FIFTY YEARS ago Viv Richards,  probably the best batter ever to play for Somerset, made his first appearance at the County Ground - thanks to the foresight of Bath bookmaker Len Creed who was also vice chairman of Somerset, writes Richard Walsh. Creed had his attention drawn to the highly talented youngster in 1973 when he was on a cricket tour of Antigua and invited Viv to move to England where he played league cricket for Lansdown. Viv topped the Lansdown batting averages in 1973 on the strength of which he signed a two year contract for Somerset. He moved to Taunton where he lived in the same house as Ian Botham who was also at the start of his first class career and Dennis Breakwell who had arrived from Northamptonshire the pervious season. Viv’s first match for his new county was against Glamorgan at Swansea in the Benson and Hedges Cup, a 55 over one day competition. After choosing to bat fthe hosts posted 194 for five in reply to which Somerset made 198 for four in the 42nd over. Viv batted at number four and ended unbeaten on 81 to win the Gold Award. When he left the field at the end of the match the Cidermen’s skipper Brian Close provided a player's ovation for Viv in recognition of the contribution he had made to the victory. It didn’t take the 22 year old long to make his mark in the first class game either. His debut was a three day match against India starting on May 1 in which he was dismissed for seven in his only innings.  However, in only his third championship match at the end of that month he scored the first of his 47 centuries for the county, when he hit 102 against Gloucestershire in Bristol. Stuart Tudball, who was a 15 year old schoolboy also at the start of his long playing career for Minehead CC,  remembers the first time he ever saw the Great Man play. “I skipped a day off school, it was on a Wednesday and along with Steve Cornish went to watch Viv for the first time in the Benson and Hedges quarter final game against Hampshire. We caught the bus to Taunton and I can remember we sat down by the boundary ropes, but on that occasion we were disappointed because Viv was out for one when he top edged to the keeper Bob Stephenson from the bowling of Trevor Jesty.” That was the same game that Ian Botham announced his arrival onto the Somerset scene, when chasing 182 for victory. Batting at number 9 he went to the wicket with the total on 113 for eight. Early on he was hit in the mouth by the very quick young West Indian pace bowler Andy Roberts which removed some of his teeth, despite which he refused to leave the pitch and strayed in place until he had seen his side to an unlikely victory, by which time he was unbeaten on 45. Looking back 50 years I wonder how many who watched Viv walk out to bat that day realised how influential  he would become for the Cidermen. Between 1974 and 1986 Viv played in 191 first class matches, scored 14,698 runs including 47 centuries, at an average of 49.82,  and set a new Somerset record when he hit 322 in a day against Warwickshire in 1985. In List A cricket he played in 218 matches and scored 7349 runs at an average of just shy of 40. However it wasn’t just about the runs he scored it was the way in which he went about getting them that was so exciting.