County Cricket Team of the Year 2026

So endeth the driest and hottest summer on record and, whilst hillsides blazed and crops wilted, cricket was a beneficiary. I don’t think it is a coincidence that, with fewer rain interventions, across both County Championship divisions, the number of positive results (i.e wins rather than draws) soared from 64 to 87. And this ignores the great drought of August, when red-ball cricket took an enforced break. 

Numerous former under-19 internationals or young Lions made an impact on the domestic game. Durham’s Ben McKinney was one of the few batsmen to top a thousand Championship runs and the teenage Thomas Rew emerged from the shadow of his only slightly older brother James in the Somerset engine room and behind the stumps. 21 year-old Henry Crocombe claimed a hat-trick in successive matches for Sussex and Isleworth-born Middlesex seamer Naavya Sharma took more One Day Cup wickets than anyone else in his debut season, including 3-37 in the final. 

England legends James Anderson and Ben Stokes proved there was plenty left in the tank for Lancashire and Durham, respectively. Unfortunately, the former’s fifty Championship wickets failed to lift the Red Roses to promotion while Durham’s formidable bowling unit made them Division Two’s outstanding unit. Last year’s basement county Kent completed a remarkable recovery to join them in next year’s top tier. Barring any shock U-turn on a points deduction, Leicestershire are heading back down but, to many people’s surprise (including mine), Glamorgan looked solid and it was Hampshire who made the drop courtesy of dreadful batting. However, the Welsh side will now have to replace veteran South African stalwarts Chris Cooke and Colin Ingram, which won’t be easy. 

In determining my County Team of 2026, as usual I considered consistency across each format, especially the Championship and Blast given that many of the big boys spent their school holidays playing The Hundred. I apologise for excluding the women’s game, but I confess it is not my area of expertise. 

Openers 

Keaton Jennings and Jake Libby were not their usual reliable selves in the four-day competition but piled on the runs in the fifty-over stuff. The Worcestershire opener even achieved a rare four successive centuries. Asa Tribe scored almost a thousand runs for Glamorgan and Tom Lammonby has helped Somerset make some excellent starts, bolstered in September by the form of Josh Thomas. Perhaps the top performer was Northamptonshire’s Ricardo Vasconcelos. The Portuguese-South African import enjoyed his best season in England, making 1,159 Championship runs and 439 in the Blast. 

Middle Order 

Another Saffer with a European qualification (Italy), Wayne Madsen bowed out from Derbyshire aged 42 with a century in his penultimate match, while Somerset’s Tom Abell finished the season with a superlative triple-hundred, although it didn’t result in that elusive maiden Championship crown. Instead, it was Sam Hain’s September form that helped propel Warwickshire to that title. His final batting average was a tad short of 75. Surrey endured a strangely torrid summer, but Dan Lawrence bashed six centuries in only ten outings. Jake Lehmann was a rare jewel in Hampshire’s bag of glass, Joe Weatherley topped the Blast runs table and Durham’s David Bedingham often looked too good for the second division. The Championship’s top runs scorer was Joe Clarke, whose efforts kept Nottinghamshire in the frame to retain the pennant almost to the end. His skipper Jack Haynes combined with him to make the Notts middle-order one of the strongest around.

 

All Rounders

 

James Sales was an unusual all-rounder in that he seemed to shine for Northants with the bat in the Championship and ball in the Blast, in which he aggregated twenty wickets. A regular in my Teams of the Year, Ryan Higgins was not his usual self in terms of runs, and the same could be said for Lewis Gregory whose bowling also came in under the radar, taking 487 at under twenty apiece. When you think of Yorkshire batting, Bairstow, Root, Brook and Lyth spring easily to mind but George Hill must be one of the best all-rounders on the red-ball circuit thanks also to his mean seamers. Essex struggled at times, but no blame could be attributed to Matt Critchley whose batting seems to be eclipsing his spin bowling as he gets older. Martin Andersson sounds like he hails from Copenhagen rather than Reading but he was the stand-out performer for Derbyshire, clocking up 1,740 runs and forty wickets across all three tournaments. 

