I HAVE played against Alan Richardson a few times over the years and he is a very fine bowler and a good signing for Worcestershire.

The club have admired him for a long time and I believe Tom Moody was interested in signing the pace bowler before he joined Middlesex.

It is nice to have a youthful side, but it is important to back that up with experienced players like Alan — he is a proven performer and it is good for the County to be strengthening their squad.

We all know what Daryl Mitchell can do and it will be brilliant for his confidence to get such a big score and it will stand him in good stead for the future.

It would have been nice for him to get the extra two runs for his triple hundred, but at the start of the Somerset game he would definitely have taken 298 if you’d offered it to him.

From a personal point of view, Daryl would have been kicking himself, but his innings set the game up for a potential result in Worcestershire’s favour, but it was not to be.

Obviously, no-one wants to go through the season without winning. We went about the game at Taunton in the right manner and put Somerset under pressure.

It was great for Gareth Andrew to get five wickets, but we were not able to dismiss the last few batsmen to seal the victory. Wins are pretty difficult to come by in Division One.

Also, young Ben Cox getting a half-century on his debut was very positive for both him and the club.

For him to get 60-odd against one of the teams who have been challenging for the title all year was brilliant. He also picked up the stumping of Marcus Trescothick, which is something he will remember for a long time to come.

The reports we’ve had from Damien D’Oliveira about Ben are good and he has played a few games for the Seconds this season.

It just shows that youngsters are often fearless and do not worry a lot about the reputations of people they are playing against.

Age is definitely on his side and it was good that the club could fall back on him and he didn’t let them down.

Wicketkeeping is increasingly becoming a dual role as teams need someone who can also bat.

There have been a few excellent keepers who have missed out on higher honours because of a perceived weakness in their batting.

Worcestershire must look at someone who can score plenty of runs to replace Steve Davies next season. Ben has proved he can score runs and he can kick on from this now.

Durham come to New Road tomorrow and I imagine they will be going hell for leather to finish the season in style with another win.

I think they will be coming hard at us, but we can take plenty of heart from last week’s performance at Somerset.

Hopefully, we can win the toss and post a big score or bowl them out cheaply and force a positive result.

In the Pro40, it was very disappointing to lose to Somerset. We play Sussex in our final game and still have the chance to claim second place, but no-one wants to finish second.