Are all English cricket fans Somerset supporters now?

“We are Somerset”, the cricket club’s marketing department proclaims boldly on its website.

Third Man is in reflective mood. The weather continues unseasonable. Yesterday was warmer than any day in high summer as if September were the new July.

Squares have been put to bed, dressed in the finest loam, but no-one has thought to tell the fast growing grass that the cricket season has ended. Old Dobbin may be required for one more cut.

The question arises, should all English cricket lovers be turning their attention to the Nokia Champions League T20 and getting in the cool cider and doorstep cheese sandwiches in time to turn on Channel 410 at 2.30 GMT on October 1st to support Somerset when they take on South Australia at Bangalore?

At the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, with the luxury of two balls and four wickets to spare, the CSKs chased down the 145 runs set by the Cape Crusaders Cobras.

The Cobras’ total had included a 45 from their number four, the Karachi born Owais Shah, whose major teams Cricinfo lists as: England,Cape Cobras, Delhi Daredevils, England Lions, Essex, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Kolkata Knight Riders, Middlesex andWellington.

Third Man is in no position to knock the itinerant life of a modern cricketer earning a crust in the Global Village. He admits that in the Swinging Sixties he was loaned out to the Somerset hamlet of Shapwick for their campaign in the Bridgewater Evening League T20.

At the time he also took the field with six others in the Morland’s Sevens, a competition played on the company’s own ground in the pre-festival but no less mystical settlement of Glastonbury.

There were great prizes to be won thanks to the sponsorship of the Town’s leading employer. These included a then trendy sheepskin coat for longest hit and a pair of carpet slippers for most wickets in an over.

This was of course before super-hero Brian Close (above) brought all that Yorkshire Bitter to the Cider County.