Essex beat Derbyshire by five wickets with nearly 14 overs to spare at Chelmsford to ensure that they would avoid the wooden spoon in the Norwich Union Second Division

With some formality, Somerset completed their fifth win of the season, beating relegated Essex by nine wickets to take 19 points and enhance their quest for runners-up position in the Cricinfo Championship

Somerset took total control of this match when they dismissed Essex for 172 to gain a first innings lead of 219 at Chelmsford before the home side safely negotiated the remaining 12 overs of the day

The batting of Somerset captain Jamie Cox was the feature on the opening day of this Cricinfo Championship match against Essex which saw the Australian batting throughout the day to finish unbeaten on 175 before bad light stopped play with 10

Essex skipper Ronnie Irani steered his side to their third NUL win of the season with an unbeaten 56 that helped secure a four-wicket victory over Middlesex with more than six overs to spare in their day/night match at Colchester

Only 11 overs of play were possible before a thunderstorm, followed by torrential rain saturated the Castle Park ground in Colchester

Lancashire will be confident of completing victory tomorrow after ending the third day in firm control of this match

Lancashire enjoyed a fruitful day with both bat and ball against relegation doomed Essex with the visitors taking a major step forward to fashioning the win that would virtually ensure their First Division status

A high-quality innings from Neil Fairbrother dominated the day's proceedings at Colchester

Bottom of the table Essex pulled off a shock win against league leaders Worcestershire by 33-runs at Chelmsford with Graham Napier grabbing the headlines with a magnificent all-round performance

Essex ended a dismal run of four successive defeats in the CricInfo County Championship with a draw against Leicestershire after Darren Robinson had completed a century for the second time in the match

Centuries from Stuart Law and Darren Robinson contributed the bulk of the Essex endeavours to stave off the follow on target of 410 and at the close, the home side still required another 81 runs with three wickets remaining

Leicestershire batsman plundered the Essex bowlers on the second day of this CricInfo Championship match despite a truncated day that saw the loss of 52 overs due to rain

Leicestershire took full advantage of the ideal conditions with Iain Sutcliffe and Aftab Habib capitalising to maximum effect as both reached unbeaten centuries on a benign pitch in ideal conditions after the visitors won the toss

Hampshire enhanced their promotion prospects when they beat bottom of the table Essex by 85 runs at Southend

Kent completed the 'double' over near-neighbours Essex with opening bowler Martin Saggers returning figures to influence another wretched batting display by the bottom-of-the-table side

A truncated day saw 55 overs lost but Kent opener Robert Key negotiated his way to an unbeaten century shortly before the close having batted for 5 hours and 49 minutes at that stage

Essex produced a pitiful performance on the opening day of their CricInfo Championship at Southend against Kent having been dismissed for 107 as Mark Ealham returned figures of 5-13

After two days of highly entertaining cricket, the final day proved somewhat disappointing for the capacity crowd with the Australians electing to bat throughout

Australia will have been encouraged by the form of opening batsman Mathew Hayden prior to the Ashes battle that begins at Edgbaston next Thursday