THE 2024 season was Nick Pepper’s first full campaign as Somerset’s headground keeper and what a summer it has been with the club being in contention for all three domestic competitions right up until the last few days.

While those of us who went along and watched the Cidermen in action during one of their most exciting seasons recently can sit on the boundary edge and enjoy what is going on, it would be interesting to know how Nick viewed things from his position.

“It was a bit of an eye opener, but I really enjoyed it,” he said. “You find yourself thinking about it literally 24/7 and worrying about things like whether a cover has blown off or something like that.”

“As a club we came so close to achieving so much and we take a huge amount of pride in how many games we were able to win at home this year. The fact that we were able to produce result wickets in Championship cricket was great.

In white ball cricket we were seeing scores in excess of 180 in the Vitality Blast and in the Metro Bank One Day Cup we were regularly seeing scores up around the 340-mark with successful run chases.

“That’s something that the team have worked really hard to produce. We will strive to achieve more next year, and the last 12 months have given me a chance to learn a little bit more about the square in terms of certain things, so we are looking forward to next year already.

Nick is full of praise for his team. “We’ve got a great group, and we’ve formed a really good team.”

Everyone really stepped up this year and Nick and Macauley have taken over the responsibility for the preparation of the net pitches and they’ve had good feedback from the players and coaches from Somerset and the visiting teams too. That’s a real positive that they can take away from 2024.

“Kev, my senior gGrounds person, has really stepped up too and I can really trust him and all the others on the team. They’ve all been here longer than me and they know what this club expects from them on a matchday.

“The team at Taunton Vale have also worked really hard all season to deliver a large amount of cricket up there, and I’ve been really impressed with what they’ve achieved. Mark Loveridge managed the squares and the team really well and it’s been a genuinely collaborative effort all round.”