McMillan home early from Lashings stint

Craig McMillan's season with Lashings in English cricket has been ended early after he was recalled by New Zealand Cricket for treatment of an ankle injury he has sustained. McMillan had been contracted to play for the club for the entire season.

In a recent Lashings match against Hunton, Chris Harris scored 101 in a total of 330 for 5. Hunton were dismissed for 236.

Things are hotting up for other New Zealanders involved in English and Dutch cricket with Craig Spearman and John Bracewell's Gloucestershire side making the final of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy final.

The game will be played at Lord's on August 30. They will play Worcestershire and if Gloucestershire can win it will be their fourth success, and their third in five years. Only Lancashire (7) and Warwickshire (5) have won it more times in its 40-year history.

Spearman scored 27 off 21 balls in the semi-final against Derbyshire which was won by one wicket. Earlier, he scored 0 and 94 in Gloucestershire's county match with Yorkshire while in the National Cricket League he scored 93 off 88 balls in the eight-wicket win over Yorkshire and 85 off 73 balls in the 66-run loss to Surrey.

Slowly but surely Chris Cairns is starting to get among the wickets for Nottinghamshire. In the county championship match against Middlesex, which Notts lost by four wickets, he bowled 18 overs for 1 for 61 and 10 overs for 2 for 43. He scored 14 and 41 in the same game.

In the National League he took 2 for 20 off nine in a 25-run loss to Lancashire and 1 for 52 off nine in a four-wicket win over Durham. His three wickets against Middlesex were the most he has managed in a first-class match since the first Test against England at Jade Stadium and he hasn't taken more since the five he took against Bangladesh in Wellington in December 2001.

Daniel Vettori's stint with Nottinghamshire came to a disappointing end when he split the webbing between the spinning fingers of his left hand, and his arm later became infected which saw him admitted to Nottingham hospital. He played only three matches in his time there, two county games for six wickets at 50.33 and a one-day game in which he took 1 for 36 off nine overs.

Stephen Fleming's National League 139 against Warwickshire, off 104 balls, was his highest score in his 310-match List A career. It passed the 134 not out he scored against South Africa at Johannesburg in the World Cup. Yorkshire won the game by seven wickets. Earlier, he scored 0 and 16 in the drawn game with Gloucestershire in the County Championship and he scored 21 in the National League match, also against Gloucestershire.

Around the leagues there have also been some encouraging signs. In the Surrey League, Luke Woodcock scored 100 not out for Purley and took 6 for 57 in a winning draw against Dulwich on Saturday while Canterbury Country player Danny Barclay, who plays for Dorking, scored 55 not out and took 5 for 37 in a losing draw against Camberley.

In the Lancashire League, Rob Nicol's Rishton side is still last, but in the last three games against Burnley, Lowerhouse and Ramsbottom successively, he has scored 2, 43 and 84.

In the Hampshire League, Neal Parlane has been playing for the BAT Sports side which leads the League and scored 69 off 64 balls in a 54-run loss to the Hampshire Cricket Academy.

News of Hamish Marshall's feats in the Home Counties Premier League has been spasmodic but in his most recent outing for Gerrards Cross in the Division 2 West, he scored 163 not out, in a team total of 301-4 in 54 overs against Burnham. Earlier, he had scores of 63 not out against Thame Town, 75 against Wokingham, 77 not out against Bicester and NO and 65 not out against Farnham Royal, all of them victories. In a match against Tring Park he unleashed his bowling arm and took 5 for 30, also a win.

Michael Parlane, playing for sixth-placed Swardeston in the East Anglia League scored 51 against Mildenhall and took 2 for 45 in a four-wicket win. At the weekend, he scored 119 and took 1 for 71 in a drawn game against Norwich.

Warren McSkimming has been among the runs for his fourth-placed Lytham club in the Liverpool and District League. He scored 85 not out against Huyton and shared an unbeaten partnership of 185 with Jimmy Wisniewski and is a fourth-wicket premier league record since the new structure came into place in 1999. He also took 2 for 43 in the seven-wicket win. In his most recent innings he scored 60 not out against New Brighton in a seven-wicket win.

McSkimming has now scored 547 runs at 78.14 in 15 matches.

In the same league, for the Leigh club which is in ninth place, Brendon Donkers has scored 36 in a drawn game against New Brighton and 24 against Bootle, a match lost by 10 wickets. Donkers' side is hosting the final of the Littlewoods Gaming Knockout Trophy after he scored 47 in the semi-final against Bootle, who were dismissed for 47.

In the first division of the same league Aaron Barnes scored 126 and took 2 for 42 against Liverpool in a drawn match. Barnes has now scored 926 runs at 71.23 and heads the aggregates. In second place is another New Zealander, James Marshall, who scored 54 in a nine-wicket win against Highfield. He has totalled 874 runs at 58.26.

Across the North Sea, Tama Canning scored 105 not out and took 0 for 17 off 10 overs for VOC against Rood en Wit to help claim an eight-wicket win. HCC beat HBS by nine wickets thanks largely to some fine bowling by Andre Adams who took 3 for 8 off 9.2 overs and was 23 not out at the end.

Darron Reekers appeared in the Netherlands side in two internationals against Denmark in Copenhagen. He bowled seven overs and had none for 11 in the first match which was rain-affected. A revised target required the Netherlands to score 91 which they achieved for the loss of five wickets in 24.4 overs with Reekers scoring four at No 5. In a second match which the Netherlands won by 105 runs, Reekers was dismissed for a duck and took none for 18 off seven overs.