July 4, 2013 - 'Shuker seeks doubles glory'

LUCY Shuker is preparing for her 10th outing at Wimbledon next week, but in 2013 the Taunton star had her sights set on a second successive wheelchair doubles final at SW19.

Paired up with Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands – with whom she finished as runner-up at the Australian Open earlier in the year – she would need to overcome a friend turned foe.

Shuker won bronze at the London 2012 Olympics alongside Jordanne Whiley, and also partnered her to the 2012 Wimbledon final... but now the Brits would be on the opposite side of the net from one another.

Shuker said: "I'm back with Marjolein at Wimbledon and with the experience of having played two Grand Slams together this year, hopefully we can go through and get to the final."

Andy Murray's year of triumph it may have been, but there was no British success in the wheelchair women's doubles.

Shuker and Buis were beaten by Whiley and Yui Kamiji, 6-1 6-2, although they did go on to beat Sabine Ellerbrock and Sharon Walraven 7-5 7-6 in the third place match.

Dutch pair Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot were the champions, beating Whiley and Kamiji 6-4 7-6 in the final.

July 3, 2008 - 'Campaign ends in rain'

SOMERSET will hope for better luck with the weather for today's Vitality T20 Blast meeting with Gloucestershire than they had back in 2008.

Rain prevented any play in the match in Bristol on that Friday, and so Somerset Sabres bowed out of the Twenty20 Cup.

They finished with nine points from 10 matches, placing them fourth in the Midlands, Wales and West Division – behind Warwickshire Bears, Northamptonshire Steelbacks and Glamorgan Dragons.

All three of those teams went out in the quarter-finals, as Middlesex Crusaders won the competition.

Somerset's hopes of qualification were actually ended in the previous match, with the rain again intervening in their match at Northamptonshire.

The visitors had fallen to 67-6 at Wantage Road, as Marcus Trescothick (12), Peter Trego (11), Craig Kieswetter (12) and James Hildreth (2) all fell cheaply.

West Indian all-rounder Omari Banks (50no) shared a stand of 67 with Ben Phillips (26), but still the home side would have been confident of chasing down 137-9 when rain halted play two overs into the reply.

Somerset County Gazette:

POTENTIAL: Somerset's Mark Lathwell finally earned an England nod.

July 2, 1993 - 'Debut boy'

IT was a big day for Somerset batsman Mark Lathwell, who was finally included in the England Test side to face Australia.

Lathwell, then aged 21, had been overlooked for the Texaco Series against the Australians, then the first two Tests (both England defeats), but finally got his chance for the third Test in Nottingham.

He made 20 and 33 in his two innings, dismissed by Merv Hughes and Shane Warne, respectively, as Graham Gooch's 120 and Graham Thorpe's 114no helped England draw the match.

Somerset team-mate Andy Caddick was also involved, recording figures of 1-81 (off 22 overs) and 3-32 (off 16) while also adding 15 runs to England's first innings.

In truth, Lathwell's call-up came 12 months too late for him, as his superb form for Somerset and England Lions began to wane.

He only managed one more Test outing for England before being dropped, and he struggled to keep his place in the Somerset team as the 1990s went on, as he lost confidence and struggled with injuries.

Ultimately he fell out of love with the game and had retired before the age of 30.