Key events
Lunchtime scores
DIVISION ONE
Chelmsford: Essex 149 v Somerset 264-6
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 279 and 25-2 v Glamorgan 113
The Oval: Surrey 520 v Leicestershire 28-0
Hove: Sussex 130-7 v Warwickshire 267
Headingley: Yorkshire 125-4 v Hampshire 251 still in play
DIVISION TWO
Bristol: Gloucestershire 4-1 v Durham 605-5dec
Canterbury: Kent v Northamptonshire474-2 still in play
Old Trafford: Lancashire 351 v Derbyshire 65-1
Lord’s: Middlesex 179-9 v Worcestershire 191 still in play
Overton doesn’t get to his second f-c century, and must lunch on 98 not out. Companion Smeed 17 not out. Somerset 262-6, a cracking recovery from 16-3. Lunchtime scores around the grounds to follow.
Craig Overton has one over to get the three runs he needs for a century. Somerset 262-6.
After dismissing Glamorgan for 113 (four wickets each for Brett Hutton and Fergus O’Neill), Notts are indulging themselves with a pre-prandial implosion. HH follows his 0 in the first innings with 2 in the second, before Ben Duckett is run out heading for an over-eager single. The throw by injury sub Sean Dickson. Notts 9-2.
This is worth a read at lunch – a depressing deep-dive by Steve Menary and Jack Kerr on how gambling companies linked to pornography access live data from women’s cricket.
Surrey are finally all out for 520 – Jordan Clark last man, caught for 71. I fear here for Leicestershire, but they’ve made it safely through the first two overs: 4-0. May they have swallowed the lessons of the first game against Sussex and restrain their inner bazball – at least to start with.
One of the Essex slip fielders – Harmer I think – has pulled his snood up in such a way that only his eyes are showing. Slow trudge this morning at at chilly Chelmsford. Big-hitting Will Smeed a steady-eddie on his first-class debut, two not out off 20 balls. Somerset 221-6.
Gary Naylor wisely strokes his beard after the first round of games:
The weather in Manchester is frisking around but there’s still play at OT, where Derbyshire have built back after losing a wicket to yesterday’s last ball. Derbyshire 37-1, 314 behind.
Will Smeed makes his first-class debut
After a semi-epic super-sub trip from Abergavenny. And he is dropped on nought at first slip by Dean Elgar, who fumbles it in the tummy region. Shane Snater slumps back to his mark. Somerset 213-6, lead Essex by 64.
Glamorgan have suffered a major Saturday morning malfunction, stuttering from 81 for four to 91 for eight. Fergus ‘Neill four for 14.
McKinney finally out for 244
At Hove, some action. Two wickets in an over for Ethan Bamber, Haines for 32 and Clark for a three ball duck. Sussex 63-2.
McKinney has just slapped Taylor for two sixes in an over at Bristol. But no more bounty, he is caught off Craig Miles for 244. The seventh highest score by a Durham player, Durham’s youngest double centurion. Nice way to start the season.
100 for David Bedingham!
Sorry about the chaotic start this morning, all tech now working and I will hotfoot it to Old Trafford at lunchtime. Just turned on the (wobbly) stream from Bristol in time to see David Bedingham reach his 17th cenutry for Durham – 126 balls. McKinney still there on 231, records dancing in his head. Durham 507-2.
Weather watch
A delayed start at Headingley, but we have play everywhere else round the grounds. The sun is even shining in Manchester where it was dank and drizzly this morning.
The Met office make no promises: Rain across central and eastern areas soon clearing. Showers following for most, these heavy in Northern Ireland and western Scotland, with a risk of hail and thunder. Windy for all with coastal gales in the west. Temperatures near average.