Wicket-Keeper 

Behind the stumps, Ben Brown, John Simpson and James Rew claimed more Championship victims than anyone else. Brooke Guest was a consistent gloveman for Derbyshire and notched his maiden T20 century. However, he made a pair against Gloucestershire, for whom James Bracey carved two centuries in the same match. The county suffered ten defeats to prop up Division Two but the ‘keeper passed the 1,000-run mark for the third year running. Not many can say that these days. Kyle Verreynne didn’t play throughout the summer but, in addition to catches and stumpings, he was the One Day Cup’s highest scorer. Leicestershire’s Ben Cox rarely reels off big scores but is the county’s Mr Reliable. This year, he averaged 42 in the four-dayers and had a List A strike rate in three figures. 

Bowlers 

Jamie Overton continues to pick up England caps, ostensibly because of his superior batting. However, it is his twin brother Craig whose three first-class centuries for Somerset this summer which, allied to 53 wickets, earned him the competition’s MVP award. Unusual for a big bloke, he is a pretty prolific slip fielder, too. I have watched him since he and Jamie were teenagers and nobody deserves the title more than ‘Coverton’. The evergreen Kyle Abbott may be 39 but he remains the star County Championship bowler. In 2026, his victims totalled an unassailable 64, at a paltry average of just 16. 

Hasan Ali and Sean Currie were the top wicket-takers in the Blast, but played only minor roles in other competitions. Olly Stone and Oliver Hannon-Dalby delivered again for Warwickshire (but for some reason the latter was loaned to neighbours Worcestershire early on) and Bens Aitchison (Derby) and Sanderson (Northants) each clocked almost eighty wickets in total. Matthew Potts was similarly successful for Durham but Kent’s Matt Milnes out-bowled the lot with exactly eighty victims from all three formats. My final pick is Ethan Bamber. A fellow Exeter University alumnus, he was born into showbiz but he never topped the bill at Middlesex. However, now at Warwickshire, it was his pace bowling which dominated the stage as his new county stormed to the Championship. 

Tio summarise, here is my overall County XI of 2026;- 

Vasconcelos (Nor), Lammonby (Som), Hain (War), Clarke (Not), Bedingham (Dur), Critchley (Ess), Andersson (Der), Cox (Lei +), C. Overton (Som), E Bamber (War), Milnes (Ken) 

On the reserve list: Haynes (Not), Hill (Yor), Bracey (Glo +), Potts (Dur)

County Cricket: Abell Somerset Pipped to the Title again

For a Somerset supporter, it’s a tired, weary refrain but, like so many other years in the past two decades, 2026 brought great hopes of that maiden Championship crown only for them to be dashed in the last couple of weeks. For much of the summer, it has looked like a two-horse race. Essex and Surrey were in the frame early on, and Warwickshire had their noses in front for a week in April but for most of the season, Somerset and Nottinghamshire have been nose to nose. 

Yorkshire have not had the best campaigns but they ended up playing a major role in deciding the fate of the Championship pennant. Not only did they do the double over Somerset but also nicked their match at Trent Bridge, derailing the Notts charge. Credit to Warwickshire for coming up on the rails with three consecutive victories. 

This week, the long-time candidates knew the race was run once Warwickshire had already established a first-innings lead against Leicestershire at the end of day one. Usually it is Oliver Hannon-Dalby topping the wickets table but this season, it is the equally unsung Ethan Bamber who has been a revelation with the ball, ending the season with another nine wickets. Sam Hain also finished strongly, capping a supreme September with 142. 

Nottinghamshire seemed to have the edge on Yorkshire but when Ben Coad and Jack White left their second innings in tatters at 85 all out, the tide was turning. Yet Notts were not yet defeated. Kiwi ‘keeper Mitch Hay was busy with six catches and a stumping but, with wickets tumbling, Jonny Bairstow went on the attack and won the game with his third six of the innings. 

