Gibson returns

At the age of 35 and having played his last first-class match more than three years ago, Ottis Gibson scarcely expected to be leading a county attack this summer. He had been employed as a coach by the ECB for the last three seasons and, along with the occasional appearance as a professional in club cricket, that was the original plan for the summer of 2004.

As it is Gibson, the former West Indies and Glamorgan allrounder, has found himself back among the leading strike bowlers in Division Two.

So how did it happen? "I was working on my Level 4 coaching course with Phil Whitticase [the Leicestershire coach] and he suggested that Grace Road might be an option," says Gibson, who doubles up as the county's bowling coach. "I'd made a decision to move on and hadn't intended to go back on that, but circumstances dictate your life and you have to follow them.

"I still thought I could cut it in first-class cricket and the beauty of the job at Leicestershire was that I could combine it with my coaching."

"The only problem has been that, with the playing side going so well, I haven't been able to do as much coaching as I'd hoped. I'll have to catch up with that during the winter."

Moment of the month Against Yorkshire Darren Robinson had put down two regulation chances, both from Tim Bresnan, both at slip. Thankfully, when a third came along, he gratefully clung on.