After this week's round of County Championship matches, Nottinghamshire regained the number one position from non-playing Lancashire, but only by two points, having been flattened by Sussex at Hove inside three days. Samit Patel struck two half-centuries for the champions but was outscored in the game by Sussex openers Ed Joyce and Chris Nash. Joyce passed 500 first-class runs for the season so far with his unbeaten second innings knock of 88.
If Durham had been bowled out on the fourth day, Somerset would have leapt from sixth to first in the table, but centuries from veteran Michael Di Venuto and young gun Ben Stokes steered their side to safety having followed on behind Somerset's mammoth total of 610-6 declared. Marcus Trescothick had hit a brisk 144 on day one, but Nick Compton surpassed that with a career-best 254. Peter Trego unluckily missed out on a ton in even time as they pushed for a declaration, and when Durham fell for 237 a third successive victory looked on the cards, but it wasn't to be. At Edgbaston, Warwickshire enjoyed a handsome win over neighbours Worcestershire but the inspectors agreed that the spiteful and uneven bounce that caused some nasty injuries was a sign if an unfit pitch and docked the home side eight of the 22 points earned. When I say the 'side', the victory owed much to Muhammed Yousuf, with 108 and 68, and spinner Chris Metters who took 6-65 on his debut. At the time of writing, Yorkshire look set to beat Hampshire, a result which would take them up to fifth in the table. Tim Bresnan has been shining with both bat and ball, keeping his name in the frame for England this summer.
Northants went top of Division Two with an innings trouncing of Gloucestershire. Two big lower order partnerships involving Andrew Hall (90), Niall O'Brien (166) and James Middlebrook (109) took the Midlanders to 557 and the home batting lineup again looked very brittle. Gidman was the only man to make a fight of it. Not skipper Alex but his young novice brother Will. He's supposedly more of a bowler but he aggregated almost two hundred runs without losing his wicket, but it wasn't enough to prevent defeat. Glamorgan also only needed one innings to beat Kent. Mark Wallace became their first centurion of the summer but it was bowling by James Harris and Will Owen which did the damage on the last day.
In the other game, Derbyshire were heading for a second Championship success against Essex, with Wes Durston cruising on 90, when rain wiped out the last ten overs to give the visitors a draw they barely deserved. Ravi Bopara's century had given them some hope, supported by three more quick wickets by David Masters, but Durston - enjoying a second wind after being plucked from the Unicorns last summer - looked set on seeing his new county home before the weather cruelly intervened.
In the mean time, Kevin Pietersen made a rare county appearance, leading what was really a Surrey 2nd XI against Cambridge University. He contributed a few cameo innings but he may be haunted by the names of Zafar Ansari and Robert Wooley, the students who dismissed him. Paul Best's 150 set up a big win for Cambridge, and Surrey's stock sank even further. I suspect KP may feel another twinge in his knee/back/thigh next time Surrey or England ask him to get some match practice....