So what about Somerset? The Taunton faithful were deflated as Dan Lawrence’s ton put old rivals Surrey in charge at stumps on Thursday. The home side simply had to rack up a massive total and hope to bowl them out twice. They came darned close, defied only by the Sunday rain. Saturday was a day of amazing batting achievements. Tom Lammonby hit a career-best 229 and shared a stand of 334 with Tom Abell, who produced a sensational ‘triple’ of his own, including four consecutive sixes off poor Ralphie Albert. He then put on 195 with a free-hitting Migael Pretorius (84) for the ninth wicket, a county record. The innings total of 731 was Somerset’s second highest ever. Reducing Surrey to 68-4, there was a chance that Leach and the seamers could still win the match but it was not to be. 

Sussex won the South Coast derby at Southampton against relegated Hampshire. Bowlers were generally in charge, especially Sussex’s Tom Price and Jaydev Unadkat, but skipper Tom Haines showed the home county what they had consistently failed to do all summer, scoring a decisive 130. Had they not been docked twelve points for their 2025 financial problems, Sussex would have finished above Somerset. 

Elsewhere, Glamorgan capped a surprisingly solid campaign with a commanding performance against Essex. Asa Tribe (184) and Kiran Carlson (107) pushed their first innings to 505 and opener Zain ul-Hassan weighed in with the ball; his medium-pacers yielding 5-14. Dean Elgar ended his first-class career with a battling 108 and a rapid 68 by George Bell saved the game. It was an end of an era at Cardiff, too, as their faithful middle-order also bowed out. Colin Ingram and Chris Cooke have been loyal servants for many years and Joe Root’s brother Billy also walked into the sunset with another fifty to his name. 

In Division Two, champions-elect Durham and Lancashire fought a weather-affected draw at Old Trafford. Emilio Gay ended the season as he began with 141, while the home side’s Josh Bohannon ended his 2026 drought with an unbeaten 190. Kent confirmed their promotion with an eight-wicket triumph over bottom county Gloucestershire. Ben Compton’s 126 and Matt Milnes’ nine wickets were the highlights. 

Like Bohannon, Ryan Higgins has not enjoyed the best domestic campaign but the Middlesex all-rounder left the best to last. Just days after his century against Leicestershire helped bring the One-Day Cup to Lord’s, he scored another – alongside a 4-30 bowling stint - as the North Londoners despatched Northants by seven wickets. 

Worcestershire finished above Derbyshire by beating them at New Road. In a low-scoring encounter, Matthew Waite struck the game’s only half-century, while Ben Allison produced match analyses of 11-64, surely one of the best bowling performances all year. 

Team of the Week: Lammonby (Som), Tribe (Gla), Bohannon (Lan), Hain (War), Abell (Som), Higgins (Mid), Bairstow (Yor +), T Price (Sus), Bamber (War), Milnes (Ken), Aliison (Wor)

County Cricket: It’s Warwickshire’s Title to Lose

The penultimate round of Championship fixtures threw all sorts of spanners into the works. Leicestershire were docked 27 points for their sub-standard pitch last month, but their five-wicket victory over Hampshire gave them faint hope of Division One survival whilst relegating their defeated rivals. Yet again, Hampshire failed to register a batting bonus point, Ian Holland taking 6-38, but at least Nick Gubbins made 132 in the second innings to give Leicester a stiff target. However, with Kelly and Cox putting on 156 for the fifth wicket, success was assured. 

Essex are the only county within reach of Leicestershire, after succumbing to a two-day hammering by Warwickshire. Ethan Bamber took his season’s wicket tally to sixty as the home side were bowled out twice for under 200. Warwickshire’s rapid win added pressure to title rivals Nottinghamshire and Somerset. For three days at Leeds, there was little to choose between the Cidermen and Yorkshire. Inexperienced Tyke seamer Ben Cliff took 8-76 but the real turning point was the patient stand of 166 between George Hill and former Somerset spinner Dom Bess, which yanked their side from 54-6 to respectability. The visitors looked rocky on 76-3 but Ben Coad and Cliff again ripped through the rest to leave Somerset eleven points adrift of the Midlanders. 

At Hove, third-placed Nottinghamshire were always struggling against Sussex, who established a 118-run first-innings lead. On day four, there was to be no fairytale revival as Aristides Karvelas, who must be the only Greece-registered bowler in the county game, took 5-42, then his team knocked off the required 76 with the loss of three wickets. 

