LV= County Championship, Saturday May 5

There were big wins today for Yorkshire and Northamptonshire in Division Two, Leicestershire proving why they're many people's tip for the wooden spoon. Gloucestershire resisted very well to secure a draw at Derbyshire and Glamorgan and Essex's match ended in the draw that was always expected after bad weather.

Lancashire continued their poor start to the season, being comfortably beaten by Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford. Division One is where one game is still going on, Alan Gardner will be at Lord's the bring you the report on tomorrow's final day's play between Middlesex and Worcestershire.

All the reports from today's action on our county cricket homepage.

Middlesex have just declared on 327 for 7, leaving themselves something like 29 overs to have a bowl at Worcestershire. Joe Denly made a fine century, his first for his new county, and went in undefeated on 134, while Alan Richardson claimed a five-for on his old ground. He was really the only Worcs bowler to get it right on a pitch that hasn’t caused the batsmen too many difficulties. If Steven Finn has his radar working, however, this could be an interesting session ...

Quite why Middlesex called the innings off halfway to a fourth batting point, no one is certain, unless Denly was particularly keen to see which of the Sheffield clubs had been promoted. A quick thrash would surely have got them to 350, though they have succeeded in denying Worcestershire – who could well be relegations rivals in a few months’ time – a third bowling point. As things stand, the draw remains the overwhelming favourite.

Essex are moving towards a declaration at Cardiff, they’d probably like to set the hosts 250 to win to make sure they’re more-or-less safe, leaving Glamorgan a five-an-over chase. At 37 for 5 they were in trouble earlier but Tom Westley’s half-century has put the game back in their favour. Grahahm Wagg has just limped off the field with what looks like quite a serious injury, sliding at midwicket. Wagg might not be able to bat, Moises Henriques is also carrying a serious side injury too and may not come out: problems for Glamorgan.

But off the field, they’ve attempted to alleviate their problems in one-day cricket by signing Australian Shaun Marsh for the t20 campaign, full story here. The “Welsh” Dragons will now have even fewer players from the Principality in their XI with Marsh, Marcus North, Martin van Jaarsveld, Jim Allenby and Stuart Walters all hailing from the southern hemisphere.

Matt Boyce, Leicestershire's left-handed opener, has brought up his fourth century in first-class cricket and his first for a year as the visitors' bid to avoid defeat gathers momentum. He has shared an unbroken century stand for the sixth wicket with Wayne White, who has also passed 50.

Failure to win, even though it is still unlikely, would be a real kick in the teeth for Yorkshire. It has been well documented that it has been a week they would rather forget after Ajmal Shahzad's departure from Headingley on Tuesday.

Whether they have missed the England fringe bowler today is difficult to say, but it is a thought that will have no doubt crossed a few minds. With Leicester 259 for five in their second innings, the deficit is now 72. There are 47 overs left in the day.

After two hours of fairly solid drizzle, thoughts were beginning to turn to whether play would be abandoned in time to go and settle somewhere warm and comfortable to watch the Cup final (does anyone know, by the way, why kick-off is at 5.15pm this year?) – only for a 2.45pm restart to be announced, just as I was taking a turn in the style of a Jane Austen heroine around the upper tier of the Edrich Stand. Tea will be taken at 4.10pm, provided the rain doesn’t return.

The most exciting thing to report otherwise is that I dropped a knife into my soup during lunch and left one or two (quite large) bright orange splash marks on the white tablecloth. If these updates stop, it’s because I’ve been ejected for bringing the press corps into disrepute ...

Three defeats for Lancashire in the opening four matches of their title defence will have alarm bells sounding at Old Trafford, at least those that are wired up on this construction site of a ground.

Five down overnight after only 15.2 overs, Lancashire at least managed to delay the inevitable by a session before succumbing to defeat against Nottinghamshire.

Glen Chapple, the captain, much in the manner of a coalition politician, insists there is no need to panic, and that the collection of largely unsung talents that ended the county's 77-year Championship drought is only a couple of out-of-form batsmen away from coming good again.

We're off for the day here. Not sure why. Hasn't rained for hours. On a separate note, here's the story of Ian Bell's call-up to the England Lions.

Lancashire have lost although they did better than they might in delaying Nottinghamshire's progress towards an inevitable (weather permitting) victory. Better, that is, in that they managed to prolong the match by a full (extended) session from 39-5 overnight.

