[7] It went on: "The appointment of an inexperienced player to lead a side forced to make experiments seemed like a leap in the dark, but as the summer advanced deeds spoke louder than words and in the end an adventurous policy was fully justified."
The side was dependent for wickets on a trio of spin bowlers, Johnny Lawrence, Ellis Robinson and Horace Hazell, with the last two both past 40.
[10] Rogers made only 784 runs in Championship games with a top score of 58, although his season average and total was improved by an unbeaten 107 in 160 minutes against the South African touring team.
Gimblett made 2,000 runs, and the rest of the batting was marginally improved over 1951, but inability to take wickets at reasonable cost consigned the side to the bottom of the Championship table for the first time since 1913.
Only two matches were won all season and, Wisden reported, "even these meagre successes were due as much to the spin of the coin as the turn of the ball.
"[12] Rogers himself had a mediocre season: he made 841 runs in the Championship, with a third and final career century, an unbeaten 102 in Gimblett's benefit match against Northamptonshire at Glastonbury.
"[14] Foot records the senior professional, Horace Hazell, being taken out for drinks at restaurants by Rogers and returning "as drunk as a handcart".
But Eric Hill, one of the young players of the time and later the doyen of the Taunton press box, "feels that Rogers probably lacked rapport with the younger professionals".
[14] Hill records, in Foot's book, Rogers ordering a curfew of 10 o'clock in a match against Hampshire: "The skipper plotted his evening accordingly and staggered up to bed at half-past nine... more drunk than anyone I've ever seen in my life.