "This is a very kind gesture by our patron and we are absolutely delighted to accept his generous donation. The trophy is a handsome piece of high quality silverware that has been hand crafted in Sri Lanka, the country of his birth and we look forward to competing for it against Zimbabwe later this month."

Christopher Ondaatje has a long association with the west country after being educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton. His generosity towards Somerset County Cricket Club has included helping to provide the Centre of Excellence that is housed in the building named after the benefactor, and last season he enabled Somerset to purchase the neighbouring Barnicott's building, a key site in any future development of the ground.