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Morning all. Mike Selvey is at Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire, David Hopps is at Leicester v Middlesex, Andy Wilson is at Somerset v Lancashire, Richard Gibson is at Durham v Worcestershire and special guest Jarrod Kimber, editor of Spin magazine, is at Surrey v Derbyshire.
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Yorkshire were never going to go quietly, writes Andy Wilson, at Taunton, where it wasn't a great day for Lancashire yesterday either.
Colin Graves, Yorkshire's chairman and benefactor whose money has kept the county going in recent years, responded to mathematical confirmation of their relegation by launching an unusually strong attack on the players in this morning's Yorkshire Post. "The performances have been a disgrace," Graves fumes. "The players need to take a long, hard look at themselves as far as I'm concerned."We've given them everything they wanted - contracts, salaries, we've given them everything.
"So they can't turn round and say Yorkshire's done this or Yorkshire's done that."In the past, they've blamed the Headingley pitch and said we can't get a result pitch at Headingley. Well, we've had bloody result pitches this year, but we kept losing on them. Don't blame the bloody pitch, it's not the pitch. It's the fact they can't play on it, that's the problem."
Graves seems to absolve the director of cricket Martyn Moxon from blame, but it would be fascinating to know what the captain, Andrew Gale, thinks of his comments.
Meanwhile here at Taunton there is some good news for Lancashire, with a prompt start likely as the forecast showers continue to skirt the ground. But Glen Chapple will not be taking the field as the damage to his left hamstring can no longer be strapped up and ignored. The injury has been troubling him intermittently through the season but Lancashire insist it was not a risk to select him in this game, as he had felt fine in the win against Hampshire at Aigburth last week. Now they have a seam attack of Kyle Hogg, who also looked tired yesterday, plus Tom Smith and Luke Procter. It is the special K slow left armers, Keedy and Kerrigan, who will have to drag them back into this game, with early wickets essential this morning.
I am bemused, writes Mike Selvey. Flummoxed. Yesterday saw the first day of the floodlit, pink ball county championship match between Kent and Glamorgan. A full moon shone down, and by all accounts hardly anyone was there to witness it. It is, of course, an experiment. But what I can't understand is why this is taking place in England, in September.
The MCC have been strong proponents of using a coloured ball under lights as a means of regenerating interest in Test cricket in countries where attendance is minimal. They staged their traditional season pipe-opener against the Champion county under such conditions in Abu Dhabi last April. In their opinon, pink is the colour of choice, best seen by player and spectator alike.
The ECB, at whose instigation the current match is taking place, with neither side competing for any honours, wonder whether it will generate evening interest in county cricket. It seems not and, frankly, I'm curious to know why they thought it might.
In the vanguard for the push to floodlit Test matches is John Stephenson, MCC's head of cricket, and here is what he had to say about yesterday's non-event. "I was pleased when I heard about this match, but my concerns were: the time of year, the dew factor, and if it would be freezing cold for players and spectators. In England you probably don't need evening cricket in the longer game, because we get decent crowds for Tests. But it's about rejuvenating Test attendances elsewhere in the world." To this extent, it has already been trialled. September? England? Whoever thought it might be a great idea?
Meanwhile, here at the County Ground, Northampton are resigned now to having their promotion hopes in the hands first of all of Gloucestershire, but more pertinently Surrey and Derbyshire. Yesterday, Surrey secured maximum batting points meaning that if they go on to beat Derbyshire, there is nothing that Northants can do even if they go on to win this match. At this moment, they have 10 more overs and one wicket remaining to secure another 81 runs for the necessary two further batting points. With Chris Gayle and Shane Watson at the crease it would be a tall order: for James Middlebrook and Lee Daggett, a little more challenging still.
It's a bright, sunny morning at the Rose Bowl, writes Paul Weaver, unlike yesterday, and Warwickshire have just scored the four runs they needed overnight to secure their third batting point, with Jim Troughton hitting the runs. But then he was out, caught behind for 12.
One more point will probably be enough for Warwickshire, so 350's the target. I don't think they're in the mood to lose more wickets chasing 400. But they will be looking for something over 500 before Hampshire bat.
It was a 10.35 start here, of course, because of the Sky TV cameras. It's 303 for four.
It's a bright, sunny morning at the Rose Bowl, unlike yesterday, and Warwickshire have just scored the four runs they needed overnight to secure their third batting point, with Jim Troughton hitting the runs. But then he was out, caught behind for 12, writes Paul Weaver.
