On a sunshine‑soaked May Sunday, the cricket season got moving for the first time for England and Kent’s Zak Crawley. The willowy opener’s batting is often feast or famine and after a string of low scores – 67 runs from his first seven innings including a duck in the first innings against Somerset – he looked hungry during his second innings at Taunton. Kent needed him, following on after being bundled out for 178 in response to Somerset’s 554. Crawley departed before the close after making 238 off 267 balls, and somewhere Rob Key was smiling.
Yorkshire fell to a Sussex ram raid at Hove, a nervy fourth innings chase in search of a first victory in six games saw them lose their last four wickets for three runs. Ollie Robinson took three wickets without conceding a run at the death, including the key wicket of Adam Lyth, scraped from the crease for 73 fending off a ball that threatened to whisper sweet nothings to his jugular. Sussex sit atop Division Two.
Ben Stokes got through plenty of graft for Durham and took five second innings wickets at Blackpool but Lancashire are in command thanks to 155 from Keaton Jennings. The Surrey juggernaut rumbled on ominously as they bruised the Worcestershire “Pears” to win by 281 runs inside three days, Dan Worrall continuing his eye-catching season with a 10-wicket match haul.
Essex need 106 more runs against Warwickshire with six wickets left, Jordan Cox (77) and Matt Critchley (46) undefeated overnight. Emilio Gay’s unbeaten 89 has put Northamptonshire in control against Derbyshire and a Marnus Labuschagne century sees Glamorgan lead Middlesex by 134 runs with three wickets remaining.
I’ve filed my write-up, that should land on these pages very soon. The blog will stay open for a while so feel free to continue the chat BTL after a glorious, intriguing, exciting (and tautological) day of county cricket. Thanks for your company and comments – I believe Tanya will be back at the helm tomorrow with plenty of close finishes and results in the offing. Take care and goodnight.
Time for me to start thinking about dipping my quill for tomorrow’s paper. Keep an eye on things for me and keep chatting away BTL. I’ll be back later for the close of play roundup.
Sussex have done it at Hove! Yorkshire all out for 161 to fall short by 21 runs! The final 4 wickets Yorkshire falling for just three runs – Ollie Robinson finishing with 4-42 including snaffling three wickets at the end without conceding a single run.
Incredible game of cricket here at Hove, Sussex win by 21 runs against Yorkshire pic.twitter.com/RhynrKm3rc
Chasing 183 for victory, Yorkshire looked to be favourites at 158-6 with Adam Lyth on 73*.
Ollie Robinson had other ideas though, taking three wickets without conceding a run, before a run out for the final wicket sealed a Sussex win! pic.twitter.com/AJ1T37uFS1
Good afternoon Kim Thonger who is daring to believe… and getting on the plonk:
“Afternoon James
I’m a diehard Somerset fan sitting in gloriously sunny Rutland (it’s a microclimate you know) deliberately thinking the unthinkable, which is that Kent still have the faintest sniff of winning. My theory is that if I think it out loud, The Law of Jinx will prevent it happening, allowing me to relax, open a bottle of The Rutland Vineyard’s finest white wine, First Crush, and light the barbecue.”
Kent are 226-1 with Crawley still there. 150 runs behind. I’m saying nothing.
Marnus in the runs for Glammy. The Aussie batter has notched a fifty for Glamorgan in their second innings against Middlesex. Opening up, he is unbeaten on 64 and his side trail Middlesex by just 34.
Notts have had a shocker at Tent Bridge this afternoon – they’ve lost the second half of their batting card for just 40 runs and have been skittled for 209.
Ben Stokes has five wickets in Blackpool. 5-84 on his first return to Durham for the first time in couple of years. Still, Lancashire sitting pretty with a lead of 446 ahead.
A first ton of the season for the England opener, he’s been imperious since lunch, all powerful drives and dismissive pulls. He embraces Ben Compton at the other end and gives a wave of his bat.
After scoring 67 runs from his first seven innings of the season, Zak Crawley's found some form with a 136-ball century against Somerset 💯#CountyCricket2024pic.twitter.com/ZLLNhqSecm
Just as I press send on that update Yorkshire lose their SIXTH! Jonny Tattersall sweeping Jack Carson but getting a top edge. 62 runs plays four wickets…
Yorkshire chipping away at Hove – that’s the fifty stand between Lyth & Tattersall as the target is reduced to just 62 more. A first win of the campaign coming into sight for the White Rose.
Essex are 82-3 and need another 247 runs more to vanquish Warwickshire. Dean Elgar and Jordan Cox at the crease. Michael Rae has 2-21 for the visitors. A stroll to stretch the legs and a cup of tea calls. Back soon!
