Roundup: Yorkshire close on promotion as rain falls
With the floodlights on, stewards in gloves, spectators crisply hunched and an unkind wind blowing past the East Stand, Yorkshire crept closer towards the First Division.
Yorkshire need a maximum of 10 points to be guaranteed top-flight cricket next year, and secured two of them as Northamptonshire crumbled, though with their nearest rivals Middlesex marooned at Hove, the magic number is likely to be smaller. The morning sun had shone brightly in Leeds, but troublesome damp patches caused a five-hour delay as a succession of men, including Yorkshire chair Colin Graves in a pea coat, examined them.
Once underway, Ben Coad struck in his second over, then Krish Patel had a terrific start to his Championship career with a flurry of boundaries, before being caught at second slip for 26. There were two wickets for George Hill, who was presented with his county cap on Thursday by Jonny Bairstow. Coad then added Saif Zaib to his tally, his 300th first-class wicket (each one coming in at an average under 20), to a warm ovation from the crowd and his teammates.
At Trent Bridge, 19-year-old Freddie McCann’s second Championship century, a gorgeous, plucky innings against Warwickshire, took Nottinghamshire nearer to safety. With two batting points in the bag, they need only to avoid defeat to remain in Division One. Hampshire’s Kyle Abbott ripped through the Somerset second innings at Taunton, to leave them four down and scores level. Elsewhere, the day two curtains were drawn on five games without a ball bowled.
With dusk settling over Leeds, and the covers being pushed on, time for me to head home. Thanks for your company as ever and have a peaceful Friday night.
Close of play scores
DIVISION ONE
TAUNTON: Somerset 136 and 60-4 v Hampshire 196
CHESTER LE STREET: Durham v Kent no play Thursday or Friday
TRENT BRIDGE: Nottinghamshire 324-6 v Warwickshire
NEW ROAD Worcestershire 119-7 v Lancashire no play on Thursday or Friday
CHELMSFORD: Essex 116-1 v Surrey no play on Friday
DIVISION TWO
HEADINGLEY: Yorkshire v Northamptonshire 117-6
SOPHIA GARDENS Glamorgan 283-4 Gloucestershire
HOVE Sussex v Middlesex no play Thursday or Friday
GRACE ROAD Leicestershire v Derbyshire no play Thursday or Friday
Right, time for me to cobble together something for first edition, do keep an eye on things at Headingley, Sophia Gardens, Trent Bridge and Taunton for me.
Yorkshire pick up their first bowling point (ten needed for guaranteed safety) as Procter is bowled in George Hill’s first over for 25.
If McCann, currently cruising on 130, can get Nottinghamshire over the 300 barrier, and to a second precious batting point, they are safe so long as they avoid defeat. And it would be a Notts-up for the ages to lose now, with only two days to go and weather lurking.
Bad light stops play at Sophia Gardens
After Matt Taylor bowled Gloucestershire back into the match with three quick wickets, including Tribe for 70 and Ingram for 84. Glamorgan 217-4.
It’s raining at Headingley and the sky dishwater grey. But they play on. Northants 58-2. Ben Coad needs one more wicket for 300 first-class wickets – at a number very close to, if not actually under, 20.
Updated
At Taunton, Somerset’s batting line explodes like a conker in the bonfire – Umeed’s unhappy couple of weeks finishes tamely, caught off Abbott for five, while Abell follows later in the same over for two. Somerset 39-4 and crumbling towards a quick, forgettable defeat.
Patel signed a two-year rookie contract with Northants this summer. And there he goes – caught at second slip for 26.
Krish Patel has had a terrificsta rt to his first-class career here at Headingley, 25 not out in Northants’ 42-1. Born in Kingston upon Thames. he was playing for Surrey’s second XI as recently as June.
After a flurry of fours from Archie Vaughan, Kyle Abbot sends one spearing into his pads to put a stop to all that youthful exhuberance . Somerset 36-2 and still trailing.
A hundred for Freddie McCann!
