County roundup, by Tanya Aldred
At Guildford a golden over by Steve Patterson kept Yorkshire in the hunt after a day dominated by Surrey’s batsmen. Running in from the pavilion end, Patterson took three wickets in six balls, all of them bowled, as Ben Foakes tried a nudge to third man, Will Jacks shouldered arms and Jamie Smith drove over the top of an in-ducker.
The over broke a stand of 118 between Smith and Foakes that was a crunchy combination of defence and dress‑for-dinner attack. Smith, making his Championship debut at just 18 in place of the injured Rory Burns, did not suffer from comparison with his elegant acting captain, Foakes. If he could not quite match the hundred he made on first-class debut against MCC in March, his 56 was bubbling with potential.
Twenty-two wickets fell on a heavenly day for seam bowling at Canterbury. Lewis Gregory took six for 32 as Kent were dismissed for 139, then Harry Podmore, Matthew Milnes and Grant Stewart pocketed three each as Somerset limped to 169. There was time for Gregory and Jamie Overton to strike once more in Kent’s second innings before stumps and a lie‑down. The latter removed Joe Denly, who had fallen to the bowler’s twin, Craig, in the first innings.
At Chester-le-Street, an unbeaten hundred from Ricardo Vasconcelos helped Northamptonshire creep into the lead against Durham. Chris Rushworth and Brydon Carse grabbed three wickets each.
Will Beer, promoted from Sussex’s No 9 last week to opener this week, made a career best 76 not out, off 276 balls, against Gloucestershire at Arundel. A sluggish pitch made the morning a slow-going trudge, but with the sun came a more upbeat tempo, thanks to Stiaan van Zyl (54) and Ben Brown (33).
The weather truncated play at Swansea, rain slicing off the first session, bad light filleting the last. In between, Glamorgan reached 167 for five against Derbyshire. There was no play possible at New Road, Welbeck or Grace Road.
Updated
What a ridiculous day at Canterbury - 22 wickets and counting. Elsewhere, Yorkshire fought back at Guildford, Northants went into the lead at Chester-le-Street, and it was slow going at Swansea and Arundel.
Thanks for all your messages and chat BTL. See you tomorrow, when hopefully the weather will be kind. Goodnight!
And with Surrey wobbling, I better write a round-up. Northants ahead, and Somerset nearly there.
And ANOTHER! Three wickets in five balls for Patterson - all of them bowled. Smith, head down, sloths off for 56. Surrey 266 for seven.
Updated
At 5.20, Ben Foakes tries to cut at Steven Patterson and is bowled. And the very next ball, Will Jacks, shouldering arms, follows suit. The dominoes start to tilt. Surrey 265 for six.
Updated
A thoughtful reply to David Macolm from Abhijato Sensarma in India:
Mr Malcolm has authored an excellent piece of correspondence @14.51. I would like to contribute to the conversation by talking about a place where the situation is the exact opposite - India.
Cricket is the most dominant sport in the country by far. The presence of decent cricket clubs around every corner, the gltiz and glamour of cricketing superstars in the country especially after the emergence of the IPL, and the tradition of developing skills in one’s childhood through playing ‘gully cricket’ (cricket on the streets) means that the game overshadows many other sports. Despite the questionable practices of the BCCI while governing the game in their own country and at the ICC, no one can blame them for overlooking grassroots level development of new players, unlike countries like Australia and England (the former is already facing the consequences; the latter will in the near future).
Most of the cricket appears on pay TV which is not too expensive for the middle economic sections. Cheap 4G data and orders by the Supreme Court to broadcast India’s matches on DD (India’s BBC) means cricket reaches most of the people in most of the country, including the rural areas.
The huge population of the country ensures that India will continue to produce the world’s best all-format performers and performances for many years to come. Instead of throwing up their hands and/or looking at India as a mere brutal dictator, the ECB and other boards need to look at what BCCI (and its many state associations) have gotten right, which is a lot the others haven’t.
Updated
And that is Smith’s fifty:104 balls, five fours. A modest bat raise round the ground. When I finished my A levels, I had a highly unsuccessful spell as a door-to-door salesperson.
Nice to see Dom Bess having a bowl again, even as part of a rather ineffective Yorkshire attack this afternoon. Smith and Foakes are batting carefully but gorgeously, partnership now 108.
And a pair of parakeets fly over the ground.
Somerset 115 for five and in with more than a sniff. Banton 53 not out.
Northants nearly level, 221 for six. Durham need a Rushworth-special. Vasconcelos 90 not out.
Glamorgan 157 for five; Sussex 224 for four - Beer still there on 69.
This for our Lancashire fans having withdrawal symptoms:
‘They would get into any team in the country.’
