In his 39th year Paul Collingwood is expected to take on the senior citizen’s role. He bats, he stands at slip sagely and waves his arms around a bit; sometimes he coaches Scotland; he regularly gets touted for a recall to the England regime – as a coach of some sort rather than as a player – and some day soon he might do that since he is a decent bloke and canny. But in his dotage he might reasonably be considered as a bowler of the last resort.
Yet here he was on the first day of the season, skipping up to the crease throughout most of the afternoon session and conjuring five wickets from nowhere to give his team the advantage after an engrossing day’s play. In April, pace is not essential and Colly wobbled the ball here and there; he changed his pace cleverly and preyed on the minds of batsmen seeking to ease themselves into the season.
At one point Somerset had reached the giddy heights of 223 for two. Marcus Trescothick, who earlier called right at the toss and opted to bat, had succumbed to Graham Onions early on, but then Johann Myburgh and Somerset’s latest recruit, Tom Cooper, an Australian, who has represented the Netherlands 38 times, consolidated.
After lunch Cooper was lbw to Paul Coughlin but then James Hildreth combined skittishly with Myburgh, who calmly hit his first Championship century for Somerset. Now Collingwood intervened. Myburgh prodded to extra cover; Hildreth and Peter Trego were both lbw, Alex Barrow was bowled and Jim Allenby, another well-travelled Aussie making his Championship debut for the county, cut to point. Onions returned to mop up the tail as Somerset were bundled out for 299.
Wickets for Collingwood were probably not what the national selector, James Whitaker, had come to see. Oddly enough he had not opted to go to The Parks instead. He may have been more interested by the final session.
First there was Lewis Gregory propelling a lively opening spell which removed both the Durham openers. Gregory is very much on the selectors’ radar as are the Overton twins, Jamie and Craig. Then there was some sparkling strokeplay from Scott Borthwick, who drove a bundle of half-volleys to the boundary with absolute authority. Nowadays Borthwick bats much better than he bowls. But does this still apply to Collingwood?
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