Important 50 for Jack Haynes of Notts at Trent Bridge – the home side’s lead creeps up to 128 runs AND just as I type this he is OUT! Fletcha Middleton taking a sharp chance close in off the inside edge, Felix Morgan gets the wicket. The lead 128 but only four wickets left for Notts to eke out a decent target.
Gus Atkinson bundles out Brett D’Oliveira’s leg stump to leave Worcs five down and in danger of capitulation this afternoon.
At Hove – it is squeaky derrierès time for Yorkshire as Sean Hunt castles James Wharton for 18 to leave the visitors five down and still needing a further 100 runs to win. All eyes on Adam Lyth who is duking it out obdurately on 36 from 84 balls. ParpParpParp.
Worcestershire in trouble in South London – Dan Worrall continues his eye catching season with three early wickets – The Pears well and truly bruised at 38-4.
The beleaguered (of late) Zak Crawley goes to 50 at Taunton. His first of the season. Plenty of boundaries in the innings so far and he’s been up against Jack Leach and Craig Overton. A hundred would stop a bit of chatter…
Spending the morning at the Yorkshire Women & Girls Cricket Conference. There are about 300 people here - mostly volunteers who work incredibly hard to grow the women’s game. Great buzz! #GirlsinCricketYorkshirepic.twitter.com/Y4P3g1g2nw
The teams take to the field after lunch, I’m tuned into Sussex against Yorkshire where nerves might be on the jangle. Root fell before lunch to make it four wickets lost for the visitors, Adam Lyth is still there on 25 not out – if he goes then Yorkshire will be teetering. 138 runs still needed.
A second century of the game for Keaton Jennings! A scampered two on the stroke of lunch! A sun hat heavy standing ovation for the opener as he strolls off for a well deserved sandwich.
Righto, with the clock ticking round to 1pm and my tummy starting to rumble like a pair of tennis shoes in a tumble dryer… it’s time to get my head down and do a lunchtime round up before seeking out some sustenance.
Not an ideal start for Essex as they try and haul in a target of 330 to win. Feroze Khushi goes for a golden duck – Michael Rae pinning the opener LBW to give Warwickshire a shot in the arm on the approach to lunch.
Now then, Yorkshire stuttering in their chase of 183. Finlay Bean and Shan Masood back in the hutch already! Yorks 21-2 and need 162 more… Sussex pulling off some nifty grabs too:
And just like that it is all over for Kent’s first innings at Taunton. Nevermind eh, they are about to get another go… Somerset enforce the follow on. Kent 178 all out and still trailing by 378 runs. Gulp.
Lewis Gregory finishes the innings off! Kent 178 all out. Somerset enforce the follow-on!
It’s all kicking off at The Oval. Jordan Clarke is scudded out LBW to a ball that keeps low, Matthew Waite denying the Surrey man his century. Waite then picks up Gus Atkinson with a carbon copy a couple of balls later. At the other end – Sean Abbott crunches Yadvinder Singh for a couple of sixes into the sun scorched bleachers before Singh has the last laugh by cleaning him up bowled.
Good morning to Gary Naylor, who as per, is making a lot of sense:
“If these early rounds were an opportunity for England players to find a bit of form at a lower level, not many have taken it have they? Could it be that it’s not that much lower a level after all - just a different challenge? Rob Key was interviewed yesterday saying that he wanted promising pacers to go from 80mph to 85mph. Why not say develop a wobble seam delivery or an in-ducker or a cutter? We’re not Australians and our best bowlers in history have been masters of movement and control not pace and bounce.”
To Blackpool where Keaton Jennings has just passed fifty, bunting Callum Parkinson down the ground for six and gliding Ben Raine away through point for four. Ben Stokes is now bowling at the Lancashire opener, bustling in with purpose. Stokes looking every inch a lean and tat laden Vincent Van Gogh.
Sussex’s second dig is snuffed out in quick time – Tom Alsop flashing to third slip and falling for 86 and a couple of deliveries later Ollie Robinson has his furniture rearranged. Feng Shui it ain’t. George Hill finishing with 3-44 off his 22.5 overs.
Yorkshire need 183 to win. It could be all over today on the south coast.
What better way to spend a Sunday morning than a beer with breakfast with the lugubrious tones of Vic Marks. He’s in fine fettle on the Somerset stream with Migael Pretorius keeping Joe Denly honest, zoning in on the pads and stumps. Denly quirts a single off the inside edge to bring Joey Evison onto strike. BOLWED ‘IM! Pretorius nips one back and sends the leg stump cartwheeling! Kent 147-6 and Somerset holding all the aces.
