MEMBERS of the local and national press turned out in force to attend the Somerset CCC Media Day at the Cooper Associates County Ground.

The morning began with the media gathering in the 1875 Club to attend the group Press Conference that featured the Somerset director of cricket Andy Hurry, women’s head coach Trevor Griffin and captain Sophie Luff, and men’s head coach Jason Kerr and captain Lewis Gregory.

Last season the men’s team reached two one day finals and were in contention for the championship up until the last two weeks of the season.

Men’s captain Lewis Gregory said: “Hopefully come the back end of this season we will be in a very similar position where we have got trophies on the line. Last year will be a good learning experience for the guys to do things slightly differently.

“For the vast majority of the season we were outstanding but come the crunch time we didn’t turn up and didn’t get things quite right so I’ve no doubt that guys this year will want to put that right.”

What have Somerset done to help this to happen? Head coach Jason Kerr said: “The reality is everyone is a year older and they will benefit from those experiences. We have invested a lot of time on individual skills, but probably more importantly in the growth of people.

“Mentally it’s hard when you’re challenging in three competitions and you’ve got 15 or 16 to pick from. The demands on the players are incredible from a mental point of view so we have invested a lot of time around that and the growth of the individuals. We are in a fantastic position to have another crack this year.”

And for the first time ever Somerset will be fielding a fully professional women’s team, which will be captained by Sophie Luff.