Key events
Butter fingers at Chelmsford– Ben Foakes missed twice in two balls. A tricky missed stumping and then Harmer spills the gravy attempting a caught and bowled
150 for Joe Clarke
In a round for bowlers, Clarke has stood tall. Notts 321-7 and searching for batting points.
Ha, I missed that Gloucestershire opened with Ollie Price’s loopy loops. Silly season a month early.
Next round, Durham travel to Wantage Road, in a crucial game for Northants, while Gloucestershire entertain Derbyshire at Bristol.
Durham beat Gloucestershire by 10 wickets
A one minute 45 second victory. Durham continue to survey all around from the lofty position of top of Division Two, Gloucestershire remain in the basement, nine defeats in ten. Matthew Potts four not out.
In fact everywhere except Scarborough, well played groundstaff. So, first to Chester le Street, where Durham have opened with Ollie Robinson and Matthew Potts.
Starting on time at New Road
Abracadabra.
An early lunch at Scarborough
There’s a damp patch just before the bowler’s delivery stride at the press box end. They’re hoping for play later dependent on sawdust and sun.
Weather watch
Still showery everywhere except the southeast. The Met office says: Outbreaks of rain affect parts of Scotland and northern England at first. A band of heavy, showery rain then spreads eastwards, with blustery showers and thunderstorms developing more widely during the afternoon. Southeast England stays mostly dry. Blustery at times.
Roundup: aggravated Gloucestershire make Durham wait
Rain rudely interrupted the County Championship on bank holiday Saturday but there was evening controversy at Chester-le-Street. Kasey Aldridge had bowled Durham to almost-victory with four for 47, giving him nine wickets in the match, leaving his side four to win. But with the floodlights on and filthy skies, Gloucestershire refused to bowl spin and the umpires said it was too dark for pace.
Mark Alleyne, the Gloucestershire head coach, explained: “Forty-five minutes before we lost the last wicket, it was too dark to play, which would have been consistent with all the other days that we played.
“I was really surprised that Carse was allowed to bowl to [James] Bracey at the time. He got him out, then took off straight away. So, yeah, we had probably 50 minutes of cricket there that we probably shouldn’t have done.
“They asked if we would bowl our spinners to finish the game. Of course, we said: ‘No, we’ll bowl our quick bowlers,’ in which case it became bad light, so we’ll come back tomorrow.
“I mean, we’ve been outplayed, of course, but there’s certain parts of the game that we feel we were really hard done by some really poor decisions, in my view, and I hope they get a chance to look back at those, but one of the poorest is playing in the light that we did for so long.
“So, with that in mind, we thought we’d hedge our bets and see if it might rain all day tomorrow, so you never know.”
At Scarborough, over 31.5 overs, Leicestershire’s Sheridon Gumbs and Rishi Patel saw off the best that Yorkshire could throw at them on a damp bowler-friendly day. A draw looks almost inevitable, offering some succour to both sides trying to escape the drop.
After a four-hour rain delay at Sophia Gardens, Sonny Baker quickly polished off Glamorgan, to finish with four wickets (over three days), and Hampshire held a one-run advantage on first innings. Nick Gubbins and Ali Orr made a confident start to the second innings, racing to a 70 run stand until an unimpressed Gubbins was given out lbw to Mir Hamza.
There was no play at all at New Road, Northampton, Derby, Edgbaston, Hove and Chelmsford.
Scores on the doors
Division One
Chelmsford: Essex 279 v Surrey 183 and 51-4
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 161 v Hampshire 162 and 124-2
Hove: Sussex 250 v Somerset 202 and 167-2
Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Nottinghamshire 299-7
Scarborough: Yorkshire 263 v Leicestershire 84-0
Division Two
Derby: Derbyshire 79-3 v Middlesex
Chester-le-Street: Durham 384 v Gloucestershire 137 and 250 Durham need 4 to win
Northampton: Northamptonshire 74-0 v Kent 345
New Road: Worcestershire 12-1 v Lancashire 180
Preamble
Hello and happy damp Sunday. After yesterday’s almost total washout, there’s a hope of play today, especially at Chelmsford and Hove. At Chester le Street, where a cheesed-off Gloucestershire refused to bowl spin last night in the gloom and therefore pushed Durham’s chase of four runs into today, there has been morning rain. The mops are out.
Elsewhere, if the weather allows, there might be bold declarations and gung-ho chases in the desperate search of Championship points. We’ll be here all day, do join us.