Andre Manders sat at home in Southampton, England, watching Cup Match live last week as his son Tre scored two fifties to helped Somerset to an exciting eight-wicket victory after sharing in a second wicket stand of 151 with centurion Terryn Fray.

Something else came to mind as the former Somerset captain, watched ... the year that he became the first captain to declare in the third innings of Cup Match and lose.

Like St George’s this year, Somerset were nine down in 1991 when Manders declared in the second innings at 3.30pm to set St George’s a winning target of 205 in 110 minutes plus 20 overs.

The champions reached their target with the loss of only three wickets after an opening stand of 143 between his brother Arnold and captain Wendell Smith laid the perfect foundation, blasting the first 50 in just 29 minutes.

Somerset led on first innings by 57 runs and they added just 147 for nine in the second innings before inviting St George’s to make a run chase.

“I did that in my second year as captain and declared around the same time with about the same amount of runs,” Manders recalls. “It was the same thing, we didn’t have the trophy and took a chance. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

“Yes, they [St George’s] had to gamble but the way the wicket played on the second day and with nobody helping George [O’Brien] it was kind of difficult. He couldn’t do it all on his own and needed one of the backup bowlers like Lateef Trott or Kyle Hodsoll to get a few wickets.

“You have to be mentally prepared for both days, especially as a bowler. Delray Rawlins bowled pretty good but what I didn’t like was Rodney [Trott] only bowled in the second innings.”

Said Joe Bailey’s, the former Somerset captain: “What O’Brien did that a lot of fast bowlers should do is be bowled bouncers, yorkers and bowled the slower one and he kept line and length for a long period of time and made the batsmen play at the ball. When Malachi Jones was caught on the [long-on] boundary people were saying it was a poor shot, but give the bowler some credit, he made the batsman play at the ball.”

Fray and Manders are both playing cricket in England, with Manders playing for Sarisbury Athletic Cricket Club, in the Hampshire League, with knocks of 70 not out, 34 and 44 for the second XI.

“He’s playing against overseas players, in a league where each team has an overseas player,” said his father.

“It’s a very high league and there are Hampshire [County CC] Academy players in the league. In fact in one of the games Tre was supposed to play in was against Hampshire Academy.”

Manders believes Somerset have the nucleus of a team that could dominate Cup Match for the next few years. “Looking at the St George’s team it was good on paper but I would have kept one or two of the young guys from last year for the experience,” said Manders.

“Last year they picked a young team and I thought they were grooming that team for the next few years. It is kind of difficult when you don’t have the trophy, but you can’t discard the youngsters if you are trying to build a team for the future.

“I’m glad Somerset stuck with their youth.”