Surrey v Essex, Yorkshire v Sussex, and more: county cricket, day one – live

April 24, 2026
6:29 pm

Key events

Elgar drives Atkinson for four, oh so elegantly, next ball he’s beaten, next ball an elaborate leave. The light blue Oval seats are already gently filling up with bodies, hunching towards the sun; and, poetically, the pavilion clock is stuck at 4.25.

Joe Ro0t returns for Yorkshire

But we’ll have to wait as YJB won the toss and has inserted Sussex – currently 9-0.

“Yorkshire have been on the back foot for all but the first 14 overs of the season haven’t they?” writes Tim Maitland. “A “losing” draw at Glamorgan, where, despite having the home side 28-4, they spent most of the match behind the eight ball and then that 214-run defeat against Hampshire at Headingley, which the Yorkshire Post reports got this scathing verdict from Anthony McGrath: If we keep putting out performances like that it doesn’t matter if we’re playing in the Bradford Sunday School League because we’re going to lose.”

”I can’t pretend to have any experience of Bradford Sunday School League cricket, but if it’s anything like the rest of Bradford cricket it’s probably a pretty high standard… and yet I get the feeling that McGrath’s words were not intended as a compliment.

”Fortunately this Root kid they’re bringing in, is a bit handy. His last four matches? 111, 75,61 and 160 (and a 6, probably just to prove that he is human). Those were in Colombo and Sydney and January must seem a long time ago and feel a lot different to 9C at Headingley.

”He’s starting the season on 19,089 runs, apparently (I haven’t personally counted them all). Would you bet against him passing 20,000 before September’s done?”

An email drops, with a spring trill. Hello Phil Russell!

“As a Bears fan I’m nervous about what Josh Tongue and Co are going to do to our top order in the first session. Our last four innings have seen us start 22-3, 23-3, 25-3 and 14-3. No surprise Notts decided to field first!”

Just had a peek – is 13-1 good news? Pennington and Hutton have opened the bowling, Tongue pawing the earth.

Two-year suspension for Doug Bracewell

Former Essex cricketer Doug Bracewell has been suspended for two years by the Cricket Regulator for “an Adverse Analytical Finding for the presence of cocaine and its Metabolite, benzoylecgonine” when he was tested on the 25th September 2025. Bracewell has accepted the sanction. The suspension lasts until 24 November 2027.

Div One table

All teams have played two games unless marked

1 Somerset (3) 54

2 Warwickshire (3) 39

3 Notts 33

4 Sussex 29

5 Essex (3) 28

6 Hampshire (3) 25

7 Surrey 25

8 Leicestershire 18

9 Glamorgan 15

Yorkshire 13

Gus Atkinson, running in from the pavilion end. That familiar tippytoed run, the hands grasped in prayer. Three slips lick their lips. Dean Elgar is squarered up, some juice straight away.

I have a malfunctioning keyboard that s0metimes w0nt type os – though it did then – so apologies – and then- for sometimes having to use a zero.

Surrey have won the toss and will bowl – Noah Thain plays, on the back 0f, I learnt today from Mike Atherton, a hundred in the second team. Atkinson t0 spruce up Surrey’s b0wling.

Football for Surrey, slip catches for Essex here at The Oval. A groundsman with a red bucket and a fork does sporadic aerating. The seats are filling up on the top layer of the Mickey Stewart pavilion, they’re brave, its in full shade.

This is such a gorgeous ground.

Ooops, I think this may have launched while I was tackling The Oval’s coffee machine, apologies for half-formed thoughts.

Rehan Ahmed off to the IPL

Leicestershire are without Rehan Ahmed, off to bench warm for Delhi Capitals. He will miss the next four Championship games. Leicestershire say there are “absolutely delighted.”