— BBC Lancs Cricket (@BBCLancsCricket) June 11, 2019
Sadly no cricket today, day 2 at New Road was washed out.
But here’s @lancscricket Glen Chapple on his bowling options this season... ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/HikODmVdgh
Two celebrity spots - Giles Clarke and Liam Plunkett. Can anyone raise me?
Foakes passes fifty with 82 balls, six fours and a flourish. The applause is more than rippling - vigorous?
Look at these shadows. Oh, for some shadows.
🌇 All set for the evening session #gosbts pic.twitter.com/BXEd4ZZHuU
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) June 11, 2019
At Swansea, David Lloyd has fallen after tea for 32: Glam 127 for four.
Some clouds gather ominously above Guildford, though I still saw ice-creams at tea. Rain is due, probably before the close - Foakes and Smith looking drop-down good. I hate to write this but Smith made a hundred on his first-class debut, so wouldn’t it be nice if....
Tea-time scores
Division One
Welbeck (day 3): Nottinghamshire 162 (Abbott 6-37; Mullaney 45) v Hampshire 93-2. PLAY CALLED OFF FOR THE DAY
Canterbury: Kent 139 (Gregory 6-32, Brooks 2-22) v Somerset 66-4 (Podmore 3-12).
Guildford: Surrey 212-4 (Stoneman 61) v Yorkshire.
Division Two
Chester-le-Street: Durham 253 (Sanderson 4-55; Raine 82 , Carse 77 not out) v Northamptonshire 175-6 (Vasconcelos 77 not out; Carse 3-42 ; Rushworth 3-29)
Leicester: Leicestershire v Middlesex PLAY CALLED OFF FOR THE DAY
Worcester: Worcestershire 98 all out (Onions 4-55, Anderson 4-24, Mahmood 2-8; Barnard 32) v Lancashire. PLAY CALLED OFF FOR THE DAY
Day 1
Swansea: Glamorgan 114-3 v Derbyshire
Arundel: Sussex v Gloucestershire 168-3 (Beer 55 not out)
This boy Smith can bat a bit. Utterly confident, Boycott-purring defence, ferrari-purring attack.
Jamie Smith looking at home in the @CountyChamp 👌 #SURvYOR pic.twitter.com/mVATE8YeZm
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) June 11, 2019
Yorkshire name their KSL squad for this year, with Alyssa Healy playing KSL for the first time and cementing the link with Yorkshire where her husband Mitchell Starc also played.
Northants closing in on Durham’s hard work, 161 for three. Vasconcelos 75, Durham 161 for three. Sussex and Glamorgan also three down.
As far as I can work out Lewis Gregory has the most CC wickets in Div one other than Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel. Banton and Bartlett staring the recovery at Canterbury. And a bit of Ben Foakes to cheer you up. He’s just a super little batsman, classy, swift of foot and quick of bat. There he goes again against Thompson. Crack.
Ben Foakes' dancing feet 💃
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) June 11, 2019
WATCH LIVE ➡️ https://t.co/fMYbKzjUyO pic.twitter.com/pKbV6BUCws
Somerset, don’t do this. 14/3, still 125 runs behind Kent. Whither Tres?
In Division Two, every side batting has lost two wickets, which is strangely pleasing in a line-up- your -pens-in-a- straight-line kind of way.
Northants 132/2; Glamorgan 70/2 and Sussex 143/2.
I forgot to mention that the World Cup game at Bristol was abandoned without a ball bowled and WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? Somerset 6 for 2 - Hildreth and Azhar out for ducks.
Not even one-third over, this World Cup is the most weather-marred in history, and more rain on the way this week. Will be a pity with if washouts become decisive
— Sambit Bal (@sambitbal) June 11, 2019
A wind blows up from the Railway End, and scorecards go flying. So does Borthwick - another for Thompson. Surrey 147-4.
David Malcolm writes from the Philippines.
I am viewing from the Philippines where virtually no one knows the cricket World Cup is taking place. Little rain in the past few weeks despite it being the start of the rainy season. It is interesting that football is slowly gaining ground here after being a very minor sport in the land of basketball and boxing. Every game of the last two World Cups was shown free in the Philippines on terrestial TV and gained some following. Also Premiership games and the champions league are screened free of charge. FIFA is savvy in making World Cups available on terrestrial TV worldwide to increase interest, while cricket hides behind paywalls...
Having said that cricket has never been really popular in UK, apart from Botham’s heroics in 1981 and the 2005 Ashes. I remember being able to walk into Lord’s and the Oval on the Saturday of the Ashes in the 1970s when those grounds were not full. Few sell outs. Other test grounds had pathetic attendances. County cricket crowds were perhaps worse than they are now. But at least cricket was always on TV to keep it in the public eye.