A fabulous innings from Notts teenage home-grown talent. At just 19, and only in his fifth f-c match, he has two centuries (one against Surrey) under his belt.
Updated
And a first wicket at Headingley, as Miller, head down, trudges off for a duck. Northants 2-1.
While Ben Coad whistles through his opening over, a wicket at Taunton. Tom Lammonby, who has had a really good season, finishes damply, caught behind for five off Abbas. Somerset 15-1.
Tea time scores
DIVISION ONE
TAUNTON: Somerset 136 v Hampshire 196 i
CHESTER LE STREET: Durham v Kent no play Thursday or Friday
TRENT BRIDGE: Nottinghamshire 211-4 v Warwickshire
NEW ROAD Worcestershire 119-7 v Lancashire no play on Thursday or Friday
CHELMSFORD: Essex 116-1 v Surrey no play on Friday
DIVISION TWO
HEADINGLEY: Yorkshire v Northamptonshire play starts after tea
SOPHIA GARDENS Glamorgan 189-1 v Gloucestershire delayed start
HOVE Sussex v Middlesex no play Thursday or Friday
GRACE ROAD Leicestershire v Derbyshire no play Thursday or Friday
A heart-warming set of player hugs and applause for George Hill’s county cap (given yesterday but re-enacted today). The players are out, hands shoved deep in pockets. Northants are playing two first-class debutants, Krish Patel and Fateh Singh.
Yorkshire won the toss and are having a bowl. The players warm-up in woolly hats and sweatshirts, Headingley suddenly swarming like a Richard Scarry illustration.
Hampshire all out for 196 - a lead of 60 over Somerset
Five wickets for Jack Leach – could have been more if Somerset’s fingers had been less buttery. Bashir is wicketless off his 11 overs. The lead is pretty useful in these conditions. Albert’s 77 is at more than twice as much as the next highest scorer – Ben Brown (35).
Stumps emerge - we shall have play at Headingley
3.30 at a guess…
“Good Afternoon Tanya, good afternoon all!” Hello Em Jackson, welcome back.
“I’ve been critical of this late-September finish as much as the next person with one eye on Durham up here in NE England and down there, Gloucestershire away at Glamorgan (complicated residency story…..) but in the spirit of constructive criticism, I proffer this thought:
“Maybe its not that cricket is being played in September, rather the wrong sort of cricket.
“Thus I suggest: 50-Over Format goes first thus respects the comp. but also gives players time in the middle ready for the CC.
”CC starts and plays one half of the games.
”CC goes on hiatus for the Blast. Once you’re out of the Blast, back to the CC quick smart.
“CC restarts incl. for Blast Weekend Finalists.
“The Hundred, I’d suggest dropping the men’s version, the women’s can be played during the school holidays? Or Women’s Hundred & Men’s Blast as double headers?
”I’d say that’s a balance of realism i.e. £££ vs ensuring there’s as good a chance of possible of uninterrupted CC games in “the height of summer*”
* - “summer temps may go down as well as up, past summers like 1976 are not a prediction of dry summers in the future”
It’s the whole trying to fit a pint into a quart pot thing isn’t it. I think we’re stuck with the Hundred, for good or ill, but can you trim elsewhere? – eg cut a few Blast games in the hope that you won’t lose too many spectators, they’d just make the grounds fuller for the games that do happen. And I think somehow finish the CC in the third week of September rather than the fourth.And ditch these pointless autumn white ball internationals. And move the finals so they don’t all happen in September.
And as if on cue, the latest ever international in the UK gets underway at Lord’s. Follow it here with Daniel:
To Taunton, where Hampshire have a lead of 15 and Somerset have finally got rid of Albert, dropped on nought yesterday by Aldridge, caught off his bowling today for 77.
Here are the three lovely chaps, John Curtis, Mike Beddow and Chris Oldnall, who have been honoured by Worcestershire CCC today, as mentioned BTL.