One more point will probably Warwickshire, so 350's the target. I don't think they're in the mood to lose more wickets chasing 400. But they will be looking for something over 500 before Hampshire bat. It was a 10.35 start here, of course, because of the Sky TV cameras. It's 303 for four.
All good fun at Yorkshire, writes Richard Gibson. After those strong words from Colin Graves, you would imagine the end-of-season awards dinner being a frosty affair. If only there was one. Yorkshire's 2011 malaise actually began in September 2010, in my opinion, when they failed to beat already-relegated Kent in their final match at Headingley. Victory would have delivered a 32nd Championship but as it was they crumpled in a heap in their second innings against the might of Dewald Nel and James Tredwell, and Kent negotiated their 90-run target with four wickets intact.
All the talk afterwards was of it being a sign of positive times ahead for a young, talented crop of players. In reality it was a psychological blow that they never recovered from. Graves's task this winter is to unearth a new chief executive - Stewart Regan left for Scottish football 12 months ago but was not replaced as part of cost-cutting measures at Headingley - and revert back to chairman from executive chairman.
Meanwhile, Worcestershire are fighting hard against Durham at Chester-le-Street. There was a great duel between former England internationals Vikram Solanki and Graham Onions first thing this morning, and Solanki won it by outlasting the pace bowler. One glorious extra-cover drive that hurtled into the advertising boards, 20 yards beyond the boundary, lit up a cloudy start to the day. Without a wicket in the opening hour, Durham have turned to Paul Collingwood's medium pace. Worcestershire are 75 for one.
Middlesex cantered to 56-0 without a care in the world before light drizzle intervened at Grace Road, writes David Hopps, which gives me time to take a look at what is happening at Yorkshire. It could be messy.
We have a bonus on the county blog today in the form of Jarrod Kimber, editor of Spin magazine and author of one of the most striking - nay outrageous - cricket tour books ever written. Australian Autopsy tells the story of England's 2010/11 Ashes triumph in Australia and does so in a brash, opinionated and left-field style that marks Kimber down as one of the most original cricket writers around. I am still not sure quite where his image of Ian Bell dancing naked in a bird cage covered in oil came from, but perhaps he can explain to us all later. We might even get an observation or two on Surrey v Derbyshire which is what we have talked him into doing.
Australian Autopsy is a funny and personal account not just of the Ashes series, but of Kimber's own attempts to gain acceptance in cricket press boxes and to scramble together enough money on the way so he could avoid sleeping on park benches. He was not fooled by Australia's victory in Perth (unless, of course he cheated and back-wrote it), saying: "For some Australians, this was the light at the end of the tunnel - 'look, our boys aren't that shit'. For me it was the scene in a horror film where it looks like the hostages are going to get away, but instead they're caught and they really piss off the serial killer. If it happens this early in the film, it's never going to end well."
That is by no means the best quote in the book, just one that he managed to remember half-an-hour ago while lolling around in a caf� near The Oval. Such unprofessional promotion of your own book is to be applauded. Australian Autopsy is published by Pitch Publishing and is awash with insight, humour, passio and random thought processes that make you think "where the hell did that come from?" Gubby Allen it ain't. If my son ever returns it, I am anxious to finish it.
After a 43-minute stoppage for rain, they're back on at Taunton, and Lancashire have finally dismissed James Hildreth, writes Andy Wilson. Tom Smith, who dropped Hildreth yesterday at second slip on 21 - a very sharp chance, to be fair - made some sort of amends by having him well caught by Paul Horton at first slip for 186 from 307 balls that included 20 fours and a six. That leaves Somerset on 352 for seven, Kyle Hogg having earlier dismissed Craig Meschede with a cracker that lifted and left him to secure a sixth wicket and a precious second bowling point for Lancashire with two overs to spare. They're going to have bat very well, but this Championship race isn't necessarily over yet.
Speedboat racing is crazy, writes Jarrod Kimber. How do they not die every single second? They spend more time off the ground than Phil Hughes playing the short ball. And they're all dressed up like budget Power Rangers. I don't think Tim Linley is a big fan of speedboat racing. His 21 from 68 never got that exciting even with Surrey already pocketing their maximum batting points. Perhaps that is why the Oval pressbox had the speedboat racing on the TV.
Surrey, fighting to be promoted, had their batting points, but that never seemed to get their pulse racing. Meaker also batted with caution as Surrey decided to try to only bat once and they did it with quiet awkward intensity. Eventually they were bowled out for 468, with Meaker not out on an earnest and no ball assisted 55.
