Bowlers & Rew help Somerset get on top against Hants

Lewis Gregory is playing in his first game of the season for Somerset [Getty Images]

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Utilita Bowl (day one)

Hampshire 238: Lehmann 76; Gregory 3-45, Overton 3-50

Somerset 154-3: Rew 77*; Baker 1-18

Somerset (3 pts) trail Hampshire (1 pt) by 84 runs

Match scorecard

James Rew continued his exceptional start to the County Championship season to keep England selectors' attention on a day where 13 wickets fell at Utilita Bowl.

Somerset wicketkeeper Rew began the season with 64, 122 and 48 before adding another half-century to back his bowlers striking Hampshire out for 238.

Jake Lehmann had been Hampshire's lone batting star by striking 76, as Craig Overton and the fit-again Lewis Gregory picked up three wickets each.

Rew, batting at number four, then replied with 77 not out by the close - with an average over 100 for the campaign - as Somerset ended the day trailing their hosts by just 84 runs.

Hampshire captain Ben Brown chose to bat first but regular wickets against a nagging bowling attack stemmed his ambitions of getting a large first-innings total.

Toby Albert was preferred to Joe Weatherley – who had only managed 16 runs in four innings this season – and looked punchy and busy at the crease.

Albert has traditionally had a Jekyll and Hyde approach to his batting in different formats. His aggressive and inventive T20 style helped him be the leading run scorer in the Vitality Blast last season.

Whereas in the Championship, he had gained a reputation as a blocker. Here, scoring 42, he found a middle ground between the two approaches – to give the suggestion he may be the answer to Hampshire's long-term opening bat conundrum.

The Somerset bowlers had zipped the new ball through, finding Nick Gubbins offering a head high catch to third slip, and Tom Prest edging to wicketkeeper Rew.

But Gregory's introduction began Hampshire's slide from a respectable 72-2 to 126-7.