Just to say the comments BTL will be activated any moment. The bods on the desk are on the case. Andrew Benton emails in to ask if I’ve had a late/disturbed night? Well, yes but no more so than usual with a toddler... In this instance I can claim innocence. Promise.
The Simon Harmer machine keeps on twirling and whirring. The wily spinner has removed nightwatchman Michael Rae at Chelmsford. Warwickshire spluttering at 53-6 but they do have a handsome lead of 288 runs. Essex creeping back into the contest though.
Easy like a Sontag Morgen? Already a couple of wickets to fall in the first few minutes of the day.
Will Young has nicked off to Kyle Abbott to see Notts go to 33-2 at Trent Bridge against Hampshire. Joe Clarke strides to the wicket with purpose in the midlands.
Unlucky for some – namely Aussies – Dan Lawrence has fallen for 87 at The Oval! Ben Gibbon digs one in short and Lawrence won’t be happy to get out to it. A half tracker in truth and he spoons the pull shot to Nathan Smith on the square leg boundary.
It all started with a phone call. “It was highly unusual for Val to ring me. In fact I don’t think she ever did before or since, that wasn’t her style at all,” says John Stanworth, recalling how Valerie Brown, the wife of the then captain of Burnley CC, Peter Brown, telephoned one Sunday evening in the late-90s.
It would be a tipoff worth interrupting Antiques Roadshow. A different kind of rare and inestimable commodity was about to be unearthed. “Val just said: ‘The lads and Peter keep talking about this lad, he’s a bowler. Have you heard of James Anderson?’”
“I haven’t actually,” Stanworth replied. She said: “Would you mind coming down to have a look at him?”
Forgive the shameless self plugging but I really enjoyed doing this piece on James Anderson’s early days with the help of the Brown family and John Stanworth. As phone calls go, Val Brown’s is quite an important one in the history of English cricket…
The 11am bell clangs around the grounds. Let’s play!
Bright sunshine in Blackpool as Colin Ackerman, shirt billowing gently in the sea breeze, bowls to Keaton Jennings. Lancs lead by 212, can Durham get themselves back into this game? They might need a certain Benjamin…
The Blackpool tower peered over the wall of Stanley Park, curious for the England Test captain’s batting return. But, despite being greeted by warm applause, the England Test captain’s batting return was a brief one – 16 balls – before getting an outside edge to Nathan Lyon and being scooped up at second slip for two.
Lyon – sunglasses, long sleeves, huge shirt – finished with four for 59, but had to share the limelight with the 20-year-old Tom Aspinwall, bowling for the first time in Championship cricket. Aspinwall, who has turned out for England Under-19s, stalks to his mark like a man chasing down a supermarket manager, but it was the testing spells he sent down, running in from the South End, that stuck in the memory of those watching from the sunny banks, drifting through the pages of dog-eared paperbacks and picking up a 99 from the ice cream van.
Aspinwall’s first wicket, Colin Ackermann, was plucked out of the air by Keaton Jennings. The next four he collected in 27 balls after tea, including David Bedingham for a brilliant 101, his third century of the season. Aspinwall led Lancashire off, grinning broadly and holding the ball high in his right hand, saying afterwards he was “a bit shell-shocked” to be bowling to Ben Stokes, alongside Lyon.
Durham’s post-tea collapse left them with a first-innings deficit of 121. They needed something special and it came in a tumbling catch by Matthew Potts off Stokes, clinging on as he landed with a thud. Stokes thought he’d got a second, but the umpire disagreed, and he grew increasingly frustrated as Lancashire eased into the distance.
Elsewhere, Gloucestershire knocked up their highest first-class score, 706-6 declared, to the backdrop of Arron Banks, the co-founder of Leave.EU, declaring an interest in overthrowing the board of the club. Graeme van Buuren, the captain, picked up the third century of the innings, before Leicestershire folded despite a half century from Rishi Patel.
A century from Mark Stoneman put Middlesex in a good position against Glamorgan and a determined 77 from Tom Alsop gave Sussex a lead of 149 against Yorkshire.
In Division One, Che Simmons, “the next Jofra Archer”, had a scorching first spell in first-class cricket with Warwickshire – 6-2-10-3 – to rip through the Essex middle order.
There were four wickets for Nottinghamshire’s Ollie Stone at Trent Bridge, but Liam Dawson (95) and Keith Barker (74) gave Hampshire a first-innings lead; Surrey rubbed Worcestershire’s noses in the dirt, Lawrence 86 not out, the lead 427.
Good morning from a sunny Sussex where there isn’t a cloud in the azure blue sky. Tanya is having a well deserved day off and so I’m here with you today to slip into her county blog moccasins and bring you all the action from up and down the land. Time for some caffeine and a peruse at the state of play around the grounds…
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