Here’s Tanya’s day three report:
Play has been abandonded for the day
With Lancashire still trailing by 269 runs. If there’s anyone out there, I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night!
Bad light stops play Lancashire 171-6 (Jones 0, Wood 13)
I think that will probably be that.
WICKET! Vilas c Hain b Milles 25 (Lancashire 158-6)
Dominos a-tumbling.
WICKET! Croft c Bresnan b Briggs 3 (Lancashire 158-5)
In an effort to put the game out its misery, Croft gets nowhere near a ball from Bresnan and turns on his heel.
The PCA's team of the year.
Jake Libby
Tom Haines
Ricardo Vasconcelos
David Bedingham
Harry Brook
Matt Critchley
Darren Stevens
Simon Harmer
Craig Overton
Luke Fletcher
Sam Cook
Evening session
Two balls in, the umpires took a light reading but, astonishingly to me, it is light enough to continue.
Tea: Lancashire 152-4 (Vilas 20, Croft 2) are 288 runs behind
Kettle on.
Ploughing through the last few chapters of a book just to reach the end. Picking at a plate of cold chips just because they’re there. Pushing the door against a persistent gale. Metaphorically, this game?
Updated
WICKET! Balderson b Norwell 65 (Lancashire 148-4)
Fantastic ball, battling innings, six left to take.
Did I mention that Balderson has fifty? In the grandstand dark coats perched on white seats watch carefully.
Today’s play is held in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society’s Sport against Dementia campaign.
The @ecb #BobWillisTrophy final 3rd day will be held in support of our #SportUnitedAgainstDementia campaign: https://t.co/hfxNYD3J0Z@flintoff11: 'It’s great to be supporting SUAD as one of its Champions...making sure both sport watchers & players can get the help they deserve.'
— Alzheimer's Society (@alzheimerssoc) September 24, 2021
“They should call off the Ashes, postpone it to the same time next year,’ writes Andrew Benton. “Then England could go to Pakistan.
“On books, I go to the charity specialist bookshops, there’s always something interesting to pick up in there, and the authors have been paid when the books were bought new so all your money goes to a charitable cause. A winter of checking out cricket tomes is therefore called for - thanks for the idea!.”
WICKET! Bohannon c Hain b Norwell 8 (Lancashire 120-3)
A tired bit of catching practise to slip. “The worst shot he’s played all season.”
There’s still time for Josh Bohannon to do a Rob Yates.
WICKET! Wells c Burgess b Bresnan 41 (Lancashire 94-2)
The end of a lively innings by Wells comes with an unbalanced fence behind.
Bresnan has switched ends, buffeting in from the pavilion end where doughty members in jackets have arrived for one (last) day’s cricket watching. Wells is in a perky mood, punishing anything loose. Lancashire 90-1 (Balderson 36, Wells 41)
Updated
The latest on England’s Ashes decision.
Lancashire seem determined to take this into day four: a fifty partnership between Balderson and Wells, as Wells pings three consecutive fours from Miles. Lancashire 75-1, just three less than the entire side made in the first innings.
Afternoon session
They’re back on after lunch,, the Warwickshire flag billowing away on top of the pavilion and, as I type this, eight fielders with hands in their pockets or tucked under their armpits.
Apologies, we seem to be having a few problems with the comments, hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Lunch Lancashire 40-1 (Balderson 20, Wells 9)
A much better hand played by Lancashire this time around. Off they go, while the groundsmen brush the pitch with three different brushes (including one old-school one made of twigs) and paint new white lines.
An email arrives, from Matt Winter. “Why on earth did the umpire feel the need to review that run about? Lord knows the County Championship is glacial as it is without that malarkey.”
It was odd. I can only guess it was because he didn’t see it clearly, and didn’t want to just go with his gut feeling if it could be checked.
Incidentally I love the fact that Warwickshire have their names on both their shirts and jumpers. I think only England’s shirts are marked - though, admittedly names are more difficult on a cable knit than on whatever polyester type thing Warwicks are wearing.
Three cold slips, a ring of four and Liam Norwell down on the rope. Balderson isn’t playing the defensive game, cracking Bresnan for two fours, one through backward point, another through point. Not long till lunch.
WICKET! Davies run out 11 (Lancashire 23-1)
A risky run, a fantastic pick-up-and-launch from Miles, and the door closes on Davies’ Lancashire career. Best of luck at Edgbaston, Al, you had a good innings at Old Trafford.
Run out by Miles pic.twitter.com/VpCvFUj3AR
— Ali Martin (@Cricket_Ali) September 30, 2021
Updated
A hard drop against the gloom, as Alex Davies looks to tee off and a diving Briggs can’t hold on at mid-off. At 23-0, extraordinary Lancashire riches.
It is very dark out there now, the floodlights bright through the gloom and that lone chandelier in the pavilion shining out again like a Christmas tree.
A fantastic picture from England’s European Cricket Championship game against Finland yesterday in Carmata. England won by 14 runs. Thanks Romeo.
@tjaldred This was yesterday, against England. https://t.co/G05cV0PRyz
— Romeo Romeo Tango Ψιτιζεν οφ Νοςηερε (@RomeoCCLive) September 30, 2021
Updated
Balderson is off the mark, swinging a half volley away for four. The first over is survived but the architect of 78 all out now has the ball at the Nursery End.