Twenty wickets tumbled on the first day at The Oval, so the match was decided by a second-innings runfest. Glamorgan’s Asa Tribe compiled an excellent 155 and Mason Crane a career-best 114 not out on their way to a total of 594. Despite a century from Ryan Patel, Surrey could not get close and slipped to their fourth loss of a disappointing summer. They now cannot finish higher than fifth. 

Surrey now stand in the way of Somerset’s bid for that elusive maiden title but, if Warwickshire avoid defeat at home to Leicestershire, the pennant will transfer from Trent Bridge to Edgbaston next season. Sigh…. 

In Division Two, Durham maintained their unbeaten record with a draw against Worcestershire. Former India opener Mayank Agarwal struck the week’s highest individual score (177) on day one, assisted by ‘keeper Ollie Robinson (97), but a 179 partnership for Hose and D’Oliveira anchored a solid response in spite of Ben Stokes’ six wickets. Weather and time conspired to produce a stalemate on the fourth day. 

Behind them – a long way behind – Kent advanced into the second promotion slot by beating Lancashire inside three days. Khaled Ahmed ended with match analyses of 8-94 as Kent eased to a win by seven wickets. Fellow Durham-chasers Northamptonshire were just twenty-three runs short of a brilliant triumph versus Derbyshire when bad light and rain cruelly intervened. The soon-to-retire Derby captain Wayne Madsen ended a barren run of form with a first-innings 151, but Ricardo Vasconcelos (132) set Northants on their way to a probable vital win before the elements took charge. 

At Bristol, foul weather also denied Middlesex a deserved victory over bottom side Gloucestershire. Visiting ‘keeper Harry Duke’s 94 was the game’s top score but on the final day it was the seam duo of Higgins and Roland-Jones who had the hosts on the rack at 145-9 until play was called off. 

These two will now help decide who goes up with Durham. Northants travel to Lord’s this week while Gloucester visit Canterbury, where Kent are surely favourites. It is getting tense…. 

Team of the Week: Vasconcelos (Nor), Tribe (Gla), Agarwal (Dur), Madsen (Der), Hose (Wor), Duke (Mid +), Daz Ahmed (Glo), Holland (Lei), Khaled Ahmed (Ken), Cliff (Yor), Bamber (War)

County cricket: Crushing Wins for Somerset and Warwickshire

It’s all getting rather exciting in the County Championship title race. Warwickshire were quickest off the mark, slamming Glamorgan by an innings, and bowling them out twice for under seventy! Ethan Bamber took 5-25 in the first innings and Ed Barnard’s 5-13 finished the job inside two days. 

Leicestershire did at least force Somerset into a third day, but the leaders triumphed by a massive 377 runs. Josh Thomas and Henry Nicholls each made exactly 100, and the ever-consistent Craig Overton was the pick of the seamers, with 7-56 for the match. Nonetheless, his long-standing partner in crime, Jack Leach, mopped up the final three wickets to clinch the victory at Grace Road. 

Reigning champions Nottinghamshire did not wilt, and their relatively narrow win over Hampshire kept hem in second place, just four points behind Somerset. Joe Clarke gave them a healthy start with 105 before Jake Lehmann responded with an unbeaten 133. Basingstoke’s 17-year-old Manny Lumsden marked his first-class debut with a fab five-for, leaving Hants a modest target of 178. However, Olly Stone and Dillon Pennington destroyed the top order and, despite a 43-run stand for the tenth wicket (Currie and that lad Lumsden again), Notts took the honours by 54 runs, leaving Hampshire rock bottom. 

At Headingley, Yorkshire rocketed out of the relegation mire at the expense of Essex. Dom Bess delivered an excellent all-round performance, top-scoring with 80 not out and nabbing five wickets. Jonny Bairstow favoured his spin attack in the second innings, too, and it was Kuldeep Yadav whose 6-50 took his match tally of victims to ten and Yorkshire to glory by an innings and a hundred. 

On the South Coast, a day one washout spoiled what unrolled as a close encounter between Sussex and Surrey. Charlie Tear top-scored for the hosts, with 89 out of 398, then fifties from Patel, Foakes and Mahipal Lomror limited Surrey’s deficit to 72 and pretty much ensured the draw. 