The pitch is the real story. OK, it's not so much a story, more a relevant, yet often overlooked, plot point. It looks a bit difficult, which is probably why the Surrey tail prodded around for over an hour on it. It seems to have just the smallest bit of unpredictability in it, and sort of like David Hopps when his knee is playing up, it's a bit low.
In the field Surrey showed the sort of danger and excitement that they need to get themselves into the big boy club as the lithe Linley sliced his way through the Derbyshire top order. Also, Chris Jordan is massive, he's 80% shoulders. Wes Durston found this out the hard way by running into him.
There is a slight air of resignation at the County Ground, and Northants will not be cheered back in the dressing room by news of Derbyshire's insipid response to Surrey's total, writes Mike Selvey. It looks as if the last vestiges of promotion hopes rest on a win for them here and Middlesex somehow failing to reach 350, and drawing which would give them sufficient points to hold them off.
There was a valiant effort first thing to gain another batting point with James Middlebrook and Lee Daggett adding 47 for the last wicket before Middlebrook was bowled by Jon Lewis for 39 to bring the innings to a close at 343.
Since then it has been hard work for the Northants bowlers, Chris Dent and Richard Coughtrie adding 42 largely untroubled runs before the left hander Dent was lbw to a fuller delivery from Chaminda Vaas. A double noise, audible from the pressbox, suggested he may have got an edge although it might have been simultaneous or even posthumous. This was Vaas's 68th wicket of the season. At lunch, Gloucester had reached 55 for one.
Paul Collingwood has shaken off the shock of losing his central contract with a five-over spell from the Lumley End this morning, writes Richard Gibson. Like his Durham colleagues, however, he went wicketless this morning and Worcestershire - who now need to score 300 inside 110 overs to relegate Hampshire and guarantee their own survival regardless of the results here and at the Rose Bowl - are 118 for one at lunch.
Interesting that the ECB used the word 'awarded' in their central contracts press release this morning. It might be a case of semantics but under a new framework agreed 15 months ago, players now qualify for contracts through weight of appearances. Gone are the days of deals being awarded arbitrarily. A similar system is used to differentiate between the bands within the central contract system - whereas the grading of individuals was previously a selectorial judgement, seniority is now determined through squads selected for and matches played.
Slowly, remorselessly, Warwickshire are tightening their grip on this championship, writes Paul Weaver. With Lancashire taking just two bowling points Warwickshire now know they need a maximum of 21 points to be sure of the title, and that is likely to reduced, like a chef's sauce, over the next couple of days.
Warwickshire's batting has been a little too coy, perhaps. I'm sure the ends will justify the means but when they started off this morning, at 296 for three, they had 14 overs to score the 54 they needed for a fourth batting point. They should have made it.
They reached 335 in the 110 overs, much like the 338 they made against Notts last week. So they not only denied themselves another batting point but also a little bit of extra time to bowl out Hampshire twice. The weather forecast is decent but it is raining heavily during the lunch break.Having reached their 110 overs, the cut-off for bonus points, the batsmen, strangely, started playing shots. Chanderpaul swept Danny Briggs for six and Rikki Clarke's eight was made up by two fours.
Jim Troughton, Tim Ambrose and Clarke have all gone and at lunch Warwickshire are 390 for six, with Chanderpaul unbeaten on 160. At the other end is Chris Woakes, who came to the wicket with a batting average of 376 against Hampshire, which is a lot to live up to.
Hampshire have batted and fielded gamely enough. But they are already planning for life in the second division next season.
They have just restarted here, at 2.35, one hour and 20 minutes late because of a heavy shower, writes Paul Weaver at the Rose Bowl. Warwickshire need to press on with it from here. They are still looking for 500 and to bat only once. And they will be playing until 6.05, or until they have got the overs in. Hampshire are just hoping Worcestershire don't get 300, because when they do their relegation is confirmed.
Are Middlesex surrendering to the creeping lethargy that can fall upon a side playing at county cricket's most somnolent ground, wonders David Hopps. If they make 350 in their first innings, then three batting bonus points would leave a draw as enough to secure promotion ahead of Northamptonshire. If they finish level on points, Middlesex not Northants go up. They have drawn twice this season, but it is then decided on something like who has the prettiest ground or the best kit, or something of that nature.
But their fourth wicket has fallen at 159 and they are not there yet. The pitch is sedate and the bowling friendly enough, but strange things can happen at Grace Road when only a few hundred spectators are in the ground and any sense of the importance of the game has to come from within.
