Bowlers hit their straps as Pears edge day one
Shropshire seamers Ed Barnard and Dillon Pennington impressed with the ball as Worcestershire took the opening day honours in their Bob Willis Trophy Central Group clash with Somerset at Blackfinch New Road.
The duo bagged three wickets each to help dismiss the visitors for 251.
Somerset skipper Tom Abell continued his fine form by top-scoring with 59 to help ensure his side posted a challenging total on a green-tinged pitch which offered encouragement to the seamers.
It followed on from his 119 against Glamorgan and an unbeaten 101 versus Gloucestershire earlier in the competition.
A spell of five wickets for 41 runs in 18 overs tipped the game in the Pears’ favour as Somerset collapsed to 134-6.
But steady lower order contributions from Lewis Gregory, Josh Davey and Jack Leach steered the visitors to two batting points.
Barnard finished with 3-53 and Pennington 3-49.
Worcestershire openers Daryl Mitchell and Jake Libby then survived five probing overs from Craig Overton and Josh Davey in reaching 14-0.
Worcestershire assistant coach Alan Richardson, said: “A good day’s cricket. People would have been very happy watching that. I thought both sides would have enjoyed the battle that was going on out there.
“It looked like the wicket had a little more juice in it than the one against Warwickshire and it looks like a good cricket wicket.
“The extravagant movement we saw in the first hour was with the hardness of the ball so it will be a test for us, but then hopefully you try and make inroads later on as the ball gets softer and the bowlers get a few overs in their legs.
“Is 251 a good total? I think we bowled brilliantly. I couldn’t have asked for anymore. That first session, to take only one wicket from a run-out, the boys deserved far more than that and we got those rewards as the day went on.
“Tom Abell applied himself really well and their tail wagged a little bit at the end.”
