With an hour gone – what is happening in Division One?

Lancs have failed to make a breakthrough here at sunny, sunny, Southport – resorting to part-time handyman George Bell. Hampshire content to soak up time.

Essex have lost two more wickets, Westley and Walter, but Alastair Cook is still there on 26. Feeling in my bones this could be a hot two ton match for SAC Essex 66-3, the lead 361 over Somerset.

At Canterbury, Quadri (a half century under his belt) and Evison have stretched the Kent lead to 412 over Surrey.

And Moores and Harrison have temporarily stilled the tilting Notts ship, 128-6.

Love this initiative by Somerset, and Gloucestershire too. If you’re south-west based, how about a walk and talk with our very own (always our own) Vic Marks

Little George Bell giving the ball a tweak – he let’s fly a huge appeal, turned down. Cricket Archive gives him a grand total of six wickets going back to Lancashire Under-14s.

A super piece for your lunch hour on the plight of Afghanistan’s women:

Sounds like the press pack are having fun at Edgbaston.

While at Trent Bridge, the Warwickshire attack continue to eat Notts wickets – Mullaney a third wicket for Hasan Ali, Notts 96-6.

No! Jake Libby’s dream of two more runs slips through his finger tips when he falls to the fourth ball of the morning. Worcestershire’s innings ends on 410, the lead 62.

We have action everywhere, with fewer storms forecast for today. Horrible events in Nottingham mean there could be some delays getting to the ground, with road closures and some suspensions on the tram network.

Walking from Birkdale station, a hearse passed by, and a cricket fan in baggy shirt, shorts and a multi-coloured bucket hat, removed his hat and paused. Five seconds of dignity and strangely moving.

The players are in the middle here at Southport and Fletcha Middleton picks up a single off his hip, fractionally before eleven o’clock.

Ashes minus three days

Just in case anyone missed this yesterday (I posted it quite late), some CCLive! readers have set up a fantasy Ashes league. If it is your sort of thing, click here to join. Free to play and enjoy.

If you are asked for a code, try YOZYDMWJ.

Scores on the doors

DIVISION ONE

Chelmsford: Essex 462-9dec and 15-1 v Somerset 167

Canterbury: Kent 301 and 197-6 v Surrey 145

Southport: Lancashire 374 v Hampshire 142 and 119-1

Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 82-5 v Warwickshire 571-9dec

Division Two

Chesterfield: Derbyshire 111 and 248-4 v Yorkshire 353

Chester-le-Street: Durham 411-5 v Glamorgan 390

Bristol: Gloucestershire 368 v Leicestershire 23-0

Hove: Sussex 348 v Worcestershire 410-9

Monday’s round-up

On a June day so fierce that spectators shaped their bodies to the shadows, Felix Organ poached a career-best six for 67, but not before Lancashire had built an intimidating lead of 232 against Hampshire.

A standing ovation had serenaded Phil Salt to his first Lancashire century, and his first Championship hundred since 2019, in the days when he wore a Sussex shirt. Daryl Mitchell biffed 68 blockbuster runs and George Bell made a stylish cameo, Organ wheeling away, while Mohammad Abbas and Keith Barker were furiously unlucky. Liam Dawson was shipped off to hospital for stitches in his top lip split after a ball deflected off third slip straight into his face. Fletcha Middleton and Nick Gubbins then took Hampshire to stumps, the deficit reduced to 113.

The familar jingle of Essex’s Simon Harmer running through a batting card from Chelmsford’s River End returned to the Championship for the first time in 2023, with Somerset the unlucky opponents. Jamie Porter grabbed the first three Somerset wickets, before Harmer started his work (5-64). Sean Dickson carried his bat for 82. Essex, who had declared just before lunch, spruced up by a rapid 50 from Feroze Khushi, didn’t enforce the follow on.

Warwickshire have Nottinghamshire where they want them in the battle of the Midlands big dogs at Trent Bridge. After declaring on 571 for nine, Michael Burgess and Hasan Ali adding rapid morning runs for Warwickshire, whose bowlers then crunched through the Notts top order. Ed Barnard made the breakthrough when he had Ben Slater caught at first slip for 19, Hasan Ali rattled out two more and when Montgomery fell for eight, Notts had lost four for seven. Oliver Hannon-Dalby had time to join the wicket-taking club before Notts were rescued by an oncoming thunderstorm.

Leus du Plooy and Haider Ali conjured a remarkable Derbyshire comeback out of a cold bowl of sick, adding an unbroken 231 for the fifth wicket from just 311 balls against Yorkshire. Derbyshire supporters, despondent at their team’s 17 for four in their second innings and still 225 behind just after lunch, struggled to believe what was happening. Dawid Malan had earlier made 106.

Another fightback at The Riverside, where centuries sensible (David Bedingham) and bold (Ollie Robinson) gave Durham the lead against Glamorgan. At Bristol, Gloucestershire’s Ollie Price celebrated his 22^nd birthday with a career-best 85 against Leicestershire, while Jake Libby dominated Worcestershire’s innings against Sussex with an unbeaten 198. And Kent continued to rip up the form book, skittling Surrey for 145, declining to enforce the follow, and then building an intimidating lead.

Preamble

Good gorgeous June morning! The Southport train chugs through the Lancashire countryside, everything looking much more perky after the evening rains. I caught it by the skin of my teeth after Manchester city centre’s overhead tram lines melted in the heat. Not that increasing temperatures will put any stress on the country’s infrastructure.

At tea yesterday, it seemed certain Lancs would polish off Hampshire today – but Middleton and Gubbins batted carefully to reduce the deficit to 113. If Hants could scramble to a lead of nearly 200, it might just be interesting on a pitch with a mind of its own.

Elsewhere, Kent lead Surrey by 310, despite losing five for 26 in the elongated evening session. It’s big, but is it enough? Surrey’s Bazball potential never to be underestimated. And down on the Sussex coast, Jake Libby slept (hopefully) undefeated on 198.