Key events
Just putting this here, in case anyone has an attic full of old stuff:
Weather watch
Play all round the houses.
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
The County Ground: Northants249-4 v Surrey
Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Somerset 182-8
Headingley: Yorkshire 134 all out v Essex
DIVISION TWO
Grace Road: Leicestershire 97-2 v Durham
Lord’s: Middlesex 132-4 v Glamorgan 214
Hove: Sussex 220 v Worcestershire 87-0
Monday’s round up
A dazzling century by Emilio Gay worried Surrey at Wantage Road after Northants lost the toss and were told to get the pads on. It was Gay’s first century on his home ground, and he twinkled throughout, finally out for 145, hooking merrily to deep square leg just before drizzle brought the players off for the day. Rob Keogh finished 75 not out. Tom Curran started his first red-ball game since before Covid as Surrey tried to eat up their seven point deficit on Hampshire, and leapfrog back to the top of the Championship table. The day had started, as it did around all the grounds, with a minute’s silence and a rendition of God Save the King.
Sam Cook became the first English seamer since Derbyshire’s Alan Ward in 1971 to take 200 first-class wickets at less than 20. Fresh from ten wickets against Kent, he snared three for 31, and Shane Snater’s three for 39, as Essex ran through Yorkshire at a damp Headingley which slumped under floodlights all day.
Rain ruined all but 22 overs at Grace Road, where Leicestershire debutant, Sol Budinger, helped his team to 97 for two against Nottinghamshire. Budinger had never played a first-class game before despite being on the books at Trent Bridge, and he warmed to his task with a clamouring six in his 63 not out. All this despite losing a chunk out of his bat to the first ball of the day from Ben Raine. Matty Potts picked up a wicket just before the clouds opened.
It was a damp relegation battle at Edgbaston, where India’s Mohammed Siraj made short work of Somerset’s top order – including Pakistan’s Iman ul Haq – for Warwickshire. However, from 46 for five Somerset fought back – thanks to an unbeaten 60 from Lewis Gregory.
Another recovery at Hove where Sussex wrestled themselves out of the slime-filled pit of 23 for five. Half centuries from Fynn Hudson-Prentice, James Coles and Jack Carson drove the drive for respectability, with Carson playing his first Championship game for nearly a year after recuperating from knee surgery. Worcestershire’s Joe Leach finished with four for 37 and Ed Pollock and Jack Libby picked up easy runs in the afternoon.
James Harris made a happy return to Lord’s in the promotion shoot-out. A spell of three for 0 in nine balls kept Glamorgan in the hunt after they had been dismissed for 214, with Middlesex’s Toby Roland Jones and Tim Murtagh dismissing the top order and Ryan Higgins dismantling the tail.
Preamble
Good morning from a crisp and sunny Manchester – though the mood will not be so warm at Old Trafford, with the news that Lancashire have been given a six point sanction for two Level one offences – one against Warwickshire in June, and one against Warwickshire in July.
Round the grounds, play will start at 10.30am, with Surrey struggling a little against Northants, neck and neck at Lord’s and Somerset recovering after a terrible start at Edgbaston. Let’s hope the rain stays away today.