Jigar Naik, Leicestershire's off-spinning all-rounder, has reawakened the match by having Chris Rogers caught at the wicket by Ned Eckersley and, with the first ball of his next over, removing Jamie Dalrymple first ball, beaten in the flight and bowled. In The Meet, county cricket's least glamorous vantage point, somebody vaguely observed that Leicestershire had taken another wicket and then looked back at their laptop. It gets like that on the last game of the championship season when you are last in the table by a country mile.
In The Meet, life rumbles on much as ever. The championship starts at 10.30 in September, but it does not do to wander into The Meet shortly after 10am in the hope of a sausage cob. Neither does it do to seek a sandwich outside official lunchtime hours. By 2pm, all that remained was a lonesome Haslet sandwich and for those who did not like Haslet there was not the faintest hope of something else being plonked between a couple of slices of bread.
"You should do sandwiches as well," I said conversationally to a member of the Leicestershire supporters club, who was manning a cake stall. "It's a cake stall. We only do cake," he said. How many Leicestershire supporters are planning a trip to Hyderabad for the Champions League, one wonders? Leicester has one of the biggest Indian populations outside India itself. Is it too fanciful that a few will make the trip?
Meanwhile, Middlesex have moved onto 190-4. A score of 350 should be a doddle, but drowsiness is a strange thing. In the Middlesex dressing room, batsmen must be jogging on the spot, punching themselves and seeking high-energy vitamin supplements to prevent the Grace Road sleeping sickness talking hold.
The county blog's very own David Hopps has written a blog on Yorkshire's plight this season. You can read it here at your leisure.
It has been a day to admire the never-say-die spirit of Peter Moores's Lancashire team, writes Andy Wilson in Taunton. The mood among the Red Rose loyalists who had travelled south west in the hope of witnessing history was pretty bleak at the close of play yesterday, with Somerset on 314 for five, and the captain Glen Chapple injured. But as we approach tea on day two, they can see a path back into the Championship race.
First they took the five remaining Somerset wickets for the addition of only 66, with the left arm spin twins Keedy and Kerrigan sharing the last three for eight. Now they've raced to 127 for one in reply inside 32 overs. Paul Horton played the more fluently in an opening stand of 104 with Stephen Moore, but as at Liverpool at the weekend Moore has picked up the pace since Horton was dismissed, in this case caught behind for 50 cutting at Murali Kartik. Horton has now scored more than 1,000 first-class runs this summer, 985 of them in the Championship, without a century. Lancashire remain reliant on Hampshire avoiding defeat by Warwickshire at the Rose Bowl, but hope springs eternal.
Colin Graves has now had a second bite at Yorkshire's players, so to speak, and has left no doubt as to the identity of those he blames for their relegation, writes Richard Gibson. Although he initially refused to be drawn further than blaming four or five senior men during an interview on Sky Sports News this afternoon, when asked whether Ajmal Shahzad and Adil Rashid fitted the bill, he confirmed that they did. Not sure whether senior status can rightfully be claimed at 26 and 23 but there you go.
Ironically, it has been the performances of a bona fide old guard Vikram Solanki, 35, and Alan Richardson, one year his elder, that have contributed most in taking the midlanders within a good hour of preserving their top-flight status. Thanks to Solanki's 30th first-class hundred, they are 255 for three at tea on the second day and another 45 runs (within the next 36 overs) will confirm their Division One place for 2012 regardless of what happens in Southampton over the next 48 hours or so. Worcestershire's survival was unthinkable for much of the campaign but fuelled by team spirit, Solanki's 1,128 runs and Richardson's 70 wickets they are truly on the verge.
The sun shines once more at the County Ground, but takes no chill off the day, writes Mike Selvey. Hoppsy may enjoy his vox pop perambulations but me, I stay in the (relative) comfort. Although we have just discovered that the milk was yesterday's and with no fridge, it is the only thing that has turned here today. So for the second county match running there is a lactic crisis.
A crisis of sorts for Gloucester too who are currently six down, having been more comfortably placed before tea at 116 for two. But three wickets for Lee Daggett, including two with successive deliveries, changed the tempo of a rather lacklustre end of season day, amplified when David Willey, a burly left-armer with a bit of strength to him, picked up the wicket of Hamish Marshall.
Minutes ago, the die-hard Gloucester supporters in the stand rose and cheered after Will Gidman top edged a delivery from Willey over the slips and to the third man boundary. It proved not to be ironic at all, for it took Gidman to 1,000 runs for the season, which when set alongside his 51 wickets, makes him a considerable county all rounder.
