At the start of the morning at Lord's there was warm applause for the two umpires John Holder and George Sharp as they walked out onto the pitch, followed by a slightly warmer welcome for the Yorkshire skipper Richard Blakey and his team, but by far the loudest cheer of all was reserved for the appearance of the Somerset opening pair Peter Bowler and Marcus Trescothick.

For the England man this would have been all the more heartening as he made his re appearance in top level cricket after breaking his thumb in the quarter final of the competition against Worcestershire in mid July.

Since they reached the final at the start of August the question on every Somerset supporter's has been whether or not their hero would be fit enough to return to play in the big match at Lord's.

The first over of the day from the Nursery End bowled by Chris Silverwood left him stranded at the non strikers end. All eyes then focussed upon him as he faced the first over from the Pavilion End bowled by Matthew Hoggard. The first three balls from the paceman produced no runs, but with the fourth ball of the over he cut loose, and the ball skimmed it's way to the cover point boundary, much to the delight of the Somerset faithful.

In the next over bowled by Silverwood his second scoring shot was another boundary, before he really let loose in the fifth over when he took 20 from Hoggard, including a huge six to the Pavilion and two classic Trescothick fours. `Banger' was back and was showing how pleased he was in the way that he knew best.

Sadly his cameo innings was not to last and he was cut down in full flow by an equally impressive catch off his England team mate Michael Vaughan in the covers as Marcus went for another boundary.

Banger was back, and in just seven overs he had made 27 runs from 25 balls, which included 1x6 and 4x4's to give the Somerset supporters a good start to their day.

© SOMERSET