Worcestershire County Cricket Club have honoured three of the most dedicated contributors to press coverage of the county during the last five decades by renaming the New Road Press Box ‘The Curtis, Oldnall and Beddow Press Lounge’. 🍐
— Worcestershire CCC (@WorcsCCC) September 27, 2024
And here was yesterday’s presentation to the stalwart of county stalwarts, Joe Leach.
Before play today we honoured Joe Leach on his incredible career with Worcestershire CCC. 👑
— Worcestershire CCC (@WorcsCCC) September 26, 2024
Applauded by his teammates, staff members and spectators - you can watch the full presentation below ⬇️
🎥 https://t.co/5dB1QQoY2c pic.twitter.com/eUwPZu6VaN
A 2.45 inspection at Headingley
Meanwhile at Trent Bridge, Notts have advanced to 126-3, McCann (64) and Haynes (15) have added 71 for the fourth wicket. All they really have to do is not get beaten (I think).
A brotherly wicket at Sophia Gardens, Smale caught Ollie, bowled Tom Price, Glamorgan 84 for one.
Now Colin Graves has emerged, in a grey pea coat and with a limp.
Four men, two umpires, two captains, are standing, staring at a small squelchy patch just to the left of the Headingley pitch.
How things stand
The curtains have been drawn on five games, we await news at Headingley, and they’re playing at Taunton, Trent Bridge and Glamorgan.
Play abandoned for the day at Chelmsford
All things considered, its just as well the Champions were anointed last week.
Movement at Headingley, but it is the players gathering to present a signed shirt to the retiring Mick from the gatehouse. Good luck Mick!
Silence returns.
Play abandoned for the day at New Road
Heavy overnight rain sticks a big dirty welly on events at lovely New Road. Not good news for Lancashire, chasing that relegation-avoiding win.
They're on at Taunton!
And on the live stream I hear the sound of endlessly patient humans clapping enthusiastically. And the dulcet burr of our very own Vic Marks.
Updated
Apologies, it had slipped my notice that play has begun at Sophia Gardens. Smale and Tribe have flayed 42 from nine overs.
“I had a brain fart.,” writes Tim Maitland. “My apologies.
“Herbert Sutcliffe and Everton Weekes share the record for fastest to 1,000 test runs in terms of matches. They both took 12.
”Bradman is next on 13. Kamindu is currently 173 not out and should have the five runs he needs to join that great list by the time I get back from taking the dogs for their evening pee walk.”
The hive mind forgives you Tim.
A gorgeous autumnal stroll, but nothing doing when I came back. The outfield totally empty so I don’t think things are imminent.
Play abandoned for the day at Hove
A full stop on this one, with the rain still falling and the outfield saturated.
Going for a quick circuit of the ground.
“Good morning Tanya,” Lovely to hear from you Finbar, it’s been a while! “After a week in which we lost two finals and the match which might have won us the County Championship, a Somerset County Cricket Club supporter could be forgiven for being a bit depressed; but being (hopefully) second in all 3 competitions still makes us the most successful team this year. Proud to be a Somerset supporter, well done Lewis Gregory and all the lads
So much affection for Somerset, keeping up with the big boys with only a fraction of the cash.
Yours ruefully
The blotter rolls up and down, up and down, the players bounce around the outfield, looking very much like a bunch of teenage boys heading out for kick about. Bright Yorkshire sunshine.
Key event
“Salutations Tanya!” Good morning Tim Maitland.
”Kamindu Mendis is at it again in the second test against the Kiwis at Galle: his fifth test century in his eighth match!
”By my calculations, if he reaches 178 he’ll equal Don Bradman’s record of reaching four figures in 13 innings.
”Bradman needed seven tests.
”It’s a shame Kamindu played that single test against the Aussies in July 2022 (He scored 61 in his one inning), otherwise he’d have had a chance to break Herbert Sutcliffe’s record of reaching 1,000 in 244 days. Then again, as my American wife would say, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a merry Christmas.
