Tanya's county roundup
Somerset shot back to the top of the Championship thanks to a sensational morning’s work at Guildford. An evening of stoical attack on Wednesday had left them needing eight wickets with only 168 runs to defend against Surrey.
They need not have worried as Jack Brooks, twice a Championship winner with Yorkshire, swung the ball like a trapeze from the Railway end. He took three wickets in seven balls to remove the nightwatchman Gareth Batty, Dean Elgar for a duck and Ben Foakes for two. A reeling Surrey then had no answer as Tim Groenewald and Craig Overton finished the job. The 2018 champions had lost eight for 46, taken only four points from the game and remain winless for the season.
“We know we have to start getting things right, as a batting unit and as a team, but we are certainly not giving up on defending the title,” the captain, Rory Burns, said. “There are nine games to go and we will be aiming to win all of them – that’s the attitude we will take into the rest of the season, starting next week.”
Somerset, meanwhile, will be heading even further east, to Canterbury, having pocketed 22 points – and with that first Championship twinkle in their eyes.
At Edgbaston, struggling Nottinghamshire survived a mid‑innings scare to hold on for a draw with Warwickshire. They lost four for 16 in a heady session as Jeetan Patel and Henry Brookes grabbed two wickets each, including Chris Nash (85) and Ben Duckett (140), who had added 199. At 255 for five, still 39 behind, mists of collapse gathered but Steven Mullaney and the tail saw them through.
Peter Siddle (60) and Sam Cook (37 not out) batted for over an hour for Essex to thwart Yorkshire’s slim hopes of forcing a win at Headingley. Yorkshire then made their way to 107 for one with unbeaten fifties from Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance before rain curtailed the day.
In Division Two the remaining two games went into the final session with possibility in the air.
At Aigburth the teams shook hands at six o’clock with the sun finally at its most benign. Lancashire’s bowlers had toiled through three sessions – their appeals growing louder and more desperate with every passing minute – but Leicestershire’s resolute defence and contentment in survival while following on saw them through.
Paul Horton, with Liverpudlian roots and 13 seasons a Lancashire player including in their 2011 Championship season – but now Leicester’s captain – led from the front with 49 in over three hours. It was attritional – Leicester scored 146 runs in their 94 overs – but despite the frustrations, Lancashire go 11 points clear at the top.
And Durham finally won a game, their first of the season, against Derbyshire, after bowling them out with 29 runs to spare. Alex Lees’s first Durham hundred set the stage, leaving Derby 268 to win. Matt Critchley’s 71 seemed to be guiding them to victory but they collapsed at the last, losing four wickets in eight balls. “Everyone thinks that T20 is the exciting format, but as it showed today you cannot beat a bit of four‑day drama,” Lees said later.
Well, well, well, plucky little Durham! Thanks for the company everyone, see you next week!
Lancashire have, in the words of the players, gone”bang_bang” Leics 140 for 5.
Notts are seven down, 32 ahead.
Derby need 66.
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Derby look like they’ve given up-180 for four_ needing 88.
NOTTS are six down but 22 ahead. No even they can lose it from here.
Please excuse me while I write up, but keep an eye on the scoreboards... Just in case.
With just a few overs till the new ball, Azad goes after a 177 minute stick ability class. Caught off Croft for 39. Enter Cosgrove.
Leicester need 24 to make Lancs at again.
Yorkshire draw with Essex
Everyone cuts their losses, unbeaten fifties for Lyth and Ballance.
A fatly-elegant mistle thrush hops about near the overgrown boundary shrubbery as the batsmen come out after tea. Forty minutes to make this interesting?
Tea time scores
Division One
SOMERSET BEAT SURREY BY 102 RUNS
Warwickshire 391-9dec V Notts 97 and 270-5 (Duckett 140, Patel 3-54)NOTTS TRAIL BY 24
Yorkshire 390 and 107-1 v Essex 309 (Siddle 60)
Division Two
Durham 293 and 242(Lees 107 not out) v Derby 268 and 96-4. DERBY NEED 172 TO WIN.
Lancashire 449 v Leicestershire 288 and 93-3
Slow going at Headingley, but fifties for Lyth and Ballance. 107 for one.
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A breakthrough at last. Horton bowled Livingstone for 49.A quicker one that he jabbed down on too late.
PAUL Horton hits two boundaries off one Gleeson over as the wind gets up and the canvas walls of the tent writhe and rattle.
Gale finally out, he appealed successfully against two umpirical fingers. Windies 31 for two.
Derby 78 for 3 need another theoretical 190.
Nash falls.
For 85
A second for Brookes.
259 for five, 35 behind.
Trouble.
Thunder rolls overhead at Aigburth.
Notts lose another:251 for four. Only NASH (84) between them and the slump.
Uh-oh. PATEL has the ball and Notts have lost two for five in two overs....243 for three, still 45 behind.
The Lancashire fielders are very vocal. - Yes Liv, nice one, Liv - but it all seems a little in vain. Whither Parky? Leics 56-2.
MEANWHILE, Notts bat on - 235 for two, just 55 behind-”Duckett b Patel (of course) 140.
Essex 61-1.
Reece out for 21, but Derby move serenely on - 208 to win, nine wickets left.
We”very got rain and sun simultaneously at Aigburth, which I’ve now learnt is known as a monkeys birthday.
A huge appeal for lbw against Paul Horton, the umpire gives a mere sniff of a shake of the head.
Summary
An astonishingly good catch by Sheldon Cotterell to dismiss Steve Smith down at the boundary, running around from deep square leg to snaffle it with his left hand then, as he was about to cross the boundary with the momentum, launch it back into the air and catch the rebound.