In the penultimate round of fixtures, Somerset seem to have the toughest task, heading north to Leeds, although Warwickshire’s visit to Essex and Notts at Sussex have no guarantees. 

Durham’s stranglehold on Division Two was maintained, and promotion was sealed with a 93-run defeat of Middlesex at Chester-le-Street. Ben McKinney’s towering 184 placed the home side firmly in the driving seat, while Brendon Carse stayed out of the local nightclubs long enough to pick up nine – expensive - wickets. Harry Duke resisted long enough to reach three figures but Carse and Callum Parkinson dismissed the tail with ease. 

Kent’s promotion ambitions took a hit at Derby, losing heavily. The clamour to restore Zak Crawley to the England opener slot was muted as he contributed scores of 6 and 4. The county’s batting has let them down this season, and Martin Andersson showed them how to do it, aggregating 179 for once out. Kent had no chance of hitting the 434-run target, and Ben Aitchison (5-44) and Brett Randell (3-39) combined to kill them off. 

Northamptonshire leapfrogged Kent by scratching out a six-wicket victory at Worcestershire. Saif Zaib’s ton, a Procter five-for and Chahal’s 4-46 did much of the damage. At the other end, the battle of the basement at Old Trafford went the way of Gloucestershire who nonetheless still prop up the whole Championship. It was a low-scoring affair. George Balderson starred for the home county with eight wickets but Will Williams (6-24) shone against his former employers in the first innings and James Langridge, in only his second appearance, took 5-51 in the decider. 

Northants and Kent next host Derbyshire and Lancashire, respectively. Whatever happens, the second promotion place will surely be up for grabs in the concluding set of fixtures. Kent will welcome Gloucestershire, so Northants will look to grasp maximum points from this week’s encounter. 

Team of the Week: Thomas (Som), McKinney (Dur), Clarke (Not), Lehmann (Ham), Andersson (Der), Barnard (War), Duke (Mid +), Balderson (Lan), Bess (Yor), Overton (Som), Kuldeep Yadav (Yor)

County Cricket: Somerset at the Summit

For the second week in succession, runs were very much in short supply and the only teams to break 400 were the big guns of the First Division. Leaders Nottinghamshire led the way with 451-8, bolstered by centuries by Jack Haynes and Liam Patterson-White. However, having lost much of Wednesday to rain, they needed Leicestershire to capitulate. For once, they didn’t. Josh Hull dug in for 97, then the tenth-wicket pair of Scriven and Davey added a vital 106 to avoid the follow-on. With no time to force a result, Haseeb Hameed helped himself to 109 not out before they called it a day. 

By then, both Somerset and Warwickshire had already clinched victories and the all-important points that entailed. Somerset were first to celebrate, steamrollering Glamorgan by an innings. Tom Lammonby (95) top-scored, and Craig Overton and Jack Leach were the pick of the bowlers. Warwickshire’s margin of victory over Hampshire was even more emphatic, also within three days. Rob Yates made 109 and Indian spinner Manav Suthar claimed seven wickets to leave their opponents rooted to the bottom. A season’s total of three batting bonus points tells the story of their miserable campaign. 

So Somerset sit top, five points ahead of Warwickshire and twelve above Notts, but there is plenty to play for, and I know Somerset will blow it yet again. Below the top three, Sussex edged Essex by 47 runs. In their first innings, Essex lost their last seven wickets for just six runs, including James Crocombe’s second hat-trick in as many matches. That’s a rare achievement. James Coles had another fine all-round performance and opposite number Matt Critchley did his best to maintain the Essex run chase before being last out on 96. 

The Oval witnessed an even more exciting climax. In a very low-scoring affair, with nobody making a half-century, it all came down to a Friday afternoon showdown. Matthew Fisher’s 6-25 in Yorkshire’s second innings left Surrey a target of 185. While still more wickets tumbled, Josh Blake compiled the most important unbeaten 43 of his first-class career but it was number eleven batsman Dan Worrall who clipped the winning boundary at the death for a one-wicket triumph. It was only Surrey’s second of the summer, but their chances of reclaiming the Championship are nil. 

