Swanton alluding to the ‘scrupulous briskness’ with which they bowled and the Somerset fielders crossing over for the left-handed batsmen. Ancient rivals they might have been but there was an inherent fairness about the matches. The matches continued to be well-attended but something of an imbalance set in. These were lean years for Somerset, who occupied last place in four consecutive seasons from 1952 to 1955, rising only to 15th in 1956. Gloucestershire attained mere respectability, although they were third in 1956 and second in 1959. Inevitably there was little joy for Somerset in the derby matches; hundreds for Graveney, Milton (he made ten in 43 matches against Somerset), Emmett and Martin Young and wickets for Cook, Wells, Scott, Lambert, John Mortimore, David Smith and David Allen on the one side, offset only by Gerry Tordoff, Colin McCool and Bill Alley with the bat and Jim Redman, Lawrence, John McMahon, Malcolm Walker, Brian Langford and Ken Biddulph with the ball. There were thrilling finishes, such as Somerset’s last pair Jim Hilton and McMahon doggedly playing out the final 48 minutes at Bristol in 1955 and Gloucestershire scraping home by one wicket a year later at Taunton. They needed 161 in 132 minutes and Cook and Peter Rochford, the wicket-keeper, came together with 18 wanted. Cook settled it with ten in an over from McMahon. Variety was introduced, with Bristol at Whit and Taunton during August in 1954 and 1956 while Bath Festival Week replaced Taunton for the Whitsuntide fixtures of 1958 and between 1960 and 1964. At last, in 1960, Somerset tasted victory again, their first in a derby since 1949, indeed it was only their second post-war success. This was a much stronger team now; runs from Peter Wight, Graham Atkinson, Roy Virgin, the Australians Colin McCool and Bill Alley (3,019 runs in 1961 at the age of 42) and the wicket-keeper Harold Stephenson and with Langford, Biddulph, Alley and Ken Palmer to take the wickets. First, however, there was drama during the second game of the Bath Festival on Whit Saturday when Eric Bryant, a young left-arm slow bowler, was no-balled five times by Hugo Yarnold for throwing. Milton was facing and patted back each delivery, legal or otherwise, finally saying to Yarnold: “Let’s get this over finished with, Hugo.” At Bristol in August, Gloucestershire chased 232 in 200 minutes and were going fairly well until Graveney was bowled for 47 by Langford, who sent back Mortimore in the same over. The innings subsided for 183, Langford four for 78, and Somerset were home with 48 runs to spare. They promptly won the next three matches before Gloucestershire reversed the trend with a narrow win at Bristol in 1962, the nip and tuck nature of the games continuing until the holiday changes after 1964. In that season Langford, who usually enjoyed Bath but proved time and again that he could spin the ball elsewhere, exploited a dusty pitch to return 10-78 in the match during the first game of the festival. Sweet revenge was gained at Bristol, when Gloucestershire, set 251 in 280 minutes, got the runs with five wickets and 20 minutes to spare, Ron Nicholls hitting 92. As they finished bottom of the Championship, the win was more than welcome for Gloucestershire. Of the 38 encounters from 1946 to 1964, Gloucestershire won 17, Somerset seven and 14 were undecided. Given that Somerset were 14-1 down after 29 matches, their post-1960 rally was notable. Gloucestershire v Somerset 160