Pre-season friendly

Somerset 342-5d & 240-2 v Ireland 147

JOSH Davey starred with a five-wicket haul and Somerset's top order gained valuable time in the middle on a productive third day of the pre-season friendly against Ireland.

Davey finished with impressive figures of 5-29 from 14.4 overs, a couple of which were comprehensively bowled, and was well backed up by Paul van Meekeren (3-31) and Tim Groenewald (2-28) as Ireland were dismissed for 147 in response to Somerset's first innings total of 342-5 declared.

There were no wickets for either Lewis Gregory or Jamie Overton, both of whom are still working their way back after injuries, while Dom Bess was required to bowl just two overs on a green seaming wicket.

Somerset openers Marcus Trescothick and Eddie Byrom looked in good touch, as they had in the first innings, as they added 122 for the first wicket before Byrom retired on 27 at the tea interval having batted for just shy of eight hours in the match.

Trescothick eventually gloved one down the leg side on 96, which came from just 90 balls, but George Bartlett and James Hildreth took advantage of some wayward deliveries to keep the scoreboard moving.

Bartlett, having been dismissed without scoring in the first innings, played some nice strokes on his way to 55 (88 balls, 8x4, 1x6) before he edged a full Barry McCarthy delivery behind, with Hildreth ending the day unbeaten on 44 alongside captain Tom Abell (9*).

Speaking afterwards, the day's standout bowler Davey said: "It's always nice to get a few wickets under the belt in pre-season.

"All the bowlers performed well and we bowled well as a unit."

Davey has enjoyed a full pre-season at the County Ground, with no international commitments with Scotland, which has allowed him to work on his game.

"It's nice to have time to work technically on your game," he said.

"Going away and playing means you can just be playing all the time and not have the opportunity to step back and change a few things, but this six-month period has allowed me to change little things I wanted to do. Hopefully I can take those changes into the game and get rewards.

"At the moment there are not many Scotland games coming up, so I'm just going to concentrate on my cricket here going forward."

Davey's haul will do his chances of starting the first County Championship match against Worcestershire on April 20 no harm at all, though there is plenty of competition.

With early season conditions set to suit seamers, Davey is hoping to have the opportunity to build on this pre-season promise.

"We are all aspiring to get in to that Championship side," he said.

"It's very difficult - we have a lot of class seamers here - but if you get wickets you put pressure on."