”Except now she’s denying any knowledge of it. Welcome to my world.”
I’ve arrived at Headingley. The sun is out, the wind is fresh, the leaves are damp and russet and underfoot. The prospects of play are … middling.. some still shimmering puddles left of the wicket will need some work from the elements.
A damp outlook
Two games called off for the day, delayed starts everywhere else:
DIVISION ONE
TAUNTON: Somerset 136 v Hampshire 62-5 inspection at 11am
CHESTER LE STREET: Durham v Kent no play Thursday or Friday
TRENT BRIDGE: Nottinghamshire 33-2 v Warwickshire inspection at noon
NEW ROAD Worcestershire 119-7 v Lancashire inspection after lunch
CHELMSFORD: Essex 116-1 v Surrey start delayed
DIVISION TWO
HEADINGLEY: Yorkshire v Northamptonshire inspection at lunch
SOPHIA GARDENS Glamorgan v Gloucestershire delayed start
HOVE Sussex v Middlesex inspection at noon
GRACE ROAD Leicestershire v Derbyshire no play Thursday or Friday
Play abandoned for the day at Chester le Street
Wet, wet, wet.
Play abandoned for the day at Grace Road
And the first one bites the dust. The umpires have deemed the surface so waterlogged that play is never going to happen whatever the mopping and sopping efforts. Reports from the ground suggest that the temperature will struggle to hit double digits so don’t expect any rapid drying either.
Thursday's round-up
Day one was a washout at five grounds, as the County Championship pulled on its bedsocks and rolled into the final week of the season. With the champions already crowned, Sussex up, and Kent down, just one promotion and one relegation spot remain to be played for.
At New Road, Lancashire threw themselves into the relegation dog fight with abandon, reducing Worcestershire to 22 for five under dirty slate skies. Matthew Waite and Logan van Beek then bashed 63 for the eighth wicket, hauling Worcestershire beyond three figures, before the rain returned. Tom Bailey, accurate as a filled in full stop, finished with three for nine, and there were three wickets for Anderson Phillip.
Theoretically, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire are both in danger of the drop, but rain washed out all but 15.2 overs at Trent Bridge – Notts finishing 33 for two.
A shell-shocked Somerset were winkled out for 136 at Taunton, before fighting back, on a day when seven batters fell for nought. Tom Kohler-Cadmore was the only Somerset man to pass 29, with 63, an innings that started with carefree abandon but retreated into desperate accumulation as the wickets fell about him, four of them to the unstoppable Liam Dawson, four to Kyle Abbott – who bowled Shoaib Bashir only for the ball to be deemed dead when a towel fell out of his pocket in his delivery stride. Hampshire then wobbled as Jack Leach took three wickets, he and Bashir bowling in tandem for the first time in a Championship match.
There was no play at Hove, much to the frustration of Middlesex, who need to make up a 15-point deficit to have a hope of promotion. A wet outfield prevented any play at Headingley, too, where Yorkshire need a maximum of 10 points to breathe easy.
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
TAUNTON: Somerset 136 v Hampshire 62-5
CHESTER LE STREET: Durham v Kent no play Thursday.
TRENT BRIDGE: Nottinghamshire 33-2 v Warwickshire
NEW ROAD Worcestershire 119-7 v Lancashire
CHELMSFORD: Essex 116-1 v Surrey
DIVISION TWO
HEADINGLEY: Yorkshire v Northamptonshire no play Thursday
SOPHIA GARDENS Glamorgan v Gloucestershire no play Thursday
HOVE Sussex v Middlesex no play Thursday
GRACE ROAD Leicestershire v Derbyshire no play Thursday
Preamble
Good morning! After yesterday’s soggy events, and various amber weather warnings, I’ve plumped for Headingley as the place most likely to see men in whites running around. The sky isn’t too encouraging from this Trans Pennine Express, and the passing foilage is definitely damp, but let’s hope for more action wherever you are on day two of this final match of the season.
Play (possibly) starts at 10.30am.
