LV County Championship 2012: Friday April 13

Close: Andrew McGlashan wraps up the day

Plenty of matches moving on swiftly again this round, but also some batsmen managed to flourish. David Hopps has watched Michael Lumb hit a century at Chester-le-Street while Myles Hodgson reports on Michael Yardy putting Sussex in control against Lancashire. Somerset need Nick Compton to convert into a hundred, as George Dobell writes, while things were a little slower at Lord's for Alex Winter but no less fascinating.

In Division Two, David Balcombe took eight wickets but Gloucestershire are still on top reports Ivo Tennant. In the other two games, Michael Powell ended a three-year wait for a Championship hundred and Derbyshire are building what could be a match-winning lead in a low-scoring match.

Join the team tomorrow for all the action from the third day.

6.00pm: Andrew McGlashan rounds up the other matches

Northants are having a shocker. They are 30 for 4 in their second innings, still more than 200 behind Kent. Perhaps, after last season’s near miss at promotion, they have decided steaming ahead early season isn’t the way to go. Matt Coles and Charlie Shreck are shaping as a very useful pairing for Kent. Meanwhile, Derbyshire are climbing towards a 200-run lead against Glamorgan which, judging by the way that match has gone, should be plenty for victory although you never can tell.

5.45pm: David Hopps at Durham v Nottinghamshire

Michael Lumb has his 13th first-class century, helped to 99 with three long hops from the young legspinner, Scott Borthwick, and the hundred achieved with a push into the legside against Ben Stokes. It is not easy bowling leg spin in these temperatures. As for Lumb, he is not much beyond his 30th birthday and Notts, who have given him a three-year deal, clearly believe that he can reinvent himself.

5.20pm: David Hopps at Durham v Nottinghamshire

The last time I saw Michael Lumb bat was a few days before t20 finals day in 2010. I had gone down to Taunton in the hope of a joint interview with Lumb and his fellow opener in England’s World t20 winning side, Somerset’s Craig Kieswetter.

Lumb agreed in typically laid-back manner, but Somerset were protective of Kieswetter, fearing publicity might prove damaging, so refused. Still, I thought, at least I still have the Lumb interview. I arranged to meet him the following morning, but was somewhat shaken to discover him walking into the ground on crutches with his ankle in a plaster cast. Kieswetter, while batting, had broken Lumb’s foot at silly point.

“And Kies is meant to be a mate of mine,” he complained.

“Never mind that,” I said. “He’s now denied me not one interview, but two.”

There may be a sharp-eyed reader lurking who suspects I have told that story before on the Guardian blog. And indeed I have. It is traditional to tell all old county cricket stories at least 1,000 times by the end of May.

That broken foot interrupted the headiest period in Lumb’s career. As well as World Cup winners' medal, he had enjoyed an unexpected call-up for the IPL with Rajasthan Royals. The brash new world of Twenty20 suited his adventurous style.

Now, with no IPL contract, he is rebuilding his county career at Notts. He can prove to be an excellent signing in one-day cricket, but I had my doubts about him as a No. 3 in the championship. He is currently 84 not out and has barely put a foot wrong. If he reinvents himself again as a county championship stalwart, it will be quite something.

5.15pm: Myles Hodgson at Lancashire v Sussex

Steve Magoffin may not have been at the top of many counties’ wanted lists when they were scouting around for overseas talent for this summer, but he has made a considerable impression on his Sussex debut.

He followed up two wickets and a 10-over new ball spell during Lancashire’s first innings by hanging around with the bat and then claimed three further wickets when the champions began their second innings trailing by 176-runs.

Exploiting extra bounce than any bowler on either side from the River End, he tempted Stephen Moore into edging low to Michael Yardy at slip and then nipped one back to win an lbw appeal against Karl Brown with his next delivery. Ashwell Prince denied him a debut hat-trick, but that extra bounce also accounted for Paul Horton when he edged to Luke Wells at third slip.

The contrast between the safe hands of Sussex’s fielders and the display given by Lancashire, who dropped four catches earlier in the day, was stark. Peter Moores, the former Sussex coach now plying his trade with Lancashire, will no doubt mention it once or twice when the champions began their post mortem into this opening game.

5pm Alex Winter at Middlesex v Surrey

Tense stuff here. Progress was made in the afternoon when Steven Davies and Jacques Rudolph reaped rewards for their hard work against the new ball but now those two have gone, it’s once again a real struggle.

Mark Ramprakash has endured a torrid time. Making the worst 8 he’s probably ever made before pulling a boundary to finally take him out of single figures. The bowling is very accurate and the ball is still wobbling around. Middlesex rather unfortunate to have only removed the one wicket through seam bowling.