Just as I was about to file this, Ian Cockbain has also gone, lbw to Willey, leaving Gloucester 167 for seven and facing the possibility of a follow-on. Modern convention is not to enforce, but with a bit of weather about it might be Northants best chance of a win. Oops. Another wicket from Daggett at the other end, next ball, with Gidman caught behind. So 167 for eight.
Yesterday I saw picket fences paid for by Roger Hamilton-Brown, writes Jarrod Kimber, editor of Spin magazine. The father of Rory likes to buy things I'm told, and the school ground at Millfield did have very nice fences. Many in county cricket seem to think that Roger Hamilton-Brown roams from county to county poaching the best players to play under his son. If he does, Rory is a lucky man. It's actually a shame Rory wasn't a musician, because if his father does go around getting him the best to work with, he could have had one hell of a supergroup.
This year Hamilton-Brown Jr is captain of one of the best-assembled county cricket squads. Because of this he has an 80% (higher than 50% based on Somerset's history) chance of winning the CB40 final and could also see his side promoted to the division that their fiscal resources suggest they should be in. Have his youthful endeavour and cartoon prince looks brought this team together, or are they simply just a very good squad that could be captained by a well-meaning aubergine?
His detractors claim he is one of the most disliked players in county cricket. They point to things like his hyphen, tight shirts, comic running between the wickets, interesting bowling and inconsistent batting. Others just seem to hate that he's become a captain of a very important club without ever really producing much on the field beforehand. Testmatchsofa refers to him as Lady Hamilton-Brown. Some of it seems like Posh Bashing for the sake of it, but Rory is a very lucky person to be captaining a side of this ability considering what he has achieved with the bat in his career. This year he has averaged 24 in the CB40, 17 in the T20s and 38 in county cricket.
Over time, it's hard to loathe a captain who has brought your team from the basement to the middle. The harder to please Surrey fans still point out that Hamilton-Brown does seem to do very little actual captaining. It's something I've noticed more than once. Gareth Batty and Mark Ramprakash seem to have taken over in the field on many occasions this season. It also could be a new phase in cricket leadership, bring in a young captain, make sure he energises the new players and let the older chaps do the strategy stuff.
I've usually forgotten Hamilton-Brown is in charge of this side until some grumpy member starts yelling at him midway through a boring partnership. Surrey feel much more like a team with very good components rather than a team that follows a leader. Not that it matters to Rory, success is all that matters, and since Rory has been there Surrey have been decidedly less ordinary than before. I can't see a day when he will ever be loved by the majority of county cricket fans, but if I was him, and I got my team promoted and winning a one-day title a few days after my 24th birthday, I really wouldn't care.
That said, Rory Hamilton-Brown's future still isn't as bright as those Millfield School picket fences.
Great drama up in the north-east, writes Richard Gibson. Just when you thought it was impossible for Worcestershire to fail in their quest for a third batting point, they produced one of the season's great collapses, and managed it comfortably! Dale Benkenstein's extraordinary leaping salmon impression at midwicket that accounted for Alexei Kervezee in the first over after tea began a slump from 255 for three to 288 all out. Yep, that's seven wickets for 33 runs.
The last five actually went for five runs inside a spell of five overs. In reality not a great deal has changed, although a Durham win from here, combined with an innings victory for Hampshire over Warwickshire at Southampton and a Lancashire demise to Somerset would send the title to the north-east for the third time in four years. And plunge Worcestershire into Division Two. Has anyone got a wet flannel?
"We'll be back," says a placard on the knees of a forlorn young Hampshire supporter at the Rose Bowl, writes Paul Weaver. But he doesn't say when. In fact Hampshire might escape relegation after all, following Worcestershire's collapse against Durham. If Worcestershire had scored 300 Hampshire would have been down. But they were all out for 288.
All Hampshire have to do now is take maximum batting points here and win the match. Fanciful? Very probably. But Hampshire do have a chance of winning this match because Warwickshire need to win to take the title. Throw in a bit more rain and we could have some desperate deal-making come Thursday. Warwickshire were all out for 493, which means that Hampshire's first target is to score 344 to avoid the follow-on. Warwickshire, who bat all the way down, still lost their last three wickets for 15 runs. Woakes was out for 62, so his average against Hampshire plummets from 438 to a mere 219. Danny Briggs became the first Hampshire bowler to dismiss him ? he was run out in his only previous dismissal by the club.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/13/county-cricket-live
Rashard Mendenhall Brit Miller Mewelde Moore Knowshon Moreno
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