11.05am Good morning to everyone from Trent Bridge, where the clouds are clearing away at much the same rate as Steve Harmison and Stuart Broad are heading this way from Edgbaston, writes Richard Rae. They'll both play, with Harmy replacing the unfortunate Graham Onions for Durham, and Broad replacing Andre Adams for Notts.
First against third, two very strong sides, weather set fair (for today, at least) and here come the umps, Vanburn Holder and Peter Willey. They're followed by the Notts team - Durham won the toss and are batting. Charlie Shreck, 35 wickets this season at 30 apiece to Michael Di Venuto, who gets off the mark first ball with a single pushed to cover.
12.20pm Play will begin at 1.10pm at Headingley following a rain delay in the first division relegation battle between Yorkshire and Surrey, writes David Smith. The teams are taking an early lunch and play will now continue until 6.30pm, which means that 16 overs have been deducted.
A month ago Yorkshire were riding high at the top of the championship, but three consecutive losses have seen them plunge to third from bottom. They have so many injury problems that they may struggle to survive the drop.
Surrey have yet to register a win and are anchored to the bottom, but they lie only 11 points behind Yorkshire and will fancy their chances here against a side depleted by injuries to three key players, Matthew Hoggard (shoulder), Naved ul-Hasan (shoulder) and Anthony McGrath (hamstring).
Darren Gough returns for Yorkshire, which will at least lift spirits, and left-arm spinner David Wainwright gets a chance to impress alongside leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
For Surrey, Mark Butcher is the major player absent following recent surgery and captain Mark Ramprakash is still stuck on 99 centuries. Having made two tons in the first month, his loss of form has not helped Surrey's battle to survive in the competitive first division.
1.05pm An interesting morning at Trent Bridge concludes with Durham on 95-3, writes Richard Rae. Charlie Shreck's early swing got Michael Di Venuto, leaving a ball which swung back in and hit him plumb in front. It was a surprisingly poor decision from the usually reliable 'Div' - he'd been in long enough to see the ball was swinging, and it wasn't that wide in the first place.
Shreck then had Mark Stoneman caught behind with a pearler, shaping back in to the left hander then straightening off the pitch. Shiv Chanderpaul looked very comfortable until Andre Adams came on and he chopped his second ball, an ordinary delivery, on to his off stump. Will Smith, back at his former county and in form after his unbeaten double century against Surrey at Guildford last week, is 32 not out, Dale Benkenstein 18 not out.
Adams will be leaving us now, Stuart Broad having arrived from Edgbaston. As a contribution goes, taking the wicket of the world's No1 batsman isn't negligible. Darren Pattinson looked ordinary. He has told an Aussie radio station he wants to play for Victoria this winter - which, because they don't like overseas players, would mean him playing as an Aussie and being no longer eligible for England. His one-cap wonder status now appears to be assured.
1.10pm The first day of Canterbury Week and not a builder in sight. In fact the only work in progress at the St Lawrence Ground is Hampshire's recovery after losing two early wickets, writes Mike Averis.
Kent had planned to begin their £40m development programme in the spring, but the credit crunch did what protest had failed to do and the oldest cricket festival in England got under way this morning, the ground ringed by tents and marquees rather than scaffolding and jack hammers - although Yasir Arafat went some way to demolishing Hampshire's hopes of creeping up the table.
Already without John Crawley - suffering from a back spasm - Hampshire lost their leading run scorer, Michael Brown, in the third over and Sean Ervine in the fifth, both to Arafat deliveries which swung. Right-hander Brown was lbw for six, looking to play away on the leg side, while the left hander Ervine survived just three deliveries before losing his middle stump to a full delivery that moved back into him.
However Michael Carberry, who came in for Crawley after being left out for he draw at Old Trafford and Michael Lumb put on 87 before lunch when Carberry was undefeated on 41 and Lumb had made 36.
3.45pm The Carberry-Lumb partnership survived deep into the afternoon, but just when both looked like going on to centuries - rare things for Hampshire this season - they were gone within the space of 10 balls from Ryan McLaren, writes Mike Averis.
Lumb went first for 73. With the score at 201 he slashed at a wide delivery and was taken at first slip by Justin Kemp, ending a promising partnership worth 181 in 50 overs. From the start at 20-2 both batsmen matched each other, initially inching along to reach 50 in the same over from James Tredwell.
Lumb's took 96 deliveries and contained eight boundaries, Carberry's - only his second in a lean championship season - came in 111 balls. However, once the 150 partnership was out of the way both danced down the wicket to Tredwell. Carberry spoiled the off-spinner's tidy figures hitting 14 in an over, including the first six of the day, back over the bowler's head and into the Frank Woolley stand.
However, one McLaren over after Lumb's departure Carberry was gone as well, getting the thinnest of edges to the keeper. His 92 against his former county - by far his best score since the century for England Lions against New Zealand in May - had lasted just short of four hours and there were 11 other boundaries to go with that six. At tea Hampshire are 223 for four.
4.10pm A burst of three wickets from Deon Kruis transformed the afternoon's play at Headingley, where Surrey went into tea in some trouble at 121-5, having been 69-1 at one stage, writes David Smith.
Yorkshire needed one of the less vaunted bowlers to step up with first-choice seamers, Matthew Hoggard and Naved ul-Hasan, both injured and Darren Gough proving expensive in his opening spell.
Kruis, who had figures of 3-17 at tea, had initially bowled a couple of innocuous overs from the Kirkstall Lane End, but the burst of wickets came after a switch to the Rugby Stand End.
His first victim was Mark Ramprakash who crawled hesitantly to six from 22 balls before playing across the line and losing his off stump. Then two balls later, Richard Pyrah dived low to his left to take a sharp catch to dismiss Batty for a duck.
Making the ball wobble consistently, Kruis gave Usman Afzaal a hard time. The batsman agonized over a single run from 19 balls and had already been dropped by Bresnan low to the ground at second slip off Kruis, when he was out lbw to give the South African his first three-wicket haul in the Championship since 2006.
Earlier, play had got underway at 1.30pm following a couple of rain delays and Surrey began rather well, with Scott Newman taking a fancy to Gough's overpitched deliveries, striking three fours in one over, and six in total, before Tim Bresnan trapped him lbw for 29.
Newman's fellow opening batsman, the Australian-born Stewart Walters, had made only eight from the opening stand of 41, but picked up his scoring as wickets started to tumble at the other end. He struck one short ball from Pyrah over mid wicket for six but perished trying to repeat the stroke off Bresnan half an hour before tea, holing out on the mid-wicket fence as Surrey sank to 94-5.