Somerset next travel to Leicester, Warwickshire to Cardiff, while Notts host Hampshire. All might be expected to win but rain and determination to avoid the drop could easily upset the odds. 

Durham continued to run away with Division Two, collecting victory number nine, meaning a win at Middlesex next week will guarantee promotion with two games remaining.  They didn’t have it all their own way at Northants. David Bedingham passed 1,000 runs for the season but the clincher was Callum Parkinson’s 6-20 as the home side were wiped out for a frightful fifty runs. Nobody reached double figures! 

Kent consolidated their second place by defeating Worcestershire by 84 runs. Sam Northeast’s second-innings 132 inflicted much of the damage and, although Brett d’Oliveira stuck around for a 5 ½-hour 103 not out, his colleagues fell by the wayside too readily. Gloucestershire enjoyed a rare moment of glory. After losing nine of their previous ten in the league, they thumped Derbyshire by 213 runs. James Bracey found some belated form, scoring a century in each innings, then handing the baton to slow left-armer Sai Kishore who bamboozled the Derby line-up for eighteen frugal overs and a final analysis of 5-20. 

Lancashire’s woes persisted when they lost heavily to Middlesex. Luke Hollman’s 54 was the game’s top score as bowlers took charge. George Balderson bowled well for Jimmy Anderson’s side but Helm, Higgins and Sharma eclipsed him. Middlesex now have the unenviable task of overcoming rampant Durham if they are to have the slightest chance of promotion. Kent head north to Derbyshire, and Old Trafford hosts a battle between the bottom two, Lancashire and Gloucestershire. 

Team of the Week: Yates (War), Lammonby (Som), Northeast (Ken), Bracey (Glo +), Haynes (Not), Coles (Sus), Pattefrson-White (Not), Fisher (Sur), Sai Kishore (Glo), C Parkinson (Dur), Crocombe (Sus)

County Cricket: Durham Shine amidst the Rain

The week’s rain may have benefitted the parched pitches, but did nothing for cricket as a spectator sport. The players must have been bored to tears, too, with whole days washed out entirely. Only six centuries were made, and each of those who scored them went straight in to my Team of the Week. No-brainers, the lot of ‘em! 

Only one result was possible, and inevitably it was Durham who took advantage of slightly better weather at Chester-le-Street to notch win number seven against bottom county Gloucestershire. In his final game of the season, David Bedingham struck 122 and, as part of a star-studded English seam attack, it was the unsung Kasey Aldridge who again stole the show with match stats of 9-63. If Durham beat Northamptonshire next weekend, promotion will be secured with three games in hand. 

This week, Northants and Kent shared the spoils with Kent, and stand on equal points behind Durham. Zak Crawley and Ben Compton put on 162 for the first Kent wicket, then in reply, Ricardo Vasconcelos and Nathan McSweeney each maintained their consistent summer form by reaching three figures. At Worcester, the home side’s Beyers Swanepoel combined a swift 63 not out and 4-37 against Lancashire, while at Derby, only 87 overs were possible across all four days. 

In Division One, five draws made little impact on the table. Nottinghamshire extended their lead to four points over Somerset thanks to Joe Clarke’s 150 and Olly Stone’s 5-49 against third-placed Warwickshire. Somerset struggled against Sussex on the first few days, but a strong second innings ensured there could be no defeat, even had the sun shone on day four. 

At Chelmsford, Essex had the upper hand over Surrey. Having announced his imminent retirement, Dean Elgar demonstrated his trademark grit to register his 56^th first-class hundred, and the visitors were staring down the barrel at 92-6. Luckily, Ben Foakes improved on his first-innings three-ball duck and clung on for almost five hours in eking out an unbeaten 120. There was another stalemate at Cardiff, where Hampshire seamers Abbott and Baker held sway over the Glamorgan openers, and the Bank Holiday seasiders at Scarborough saw very little action for Leicestershire’s trip to meet Yorkshire. 

In the next round of fixtures, Notts and Warwicks have on paper the easiest opposition (Leicestershire and Hampshire, respectively) but Somerset require a home victory against Glamorgan to remain in the hunt for that elusive maiden title. The winners of the Essex-Sussex clash will also be in the running, but a draw won’t help either of them. Let’s hope the showers stay away. 

