Local boy Josh Thomas, who scored 86 and 39 opening for Somerset in their final championship match of the 2025 season, has just returned from spending the autumn playing cricket in South Africa for Cape Town-based Rondenbosch.
“I had a very successful trip and it was good to get some more game time,” the 20-year-old left-handed batter and slow left-arm bowler said.
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“Towards the end of the season, I spoke to Jason Kerr, who told me that the availability of the Centre of Excellence wasn’t great in November, and if I had the opportunity to go away, then I should take it, so it was a no-brainer.
“I spent some time with Rondenbosch two years ago when I was straight out of school and enjoyed it and they were pretty happy to have me back.
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“This time I was living at Atlantic Beach which is a bit out of the way of the city but it was perfect and everything that I needed was on the estate which was good.
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“I was staying with a couple of school mates but looking after myself, doing my own shopping and washing—so I have been making full use of my life skills.
“The wickets were pretty good to play on and seemed to get a lot better in the afternoon, which is weird because they look dry and I thought that they would break up.”
Josh talked about the cricket he was playing in Cape Town.
“The format of the games was 50-over red ball and the standard, I would say, is comparable to the top teams in the WEPL Premier One—it’s similar in that if the pros are available, they come and play for their clubs.
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“I was playing against some SA 20 players and some of their batters made me work hard when I was bowling—but that’s what it was all about for me.
“This season I didn’t get to bowl that much because I was playing a lot of games with Jack Leach, which was fair enough, so it was good to get some overs under my belt.”
How had he fared with the bat?
“My best innings was in a match against Bellville on a tricky wicket and the outfield was very slow—I managed to get us to a good total, scoring a 100 to see us to 240, and then we bowled them out for 180, so it was a good game and I contributed to the win.”
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Josh went on: “I have been into the ground and caught up with everybody, but there’s not too many about at the moment because a lot of the guys are away paying franchise cricket.
“The first day I had to do some fitness tests.
“I wanted to spend some of the winter in England so I can give training a good crack as this is the last year of my contract.
“After the recent opportunities I have had in the first team I’d like to explore that more so it will be good to get indoors and net with a purpose because I now know where my role is within the team.”
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Josh added: “The runs I scored against Essex were great and hopefully stands in good stead for this coming season—it’s given me the taste for playing championship cricket.”
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