Updated
The dark is rising as a heavy roller reverses off the pitch and over the Nursery end boundary.
Now then Lancashire.
Their heaviest previous defeat was by an innings and 200 runs against Yorkshire at Old Trafford in 1938.
WICKET! Johal b Parkinson 17 Warwickshire 518 all out, a lead of 440
Bowled going for a youthful swing after a frisky debut innings for Warwickshire.
“Hello Tanya.” Hello Austin Baird!
“You mentioned that people should write in with book recommendations etc as the season winds down.Well, I don’t have a recommendation but I would suggest to your followers that they give the Wisden Short Story competition a go.
Details are herehttps://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/discover/non-fiction-features/wisden/competitions/
“No more than 500 words. I have absolutely no pretensions as a writer but I gave it a shot for the 2018 edition just for the hell of it. I didn’t win but my name will be in the Wisden Cricketers Almanack forever (as will yours). An achievement in itself. Plus it’s fun.”
Thanks Austin.
Updated
WICKET! Norwell b Blatherwick 2 (Warwickshire 487-9)
A caveman’s evening throw of the club and the stumps are no more.
As Craig Miles twice clonks Tom Bailey down the ground for four - these Warwickshire boys really do fancy the big 500 - some wise words for the winter arrive from Rob Jones. “Hot chocolate and croissants cheer up most situations.”
This is worth a read, as always, from Michael Atherton.
Some very odd comments yday from ECB chair; raised more questions than answershttps://t.co/uC00O89iAN
— Mike atherton (@Athersmike) September 30, 2021
On the book front, this might be of interest, the shortlist for the Cricket Writers’ Club Book of the year.
We are delighted to reveal the shortlist for the 2021 Derek Hodgson Book Award.
— Cricket Writers' Club (@CricketMediaUK) September 17, 2021
Thanks to @edwardscricket and his panel for pulling the list together.
And congrats to all the authors – the winner will be announced at our annual lunch on October 5 https://t.co/ne1bkfMNme pic.twitter.com/mna5RjiWRW
WICKET! Rhodes b Blatherwick 156 (Warwickshire 469-8)
A weary misjudgement to a great ball that jagged back to clip the bails. Smashing innings.
As this might be the last day of the season, do email me your thoughts on cricket, the universe and everything. Books to read during the winter, improving hobbies, eco-tips, Christmas cake recipes. My ears and inbox are open: tanya.aldred.freelance@the guardian.com.
Wednesday's play
A soporific second day of the Bob Willis Trophy came and went with Warwickshire practising for world domination. As inexorably as the rising and setting autumnal sun, on they strode, the occasional wicket only a temporary diversion, as they notched up two hundreds, two fifties, and a forty on the way to a first-innings lead of 386.
The captain, Will Rhodes, who finished the day unbeaten on 151, was given a standing ovation as he trotted back up the steps of the pavilion. What a last hurrah to his season: catching Jack Brooks to secure the Championship at Edgbaston on Friday, and powering on to his first century of the summer, at Lord’s, to put the game well out of Lancashire’s reach.
Rhodes fizzed with man-about-town confidence, off the mark with a four through the covers, with another four, this time a spank through midwicket, bringing up his fifty in foot-tapping time. He was ruthless on anything too short or wide, as was Rob Yates, the pair putting on 110 for the second wicket.
Yates, one of the most talked about young batsmen on the circuit, reached his hundred with an eggs-over-easy cover drive, becoming the first player to make five first-class centuries this season and the first since Nottinghamshire’s Joe Clarke to make five or more in a summer at the tender age of 22 or younger. It was also his first century away from Edgbaston, and in front of the Sky cameras too.
There were also runs for Sam Hain and Michael Burgess, with poor Matthew Lamb the only recognised batsman to fail, skedaddled for a duck by a beauty from Luke Wells that dipped and turned out of the dust.
As play pushed towards six o’clock, Matt Parkinson launched into yet another over, his shadow stretching back almost to the start of the season. He picked up his 100th first-class wicket, after Burgess pushed forward and was snaffled by Alex Davies behind the stumps (a story within a story: Warwickshire keeper present stumped by Warwickshire keeper – possibly – to come). His 101st followed when an uncharacteristically subdued Tim Bresnan was caught for four. It was a plucky and tireless performance, reeling in with the ball.
As if to suit the mood of the day, the meeting between the 18 county chief executives and chairs to work out the structure for the 2022 summer decided on nothing. They talked over the England and Wales Cricket Board recommendations (three conferences next season, with the results having some bearing on a return to a two-division structure in 2023) and returned to their counties to consult. The ballots will be returned early next week. A two-thirds majority is needed for any decision to pass.
Warwickshire haven’t declared and, with floodlights on, and the familiar scattering of spectators, plough towards 500.
Preamble
Good morning from a damp Lord’s, where play is due to start on time if the skies stay zipped up. In the spirit of the Guardian I stopped off for a vegan porridge and, next to the cafe, in St John’s Wood Church Gardens, a succession of well-dressed pooches were being taken for their morning jaunt. It’s a lovely place to be.
On the pitch, Warwickshire 464-7 have a lead of 386. Lancashire’s reckoning is approaching.
