County cricket – as it happened!

Morning all

10am: Welcome to the county cricket live blog for the latest round of Championship action. Our writers will be here with all the day's play shortly. Paul Weaver will be at Sussex v Surrey at Horsham, Richard Rae is at Nottinghamshire v Lancashire, while Mark Pennell is in Tunbridge Wells for Kent v Hampshire.

Your essential guide to the season

You can find full fixture lists for the season here and county-by-county previews here. You can follow the action throughout the season here. Watch video highlights here.

There's also county cricket commentaries on BBC local radio here.

11.11am: There are a few shower clouds in the sky over Nottingham, but there's also plenty of blue and Richard Rae is anticipating a prompt start to the tasty-looking match match between table-topping Nottinghamshire and rejuvenated Lancashire at Trent Bridge.

Both sides come into the game on the back of away wins, Notts having beaten Sussex at Hove and Lancashire Durham at The Riverside, so there are no surprises in terms of selection: Notts bring in the veteran seamer Paul Franks for Ben Phillips, who picked up an injury at Hove, while Lancashire name the same eleven which won in the north-east.

The immediate news is that Notts won the toss and, with an eye to the weather forecast and on a pitch with a very definite tinge of green in it, have decided to have a bowl. Andre Adams, 35 wickets at 14.94, will surely move it around.

11.28am: The Royal Spa Town of Tunbridge Wells was suitably hydrated this morning, writes Mark Pennell.

In fact, on closer inspection, the outfield at the pretty Kentish out-ground, The Nevill, may well have over-imbibed during heavy overnight rain.

The teams from Kent and Hampshire arrived at the ground to find conditions too wet for a prompt 11am start ensuring a disappointing first morning to what is Kent's 100th Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week.

Match umpires Richard Illingworth and Steve Gale held a cursory inspection at 10.30am and plan to take a further look at noon. Fearing the worst, however, Hampshire's players returned to the team hotel in search of their iPads and PlayStations.

The few punters who were at the ground for 10am at least received an unexpected cheery welcome from Kent's public address announcer and former DJ with local station Heart FM, Steve Watts.

Having informed the public where to buy their copies of Kent's excellent commemorative programme, Watts left his microphone switched on by mistake and, when listening to his former station, went on to grace the ground with his rendition of the Andy Williams classic 'You're Just to Good to be True'!

12.15pm: Festival grounds are not at their best in funereal weather like this and the attractive Sussex v Surrey fixture got under way in damp and blustery conditions, writes Paul Weaver.

There had been a lot of heavy overnight rain in Sussex but at least the ground at the Horsham Sports Club is good for drying and play did get under way on time, with Sussex winning the toss and putting Surrey in.

Both sides need something from this, having won just one game apiece. Surrey beat Sussex in their opening match of the season and Sussex beat Lancashire at Liverpool, but have lost the last two.

Sussex had the best of it, with Steve Magoffin dismissing both Jason Roy and Mark Ramprakash before the players came off for a shower at 22 for two.
Roy, driving with his head up, was caught by James Anyon, overhead at mid-off in the eighth over and two overs later Ramprakash was caught behind, pushing forward.

Anyon then struck with two wickets in two balls, having Zander de Bryn caught at slip before having Sussex old boy Rory Hamilton-Brown, the Surrey captain, caught behind first ball; 32 for four.

12.21pm: Plenty going on in an entertaining opening hour at Trent Bridge, reports Richard Rae. Notts made an early-ish breakthrough when Paul Horton pushed forward at an Andy Carter delivery and edged to Adam Voges at second slip for 3, but Stephen Moore and in particular Karl Brown then batted really positively in compiling a stand of 53 for the second wicket.

Both seized on anything over-pitched to drive and Andre Adams came in for some serious punishment, especially after Moore, flashing hard, was dropped by Voges at head height, slightly to his left. Brown hit Adams for three consecutive 4s, but the next ball was slightly shorter, found the edge, and was brilliantly caught one-handed by Samit Patel at third slip. Brown's 34 came off 24 balls, and Adams' figures now read 4-0-35-1. Lancashire 64-2.

12.24pm: Out of boredom and his impish sense of humour, Kent captain Rob Key has now taken over as ground DJ at The Nevill in Tunbridge Wells where the scheduled 11am start against Hampshire has been delayed by rain, writes Mark Pennell.

The former England bat regaled the county's supporters with a wide array in musical taste from Vivaldi, to Rumer and then 1970s supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, all while umpires Gale and Illingworth went out for their noon inspection. The upshot of which was that the players will take lunch at the usual time of 1pm with a fresh inspection planned for 1.40pm.

1.37pm: This is a sad time for Mark Ramprakash and Murray Goodwin, writes Paul Weaver at Horsham. They are two of the heaviest and most consistent county batsmen in recent years but now, at 41 and 39 respectively, are past their best.

Goodwin has been dropped for this match, and it is the first time that has happened to him since he joined the club in 2001. But after a poor start he was close to the axe before this.

Ramprakash, meanwhile, has returned for his first championship match in three weeks. He was chosen to open, but it wasn't a great success because he scored just eight and didn't look his old self. Is it a terminal decline for these two wonderful players? Bowlers are certainly hoping that is the case but there are probably a good few runs left in them yet.

Meanwhile the wickets continued to tumble here today as the ball continued to swing under the clouds. Steven Davies was fifth out and the third man to fall on 32 when he was well caught, low down, by the diving Luke Wells off Magoffin for six and Surrey were 52 for six when Tom Maynard, pushing forward, was caught at slip.