4.45pm: Ivo Tennant at Hampshire v Gloucestershire

There is no pleasing groundsmen. Nigel Gray spent most of the inaugural Test match here last year standing by the covers, hands on hip, irked by the incessant rainfall. Now, he is thoroughly miserable about no spring downpours – except, of course, during matches, which he does not like. His radar tells him bad weather is on the way, but at least probably not before close of play. And then there is the prospect of a hosepipe ban. He has come into the press box for some respite from all this, only to be told that he has been called ‘Nigel Green’ in one publication this morning.

4.00pm: Myles Hodgson at Lancashire v Sussex

There is always plenty of luck in selecting any sporting team, but during a disappointing opening two days of their match against Sussex, Lancashire can at least take heart from choosing Luke Procter as their all-rounder.

His selection was forced by a slight hamstring strain suffered by Tom Smith during last week’s match against Cambridge University, but perhaps the sight of his main rival for a place running around the outfield at lunch may have spurred Procter on during the afternoon session.

Oldham-born Procter started the day well by ending Ed Joyce’s 213 minutes of crease occupation this morning and returned this afternoon to break up a frustrating 43-run ninth wicket stand between Amjad Khan and James Anyon when he knocked back Amjad’s off-stump.

Procter finished with a respectable three for 48 by dismissing Monty Panesar two balls later, who carefully steered the ball to Ashwell Prince at third slip despite extra practice on his batting before the match. Sussex, dismissed for 300, hold a first-innings lead of 176.

3.30pm: George Dobell at Warwickshire v Somerset

Joined in the box by Robert Brooke, author of The Fields Were Sudden Bare, a biography of FR Foster, which has been shortlisted for the MCC/Cricket Society book of the year. The winner will be announced on Monday night.

At the risk of being seen to plug the book, it is a wonderful, if tragic, story. Foster, having captained Warwickshire to the championship title in 1911 at the age of just 22, then topped the bowling averages as England won the 1911-12 Ashes.

But then it all went wrong. Foster lost his way in a haze of wine, women and mental illness. He was arrested – but subsequently cleared – on suspicion of murder and, having been banned from his beloved Edgbaston eventually died, alone and all but unmourned, in a mental institution.

How, I wonder, might Foster have fared today? Not just as a top-class all-rounder, but in a society with a bit more understanding of the mental health issues that troubled him.

Meanwhile Tresocthick has gone here. Keith Barker, like Foster a left-arm fast bowling all-rounder, trapped him leg before with a full, swinging delivery.

3.10pm: Ivo Tennant at Hampshire v Gloucestershire

The wicket-keeping of Michael Bates during Gloucestershire's first innings of 314 has been as impressive as the bowling of David Balcombe, who captured eight wickets. He has taken six catches and was immaculate in all his glovework. Last year Hampshire made a misguided attempt to sign James Foster from Essex, disregarding the importance of developing their own talent. Bates has 'kept to Danny Briggs' left arm spin since they were ten years old.

The sticking point, of course, was his batting. Bates needs to make runs - as indeed he did against Loughborough in Hampshire's opening match of the season. Otherwise Hampshire will have a renewed preference for the stopper who can bat - a Nic Pothas type. How pleasing it is to see a specialist young wicket-keeper perform with such promise, regardless of whether he can bat.

3.05pm: David Hopps at Durham v Nottinghamshire

Sadly the goggles are not as good against the spinners.... Hales, after so much good work, has responded to the arrival of Ian Blackwell's slow left-arm by trying to tonk him straight down the ground and has holed out at wide mid-on.

3.00pm: David Hopps at Durham v Nottinghamshire

Alex Hales has made the first half-century of the match as Nottinghamshire have made a better fist of things second time around against Durham. When he guided Ben Stokes backward of point for four, Notts were 77-1, a lead of 109, and Graham Onions only had the wicket of Neil Edwards to show for an insistent 10-over spell.

Hales, like his Notts team-mate James Taylor, was omitted from England’s development squad after a largely unproductive winter with the Lions in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has worked hard to modify his attacking style, instead guiding the ball watchfully into the gaps. There were times, against Onions in particular, when you could sense him willing himself to play with deliberation. It has been a grown-up innings and that is good news for Notts as they seek to remedy their top-order failings.

Google have supposedly invented a prototype of “augmented reality goggles” that once they have booted up feed you with extraneous information such as what the weather is going to be like and how far away you are from the sort of social situation that terrifies anyone who spends half their life on social media websites.