They might have lasted longer still had Glen Chapple not rather foolishly decided to give Graeme Swann the charge and got himself bowled. He and Luke Procter, who played very well for his 41 not out, had put on 39 for the eighth wicket.

Andre Adams (12-4-18-3) had Gareth Cross leg before to tot up 10 wickets in the match for the sixth time in his career and Stuart Broad had the stricken Tom Smith given caught off the glove at third slip, although the Lancashire all-rounder, who is facing a long lay-off with a hamstring injury, left the field pointedly rubbing his forearm.

Broad again has struggled to keep his lines tight and to avoid giving away four balls, going for 45 runs in his 10 overs today. He has a match against Middesex at Trent Bridge next week to sharpen up.

Once Chapple had gone, the end came relatively quickly, although not quickly enough to stop the new delayed lunch rule being triggered when James Anderson, who had survived six balls from Swann after falling to his first in the first innings but perished this time to the first he faced from Samit Patel.

It added only 10 minutes to the session, though, Patel wrapping up a third victory in five matches for Notts and a third defeat in four for Lancashire when Simon Kerrigan holed out to mid-on. With Lancashire bowled out for 142, the winning margin is 185 runs.

Thoughts of Steve Patterson taking all ten wickets in Leicestershire's second innings were brief. Patterson trapped Josh Cobb lbw for 69 after 65 minutes of play today to leave the Foxes at 142 for four and clinch his fourth scalp.

Cobb and Matt Boyce, who has also passed 50 and is still there, shared 128 for the fourth wicket, with Cobb playing a couple of super shots off Patterson and Tim Bresnan through the covers and mid-wicket for boundaries.

But, as the old adage goes, one brings two. Bresnan then bowled Ned Eckersley off his pad as the wicketkeeper tried to play to leg, leaving the score at 149 for five.

To keep up with the weather theme, it is bright and sunny now and settled as things have been since Wednesday's start. Still, the overriding thought is 'brrrrr'.

Ben Stokes has been replaced by Ian Bell in the England Lions squad to play West Indies at Northampton next week. Here's a wee bit of background on Stokes' back problem.

It is bright and sunny in Cardiff where the cricket could be interesting if Essex, who lead by 72 on first innings, can find a way to quickly set a decent target. They’ll need to leave themselves 50-60 overs to try and bowl Glamorgan out, so 30-40 overs to get another 160? Maybe i’m thinking too positively. They’ve already lost a couple too. Make that three; now four. I think it could be Essex battling for the draw now.

Of course the last man to do the cricket-football double was Arthur Milton, who played cricket for Gloucestershire and six Tests for England, and football for Arsenal and briefly Bristol City too; he won an England cap in 1951 after just 12 league appearances. He died in 2007 aged 79, the last of the 12 people to have played cricket and football at the highest level. A road in the vicinity of Nevil Road in Bristol is now Arthur Milton Street.

The full list who have done the double: Alfred Lyttelton, Billy Gunn, Leslie Gay, Reginald "Tip" Foster (who captained England at both games), Charles (CB) Fry, Jack Sharp, Harry Makepeace, Andy Ducat, Wally Hardinge, John Arnold, Willie Watson and Arthur Milton. Denis Compton played football for England in wartime internationals but never won a full international cap at football.

We are underway at Lord’s, where Middlesex have lost one two three wickets for the addition of 24 runs to their overnight 148 for 2. Chris Rogers, the captain, was the first to fall, dismissed by David Lucas, with former Middlesex wicketkeeper Ben Scott taking the catch low to his left. Alan Richardson had beaten the bat several times in his opening spell – though the pitch seems seemed relatively true, if not quite good enough for Chris Adams to eat his dinner off – before Dawid Malan nicked one to first slip and then Neil Dexter shouldered arms to be bowled first ball.

As it’s Cup final day, and we're not far from Wembley (depending on whether the Hanger Lane gyratory is playing up or not) it seems worth briefly passing over some of the links between football and cricket. Keith Barker, who didn’t quite make it at Blackburn Rovers, helped bowl Warwickshire to victory over Durham yesterday and, going back a wee bit further, Denis Compton was perhaps the best of a generation that managed to combine the two sports professionally. A Middlesex man who wintered with Arsenal, Compton lifted the FA Cup in 1950. And who did Arsenal beat in the final that day? Liverpool. A fact that I’m tempted to stretch into an omen for this afternoon ...

