Challengers Somerset Cricket Club will begin their bid to wrestle the coveted Cup Match trophy from rivals St.George?s on Monday when they take on a Western Counties XI in their first trial match at Somerset Cricket Club.

St.George?s stripped Somerset of the coveted showpiece by way of a dramatic 27- run win at Wellington Oval last July.

?We recognise that we don?t have the cup and so we must do everything possible to try and get it back and so we are starting early,? Somerset coach Winston Reid explained.

?This will certainly give the players more time to gel and get used to each other.?

While Reid refused to comment at length on mounting speculation that the West Enders will be making wholesale changes to their team this year, he did acknowledge that picking a Cup Match team is always a daunting task.

?You can never pick a starting XI that pleases everybody,? added Reid, who shared in a record 211 opening partnership with Gladstone (Sad) Brown in the 1982 ICC Trophy in England.

?I?ve always found that picking a Cup Match a team is difficult. But the selectors still have to go ahead and do a job and hope that once the team has been chosen everybody rallies behind that team.?

The challengers have managed to lure some of the Island?s top future prospects this year as the likes of Malachi Jones, Stephen Bremar jr, Rodney (Pic Nic) Trott and Dennis Musson jr have all received invitations to try out for the team.

Dennis Pilgrim and Sammy Robinson are among those vying for a recall.

Jones is the son of former Somerset Cup Match batsman Olin Jones while Trott previously underwent trials at St.George?s.

Somerset all rounder Jacobi Robinson will miss Monday?s trial through injury (right knee).

Meanwhile, Reggie Tucker jr has been appointed skipper of the Western Counties XI, Johnny Nusum as manager and Dexter Basden and Olin Jones as coaches.

?We are representing the Western Counties and so we definitely will not be taking Somerset lightly,? warned Basden, himself a former Somerset Cup Match skipper.