Dom Bess, making his championship debut, led the Somerset players off the field here with a shy smile but a vigorous wave. He waved to his left, in the direction of the Sir Ian Botham Stand, and to the Somerset Stand on his right. Behind him his team-mates applauded and cheered.
When he reached the dressing room he must have been scared that a noise was about to awaken him, that his surreal sense of euphoria was about to end abruptly on a remarkable day in which 21 wickets fell.
Bess had taken six of them for 28 runs in 16 overs, including those of the former England batsmen Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell with successive deliveries; it may never get any better than this. He made his first-class debut against Pakistan in July but failed to take a wicket.
Bess is a 19-year-old off-spinning all-rounder from Sidmouth in Devon. He left school last year and signed a scholarship contract with Somerset, having joined the club’s academy when he was 16. He has already played for England Under-19s. He can bat too, having scored 126 against Gloucestershire in his most recent second team outing. He spent last winter at Darren Lehmann’s Adelaide academy.
His figures on Tuesday were the best by a Somerset championship debutant since Tony Pearson took seven for 63 against Worcestershire at the Imperial Athletic Ground in Bristol in 1961.
He said afterwards: “When I saw Trott going back to the pavilion and then Bell coming in I thought, ‘Wow, I used to watch these players on TV.’ When Marcus took the catch to dismiss Trott it was like a dream and then, when Bell knocked it back to me, I was just saying to myself, ‘Don’t drop it, don’t drop it!’
“Playing in Australia was a great help. You learn fast over there because they throw you in the deep end.”
His elder brothers had tried in vain to play for Somerset but had not got further than the second team. He comes from a close family but on Tuesday his father was on holiday in Greece and his mother was working. But his girlfriend and her parents were here to watch.
Somerset, 41 for one in their second innings, lead by 13. The ECB liaison officers (once called pitch inspectors) will be on the way in a fast car.
The pitch is as green as a gin bottle but also took prodigious turn on the first day. Dougie Brown, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, said: “The middle of the pitch helped our seamers. The psychological effect of how the pitch looked created panic, or doubt, in some people’s minds. It is a tricky wicket to bat on and it’s unlikely to improve.
“There is no danger attached to the wicket. But you don’t normally come to a championship match and the pitch looks like it’s going to do everything for every bowler, but this one does.”
Even so the surface was not totally responsible for all the wickets. Keith Barker swung the ball dangerously and there were also any number of suicidal shots played on it, including a top-edged reverse sweep by Rikki Clarke which cost him his wicket when Warwickshire were already 107 for seven.
Somerset had been dismissed for 95 in 30.1 overs after choosing to bat, picking three spinners and looking to get first use of the surface.
Then Bess got them back in the match. He dismissed Trott, who top-edged a sweep, with Marcus Trescothick running round from leg slip to take the simple catch, then Bell pushed the ball straight down the wicket and Bess took a good return catch low to his left.
Sam Hain avoided the hat-trick but in his next over Bess bowled one that turned and lifted to catch the shoulder of Ian Westwood’s bat and Trescothick took the catch. He had taken three for none in six balls and it was going to get even better.