Choosing to bowl is always a fraught decision for captains but this has really paid off for Michael Yardy today. There were a few hefty blows from Gareth Batty and Jonathan Lewis in the final half hour before lunch but Surrey went into the break still struggling on 78 for six.

1.49pm: They may have lost three wickets, but I suspect Lancashire will not be displeased with their morning's work after being put in at Trent Bridge, reports Richard Rae.

They were 69-3 when Stephen Moore under-edged Andre Adams onto his middle stump, and had Steven Croft been dismissed soon afterwards when he edged consecutive deliveries from Adams into the slips, they might have felt differently. Both fell a couple of inches short of Samit Patel however, and since then Croft and Ashwell Prince have taken the score to 104, off 31 overs. Without Ben Phillips, and with Carter and Harry Gurney both very much works in progress, the Notts' seam attack looks over-reliant on Adams: Chris Read waited a long time before giving Paul Franks a bowl.

Unfortunately the dark clouds to the west — where the weather comes from — are thickening up too. More pleasingly, half-term means the outfield is currently populated by youngsters having an impromptu knock-up — many wearing Notts one-day shirts.

2.48pm: The two essentials required to nurture rhododendrons are a slightly acidic soil and plenty of water, writes Mark Pennell. Judging by the resplendent showing at The Nevill in Tunbridge Wells today, the bushes bounding the boundary here are being fed and watered incredibly well. Their brilliant, purple blooms provide an eye-catching backdrop, but sadly the action taking place out in the middle is not cricket.

The Kent players have warmed up with a few idle catches, while their Hampshire counterparts kicked a football around, but sadly we are no nearer to seeing any cricket on the scheduled opening day between Kent and Hampshire.

An umpires' inspection at 1.40pm offered little promise either when the officials announced they would look again in an hour's time. The pitch, having fallen foul to a flash flood that hit the Royal Spa Town in the early hours of Sunday morning, is still damp in places and, despite the best efforts of the groundstaff, still unfit for play.

Richard Illingworth and Steve Gould, the officials, have just summoned the captains to their room, possibly in order to ascertain if either man is prepared to start with conditions still not 100%ideal. The answer seems a foregone conclusion.

One of the few things to keep supporters hopeful is a proud Kent record, in that, the county has not had a home first-class match abandoned without a ball being bowled since they were scheduled to take on Sussex in 1908.
The only problem being, the venue back then was, of course, Tunbridge Wells.

3.08pm: In the excellent Horsham Festival official brochure there is one article giving 11 reasons why the event is better than the Olympics, writes Paul Weaver. There are a number of Sussex supporters who testify to that, especially after seeing Surrey put into bat and bowled out for 124 in just 40.2 overs.

It was damp and chilly at Cricketfield Road but the ball still swung and James Anyon and Steve Magoffin each took four wickets, with two more from Naved Arif towards the end.

"I always enjoyed bowling here," said a strolling boundary spectator named Jason Lewry, one of the finest swing bowlers never to play for England. "The ball always seemed to swing here but there has also been good value for the batsman prepared to put bat to ball. I like the look of Magoffin. He reminds me of the Sussex coach, Mark Robinson, when he played, accurate and with bounce, just short of a length."

There was some late order hitting from Gareth Batty, Jonathan Lewis and Murali Kartik, but it was too late to rescue a Surrey team for whom Tom Maynard, with 32, was the top scorer among their recognized batsmen. But Sussex are unlikely to find batting straightforward against Surrey's impressive seam attack.

3.58pm: Early tea at Trent Bridge and though it's currently raining, it seems to be getting lighter with every extra cover the groundstaff drag on, writes Richard Rae. Clearly they've been studying the forecast. Lancashire are on 185-5 - had they lost Ashwell Prince when he edged Andre Adams to Alex Hales at first slip when on 51, Notts would definitely be the happier of the sides.

The home team has looked almost as dependent on Adams for wickets as Lancashire are on Prince to shore up their batting - this is his seventh half-century of the season and he's now scored 639 championship runs at close to 50. More play is likely.

5.05pm: Sussex lost a second wicket, when Chris Nash was caught at point off the bowling of Murali Kartik, but then they trooped off because of rain, writes Paul Weaver. There may not be much more play tonight. The weather is setting in and a lot of spectators are already shuffling home.

If there is an early cut the one player will appreciate is Steven Davies, the Surrey wicketkeeper, who has been called up by England as cover for Matt Prior. Davies will journey up to Birmingham tonight but will make his way back to Horsham tomorrow if Prior, as expected, is passed fit.

Talking of players travelling to and fro at Horsham, that reminds me of the time Kevin Innes became the first 12th man in cricket history to score a first-class century. In 2004 - under the new ECB rules, as they then were - counties were allowed to nominate a replacement for England players and before James Kirtley, who had been released from the Test squad, rejoined the Sussex side, Innes scored his memorable hundred.

5.21pm: The wi-fi may not be working and the mobile broadband coverage is sketchy at best, but at least we have cricket at Tunbridge Wells where visitors Hampshire have limped through to 42 for two after 13 overs, writes Mark Pennell.

The umpires Richard Illingworth and Steve Gale finally decided conditions were fit for play at 4.10pm and within an hour Hampshire, having lost the toss, found themselves three down. Former Kent opening bat Michael Carberry followed one from Charlie Shreck to edge low to wicketkeeper Geraint Jones then, 10 runs on, Bilal Shafayat, pushed outside the line of a Mark Davies off-cutter to go leg before for nine.

To make matters worse for Hampshire, Jimmy Adams had reached eight when he too went lbw to Davies after pushing forward, only to miss an off-cutter that jagged back off the pitch to thud into the left-hander's right pad.