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PRE FIRST WORLD WAR Somerset were the first of the "new" counties to have enough fixtures against the established county teams to be considered as part of the County Championship, joining in 1891. In their second season, 1892, they finished third, but it was to be 66 years before they finished as high again. Bottom of the table a record 12 times (plus one shared wooden spoon), they enjoyed over many decades a reputation for cheerful inconsistency. Until the Second World War, the team regularly comprised a number of more or less talented amateurs and just a handful of professionals. Famous names from the pre-First World War period included the England players Sammy Woods , Lionel Palairet and Len Braund , and the fast bowler Tom Richardson also played for the county after his retirement from Surrey . BETWEEN THE WARS Between the wars, the west Somerset farmer Jack White played for England as an Off-spin ning All-rounder with some success; lesser international careers were enjoyed by the hard-hitting batsman Harold Gimblett , whose entry into first-class cricket was the stuff of legends, and by Arthur Wellard , fast bowler and a mighty smiter of sixes. The briefest Test Match career of them all was "enjoyed" by Jack MacBryan , whose only game for England was the rain-ruined match against The South Africans in 1924, in which he neither batted nor fielded. POST SECOND WORLD WAR In postwar cricket, the happy-go-lucky Somerset attitude was no longer sustainable, and the side finished bottom of the Championship for four consecutive seasons from 1952. With the strong possibility of going out of business, drastic change was inevitable. Somerset recruited heavily from other countries, taking Colin McCool and Bill Alley from Australia, and from other counties. In 1958, the side again finished third, and this was repeated in 1963 and 1966. In the mid sixties the team was captained by Colin Atkinson , who would later become headmaster at the nearby Millfield school. Though four-day success continued to elude the county, Somerset finally found the makings of a successful one-day team under the combative, inspirational captaincy of Yorkshireman Brian Close . A trio of world class stars, Viv Richards , Joel 'Big Bird' Garner and England's finest All-rounder since the war Ian Botham made the team, for the first time in its long history, a formidable trophy winning proposition. Under the captaincy of left handed opener Brian Rose , Somerset won their first ever silverware, taking the Gillette Cup and the Sunday League in 1979. The same captain won the renamed NatWest Trophy in 1983 although his reputation was somewhat tarnished by a controversial declaration in a one day Benson and Hedges zonal match against Worcestershire the following year to ensure qualification by run rate for the quarter final. New captain Peter Roebuck caused huge controversy in the county when New Zealander Martin Crowe was preferred as overseas pro. Viv Richards and Joel Garner were sacked, despite proving themselves two of the most successful overseas players of modern times, and Ian Botham resigned in protest and moved to Worcestershire . TODAY Success has been elusive in recent years, although New Zealand born Andy Caddick and opener Marcus Trescothick have proved major pillars of the England Test Team and overseas stars such as Jamie Cox have given sterling service for the club, resulting in their appearance in the NatWest Trophy in 1999 and the C & G Trophy final in 2001 and 2002 , winning in 2001 over Leicestershire . In the last two seasons, the club have been led by high profile overseas stars Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith and in July 2005 , as perhaps a portent of better times to come, the county was the surprise winner of the third Twenty20 Cup , beating Lancashire in the final at The Oval . |
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