It sounds an appalling idea and will soon ensure that people in London bump into each other even more than they do now. But there have been times when Hales might almost have been wearing a pair of Google goggles. “Readout: 3cm swing, apply defensive technique 180 degrees, success, save, rebuild.” It is not often you have been able to say that.

3pm Alex Winter at Middlesex v Surrey

Just the two wickets in the day and Middlesex have taken their first, Jacques Rudolph walking past Ollie Rayner's third ball. He'd played very earnestly and with the players to come, he and Steven Davies who is still there looking as compact as ever, have provided their side with a superb platform.

Reasonable numbers in the ground again today and no rain, as yet, to wash a few away either. Among them, although i'm not sure he paid to get in, Chris Tremlett. He went off with Chris Adams to the gym at the Nursery end, looking a touch crestfallen.

1.55pm: Myles Hodgson at Lancashire v Sussex

Cricket has a great capacity to make fools or heroes out of all of us and Gareth Cross, Lancashire’s wicketkeeper, will no doubt have embraced that old adage after two moments of contrasting fortune at Aigburth.

Cross looked like he wanted to be swallowed up by the outfield after missing a regulation chance during the morning session when Joe Gatting, then on two, edged Luke Procter behind only for the ball to fly through the wicketkeeper’s gloves and race to the boundary.

He made amends, however, by helping to remove Michael Yardy, Sussex’s captain, for 110 off the fourth ball of the afternoon session, who toppled out of his crease after leaving a delivery from Simon Kerrigan and allowed Cross to break the stumps.

Fielding lapses have been a recurring theme of Lancashire’s performance on the second day, with Paul Horton dropping two slip catches, which allowed Ed Joyce and Yardy to extend their partnership to 164.

Joyce finally fell when Stephen Moore clung on to a slip catch and Lancashire, now bubbly and vocal in the field after a frustrating morning, claimed their second breakthrough in the over after lunch.

1.40pm: George Dobell at Warwickshire v Somerset

Fascinating morning at Edgbaston. Lunch was delayed by a tenth-wicket stand that has added 23 to Warwickshire’s total and increased their lead to 72.

That takes just a bit of the gloss of what had been a decent session for Somerset. Warwickshire, resuming on 111 for three, had lost six for 85 until Chris Wright joined Keith Barker. Had Steve Kirby been able to keep his footing, he would have been able to take the simplest of chances offered by Barker when the score was 208. As it was, the ball fell safely to ground and Somerset must try again after lunch.

Before that it was a case of some decent bowling and some brittle batting.

One thing that will not have impressed Geoff Miller is the number of byes conceded by Craig Kieswetter. Conditions are tricky, certainly, but a tally of 17 is surely excessive.

1.35pm: Andrew McGlashan rounds up the other action

A quick mention of the other games going on during this round. Derbyshire have managed a first-innings lead after demolishing Glamorgan for 95 – they have some serious batting issues, but aren’t alone in that. Jon Clare took 5 for 17. Meanwhile, Kent are approaching a three-figure lead thanks to a half-century from Mike Powell. Will be tough for Northants to stay in the game.

1.25pm: Alex Winter at Middlesex v Surrey

Been an interesting morning at Lord's with the hosts surviving an hour's play to bring up another batting point. It took a Dawid Malan strangle down the legside to end the innings but Middlesex do have a score on the board.

Conditions appear much better for batting today, the sun is out and the prospect of rain is less than yesterday, which is good news for Surrey. They somehow survived a great opening stint from Tim Murtagh, being beaten with regularity; Jacques Rudolph also survived a strong appeal for lbw.

But survive they did and now have a pleasant afternoon to go about building a total. They haven't won at Lord's since 1997 so will be very keen to put that right this week.

12.45am: Ivo Tennant at Hampshire v Gloucestershire

Not sure how many sales of the Martin-Jenkins autobiography there will be today, as, for the second day running, The Ageas Bowl (get it right - Rod) is sparsely attended. As to his name, initials, hyphen and all, the BBC originally wanted to call him plain Christopher Jenkins.

11.55am: David Hopps at Durham v Nottinghamshire

I have to butt in here to say that CM-J is the most grammatical correct use of a hyphen I think I have ever seen.

Most people would have thought that CMJ would suffice. That's old school breeding for you! I noticed that it is used in his autobiography, about which Mr Tennant will have a review on these pages very soon.