Team of the Week: Elgar (Ess), Vasconcelos (Nor), McSweeney (Nor), Bedingham (Dur), Clarke (Not), Foakes (Sur +), T Clark (Sur), Swanepoel (Wor), Aldridge (Dur), Rahul Chahar (Sur), Stone (War)

County Cricket: Notts Too Hot for Surrey

As England’s heatwave faded, the County Championship re-emerged to provide plenty of drama. All nine fixtures produced results, as batsmen found life rather tough. Indeed, Daniel Lategan’s 144 was the highest individual score and, unusually for this day and age, no innings came anywhere near 500. 

Surrey still have only one victory to their name, as leaders Nottinghamshire came away from The Oval with a 145-run pounding. At halfway, the two were neck-and-neck but Joe Clarke’s 95 put the visitors in a strong position. Olly Stone took his match tally to ten wickets as the Surrey batting collapsed again, although Ollie Pope contributed more than half the total, last out for 111. 

Somerset remain second, defeating Essex at Taunton by eight wickets. Josh Thomas (110) and new recruit Henry Nicholls (96) led the way on day one, before Lewis Gregory destroyed the top order and Jack Leach chopped the tail. Allison and Critchley kept Essex in the contest, but there were four ‘c Abell b Leach’ entries on the scorecard. On the fourth day, Somerset knocked off the required 103 in under twenty overs. 

At Edgbaston, Warwickshire and Sussex fought a desperately tight encounter as the seamers made hay on the dry grass. Sean Hunt took nine Warwicks wickets but it was the cool head of Chris Woakes which steered his side over the line to win by just one wicket. Runs were in short supply at Southampton, too, especially on the first couple of days. Hampshire’s Kyle Abbott (4-17) and Yorkshire all-rounder George Hill (5-29) were in top form, then spinners took charge. Dom Bess wheeled away for 46 overs, ending on 5-103 and even opener Adam Lyth chipped in as Hampshire crumbled, 39 runs short. 

Only 770 runs were scored at Leicester, where the home side outlasted Glamorgan by 42. Kiran Carlson’s dismissal on 99 took the puff out of the Welsh dragon and his opposing skipper Ian Holland took charge. He proved almost unplayable, bowling twelve maidens and taking 5-19. Remarkably, Glamorgan still sit in a very respectable fourth place. 

Durham continue to dominate Division Two, and it was another all-rounder, Mr Ben Stokes, who caught the eye as they destroyed Derbyshire by 338 runs. He thrashed two half-centuries and claimed match bowling stats of 7-31. Ben McKinney’s second-innings 140 and Matthew Potts’ first-day 5-46 also played their part. Brydon Carse was less successful but at least he made the headlines in the evening by being led away from a sesh with Stokes and Potts in handcuffs. No drinking problem, eh?

It was very one-sided, too, at Old Trafford where Northamptonshire hammered Lancashire by 316 runs. Ricardo Vasconcelos top-scored but all the bowlers shared the wickets. At Cheltenham, the aforementioned Lategan and Jake Libby shared an opening stand of 244 as Worcestershire wrapped up an eight-wicket victory over bottom county Gloucestershire, but there were no tons at Northwood, where Kent beat Middlesex to occupy the second promotion slot. Matts Milnes and Quinn each eked out six London batsmen but player of the match was arguably the veteran Toby Roland-Jones despite finishing on the losing side. 

On Thursday, Kent travel to Northampton and at Chester-le-Street it is top v bottom, aka Durham against Gloucestershire. In the top tier, Somerset head to Hove but the tastiest tie is the Edgbaston clash between Warwickshire and leaders Notts. If Glamorgan dodge the forecast Cardiff showers and defeat Hampshire, they could yet threaten the top three. 

Team of the Week: Lategan (Wor), Thomas (Som), McKinney (Not), Pope (Sur), Critchley (Ess), Stokes (Dur), Cracknell (Mid +), Holland (Lei), Hunt (Sus), Stone (War), Potts (Dur)