Another One to Watch

As a former member of Middlesex and a member of Somerset since 1996, I've been keeping a close eye on events at Lord's over the past few days. At the moment it looks as though Somerset are on top in the Friends Provident Trophy game today, but Middlesex won the championship match with some comfort after reducing Somerset to 50 for 8 on the first morning after which Justin Langer declared.

However, I was especially pleased to see that the young Somerset batsman James Hildreth had made a century. It doesn't seem three years since he burst onto the Taunton scene with a composed maiden century against Durham, and he hasn't managed to kick on with any consistency since.

He is, though, a compact, talented and stylish player, who's often reminded me of the young Mark Ramprakash.

It's early days but there have been some good signs for Somerset so far this season; if James can finally go on and produce a haul of runs to match his ability it will be a sweet return indeed.