1. Draws are no draw
Two points are often, and justifiably, made about first-class cricket: that it is an extraordinarily rich environment for strategic and tactical complexity, and that captains have more influence over the shape of matches than in other sports. I could make a case for Grand Tour cycling, but will not push that argument hard.
So, how do all four Division One matches – with little, if any, interference from weather – not just end in draws but come nowhere near a positive result? Of course, multiple factors create this perfect storm, from pitch preparation, the limited availability of players, to coaching and skills execution (why is reverse swing so rare these days?).
This column has always believed that two elements loom too large in a captain’s mind when considering his options. First, the eight-point reward for a drawn game, particularly after harvesting a crop of first-innings bonus points, is very much worth defending. Rather than go back to five for the stalemate, as it was in 2023, maybe the winning team should pick up 20 points rather than 16. That is the objective after all.
Second, disdain is still too readily heaped on the “contrived result” or “declaration bowling”, but is it really deserved? Is a 60-minute post-lunch thrash off long hops followed by a three-hour chase of 300 in 48 overs a better game for all than two sessions watching two set batters pad their averages as the fielding side up their over rate and avoid injuries?
2. Bears go top as crowd hibernates
It was an excellent round for Somerset, who did not play yet only relinquished their top spot by a single point to Warwickshire, who have played one more match.
After Ed Barnard, Chris Woakes and Michael Booth had lifted the visitors’ first innings from 179 for six up to 459, the bowlers continued to carry the match to the champions, Nottinghamshire, dismissed for 279. The lead was 180, but surely captain Barnard, a bowler himself, should have taken more cognisance of the figure 81.1 – the number of overs in his attack’s legs.
I’m sure that, 166 overs later, those legs were very much on his players’ minds after centuries from Haseeb Hameed and Kyle Verreynne, and decent knocks from Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke secured a draw for Notts. Eight Bears bowled 16 overs or more in that second dig. They will need that week off before their next round.
3. Bashir might have staunched the bashings
Some numbers: 520, 691, 263-4, 409, 472 and 302-2. And no wins.
Rory Burns and the Surrey machine know far more about managing a championship season than I do, but if your home square is yielding up innings of that magnitude, is a quiet word in the ear of the groundsman required? Alternatively, is it time to reassess Surrey’s longtime refusal to play a specialist spinner, an unorthodox approach that has been vindicated by pennants but not mimicked by too many other counties?
I was somewhat surprised when Shoaib Bashir was not pursued in the close season and instead joined Derbyshire in Division Two. He may not be tearing up trees at the moment, but he has proved he can shoot out top batters when they are set – and he would be bowling behind big runs to attacking fields in south London.
4. Crocombe flying high
It always feels more objective looking at batters’ stats when building an argument for a player to come in for an England place (maybe as an opener, who knows just yet?) compared to those of bowlers. Subjective qualities such as “bowls a heavy ball”, “moves it late in the air”, “troubles left-handers” can be backed by data these days, but it’s usually easier to find solid reasons not to pick a bowler than the opposite. “Too many four balls”, “lost his zip” and the ever-reliable “too slow for Test cricket”. (Vernon Philander anyone?)
Henry Crocombe is picking up wickets when other bowlers – certainly outside the prowling pack of wise old foxes – are not. The Sussex pacer has bagged 16 at less than 18 to top the Division One charts. He spent last week bowling to Joe Root, which will not have hurt his case. Nor will the fact he got the maestro out for 96.
5. Oh dear, Lanky, Lanky
I’m loath to bring up the unhappy substitute rule, new for this season and stumbling towards a review, but watching a wicketkeeper-batter (George Bell) and an opening bowler (Tom Bailey) tossing up Sunday afternoon off-breaks, because the spin-bowler-who-bats, Arav Shetty, was not allowed to be replaced by spin-bowler-who-bats, Tom Hartley, was not what it was brought in to do. The video stream did not show county cricket to best advantage covering that malarkey – subscribers won’t pay for that.
But that’s a subplot really. Durham were more than 200 behind, eight down in their first innings, but late-order runs are a mark of a good side and James Anderson and co could not finish them off, Matthew Potts once again showing his credentials for all-rounder status.
Potts then knocked over three Lancastrians to leave them reeling at 41 for five, but a century from ex-Durham man Paul Coughlin allowed Keaton Jennings to declare and set the hosts 336 in a day.
With Anderson at the top of his mark and even a bowler light, Lancashire must have been favourites but, on a dying wicket, Emilio Gay and David Bedingham put on an unbeaten stand of 290 to cruise home and nestle in, three points off their opponents still top of Division Two, who have a game in hand.
6. Kent just can’t
Kent finished bottom of Division One in 2024, bottom of Division Two in 2025 and, after an innings defeat at New Road, they are back in the basement again.
I half-expected to see an XI on the sorry scorecard comprising callow youths and seasoned pros on their last contracts as the club wrote off the red-ball season to concentrate on one-day stuff, in which they have some pedigree of course. But no. Worcestershire handed out an innings defeat to a blend of experienced pros and talented players who may be short of the quality to go up against the best Division One outfits, but should surely be holding their own at the lower level.
Tom Taylor led the Pears’ attack with a second-innings fivefer, but four other members of the seam battery took at least one wicket in each of Kent’s two efforts, in which the highest score from a top-six batter was Zak Crawley’s 31.
Kent welcome an equally abject Derbyshire to the St Lawrence Ground on Friday. Lose that and a very long season stretches in front of them.
