century to crown Cup Match and earn a hard-earned draw for Somerset.

Tucker savaged the St. George's bowling attack with an innings of brutal aggression and reached three figures with a glorious cover drive to the boundary.

Dozens of fans ran from all corners of Wellington Oval to mob him, some offering hats stuffed full of dollars, the traditional thankyou for a Cup Match centurion from entertained fans.

His unbeaten 103 made him first Somerset player in Cup Match history to make a hundred at St. George's. Nigel (Chopper) Hazel, who scored 99 in 1943, had been the closest to achieving it before him.

Both captains agreed to call it a day after Tucker had made his ton and the player seemed slightly dazed after being hit by wave of congratulations as he walked off the field.

"Just playing in Cup Match is a dream for me, but scoring a century ... I can't even explain how it feels,'' said Tucker outside the Somerset dressing room.

When the Southampton Rangers all-rounder arrived at the crease, the west-enders still had a lot of work to do to avoid defeat, but Tucker was never tempted to adopt safety-first tactics.

Early in his innings, he smashed St. George's skipper Herbie Bascome for 24 runs off one over, including two enormous leg-side sixes.

"It's the way I am and the way I play -- always aggressive,'' said Tucker.

"It doesn't matter what the situation is, I always play the same.

"The way I saw it, we didn't have a chance of winning, but as long as I was at the wicket, we couldn't lose, so I was just trying not to get out.'' As the runs came thick and fast off Tucker's bat and Somerset's lead grew, the home side's victory chances ebbed away, but Tucker said that was not something he had planned.

"That was not on my mind. I was not looking at the runs on the scoreboard, only the wickets,'' he said.

Tucker was hampered from early in his innings by a twisted left knee which required on-field physiotherapy. His team-mate Richard Basden acted as a runner for him.

"The knee didn't give me too much trouble, it only hurt when I was stretching,'' he said.

Cup Match is clearly in Tucker's blood. His innings bettered the unbeaten 84 scored in 1979 by his father John Tucker, who captained Somerset to their first victory in 20 years on that occasion.

And Janeiro is the fourth generation down in the family of Thomas Simons, who skippered Somerset in the first Cup Match in 1902.

Tucker is now focused on his next ambition to make the season even more special for him. "I want to help Rangers win the Premier League title,'' he said.

Somerset skipper Albert Steede was delighted with the way his team had battled back from a bleak, if not hopeless situation at the start of play yesterday morning.

Steede led by example, scoring a chanceless and classy 60 to help ease his side out of trouble.

"We had an uphill task from the beginning of the day,'' said Steede. "I was hoping we could make enough runs to set them a target, but St.George's scored too many extra runs in the morning for us to do that.

"It was not easy, because to get the draw, we still had to bat sensibly for a long period of time.

"I was pleased because we still remained positive. Sometimes you get exciting draws and I think this was one of those.'' Steede was modest about his own innings and his 113-run partnership with vice-captain Dexter Basden, who scored 77 : "We are two of the most experienced players in the team and batting is our job.'' And he was uncritical of the pitch, on which his side had collapsed in the first innings on Thursday.

"The pitch played very well throughout the two days. I think a few of our players gave their wickets away on the first day as we were going for fast runs and it didn't really work,'' said Steede.

The skipper had nothing but praise for Tucker.

"He's a very talented all-rounder and anyone deserved to be the first Somerset player to score 100 at St. George's, it's him. All credit to him. He played positively, but he didn't give any chances.''