Although three of the four Division One fixtures this week were drawn, it has made the table that much closer. It looks like a genuine four-horse race for the County Championship pennant after Somerset continued their recovery with a third successive victory, this time over Sussex at Taunton. Alfonso Thomas starred with ten wickets but the home supporters also had young Jos Buttler to thank. Monty Panesar had reduced Somerset's first innings to 93-7 before the 'keeper opened his account with a six and went on to reach 100.
At Liverpool, Lancashire again failed to topple Durham from the top, this time falling two wickets short of beating Warwickshire. Steven Croft scored a rare hundred for Lancashire, Neil Carter took a season's best 6-30 but the main talk was of a fielding achievement. When someone takes seven catches in an innings, you'd normally congratulate the man behind the stumps but in the second innings, Warwickshire's Rikki Clarke proved he's even more of an all-rounder by pouching seven catches at second slip. This equalled the world record for an outfielder! His team stand fourth but by winning their game in hand they could yet snatch the title.
Durham remain in pole position by six points despite drawing with Nottinghamshire. They had the better of the game but rain intervened on day 3. Michael di Venuto struck his 60th first-class century as Durham established a first innings lead but Notts batted to safety on the final day.
At the other end of the table, there was no chance of a result as big scores and bad weather dominated the Hampshire v Yorkshire encounter at the Rose Bowl. No chance of the pitch inspectors demanding a points deduction as only thirteen wickets fell in four days! However, things remained exciting on the last because Michael Carberry and Neil McKenzie took their third wicket partnership to an incredible 523, one of the ten highest in history! One Test wonder Carberry reached 300 before captain Cork declared. Good to see the Hampshire batsman back on form after serious illness threatened not only his career but also his life. The run-fest came as a particular surprise as his previous four innings had yielded a mere 12 runs in total! Despite all this excitement, Hants are still winless and 50 points short of safety.
In Division Two, Middlesex gained ground on leaders Northants by beating Derbyshire by seven wickets. A Dawid Malan century and good seam bowling by Tim Murtagh and Steven Finn gave the Lord's faithful plenty to cheer about. London neighbours Surrey advanced two places after taking maximum points against third placed Gloucestershire last weekend. Jon Lewis shone against what will be his new county in 2012 but Mark Ramprakash showed his ageless talent (and not his ill-discipline!) and Yasir Arafat enjoyed a productive all-round performance in the two-wicket win.
Essex and Glamorgan played out a draw in Cardiff, in which Owais Shah and Alviro Petersen swapped centuries and David Masters took only six wickets, to follow last week's 8 for 10. The battle to avoid the ignominy of last place hotted up, or should I say cooled down, as Leicestershire and Kent played out a dull draw. Rob Key scored 0 and 98 while Foxes off-spinner Jigar Naik claimed 5-34 but that's about it. For the record, Leicester are now 14 points adrift of the team I thought would be promoted!
Next week, the top two in Division Two, Northants and Middlesex play each other while in the top tier, it's first v last at The Riverside and Sussex meet Worcestershire at Horsham in a game the visitors desperately need to win to avoid likely relegation.
A little magic dust from Messrs Thomas, Clarke and Carberry would not come amiss!
