Tudor, Mullally headline a day for the discards

It was a day for Surrey and for two ex-England fast bowlers to savour as this year's race for the County Championship took its latest round of twists and turns across the country.

At The Oval, Alex Tudor (7/48) seized his best ever figures in a first class innings to have titleholder Surrey surging toward a victory that would give it a vital edge over Yorkshire and current opponents Lancashire in the battle for this season's crown. In a pair of brilliant spells, Tudor took 4/28 from his ten overs before lunch and then 3/20 from 5.1 overs after the break as third-placed Lancashire struggled to find even the most vague of answers to their batting woes.

Rocked by Tudor's pace, the visitors could manage only a feeble 120 as they replied to Surrey's 310. Although they were spared the ignominy of being asked to follow-on (a move from Surrey captain Adam Hollioake that seemed puzzling at the time), their inadequate batting effort left them condemned to a long and arduous fight for survival. The struggle began as Mark Butcher (95) and Nadeem Shahid (62) set about quickly leading the home team to a second innings score of 227/4 declared - and a massive lead of 417 overall. Deprived of anything more than the chance to try and bat through the final day to earn a draw, Lancashire reached 19/0 by the close.

Meanwhile another England discard - Hampshire's Alan Mullally - claimed the first four wickets in Derbyshire's second innings in the clash between the teams at Derby. Following his sensational haul of 9/93 in the first innings, he has accordingly already produced a career-high match haul of thirteen wickets in the process and has given the visitors a vital edge in a match likely to help determine which teams are relegated from Division One at the end of the summer. Enjoying a golden match, the left armer returned figures of 14-6-14-4 as Derbyshire slumped to 66/4 by the close, a score which still leaves it eighteen runs in arrears and struggling in a match it would find devastating to lose. Fortunately, Australian import and key batsman Michael DiVenuto is not one of the four men out: back spasms keeping him from the field all day and ensuring that he was able to bat at no higher than number seven in the order.

Earlier in the day, twin centuries from - and a massive stand of 187 runs for the sixth wicket between - Derek Kenway (136) and Dimitri Mascarenhas (100) had helped completely change the complexion of proceedings. Their resilience assisted the visitors to not only extricate themselves from a troubled position at 131/5 but also to hoist Hampshire to a first innings lead of 84 runs that is now threatening to assume critical significance.

Second placed Yorkshire held its composure on either side of a mini middle order collapse to post 327 against Somerset at Taunton and maintain contact with leaders Surrey in the process. Unlike in the ladder leaders' contest further north, however, the contest at Taunton only seems to have the promise of one result in store: a draw.

It was the batting of Anthony McGrath (74), Ian Fisher (with a career best 68), Darren Lehmann (56) and Simon Guy (whose 42 was a promising effort in his maiden first class innings) that was chiefly responsible for holding things together for the visitors and enabling them to edge within 32 runs of their opponents' first innings tally. Such a high score had not seemed possible in the middle of the day, though, when captain David Byas was forced to retire hurt on 2 after tearing cartilage in his knee and then McGrath, Gary Fellows (11) and Gavin Hamilton (3) all lost their wickets within seven runs of one another. Somerset finished the day at 33/0.

In Division Two, Glamorgan's hopes of moving back to the top of the standings continued to be clinically disassembled by Gloucestershire at Bristol. With their bowlers unable to prevent the home team from reaching 308 (and a first innings lead of 186 in the process) and their top order then compounding the position of misery as they batted a second time, prospects of a defeat inside two days even seemed possible for a time.

For Gloucestershire, Matt Windows' 82 proved the defining individual hand of the day, although it should be said that he was offered excellent support by a breezy 53 from number nine, Martyn Ball, and a capable 40 two places higher up the order by Jeremy Snape. Only a slow outfield - its sluggishness largely the result of a full day of rain yesterday - came to the aid of an ailing Glamorgan attack.

Mercifully for the Welshmen, Mike Powell (57*) showed stern enough resistance to lead them to a second innings score of 115/5 - and to inspire at least vague thoughts of staving off the likelihood of defeat - by the close.

At Northampton, Matt Hayden (147) cracked a ferocious third Championship century of the summer to lead the home team to the very satisfying position of 340/4 by the close of the first day of its match with Worcestershire. Profiting from the absence of fellow Australian Glenn McGrath at the head of the opposition's attack, the powerful Queenslander dominated an opening stand of 195 with Adrian Rollins (63) to lay the foundation for his team's most impressive beginning to the contest. Nineteen boundaries and two sixes were issued to all parts of the ground as he became the third player - and, significantly enough, the third Australian left hander - to surpass one thousand first class runs for the season.

Declared fit to play after a hamstring strain had forced him to absent himself from the floodlit National League clash between the teams on Wednesday, Hayden began the day by winning an important toss on a pitch expected to offer increasing help to the spinners. This enabled not only the opening pair to benefit but also Wednesday's man of the match, Mal Loye (52) to chime in with another neat half century of his own.

Rallied by a cracking half century from wicketkeeper Chris Read (52) and further solid contributions from its tailenders, Nottinghamshire recovered from a disappointing 235/6 at lunch to reach a total of 368 on the second day of its home match against Warwickshire. Despite a valiant performance by all-rounder Dougie Brown (5/82), the locals enountered few troubles in the afternoon session as they set about making up for lost time after frustrating rain delays yesterday and a slow opening session this morning.

Warwickshire's response started badly when openers Michael Powell (11) and Nick Knight (29) disappeared without making significant contributions. But a succession of dropped chances enabled the in-form Dominic Ostler (41) and David Hemp (26*) to begin a revival act which had led the visitors to the satisfactory scoreline of 121/3 by stumps.

At Lord's, another determined performance from Phil Tufnell (6/48) enabled Middlesex to turn the screw on Essex on the third day of the teams' low-scoring fixture.

Ronnie Irani (76) held things together for the visitors with a nicely controlled innings but few of his teammates showed similar application as their team plunged to a total of 200 and a deficit of 87 runs. In a marathon spell of 35.2 overs, the former England spinner included Irani plus fellow leading scorers Paul Grayson (36) and Ian Flanagan (21) among his six victims.

A feeble start to the Middlesex second innings - David Nash (1) and Justin Langer (0) departing before the score had even reached ten - raised hopes of a stunning Essex comeback, but Andrew Strauss (29) was the only other player to succumb as the locals forged their way to 93/3 by the time that the day's play was brought to its end.