Key events
Thursday’s round-up
Day one was a washout at five grounds, as the County Championship pulled on its bedsocks and rolled into the final week of the season. With the champions already crowned, Sussex up, and Kent down, just one promotion and one relegation spot remain to be played for.
At New Road, Lancashire threw themselves into the relegation dog fight with abandon, reducing Worcestershire to 22 for five under dirty slate skies. Matthew Waite and Logan van Beek then bashed 63 for the eighth wicket, hauling Worcestershire beyond three figures, before the rain returned. Tom Bailey, accurate as a filled in full stop, finished with three for nine, and there were three wickets for Anderson Phillip.
Theoretically, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire are both in danger of the drop, but rain washed out all but 15.2 overs at Trent Bridge – Notts finishing 33 for two.
A shell-shocked Somerset were winkled out for 136 at Taunton, before fighting back, on a day when seven batters fell for nought. Tom Kohler-Cadmore was the only Somerset man to pass 29, with 63, an innings that started with carefree abandon but retreated into desperate accumulation as the wickets fell about him, four of them to the unstoppable Liam Dawson, four to Kyle Abbott – who bowled Shoaib Bashir only for the ball to be deemed dead when a towel fell out of his pocket in his delivery stride. Hampshire then wobbled as Jack Leach took three wickets, he and Bashir bowling in tandem for the first time in a Championship match.
There was no play at Hove, much to the frustration of Middlesex, who need to make up a 15-point deficit to have a hope of promotion. A wet outfield prevented any play at Headingley, too, where Yorkshire need a maximum of 10 points to breathe easy.
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
TAUNTON: Somerset 136 v Hampshire 62-5
CHESTER LE STREET: Durham v Kent no play Thursday.
TRENT BRIDGE: Nottinghamshire 33-2 v Warwickshire
NEW ROAD Worcestershire 119-7 v Lancashire
CHELMSFORD: Essex 116-1 v Surrey
DIVISION TWO
HEADINGLEY: Yorkshire v Northamptonshire no play Thursday
SOPHIA GARDENS Glamorgan v Gloucestershire no play Thursday
HOVE Sussex v Middlesex no play Thursday
GRACE ROAD Leicestershire v Derbyshire no play Thursday
Preamble
Good morning! After yesterday’s soggy events, and various amber weather warnings, I’ve plumped for Headingley as the place most likely to see men in whites running around. The sky isn’t too encouraging from this Trans Pennine Express, and the passing foilage is definitely damp, but let’s hope for more action wherever you are on day two of this final match of the season.
Play (possibly) starts at 10.30am.