Aussies fighting back at Trent Bridge 218 for 6, Smith 60 not out
And they’re playing through the rain here. Leics 30-2.
And as I press.... Parkinson falls for 15. LEICESTER 30-2.
An old man dressed in green leans on his umbrella on the grass tennis courts at the River end. Can any other county ground boast grass courts, they look in good nick too. The sky is confusing, look one way and it’s blue and bonny, the other and its full of filthy cussing.
And that’s a drop by Vilas, Horton on 15. A TRICKY one but this heads draw-wards I fancy.
Lunch-time scores
Division One
SOMERSET BEAT SURREY BY 102 RUNS
Warwickshire 391-9dec V Notts 97 and 207-1 (Duckett 119 not out)
Yorkshire 390 and 19-1 v Essex 309 (Siddle 60)
Division Two
Durham 293 and 242(Lees 107 not out) v Derby 268 and 32-0. DERBY NEED 236 TO WIN.
Lancashire 449 v Leicestershire 288 and 26-1
Yorkshire lose an early wicket. Fraine caught by cook off Porter for a duck.
And whatever Peter Moores said to Notts last night did the trick. 201-1.
Batting? Piece of cake.
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We're taking an early lunch at Aigburth where something heavier than a light shower just emptied over the ground.
Somerset beat Surrey by 102 runs.
22 points for Somerset, four for Surrey who remain winless and can’t seem to coordinate their batting and bowling to function at the same time.! This feels like a crucial result, from memory Surrey’s win over Somerset at Guildford last year was the moment they became unstoppable.
Pitter-patter off they go.
To Guildford where Somerset have Won! That’s a finger-clicking marvellous performance from Somerset, Craig Overton removing the last two Surrey batsmen. Back to the top of the table you go!
Give Alex Lees a glass of something sparkly, carrying his bat for 107 not out , leaving Derby 268 to win, incidentally the exact tally of their first-innings total.
At Aigburth, Tom Bailey takes the ball for the first time.
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My dad just sent me an update from Guildford where he’s got there to see the eighth wicket fall! Say Hi if you see him, thick grey hair, skinny legs, a spartan picnic and a smile, probably heading to the beer tent right now.
We are back out again at Aigburth.
Apologies for the slow updates, technical problems(or my ineptitude with a tablet) to blame.
Was Peter Siddle making a point? Let’s see when he gets the ball. Eventually out for 60, Essex 81 behind on first-innings, a fine fightback.
Finbar Anslow who you might remember wrote in with the lyrics to his song Taunton Town, has sent the YouTube Link. Somerset fans, I think you’ll rather like it.
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The rain has stopped and a tractor sits on the pitch, impotent.
Surrey and Australia are five and six down respectively. Two new batsmen at the crease at Guildford - but it is Patel and Jacks so it’s not all over:136 needed.
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The billowing covers suggest a 15 minute break here, round the country batting is tricky only at Guildford. For now.
NOTTS in a parallel universe are 149 for one - Ben Duckett a merry 89 not out.
ESSEX269-9 have reduced the deficit to less than 100.
DURHAM have a lead of 252 with five wickets in hand.
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Surrey 122 for Five. Jack Brooks, oh headband warrior, oh ciderborg, 5-29.
And the rain falls in Liverpool.
AN ENORMOUS cloud is approaching from the Mersey. Horton has played and missed a few times but not much else to report.
On a Glamorgan theme, this by Andrew Hignell is a lovely read on the memories of Glammie cricketer Jim Pleass who sailed to Normandy 75 years ago.
“Off we went shortly after midnight in the blackness of night, pitching and rolling so badly that most of us were too concerned with “mal de mer” to worry about what lay in front of us. What was in front of us, and, indeed all around us swiftly became evident at dawn with what seemed like thousands of craft of all shapes and sizes heading towards the French coast
Hello from Aigburth, where the sun is out and the players are pottering onto the pitch.
Two quick question apropos of nothing :
1 Why are balloons banned at Liverpool Lime St?
2 Has any transport minister ever spent a few hours at Manchester Victoria ? The smell of diesel trains is eye -wateringly unpleasant.
Good morning!
As I write this early on Thursday morning, the sun is shining in Manchester as it is in Normandy and it looks like we’ll get a full day’s play around the country – save a thunder storm or two stalking the unaware.
What a thriller late yesterday afternoon at Lord’s, when Sussex managed to break through the Middlesex defences at the last – with Ollie Robinson returning his best bowling figures for the season with 7-48.
And Glamorgan, gloriously bowling out Northants, to sit, for now, at the top of the Championship table, with their first innings victory since 2014.
Round the country, we have five games still going. Intrigue at Guildford – have Somerset got the wherewithal, and the runs, to chisel away at the Surrey batting? Surrey, just two down, must have the upper hand – they need just another 168 to win. At Edgbaston where the Notts batting line up suffered a complete malfunction, they are doing rather better in the second innings. But Jeetan Patel stalks the day.
At Aigburth, Leicestershire got so close to the follow on target, I’m not sure they have the strength to try and resist Lancashire again. Much depends on the tired legs of Onions, Bailey and Gleeson.
Essex v Yorkshire seems to be drifting to a draw at Headingley, Durham v Derby is anyone’s guess as both sides have fragility built into their DNA.
In the World Cup, Australia get off the sofa today in a big beasts clash with West Indies at Trent Bridge. Follow every over at the Guardian. And here is Quinton de Kock’s superb catch to dismiss Virat Kohli yesterday (apologies, I think it is only open for UK readers).
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