Bulbeck and Johnson bowl Somerset into a good position

Matt Bulbeck and Richard Johnson bowled Somerset into a good position at the end of the first day of their final championship match of the season against Lancashire at Taunton, where the visitors will resume 133 behind with four wickets intact.

After being put into bat openers Jamie Cox and Matt Wood took the Cidermen onto 46 when they were both dismissed, Cox who made 24 became the first of Peter Martins four victims and Wood who had scored 22 was bowled by Kyle Hogg.

Piran Holloway was out for no score and one run later Arul Suppiah was caught by wicket-keeper Warren Hegg off Martin before he could get off the mark.

From 46 without loss Somerset had slipped to 47 for 4, and were rescued by Mike Burns and Pete Trego who had taken the score onto 108 before lunch.

Burns brought up his 1000 championship runs for the season, but with his score on 32 he was caught by the wicket keeper off the bowling of Martin. The fifth wicket partnership had realised what could turn out to be a vital 75 runs.

With the score on 137 Trego became another of Martins victims when he was caught by Alec Swann off Martin after scoring 47.

The `old firm' of Rob Turner and Keith Dutch then put together another important partnership and added 60 runs for the seventh wicket before Dutch was caught by Chris Schofield off the bowling of James Anderson for 23.

Turner stayed to see Somerset past the 200 in the 55th over, but 13 runs later he was LBW to Schofield for 45.

Johnson was caught by Swann off Anderson for 2 and when shortly afterwards Simon Francis was run out leaving Bulbeck stranded on 18 Somerset were all out for 221.

When Lancashire replied they were soon in trouble against the Somerset opening attack of Johnson who was bowling from the Old Pavilion End and Bulbeck from the River End.

It was Johnson who got the first blood when in the fifth over he bowled Mark Chilton. With the score on 6 Bulbeck struck at the other end when he trapped Swann LBW.

Johnson disposed of David Byas to make the Red Rose county 21 for 3 and after looking threatening Stuart Law was caught at slip by Piran Holloway off Bulbeck to make the visitors 47 for 4.

Tim Rees followed shortly after when he fell LBW to Bulbeck, and the left armer picked up another wicket before with the score on 88 for 6 at 5.35pm umpires Jeremy Lloyds and Ken Palmer offered the light to the Lancashire batsmen who gratefully accepted.

The Somerset bowlers had remained unchanged and by the close Bulbeck had sent down 14 overs and taken 4 for 51 whilst Johnson had bowled 15 overs and taken 2 for 35.

The Somerset coach Kevin Shine was delighted and told : "We are very pleased with the day. When we batted it looked like we had made an under par score, but some excellent bowling from both Matt Bulbeck and Richard Johnson has put us in a good position. The pair created a lot of chances and if we had taken them all then Lancashire would have been in even deeper trouble."

He continued: "In the morning we will be looking to finish them off quickly and then give `Johnno' and `Bully' a rest whilst we set a decent total for them to bowl at."

One of the Somerset bowling heroes Matt Bulbeck told me: "It swung around out there today for us and both sides put it in good areas. We were a bit disappointed to only get 221, but then when they batted and we started to get amongst them it felt good and we just kept going."

He continued: "We've managed to fight back well and set up a good position for ourselves, and hopefully we'll be able to pick up in the morning where we have left off tonight."