Lammonby steers Somerset to Riverside win

Tom Lammonby's century was his first of the season and eighth of his career

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Banks Homes Riverside (day three)

Durham 277 & 159: Robinson 33; Pretorius 3-46, Henry 3-51

Somerset 172: Killeen 5-36 & 267-3: Lammonby 104*, Abell 73*

Somerset (19 pts) beat Durham (4 pts) by seven wickets

Match scorecard

A superbly judged unbeaten century by Tom Lammonby helped Somerset maintain their excellent form with a seven-wicket defeat of Durham in the County Championship match at the Riverside.

The victory moves Lewis Gregory's side up to fourth in the Division One table, although most of the other games in this round have yet to finish.

Resuming on 71-1 and needing 194 more runs to clinch their third victory in succession, the visitorsn encountered few problems on a pitch where 31 wickets had fallen in the previous two days.

Instead, they reached their target in mid-afternoon having lost only two wickets as Lammonby finished on 104 not out and Tom Abell, with whom he had put on an unbroken 139 for the fourth wicket, was unbeaten on 73.

Durham had enjoyed the perfect start to the morning when Gregory, was caught behind by Ollie Robinson off Ben Raine for 38 in the second over of the day.

But Lammonby and James Rew made light of that setback by adding 55 runs in 15 overs and seizing on some wayward bowling by the callow Durham seamers.

Just before noon, Alex Lees brought on Colin Ackermann to bowl his off-spin from the Lumley End and it brought a much needed breakthrough for the home side when Rew, who had looked in little trouble while making 31, chipped a half-drive straight to short extra cover.

The wicket left Somerset on 128-3 but it did not halt their steady progress towards their target.

Lammonby became only the second batsman in the match to make a half-century, reaching it off 70 balls and having hit five boundaries.

Durham's need for further wickets was made plain when Raine and Mitch Killeen were brought back into the attack around 40 minutes after they had been taken off.

Those bowling changes made no difference as Lammonby and Abell continued their steady accumulation, maidens were rarities and Somerset reached lunch on 174-3.

Five overs into the afternoon session Durham threw away a faint chance to salvage the game when Lammonby was dropped on 69 by James Minto off Daniel Hogg at deep square leg, the 17-year-old shelling a straightforward chance after the ball had been pulled straight to him.

That escape seemed to energise the Somerset batsmen and the remaining 70 runs came quickly.

Lammonby took three fours off a Minto over and soon after reached his century off 149 balls, having hit a dozen fours.

Shortly afterwards, Abell went to 50 off 122 balls and victory was confirmed when he clipped Killeen through midwicket for a final boundary.

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Somerset batter Tom Lammonby:

"Batting with Tom Abell was attritional at times and when we arrived this morning any result was possible and it was an important first hour.

"I got through that with James Rew and then started again with Tom, so that was very pleasing.

"It's important to me to make the starts count and I was pleased to do that today. I love batting with Tom and I'd do it for ever if I could. I always cherish it.

"I think I've changed a lot and learned a lot, which has put my all-round game in a good stead and I'll look to cotinue to do that.

Durham head coach Ryan Campbell:

"In this competition, which is so hard, when you're on top and you have your foot on someone's throat, you cannot let them up, and unfortunately we did that with our batting in the second innings.

"I think the guys understand that we should have had a lead of 350-400 but Somerset bowled really well and obviously they batted nicely in the fourth innings.

"We always talk about getting the balance right between fearless and reckless. That's the way it's been since I've come to the club but there were dismissals in our first innings that were reckless.

"If blokes get a start, they have to go on and drive it home. Our currency is hundreds."