Key events
Cake with the Foxes
Thanks to the BTL pointer to this opportunity for a slice of victoria sponge with Lewis Hill and Rehan Ahmed. Can personally recommend the home-made cakes at Grace Road.
Promotion = Celebration 🎉
Afternoon Tea with the First Team 🍰☕
📅 Thu 18 Sept | 3pm | Charles Palmer Suite
💷 £10 members / £12 non-members (+£3 Prosecco)📲 To book: call/text Lindsey on 07929097676, email lindsey.jeffcoat@elior.co.uk – or book in person!#Foxes🦊 pic.twitter.com/mzTepV3bbf
— Leicestershire CCC 🦊 (@leicsccc) September 17, 2025
Somerset declare!
Kasey Aldridge is run out for 180 after risking a quick single. Somerset’s second-highest score of the season and a great way to sign off at The County Ground before he packs up his kit and heads to Durham. Somerset declare at 454-8.
Oval update
It isn’t raining any more, but it is still dark and dreary. An impressive number of people sitting stoically in the stands in their anoraks.
Play at Taunton and Bristol
Kasey Aldridge has continued where he left off yesterday, now 167 not out, with Craig Overton powering to a quick 20. Somerset 410 for seven.
Price and Bracey press on at Bristol, Gloucesteshire 91 for three.
An email drops from Mr Ali Martin. “Slights fears over the Metro Bank final I’m down to cover this weekend … both the match day and reserve day are shaping up to be washouts if the current forecast holds. Just been delving into the regulations … playoffs and semis have a bowl-out (indoors or outdoors) to settle it but the final needs min 20 overs per side or Hampshire and Worcestershire share the trophy. Fingers crossed things change before then…”
PS. On the subject of bowl-outs, here’s a trip down memory lane…
A further inspection at The Oval when/if the light improves.
Weather stops play
Rain is drawing the curtain across the country. Delayed starts at Durham, Hove, Edgbaston, Derby, Old Trafford, Grace Road and now it has started raining at The Oval.
The umpires are out in the middle stalking the pitch.
Tuesday’s round-up
Seventeen wickets fell on a feet-tappingly tense day at the Oval, the game swinging like an out-of-kilter pendulum as the bowlers hunted in packs, with assistance from a pitch with a twinkle in its eye. Nottinghamshire finished the day with a lead of 277 and two wickets left, to leave Surrey the biggest score of the match to chase – but on a pitch that usually irons out.
After a calm first hour Surrey collapsed from 101 for one to 173 all out, only for Nottinghamshire’s batters to repeat the feat, quickly 89 for six against the excellent Matt Fisher, who has picked up 10 wickets in the match and may have bowled himself on to the Lions’ winter tour of Australia. Liam Patterson-White and Lyndon James then added crucial late afternoon runs.
Surrey announced that 80,000 people had come through the gates at the Oval to watch Championship cricket this year – a record for the 21st century.
The two teams who fought out the Blast final on Saturday met again at Edgbaston. After having Somerset in trouble at 99 for five, Hampshire once more came under the pump as Tom Abell and Kasey Aldridge piled on the runs, a century each in a sixth-wicket stand of 221. Abell passed 1,000 runs for the season and Aldridge was unbeaten on a career-best 149.
Leicestershire played pinball at Grace Road against a Kent side containing five teenagers including Corey Flintoff, older brother of Rocky. First Rishi Patel rocked to his second century of the season, then Ben Cox and Shan Masood shuttled to quick 90s before Ian Holland declared on 459 for seven, maximum batting points in the bag.
Essex need a draw to secure Division One safety, and steadily batted themselves towards it against Warwickshire, propped up by Charlie Allison’s 98.
The Division One basement dwellers Worcestershire and Durham scrapped for bones at Chester-le-Street. After a nip‑and‑tuck morning Gareth Roderick (95 not out) and Brett D’Oliveria (84) added 170 for the fourth wicket.
A calm and crucial 94 from Kiran Carlson kept the Derbyshire vultures at bay after they had reduced Glamorgan to 99 for six. Derbyshire need to win to have a chance of overtaking the Welsh side to the second promotion place.
Saif Zaib hit yet another half-century for Northamptonshire, keeping them afloat against a perky Gloucestershire attack at Bristol. There were three wickets for Graeme van Buuren and three for Matt Taylor. The hosts then lost three of their own before stumps.
It was a ding-dong battle at Hove, where both Yorkshire and Sussex are trying to keep their heads above the relegation zone. Yorkshire. The visitors went from 100 for two to 115 for seven, before they were dug out of a hole by Jordan Thompson and the tail.
Only 44 overs were possible at a wet Old Trafford, enough for Lancashire to pour cold water on Middlesex’s promotion hopes by reducing them to 189 for eight.
Scores on the doors
Division One
Riverside: Durham v Worcestershire 320-5
Taunton: Somerset 381-7 v Hampshire
The Oval: Surrey 173 v Nottinghamshire 231 and 219-8
Hove: Sussex 84-4 v Yorkshire 194
Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Essex 325-5
Division Two
The County Ground: Derbyshire 17-0 v Glamorgan 259
Bristol: Gloucestershire 65-3 v Northamptonshire 206
Old Trafford: Lancashire v Middlesex 189-8
Grace Road: Leicestershire 459-7 v Kent 17-0
Inspection at The Oval
I spoke too soon, they are having an inspection at 10.30am, with the light the biggest issue. The floodlights are on already.
Preamble
Good morning from The Oval where the sirens are blaring, a church bell just rang ten o’clock and it is not currently raining. Both teams are out in the middle – Peter Moores has Notts in a circle and is giving them a pep talk, while Surrey play football. The Championship could be (almost) decided here, today – do join us, play starts at 10.30am.