Other sports such as rugby have managed to retain some major matches on terrestial TV while also doing pay TV deals. The ECB’s decision to put all its eggs in one basket with Sky has been a disaster. In my early days as a reporter I was offered a job as a cricket correspondent in UK before I moved overseas. There was very little money in the game before the Kerry Packer revolution but it was talked about much more and certainly had many more players at the grassroots. Like many others I enjoyed playing Twenty/20 on summer evenings in the 1960s long before the ECB discovered it. It is sad to see the way in which those who now run it have taken the sport. Hope the weather improves for you soon.
Scott Borthwick fiddling with this, fidding with that, helmet, pads, box, gloves. Looking pretty solid, 19 not out.
Funny to think of him on that Ashes tour of 2013-14, plucked from his daydreams for the Sydney Test. Since then his bat has done more of the talking and the Surrey years have been relatively, relatively, barren. Runs, without being match-winning and not often thrown the ball.
And that’s Ryan Patel gone, lbw for 19, Surrey 142/3. Patel’s stride slows to snail pace as he approaches the pavilion.
Updated
Kent are 8 down, a fourth for Gregory. Two wickets for Carse, who is having a good game, at Chester-le-Street. Ben Curran and Wakeley. Surrey pottering along 129 for two. Selman out for a duck at Swansea, Glam 36 for one. Beer’s 38 not out sustaining Sussex at Arundel (86-2).
And at Grace Road, an arboreal casualty.
Sad sad news - the weather has accounted for one of the nicest trees in the FCG, the willow behind the Family Stand .... pic.twitter.com/fiWGbMZSTa
— Richard Rae (@RichMRae) June 11, 2019
There’s a gorgeous little cottage for sale just on the corner of the cricket ground, in case anyone was thinking of moving to Guildford. I’ve just a quick nosey round the revamped pavilion. Such a sensational role call of players on the wall: Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Phil Salt, Darren Bicknell, Martin Bicknell, Chris Thompson, Ashley Giles, Rikki Clarke, Jade Dernbach and still more.
They’ve given up at New Road - no play today. Sorry Lancs.
Lunchtime scores
Four games are currently being played, two have been called off for the day, two have been delayed by rain.
Division One
Welbeck (day 3): Nottinghamshire 162 (Abbott 6-37; Mullaney 45) v Hampshire 93-2. PLAY CALLED OFF FOR THE DAY
Canterbury: Kent 121-7 (Gregory 3-29, Brooks 2-7) v Somerset.
Guildford: Surrey 117-2 (Stoneman 61) v Yorkshire.
Division Two
Chester-le-Street: Durham 253 (Sanderson 4-55; Raine 82 , Carse 77 not out) v Northamptonshire 46-0.
Leicester: Leicestershire v Middlesex PLAY CALLED OFF FOR THE DAY
Worcester: Worcestershire 98 all out (Onions 4-55, Anderson 4-24, Mahmood 2-8; Barnard 32) v Lancashire. START DELAYED, RAIN
Day 1
Swansea: Glamorgan v Derbyshire PLAY DUE TO START AT 1.30PM
Arundel: Sussex v Gloucestershire 47-2
Patel and Borthwick navigate safely through to lunch. Surrey 116 for two. Scores to follow.
Just glanced through a round-up of Durham’s morning. Sounds like poor Jack Burnham had a few hours to forget.
He dropped Ben Curran on 18 off Chris Rushworth. The following delivery he dropped Ricardo Vasconcelos on 10. Then Curran again on 26.
It will all look better in the morning.
G-G-Gregory, slayer of the Kentish team. There was a cat that really was gone. 101 for seven. (3-15)
You can watch the rain fall at New Road, you can watch the rain fall at Welbeck, you can watch the rain fall at Bristol with Rob Smyth. He does it well.
Kent lose another on the ch of lunch - 101 for six. As do Surrey 98 for two. Thompson gets his first wicket, Stoneman caught Tattersall for 61. Enter Ryan Patel, to the scene of his great bowling triumph last year.
Luke Wells falls at Arundel, Sussex 33 for one. At Chester le Street, Northants are choosing to ignore Durham’s example and take a more usual approach to batting - start well and then tail off as the wickets fall. 29/0.
A wicket! A wide delivery from Steven Patterson that Dean Elgar tried to squeeze out and drove to cover point where it was caught by Dom Bess. Surrey 78 for one.
Jordan Thompson takes the ball. He’s 22, born in Leeds, a prolific hat-trick taker in junior cricket, plays for Pudsey St Lawrence and spent the winter in Australia. Graham also tells me his dad was in The Bill - but I’m pretty sure that’s a wind up.
