10.50am A bleak outlook here at the Riverside, with the prospects of play best summed up by the decision of the Somerset team to return to their hotel, writes Andy Wilson. It hosed down all night, is still drizzling heavily now, and it's already safe to say there will be no cricket until tea at the earliest.
Plenty of time for Durham to reflect on the shabby treatment they have received during the Twenty20 furore - through no fault of their own they've been hugely embarrassed by the late cancellation of Monday's quarter-final against Yorkshire, and after last night's ECB disciplinary ruling they'll now have to play Nottinghamshire at a less convenient date when their South African all-rounder Albie Morkel won't be available.
Still no news yet on whether Yorkshire are going to appeal, which could throw everything back up into the air again until next Monday. And another good point that's been made up here is that if the quarter-final is now played on July 21, as expected, the Durham spectators who have already been inconvenienced and irritated by Monday's late postponement will have less than a week to sort out tickets, transport and accommodation for the handy venue for finals day - the Rose Bowl.
1.20pm Riverside - play has been abandoned for the day, writes Andy Wilson. Couple of newsy bits that haven't had much national press this week - Andy Caddick is injured again, suffering a side strain since Somerset's game against the South Africans. And Justin Langer has confirmed that he will be staying on for at least another year in Taunton as captain. Now to the A1...
1.50pm Is this going to be Mark Ramprakash's day, asks Paul Weaver. The Surrey and former England batsman started the season with 97 first-class hundreds to his name, needing just three more to become only the 25th batsman to score a century of centuries.
He scored another in the first championship game of the season, against Lancashire at The Oval, and made his 99th in the third match against Sussex at Hove.
But since then he's made 17 and 9 against Hampshire, 29 and 14 against Yorkshire, 17 and 15 against Somerset and 48 and 0 against Kent. That's eight innings without a fifty, his worst run since he last played for England on the 2002 tour of New Zealand.
Well, it's no one's day here at the moment. Nottinghamshire, the championship leaders, won the toss and put in bottom side Surrey but only 22.4 overs were bowled before they came off for rain and this great old ground is looking a bit damp and sad at the moment.
Stewart Walters, playing his first championship match of the season, lasted only three balls, edging one that bounced from Pattinson to third slip.
Then Scott Newman, cutting, was caught behind off the same bowler to make it 25 for two. Ramprakash is looking good. But he's only scored 14 while Jonathan Batty has 10 in Surrey's score of 45-2.
4.25pm The case for Andrew Flintoff's return to Test cricket at Leeds next Friday hardened when the all-rounder bowled 13 hostile overs before tea at the Rose Bowl, writes Mike Averis. He also bagged his first championship wicket since the side strain put him out of the series again New Zealand at the start of May.
Having looked like a bowler who was fit enough to manage 40 overs in an international innings, runs today against the side one off the bottom of the championship would be a happy bonus for the 30-year-old who last played Test cricket 19 months ago in Sydney, especially with Paul Collingwood suffering yet another failure at Lord's.
After 34 hostile but wicketless overs in Lancashire's last championship game at Hove, Flintoff took the wicket of John Crawley with his 17th ball. The previous delivery had squared up the former Lancashire and England batsmen who then edged an even better delivery which seemed to seem off the wicket and flew low to Stuart Law at second slip.
That six-over spell went for 11, including an involuntary edge from opening batsman Michael Brown that squirted down to fine leg for three. After lunch Flintoff returned for seven more, initially bowling a more generous length until the radar had been tuned in. After the first over, largely of half-volleys went for six, the spell finally cost 18 runs, but by the end Flintoff was peppering the batsmen, particularly the England one-day all-rounder Dimitry Mascarenhas.
Having survived Flintoff, Mascarenhas finally went for 22 - driving Gary Keedy's finger spin back to the bowler to become the sixth Lancashire victim as Hampshire struggled to recover from a start which saw them a wicket down after three balls.
Glen Chapple, another all-rounder easing his way back into country cricket, had caught and bowled Michael Carberry for a duck - a leading edge which Chapple did well to drop on. Crawley was next to go before Sajid Mahmood took over from Flintoff at the Pavillion End.
His first four overs up the hill had gone for 18 and looked less than threatening. The next four had added zip and were enough for Brown, staging something of a recovery after his problems with Flintoff. The former Middlesex batsman was one short of his half century and had hit five crisp boundaries when Mahmood's extra pace trapped him lbw looking to work the ball to leg.
Four runs - and the lunch break - later Sean Ervine steered Chapple to gulley to make Hampshire 85 for four. Nic Pothas and Michael Lumb, who lived something of a charmed life being dropped at the wicket off a deeply unhappy Dominic Cork when on 20, added another 38 before the South African attempted to cut a ball from Keedy that cramped him for room.
The edge went comfortably to Law and when Keedy's slow left-arm spin also accounted for Mascarenhas, Hampshire were 157 for six going into the final session.
5pm Yorkshire have confirmed they will appeal the decision to expel them from the Twenty20 Cup.
5.50pm Still not much joy from Trent Bridge, writes Paul Weaver. They started play at five, after a delay of four and a half hours, but disappeared again after just another 25 minutes and 7.2 overs of play.
In that time Surrey advanced from 45-2 to 59-2 and Ramprakash has advanced to 19, the same as his partner, Jon Batty. This time they came off for bad light, which was followed by rain. Shortly after that it was decided there would be no further play today. It looks and feels like October in Nottingham.
