Turner's key role for Somerset (18 August 1999)

18 August 1999

Turner's key role for Somerset

Charles Randall

There is a wicketkeeper in county cricket with 54 championship victims - 15 more than his nearest rival - plus 820 runs with the bat, including a hundred and eight fifties in the middle order.

It seems surprising that Rob Turner, a Somerset son of Weston-super-Mare and a former team-mate of Michael Atherton at Cambridge University, has not been mentioned more often as a Test candidate since his brush with honours two years ago, when he was England's non-travelling reserve for the tour to the West Indies.

Turner, the circuit's tallest wicketkeeper at 6ft 2in, would be the obvious England understudy to Alec Stewart, and he does not share the assumption that his age of 31 weighs against him. His championship batting average is 54.66 in a side closing in on the best set of results in Somerset's history.

Somerset, lying fifth in the PPP Healthcare Championship, take on third-placed Kent at Taunton today with their sights on second place, the only realistic target behind the disappearing heels of Surrey.

Somerset's best season was in 1981 during the Botham-Richards era, when they equalled the highest championship placing of third, took second place in the Sunday League and won the Benson and Hedges Cup.

Turner, though well qualified as an engineering graduate with a computer diploma and winter stockbroking job in Bristol, decided on a full career in cricket after gaining selection ahead of Neil Burns at the late age of 26.

He said: "I didn't want to give up and wonder, one day, whether I would have made it. As long as you practise and work hard on your game, there's no reason why you shouldn't get better. I've got better as I've got older."

A bad case of tennis elbow last season has been his only setback. With marriage due in September, his year in Taunton looks bright.

Somerset have already reached the NatWest Trophy final, and they lead the CGU National League Division Two table.

Seven counties have lost their overseas players to the Australia tour to Sri Lanka, including Kent and Yorkshire in the top six. The others are Lancashire, Middlesex, Derbyshire, Worcestershire and Northamptonshire, and Allan Donald is unavailable for Warwickshire through injury.

CH'SHIP LEADING SCORERS: 1, S Law 1,291 runs; 2, J Langer 1,048; 3, P Johnson 964; 4, J Cox 958; 5, D Sales 893; 6, D Maddy 843; 7, J Lewis 835; 8, R Turner 820; 9, V Solanki 819; 10, M Di Venuto 816. Bowling: 70wkts, A Sheriyar; 66, M Muralitharan; 65, V Drakes; 58, S Brown; 50, A Caddick. Wicketkeeping: 54 victims, R Turner; 39, J Russell; 38, J Batty; 37, D Nash.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)