The Somerset Academy players returned to the County Ground earlier this week after their 14-day tour to Western Australia that coach Pete Sanderson described as a "successful learning experience."

During the tour the Somerset Academy played six matches, including two against the strong Perth side Melville CC, who included five contracted players from either Hampshire or Northamptonshire in their team, and a two day match against the Western Australia Under-19 XI.

Pete Sanderson told me: "The Academy tour to Western Australia was successful in the lessons that the players learnt. What the Somerset players achieved, they did against good quality batsmen or good quality bowlers and throughout they stuck to their task well which was very pleasing."

What were the most noticeable differences between the Academy youngsters and their Australian counterparts, I asked the coach. "Their bowlers were far more disciplined than ours, which meant that their captains could set better fields and their batters mixed defence and attack better than ours."

I asked him to identify some of the lessons that the Academy players had learnt from the tour. "Playing and adapting to the different conditions that they were faced with, especially to the outfields that were unexpectedly slow. Probably the most important lesson was learnt from playing against better players."

"The tour was an excellent experience, which can only benefit all those involved, with the main objectives being completed, as we were a professional unit that competed throughout against various adversities."

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