Oh to be in Arundel... (in 2014 - I can’t find any pictures from today. Can you identify the opposition?)
Some World Cup news: Marcue Stoinis is out of Australia’s World Cup clash with Pakistan, Mitch Marsh flying out as replacement. India’s Shikhar Dhawan is ruled out for three weeks of World Cup action with injured thumb.
Also, there will be no play before lunch at New Road.
Updated
Durham all out for 253, after adding a magnificent 172 for the last three wickets.
The Surrey opening pair have added fifty without being troubled, and Sussex are pottering along: 20/0.
Is that a Championship I see before me? Kent now 45-5, as Gregory and Joverton join the party.
Updated
Jack Brooks picking up where he left off at Guildford last week: five overs, two for three. Craig Overton has the other one. Kent wobbling 42/3.
These viewing figures were salutary yesterday. Comparing eggs and chips of course, but it would have been nice to have at least some of the games on terrestrial. The England games.
Wonderful for women's football, sad for our fabulous men's cricket World Cup team. https://t.co/zhD4rrD6QA
— tanya aldred (@tjaldred) June 10, 2019
Ben Raine falls for 82, but Durham plough on, 244 for nine. It’s almost majestic.
Rain update
Four games are currently being played, four are in various states of distress.
Division One
Welbeck (day 3): Nottinghamshire 162 (Abbott 6-37; Mullaney 45) v Hampshire 93-2. PLAY CALLED OFF FOR THE DAY
Canterbury: Kent (5-1) v Somerset.
Guildford: Surrey (8-0) v Yorkshire.
Division Two
Chester-le-Street: Durham 219-7 (Sanderson 3-39; Raine 75 not out, Carse 47 not out) v Northamptonshire
Leicester: Leicestershire v Middlesex NO PLAY BEFORE LUNCH
Worcester: Worcestershire 98 all out (Onions 4-55, Anderson 4-24, Mahmood 2-8; Barnard 32) v Lancashire. START DELAYED, RAIN
Day 1
Swansea: Glamorgan v Derbyshire PLAY WILL START AT NOON
Arundel: Sussex v Gloucestershire (8-0)
Sorry for the confusion, Jamie Smith will bat at No.6 for Surrey, Elgar and Stoneman have opened. If he’s as good as they say, it might be worth peeking at the live stream when he comes in. He’s just finished his A-levels and now finds himself opening the batting for Surrey - beat that BTL-ers!
Coad and Olivier have bowled an over each, without too much discomfort for the batsman. Perhaps unsurprisingly, after the deluge, the pitch, the outfield, are tortoise like.
Updated
There are a couple of changes to the Surrey side - Rory Burns is out with a back injury to be replaced by 18 year old wicket-batsman Jamie Smith, who Alec Stewart has described as, “very special.”
Jordan Clark also makes his Surrey Championship debut, instead of Gareth Batty.
And for Yorkshire, Jordan Thompson makes his debut in place of David Willey.
Galoshes update:
After an inspection the umpires have called off play for the day at Welbeck,
Delayed start at Swansea, and probably at Durham where its drizzling and the covers are on.
There’s an inspection at the World Cup game between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at 10.30.
But play will start on time at Guildford and Canterbury and Arundel.
It's cloudy but the groundstaff have worked a miracle after yesterday's rain. We are set to start the @Gfordcricket Festival match between @surreycricket and @YorkshireCCC at 11am, 104 overs today. pic.twitter.com/ZlA7USE06b
— @Guildfordcricket (@Gfordcricket) June 11, 2019
Soggyness update one: there will be no play before lunch at Grace Road, and prospects for the day are dubious.
Start of play scores
Division One
Welbeck (day 3): Nottinghamshire 162 (Abbott 6-37; Mullaney 45) v Hampshire 93-2.
Canterbury: Kent v Somerset.
Guildford: Surrey v Yorkshire.
Division Two
Chester-le-Street: Durham 209-7 (Sanderson 3-39; Raine 75 not out, Carse 47 not out) v Northamptonshire
Leicester: Leicestershire v Middlesex
Worcester: Worcestershire 98 all out (Onions 4-55, Anderson 4-24, Mahmood 2-8; Barnard 32) v Lancashire.
Day 1
Swansea: Glamorgan v Derbyshire
Arundel: Sussex v Gloucestershire
Preamble
Good morning from Guildford where though the clouds are grey, the sun is out, and the players are warming up with a spot of football. We think we’ll start on time, though the Yorkshire coach only arrived at 945am so perhaps they know something we don’t...
Around the grounds, the forecast is better than yesterday - I’ll have a quick scout about now for some up to date news. We also have two new games starting today - at Arundel where Sussex play Gloucestershire, and at Swansea, where Glamorgan play Derbyshire.
