McLean and Trescothick put Somerset into a strong position against Glamorgan

Marcus Trescothick was in majestic mood at the County Ground in Taunton today scoring an impressive 70 runs to put Somerset in a strong position at the end of the first day of their championship match against Glamorgan. By the close of play Somerset had moved on to 161 for 1,with Peter Bowler unbeaten on 51,in reply to the visitors total of 200.

Trescothick scored runs almost at will off the visitors attack until in the early evening sunshine after sharing an opening partnership of 121 with Bowler, he chanced his arm once to often and was caught at deep backward square leg by Adrian Dale off Alec Wharf, who he had smote for a four and a six off the previous two balls.

With the England team for the first Test match against Zimbabwe due to be announced at the weekend this was timely reminder to the selectors that he is ready again for the international arena.

At the start of the day Glamorgan had been asked to bat first and quickly felt the full force of the Somerset attack as they were put to the sword by pacemen Nixon McLean and Richard Johnson who again were both in superb form.

McLean in particular achieved considerable bounce and movement from the pitch and it was the West Indian who accounted for Ian Thomas in the first over of the match when the opener gave a catch to Trescothick in the slips before a run had been scored.

McLean struck again shortly afterwards to dispose of David Hemp, and when Aaron Laraman was brought on to replace Johnson at the Old Pavilion End he added further misery for the visitors when he had Mike Powell caught by Trescothick.

The fall of the third wicket brought Matthew Maynard to the crease and along with Dale took the score onto 70 before he became another victim for McLean after scoring an attractive 34.

By lunchtime the Welshmen had moved cautiously onto 78 for 4 from 32 overs, with Dale having compiled 26 from his 2 ¼ hour stay at the wicket.

After the interval Dale moved his score along a little more swiftly and scored a couple of boundaries before he went for a square cut off McLean that went straight to the hands of James Bryant fielding at backward point.

With the score on 99 Jonathan Hughes gave Simon Francis his first wicket of the day when he edged the ball to Rob Turner.

Mark Wallace brought up the hundred and then shared the second highest partnership of the innings, putting on 41 with Robert Croft for the seventh wicket, before the visitors `keeper was convincingly bowled by Ian Blackwell for 26.

David Harrison departed one run later and with the score on 141 for 8 the innings looked almost over. However Robert Croft had other ideas and supported firstly by Australian Mike Kasprowicz (13) and then Alex Wharf (8 not out)the former England man saw Glamorgan to 200 before he was the last out, LBW to Laraman for 46.

McLean enjoyed his best return of the season so far for the Cidermen to end with figures of 17 overs, 6 maidens 5 wickets for 43, whilst Johnson, who again bowled without much fortune took fewer wickets but was even more economic with 17 overs, 7 maidens 1 for a miserly 23 runs.

At the end of the day McLean told me: "It's been a good day for us , and the conditions were good for bowling out there today. In previous games I have bowled well but Richard Johnson has got the wickets, but today it was my turn . The wicket wasn't doing very much, and at the end of the day we batted well enough on it to get 161 for 1."

Somerset coach Kevin Shine added: "We have followed on with our good championship form today, with a very disciplined bowling performance supported by some good catching, and then tonight we have seen the kind of disciplined batting performance that we are starting to develop. Hopefully the weather will last long enough for us to get the right result from this match."