Honour without reward

Somerset 366 and 361 Nottinghamshire 479 and 8-0 Match drawn

In this season of much feeble batting, it would have surprised no one had Somerset taken stock of an unpromising situation here and quietly rolled over. In fact, they revealed some straight backs and straight bats to escape with an honourable draw even though, under rules which seem nonsensical in these circumstances, it was worth no more points to them than a dishonourable defeat.

It did not make for riveting cricket, but Somerset were not obliged to offer any favours. They had four bowlers missing and, having been asked to bat first last Thursday morning, reasoned, quite rightly, that the onus was on Nottinghamshire to bowl them out twice.

In the event, it was a task beyond Nottinghamshire, who themselves lacking attacking resources. Somerset were still eight runs behind and three wickets down at 11am, but it was almost 5.20pm by the time their last wicket fell, at which point Nottinghamshire, chasing a theoretical 249 to win from a minimum 13 overs, were required to face one, after the statutory 10 minutes between innings, before the match was declared over.

Nottinghamshire sent out Nos 5 and 10 on their card and the umpires forgot the ball. Not that it mattered to Somerset, whose objective had been achieved largely through Peter Bowler's powers of concentration during an innings spanning more than five hours, during which this most obstinate of openers passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season before ballooning a catch to leg slip, nine runs short of a century. Keith Parsons and Simon Ecclestone provided valuable supplements, the latter catching the eye with 10 boundaries.

James Hindson, Nottinghamshire's fledgling left-arm spinner, acquired the wickets of both Bowler and Parsons on the way to figures of 5 for 78, giving him 10 in a match for the second time this season.