It soon became clear that Hammond was a mere shadow of the man who took 2,483 runs off Somerset’s bowlers in 28 matches, making 10 hundreds and averaging 73. He survived a confident appeal when Hazell’s first delivery rapped his pads and there was a near run-out when Milton called for a quick single and turned to see his partner well short of his ground as the throw missed the stumps. Hammond played and missed, his timing was gone and he was in trouble against Hazell. “And I wasn’t even spinning the ball in those little fingers of mine,” said the bowler. “I didn’t like what was happening. It upset me. I was pitching the ball up to Wally, subconsciously wanting him to show us those wonderful cover drives just once more.” It was not to be. Hammond managed to scratch together seven singles in 50 minutes before he was bowled all over the shop coming down the pitch to Hazell. It was his last innings in first-class cricket and although Gloucestershire won, he cut a forlorn figure at slip for a time on Monday before retiring with lumbago. In later years, Hazell liked to tell how he had fed Hammond half-volleys outside the off-stump out of sympathy but Somerset’s Eric Hill (Stephen Chalke, Only Yesterday, Wisden Cricket Monthly July 2003) remembered Hazell hitting him on the pads and appealing loudly every time Hammond missed. “He hit him several times on the pad. They looked unlikely but Horace screamed at them all. Whenever Hammond missed, Horace appealed - and he wasn’t that sort of bloke usually.” Hazell had suffered against Hammond in the past and Hill remembers the bowler’s words at the bar: “I owed that bugger one.” Hill added: “It was all rather embarrassing. There he was. A great giant who had bestridden everything, struggling like a starter. Just struggling. Looking awful.” John Mortimore recalled that a lot of people in the pavilion had not been able to watch until Hammond got off the mark and Tom Graveney said that he just sat in the dressing room and couldn’t watch any of it. Despite Hazell’s satisfaction, players on both sides were in subdued mood in the bar during that Saturday evening. It had all been so different in 1946.The years of war appeared to have taken nothing from Hammond’s batting as he began the season in prime form. Rain spoiled the Whitsun fixture at Taunton but the Monday crowd could reflect on a superb display from Hammond; five sixes and six fours in 104. An outrageous chip for six off Bill Andrews resulted in the bowler stopping in midwicket to applaud. Bunty Longrigg, his captain, told him to restrict the hero-worship and get on with the bowling. Hammond was more restrained at Bristol in August, occupying six hours 10 minutes in making a flawless 214. On the Saturday he was on 178, made out of 415 for four, and on Monday Hammond and Basil Allen (132 not out) took their fifth wicket partnership to 242, the declaration coming at 550 for five. Somerset, no strangers themselves to 500-plus totals in 1946, were in some danger although Harold Gimblett played a valuable innings of 133. Nine men were out for 280 on Tuesday before Bertie Buse and Hazell put on 92 for the last wicket and with only two and a half hours remaining on Tuesday, Gloucestershire did not enforce the follow on. A crowd of 17,500 watched the cricket on August Bank Holiday Monday. Normal holiday interest was spiced by the high places the teams occupied in the table - Gloucestershire fourth and Somerset sixth at that point; they were to finish fourth and fifth respectively. If honours were even in 1946 they were markedly in Gloucestershire’s favour during the following summer. Somerset disappointed. A false dawn, a one-wicket victory at Lord’s over Middlesex, the eventual champions, found Gloucestershire v Somerset 158