Overnight scores
DIVISION ONE
Chelmsford: Essex 149 v Somerset 179-5
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 279 v Glamorgan 81-4
The Oval: Surrey 412-6 v Leicestershire
Hove: Sussex 17-0 v Warwickshire 267
Headingley: Yorkshire 48-4 v Hampshire 251
DIVISION TWO
Bristol: Gloucestershire v Durham 456-2
Canterbury: Kent v Northamptonshire 409-1
Old Trafford: Lancashire 351 v Derbyshire 0-1
Lord’s: Middlesex 91-6 v Worcestershire 191
Friday’s roundup: mixed fortunes for England hopefuls
Big Ben McKinney tucked into the Gloucestershire bowlers at Bristol, not even pausing to dab his chin as he forked them all over the ground. Straight as a corn cob at the crease, he showed the threadbare attack no mercy, flaming fours through the covers, on the leg side, pausing only to pancake three sixes on his way to 214 not out.
McKinney and Alex Lees (129) added 305 for the first wicket in just 58 overs. At 21, McKinney is the youngest double centurion for Durham in history – not a bad advert for any England selectors looking for an opener. The home captain, Cameron Bancroft may have regrets after winning the toss and fielding first.
Dom Sibley’s audition for the same spot didn’t go so well against Leicestershire, lbw to Josh Hull for four, but Surrey duo Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope put on their Friday best in an entertaining partnership of 200. Pope nurdled 103, and Smith raced to his second century in successive innings, a grandiose 166 to wipe the winter away.
Ben Duckett, who gave up his IPL contract to prioritise the County Championship, cameoed 25 before being caught to leave Nottinghamshire wobbling at 38 for three against Glamorgan, but a hundred from Jack Haynes straightened things out.
Kent picked up a solitary wicket on a chastening day at Canterbury. The Northamptonshire top three – Ricardo Vasconcelos, Luke Procter and Calvin Harrison – all crunched hundreds.
Derbyshire’s Shoaib Bashir, long arms and longer legs, collected his best Championship haul with four for 76 in front of a good Old Trafford crowd. Marcus Harris, fresh from the Sheffield Shield final, rescued Lancashire from 11 for two with 125.
Rob Key was at Hove, and had three wickets from Sussex’s Henry Crocombe to write in his big black book. He also had the pleasure of a Chris Woakes half-century for Warwickshire. At Southampton, Hampshire’s Sonny Baker whipped the heart out of Yorkshire with three wickets in a high-speed over.
Essex were whistled out for 149, with Somerset soon in similar trouble but for Craig Overton and James Rew. Will Smeed, fresh from 200 for Somerset’s 2nd XI, drove to Chelmsford from Wales to replace Tom Kohler-Cadmore as an injury sub. Sixteen wickets fell at Lord’s in the Middlesex v Worcestershire fixture.
Friday’s view from the Oval
Simon Burnton
Midway through its fifth day of action, the first of its second round of fixtures, Ollie Pope became the 11th person to score a century in Division One of the County Championship this season – and five of those play for Surrey. Jamie Smith already has two. The pre-season title favourites may have drawn their opening game but they are looking ominous, in this game and in general, and at stumps were 412 for six.
Things also look ominous for Leicestershire, if in a rather different way, as they settle into the top flight after last year’s promotion. Beaten by Sussex in their season opener, by the second session here, as Smith and Pope cantered towards triple figures, they looked equally underresourced in confidence, ideas and quality. They were buoyed somewhat by a couple of late wickets, if not by glances at the scoreboard.
A crowd of 4,700 assembled at the Oval on a bracingly cold early spring day which felt, mercifully for those with recent experience in the England team, a long way everything but geographically from any kind of Test cricket. Nevertheless, given that Surrey’s top six have all played for their country at the highest level, this game was always going to be parsed for potential international ramifications. The surprise perhaps was that the first person to stake a claim was Leicestershire’s Josh Hull.
Preamble
Good morning! After yesterday’s hundred-fest and Sonny Baker’s three-wicket over, things might be a bit damper today – with cloud and rain lurking. Play (might) start around the grounds from 11am BST. Do join us.