Rew century gets county off the mark after recovery

REPORT BY RICHARD LATHAM ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay

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JAMES Rew's tenth first class century guided Somerset to an unlikely first Rothesay County Championship victory of the season, a three-wicket success against Essex at the Cooper Associates Ground, Taunton.

Having been 78-5 at one stage in their second innings, chasing 321 to win, the home side began the final day on 216-6, still needing 105. But Rew took his score from 65 to a superb 116, off 189 balls, with 18 fours, sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 133 with Craig Overton, who contributed 53 not out, to complete a remarkable fightback.

Overton ended the game 25 minutes before lunch with a straight six off Simon Harmer, which took him to an 111-ball half-century notable for unbroken concentration and application in a pressure situation.

Essex had let things slip with some wayward bowling the previous evening and their bowlers found scant assistance in a last-day pitch that had aided seam and spin considerably in the previous sessions.

They had to settle for three points, having been on top for long periods, while Somerset claimed a welcome 19 after a disappointing start to the campaign.

The Essex attack will have welcomed the first meaningful cloud cover of the match when play began with 12 overs to a second new ball, Sam Cook opening up from the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion End and off-spinner Harmer operating from the River End.

Overton, unbeaten on four overnight, played and missed at the first delivery of the morning from Cook, but soon he and Rew were eating into the 105 runs needed for victory, the latter clipping Cook through wide mid-on for the first boundary and edging a second to third man off the next ball.