Anyway, Joe Denly has just driven his ninth four of an immaculate innings so far to reach his half-century and, with John Simpson safely negotiating Richardson’s hat-trick ball, Middlesex are 176 for 5.

For the third morning in four, the sun is shining on Manchester, which seems -- bizarrely, given its reputation -- to be enjoying the best weather in the country.

Lancashire might have wished for something more familar when they pulled back the curtains this morning, teetering as they are on the brink of a third defeat in four Championship matches.

They will have to contend with Andre Adams at the peak of his powers and a Stuart Broad intent on adding to the two wickets he picked up before bad light curtailed play yesterday evening, driven as he might be by seeing England teammate James Anderson finish with five despite still feeling poorly.

The perception in the modern era is often that Test players do not necessarily push themselves as hard as they might when playing for their counties. In fact, Broad's record for Nottinghamshire suggests the opposite. In 10 matches, he has taken 55 wickets, including match-winning performances in both his appearances as Nottinghamshire won the title in 2010, peaking with a career-best 8-52 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

He looked none-too-impressive in the first innings in this match, conceding 60 runs in 14 overs even though Lancashire made only 146 in total. But Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire's director of cricket, thought it not untypical.

"Stuart is the kind of bowler who needs to get overs under his belt," he said. "Anderson bowled really well on that first day with no luck whereas Stuart was clearly off the pace. He would want to get 35 overs under his belt in this game and the same again possibly against Middlesex next week."

Given Lancashire's perilously position going into the last day, he might not need to bowl that much, although he has already been hit for four twice by Gareth Cross and Lancashire have moved on to 55-5.

I spent the whole of yesterday feeling desperately sorry for Yorkshire's players and spectators as they braved the elements in the 37 overs of the play possible during day three.

It was biting cold and one of the very few times when daytime telly was a more appealing prospect than the County Championship.

Today all I can think about is what Mitchell Starc will make of this weather. The Australian fast bowler is due to land in the UK today ahead of his initial five-week spell as the overseas player at Headingley.

Starc, accompanied by girlfriend Alyssa Healy, the Australian women's wicketkeeper, has already tweeted about being stung for excess baggage since leaving Sydney. He may just have to wear every item he has!

The sun has been out at North Marine Road, but light rain has returned. We should still start on time, although this would be some escape for Leicestershire if they could secure a draw by hook or by crook.

Before we turn to the cricket, we cannot entirely ignore the fact it's FA Cup final day and ESPN's commitment to all-day coverage which has already attracted praise from Giles Smith in The Times.

And for followers of county cricket, ESPNcricinfo offers an unrivalled service that is being followed by a growing number of readers.

George Dobell and Mohammad Isam broke the news that the Notts coach Mick Newell is on Bangladesh's wishlist as one of the men they most want to replace Stuart Law when his coaching stint ends in June.

And on a daily basis we bring you some of the brightest and best-informed county cricket writing around. While the final day takes shape, why not take a look at yesterday's reports.

Jon Culley keeps his eye on James Anderson's well-being as Lancashire hurtle towards another defeat against Mick Newell's Nottinghamshire:

George Dobell makes no secret of his belief that Warwickshire can win the championship:

Alex Winter is impressed by the emergence of Tymal Mills as Glamorgan take a battering against Essex:

David Hopps is taken by Colin Graves' gathering influence at Yorkshire as he is appointed executive chairman:

Alan Gardner, the county circuit's rain-bringer, finally sees some play - and it involves the England captain Andrew Strauss:

And Nigel Gardner, a knowledgable observer of Derbyshire cricket for 25 years, assesses a more difficult day against Gloucestershire than they might have imagined as the French-born batsman Benny Howell digs in, with his father lurking slightly unhelpfully on the boundary:

And we are not averse to giving a bit of publicity to the best of the blogs. I dont agree with this take on Ajmal Shahzad but it is a neat argument all the same.

You could see your breath in Scarborough this morning if you awoke at a respectable hour. County Cricket: See Your Breath.. It is not quite Catch Your Breath, but if this desperately prolonged cold spell continues much longer it could soon become an ECB catchphrase.