IT has been 189 days since Toby Roland-Jones’ hat-trick sealed the 2016 County Championship title for Middlesex, and many of Somerset’s players and supporters will have spent a fair portion of that time wondering ‘what if’?

The Cidermen could hardly have done much more to bring the elusive Championship trophy to the West Country for the first time last summer, particularly in the second half of the season when Chris Rogers’ side gathered momentum and produced some of the most exciting cricket seen in the region in recent memory.

From nowhere, Somerset played themselves into a position where they were left leading the way until the very last session of the very last day of the season – which made watching the engineered finish at Lord’s all the more difficult to bear for players and supporters, who were again forced to settle for a now-familiar role as bridesmaids.

All that is in the past now, however, and with the start of a new season on the horizon there are hopes abound that Somerset have what it takes to be right in the thick of the chase again.

The appointment of Tom Abell as captain took some by surprise, but the 23-year-old has a wise head on young shoulders and is likely to benefit from dropping down the order to number three so as to avoid the heavy twin responsibilities of leading the side and opening the batting.

The new skipper is also in the fortunate position of being surrounded by a collection of supportive and, crucially, motivated senior players to guide him along the way.

Marcus Trescothick, Peter Trego and James Hildreth are all desperate to play their part in making history in the West Country, with the latter still aiming to provide the weight of runs necessary to push himself back into England contention after years of being unfortunately overlooked on the international front.

Trescothick will be joined until June at the top of the order by Dean Elgar, who has been in fine touch for South Africa over the winter and will be looking to plunder early season runs as he prepares to face England as part of the touring Proteas squad later in the summer.

Steve Davies is the other new face and, like Elgar, should prove to be a shrewd addition as the former Surrey man will add quality both behind the stumps and in the middle order.

Then come the all-rounders, a group to which the evergreen Peter Trego still belongs, though his role will again be primarily a batting one this year after the 35-year-old thrived on the additional responsibility of coming in at six last season and topped 1,000 runs for the first time.

Bowling wise, Lewis Gregory and Craig Overton have both starred for the MCC of late, Jamie Overton was beginning to fire on all cylinders before injury ended his campaign prematurely in 2016 and Tim Groenewald and Josh Davey are both reliable figures who add depth to the pace attack.

It is also a big season for Jack Leach, who has endured a challenging winter after routine tests showed an illegality in his bowling action.

The Taunton-born spinner has shown promising signs for both the England Lions and the MCC since remodelling his approach, and if he can replicate last year’s success then a full England cap surely cannot be too far away.

Amid the busy domestic schedule, there are also set to be opportunities for the club’s promising youngsters to impress.

George Bartlett made history for the England Under-19s over the winter and has featured heavily in pre-season, Dominic Bess will be hoping to carry on from where he left off after taking to first-class cricket like a duck to water last year and the likes of Tom Banton, Ed Byrom and Ben Green will also be hoping for chances to shine.

Of course, Somerset are not the only team with their eyes on the prize and Division One of the County Championship this season looks nigh-on impossible to predict, having been compressed to eight teams who could each justifiably claim that this could be their year.

Of last year’s contenders, champions Middlesex remain strong while Yorkshire, led by new captain Gary Ballance having seen Andrew Gale replace Jason Gillespie as coach, have a point to prove after narrowly missing out in 2016.

Hampshire were reprieved by Durham’s harsh enforced relegation and have splashed the cash to try and avoid a repeat, with George Bailey available across all formats and talented South African duo Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw giving up international cricket to sign on at the Ageas Bowl as Kolpak players.

Lancashire, meanwhile, have an intriguing mix of promising youngsters and experienced campaigners, with 42-year-old Shivnarine Chanderpaul joining England prodigy Haseeb Hameed and the exciting Liam Livingstone in their strong batting line-up, while the Red Rose will also benefit from having Jimmy Anderson available until July.

No England Test matches for the first three months of the season could also see newly-promoted Essex get off to a good start, with Alastair Cook ready to add class to an already talented top order, while Pakistani quick Mohammad Amir arrives for the second half of the season to add fire to a pace attack that is now without David Masters and Graham Napier.

Like Somerset, Surrey improved as last season went along and, having poached Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick from financially-ravaged Durham as well as boasting the Curran brothers, are likely to mount a more sustained challenge this time around.

Warwickshire have spent the winter soul-searching after a below-par campaign last time out, and have brought Ashley Giles back to Edgbaston as a sporting director in an attempt to motivate their highly-experienced squad, which is again led by Ian Bell.

With all this in mind, the only sure-fire prediction that can be made is that supporters of the four-day game look set to witness another exciting summer watching the counties battle it out for the trophy that remains the pinnacle of domestic cricket.

For Somerset, still waiting for the chance to call themselves county champions after 127 years, the message is simple – dare to dream.

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