11.50am: Ivo Tennant at Hampshire v Gloucestershire

The bookshop at The Rose Bowl is stocking the newly published memoirs of Test Match Special's Christopher Martin-Jenkins. There is particular interest in these parts in the passage on his colleague John Arlott, a Hampshire man through and through, and whose best friend, Leo Harrison, played for the county. C M-J relates a story concerning the quick thinking of Fred Trueman in his TMS summarising days. Trueman asked Arlott on air what he thought of a particular incident, only to spot the great man had fallen asleep at the mike. Fiery Fred swiftly informed his listeners that John agreed with every view he held and promptly returned to the studio.

11.35am: David Hopps at Durham v Nottinghamshire

In the time it has taken for me to eat my first bacon sandwich of the season (the County Cricket Healthy Eating Guide limits me to one a month, but it is cold and Friday 13th to boot so I needed a psychological lift), Durham have lost three wickets. Actually, make that four. At 82 for 7 in reply to Nottinghamshire’s 161, this match is rushing an apace.

You really don’t need a description. Even the most cursory check of the championship highlights shows a succession of batsmen driving indiscriminately against the moving ball. There is not much patience about, just a sense among batsmen that it is better to get runs while they can. I still think the first-innings par score on this deck was around 220.

Dale Benkenstein’s end was particularly disappointing as he played loosely at Andre Adams, and the other three wickets have fallen to Ben Phillips, 37 now, and beginning his 17th season of first-class cricket in good order. Ben Stokes reached 33, the top score of the match to date and then played on as he shaped to leave.

11.40am: George Dobell at Warwickshire v Somerset

If Varun Chopra doesn’t play for England, perhaps it will be Gary Neville’s fault. Chopra didn’t last long this morning, edging a Steve Kirby outswinger to slip, so failed to take the opportunity to impress the watching Geoff Miller. But, had former Manchester United and England footballer Neville not stepped in to help Kirby a few years ago, there is a possibility the fast bowler would have died.

Kirby used to suffer from blackouts. On one occasion, as a teenager, he swallowed his tongue and, but for the prompt action of Neville, would have been in deep trouble. "I owe him masses," Kirby said. "If he hadn't pulled my tongue out [of my throat] I'd have died."

Some will also be interested to hear that Kirby recalls Phil Neville as a better cricketer than Andy Flintoff when the pair were 15. "Phil was captain of the England under-15 side at football and cricket," Kirby recalls. "He was brilliant. I know it's a big statement, but he was better than Flintoff at the time. Anyway, Lancashire did offer him a two-year contract when he was about 15, but Manchester United just put £200,000 straight into his bank account and told him he was going to be a footballer. What else could he have done?" It does sound like a persuasive argument, doesn't it?

11.10am: George Dobell at Warwickshire v Somerset

Morning from Edgbaston. Just seen Geoff Miller, the national selector, coming into the ground, so today offers a good opportunity for the likes of Varun Chopra and, perhaps, Jos Buttler to show what they can do.

It will also be interesting to see how the pitch plays. Part of the reason that both sides wanted to bat first is because they feared that indentations made on the first morning on a damp pitch might provide more assistance for bowlers as the match progresses. As we have just seen one ball from Vernon Philander keep very low, there is evidence there may be something in that. Unless the weather intervenes, it seems most unlikely we will be here much on Sunday. The draw is becoming an endangered species in cricket.

10.45am: Myles Hodgson at Lancashire v Sussex.

The media, for obvious reasons, are not allowed in dressing rooms before the start of a day’s play but it does not take a genius to work out that Peter Moores, Lancashire’s ultra-positive coach, will be urging his side to deliver a vastly-improved performance today.

Steven Croft, Lancashire’s unofficial vice-captain, hinted at the self-belief instilled within their camp following last summer’s championship triumph by claiming: “We’ve been in this position before and hopefully we can use our experience.”

They will need all that and more when Sussex resume 13 runs ahead on 137 for three, but the general consensus from both camps is that there is still life in the Aigburth wicket and all results are still possible, although after an opening day when 13 wickets fell, it would be unwise to plan for much play on Sunday, the scheduled final day.

10.20am Andrew McGlashan sets up your day

The bowlers held sway across the country on the opening day and you can catch up with all the action from our reporters around the country. David Hopps witnessed another example of Durham's strength in pace bowling and Myles Hodgson saw Lancashire given a tough start to their title defence. Meanwhile, George Dobell reports on another fine display by Chris Wright and Alex Winter watched Surrey make inroads before Middlesex fought back at Lord's.

Over in Division Two, Ivo Tennent saw some stubborn batting from Gloucestershire while 14 wickets tumbled at Cardiff between Glamorgan and Derbyshire and 13 at Northampton where Kent took control.

And while you are waiting for the day to develop, why not pop over to the ECB website and take a look at the highlights of Day 1. We are confident you will come back.

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