SOMERSET dominated for much of their opening Division One Rothesay County Championship fixture against Worcestershire at Taunton but during a match in which several records were set, they had to settle for a draw.

On the opening day Kasey Aldridge came into the attack for Somerset and claimed 5/36 from eight overs as Worcestershire were bowled out for 154.

Somerset lost Archie Vaughan, Tom Lammonby and Sean Dickson and slipped to 39 for three before Tom Abell was joined by Tom Banton.

Form this point on Somerset were in command as the Toms added 101 before Abell was out for 52.

Thomas Rew joined fellow former King’s College student and together they added 371, a new record fifth wicket partnership, when Rew perished for 152 which came off 275 balls.

Banton remained batting sensibly and showing no signs of flagging during his marathon innings.

When he brought up his triple century he became only the eighth player to do so for the county, passing the innings made by others in the 300 club - James Hildreth, Graeme Smith, Harold Gimblett, Jimmy Cook ,Viv Richards, and finally by the end of day two Banton had reached 344, surpassing Justin Langer’s 342 which he scored at Surrey in 2006.

On the third morning Banton batted on until he was eventually out for 371 which came off 403 balls after a stay of eight hours and 41 minutes, at which Somerset declared on 670 for seven.

Batting for a second time facing a huge deficit of 516 Worcestershire faced an uphill struggle to survive.

However despite the best efforts of the Somerset bowling attack they managed to cling on for almost two days, ending their innings on 485 /9, of which skipper Brett D’Oliveira made 121, former Somerset player Adam Hose hit 82 and Matthew Waite remained unbeaten on 87 from 319 balls.