11.05am My hopes of securing a sweet three-day stretch in a deck-chair have been scotched by the rain, writes Andy Bull at Hove. Still, while one hand is busy touching wood (stop smirking, that's not a pun), the other can at least type out the news that the rain has stopped and the sun is beginning to peep through some clouds that would do Constable proud.
An inspection is scheduled for 1pm, and even now the rubber tyres are being taken off the sopping tarpaulins by the ground staff. No news on toss or teams just yet. Predictably enough, my fellow hacks in the rickety Hove press box are gathering around the solitary kettle to warm their hands on the steam, and indulging in the anticipation of an early, unlikely, cancellation for the day, which would of course mean we'd all be home in time for tea.
Other than that the two talking points are whether Mark Ramprakash can emulate Graeme Hick and score two centuries in one match against Sussex to move to 100 hundreds, and Giles Clarke's quotes rejecting the idea of city-cricket. For my money that policy is the direct result of Allen Stanford's influence, the Texan being, as I wrote here, a staunch traditionalist on these matters.
Midday Michael Vaughan's low run of scores bear no repeating, writes David Hopps at Headingley. Well, OK, they do then. It's a delayed start at Headingley, so the whole sorry list must again be detailed: 0 and 2 against Leeds & Bradford Cricket Centre of Excellence, 19 in the championship against Hampshire and 16 in a Friends Provident Trophy tie against Derbyshire.
As an exercise in stating the obvious, it is clear that England's captain needs a score. Nobody's ability should fairly be judged during a period of foul weather in the north of England. But it is. And, should he fail twice against Nottinghamshire at Headingley over the next four days, the spotlight will fall upon him ahead of the first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord's.
A rum collection of bowlers have dismissed Vaughan this season. The first to celebrate were Harry Gurney, who has played one first-class match for Leicestershire and who goes by the nickname of Sicknote, and Michael Lambert, who has represented Lancashire seconds. Lambert produced a big nip-backer and was so thrilled about it that he put the video on his Facebook page; Vaughan has not yet asked to watch it.
Shane Bond, the New Zealand fast bowler, was of much higher calibre. But he could not buy a wicket in the Indian Cricket League, and it was only when he had struck Vaughan's stumps that he felt he had found his range. Then there was an unsung Derbyshire medium-pacer, Tom Lungley, who had him caught at deep midwicket. To Vaughan's credit, in a rain-affected match he was playing for the side. It would have been easily to bat within himself a little longer, and play with a disguised selfishness.
He will have an excellent test against Nottinghamshire, who field two members of England's attack. Stuart Broad is set to make his championship debut for Notts and Ryan Sidebottom faces his former county on a ground he knows and relishes. Both will be out to remind the England captain that they deserve a spot at Lord's - even if it adds to his misery. The South African pace bowler, Morne Morkel, makes his Yorkshire debut.
Around Headingley, the fields are flooded and local cricket grounds are awash. Headingley itself looks like another world. A further inspection at 12.50pm, with some hope of play this afternoon if the weather holds, is about as good as could be expected.
1.30pm We are off and running at Headingley, writes David Hopps. Yorkshire won the toss and Darren Gough, a little surprisingly, has decided to bat. Michael Vaughan's latest attempt to find form is about to begin, and James Whitaker, the England selector, is in attendance.
The clouds are a little higher and Nottinghamshire's opening attack of Ryan Sidebottom and Charlie Shreck, with Stuart Broad to come, represents a formidable test. Gough is leaning on the boundary boards, as if desperate to know whether he has made the correct decision. Notts have set four slips and a gully.
1.40pm It's all over here, sadly, writes Paul Weaver at Canterbury. The match was called off at lunchtime without a ball being bowled today. The players would have needed snorkelling gear to get out there following heavy overnight and morning rain.
The New Zealanders have squelched out of the St Lawrence Ground bound for Chelmsford and a four-day game against Essex in which they hope to get some meaningful cricket with the first Test at Lord's just two weeks away.
It is a rather sad day at Canterbury because when the Kent players return here next month they will notice changes on the Old Dover Road side of the ground, where a hotel is to be built. Poignant pictures are being taken by photographers.
Built 150 years ago, around the famous old lime tree, this is the most quintessentially English of cricket grounds. Shrines to those famous players Colin Blythe and Fuller Pilch doze in the long grass a few yards from the Bat and Ball pub.
But change, and the implications of change, were being discussed everywhere here yesterday, not least in the New Zealand dressing room, who are welcoming back their five leading players from the IPL tournament.
There was backing for the stance taken by Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who yesterday made sweet noises about the retention of traditional county cricket. He sounded very cool on the idea of counties merging into city teams and that suits Canterbury folk just fine.
"Cricket has changed a great deal over the past few years and it would be nice if it just remained still for a while so we could all catch up," said one member in the pavilion, his mottled and shaking hand gripping a scorecard that he had filled in with his fountain pen.
There is little chance of that. But as he gazed out over the puddles in the direction of the Leslie Ames Stand one could sense his doggedness in the face of radical change.
Clarke said that there was not much appetite for franchises in this country. And his words found a mellow echo in this most traditional of cricket settings.
1.45pm Well things have taken a true twist towards the absurd at Hove, writes Andy Bull. The sun is out, and it's a pleasant enough afternoon but play is off for the day. The outfield is saturated, a fact that my now mud-soaked shoes confirmed when the water squelched up around my feet after a tentative prod at a particularly damp patch of the pitch.
The excitement of the morning was too much for one elderly lady, named Betsy, who fainted clean away. That at least gave the bitter-drinkers in the Jim Parks bar something to discuss over their bangers 'n' mash. My fellow hacks have found a group of journalism students on a day trip to the ground to terrify / bore stiff with war stories about the glory days of Fleet Street. All in all I've had enough. Now where was that pub...?
3.30pm One thing you can say about Joe Sayers: he knows when not to get in the way of a good story, writes David Hopps at Headingley. With all eyes on Michael Vaughan's attempt to make his first substantial score of the season, Sayers fulfilled his role as the strokeless understudy. Last season he built a reputation as one of the most unshiftable openers in the country - often invaluable, always excruciating - and nine from 79 balls before he was bowled by Mark Ealham suggested that nothing has changed.
"But what of Vaughan?" I hear you say? Abandon this unwelcome talk of Sayers, and reveal the state of mind of the England captain, the man upon whom a nation's hopes depend. When Headingley succumbed to the bad light and rain that had threatened all day, Vaughan was 25 not out from 81 balls. Yorkshire had grafted to 51-1 in 30.2 overs against a testing Nottinghamshire attack and the prospects of further play looked grim.
Vaughan looks in good order. But then reports suggested that he looked in good order in New Zealand, and he got out when well set. Another good-looking 20-something is not what he needs.
Charlie Shreck, the tall Cornishman, was refused a good leg-before shout when Vaughan was only three, but he responded by clipping him off his legs and cover-driving him for boundaries. Ryan Sidebottom, whose contest against Sayers had become a stalemate, awoke when Vaughan drove him regally through the covers.
He was becalmed on 21, his best score of the season, for 40 minutes, before scuttling Stuart Broad through the slips. Even the appearance of a fox on the outfield failed to disturb him. Further downpours are forecast overnight and he will have to do it all again tomorrow.
