To be fair I am basing my assumption on local radio commentary which basically described nothing, they'd be chatting away and suddenly announce a boundary. Very frustrating to concede so many runs in 15 overs though.

Essex did their best to back that view today. Ironically Napier's firework display on Thursday meant his team had a sufficient cushion to stop Surrey chasing a reasonable target today. We had Essex at 222/8 shortly after lunch, polishing off the last two wickets would have left us needing 270 or so off around 55 overs. Instead the last two Essex wickets added 102, at around three an over, to leave a notional target of 366 off 27 overs.

Apparently the captains couldn't agree on a target to be set. I find this extraordinary; OK, negotiate by all means, but if I was the fielding captain I'd just say "look, you've been batting out there, set something you think you can defend and if we get into trouble we'll shut up shop".

A potentially stupendous finale was rendered meaningless by James Foster's caution. There's no way the "White Sox" will be promoted from Division 2 on this evidence.

I had the mispleasure of listening to the Radio Leeds commentary on the second day. They were utterly dreadful.

Another final over victory for Lancs yesterday, getting our second CB40 win of the season on the board against Notts at OT. They're not easy to watch at the moment!

Lancs firing again....15 wickets in 1 day.....Things are going too well at present....



Some very good strength in depth too in the bowling department......Just hope they can keep it going, because if they can, not many seem able to live with them at present.

I'm just wondering what the f**k's going to go wrong after all this!

Hants currently 189-8, 6 runs behind. If (and I still say if) we wrap this win up then the next two Championship matches (Durham and Notts away) will give a full and proper indication of whether or not we've got a real chance of winning it.

Of course, the Twenty20 break will mess us up. No danger.

7 to win for Lancs

Be remiss of me at this point not to congratulate Sideshow Bob on his 500th career first class wicket yesterday. Nice for it to be someone of the calibre of Trescothick too, although a shame he couldn't have got him 180 runs earlier.

It is due a remarkable collapse....27 points clear!

What worries me is there is 10 games still to go, which is plenty of time for it to go horribly wrong and get us relegated, which would be par for the course.

It's Lancs or Durham to win it for me now, with Somerset as outsiders if (with a stronger side on paper) they can get on a roll after a slow start as they did last year.

Lancs have done well to get wins & points on the board while the games are coming thick and fast and the weather has been dry. Last year I think Notts won their first four games, then won only four of the remaining twelve, losing (I think) five, but it was good enough to make them champions. At some stage the chasing pack will be hampered by adverse weather.

Durham had rotten luck with injuries last year, particularly to their fast bowlers, but they seem to have a good all round squad with the right blend of youth and experience.

Most teams will beat Worcs twice, so someone will probably go down with a relatively high number of wins/points. Hants always look like relegation fodder at this time of year, then seem to have a strong second half of the season. I wouldn't be surprised if Notts repeat their their feat of a few years ago, going down the year after winning the championship.

Unless we have a really dry summer, the pitches start turning square and they can bring in either Wainwright or Rafiq as a second spinner, don't count Yorkshire out of that relegation battle.

The seam bowling support to Sidebottom is truly pop-gun stuff with Bresnan out, and with a pretty young top order we're not going to bat sides out of the game.

Another shambolic 4th innings effort from Yorkshire, it's a worrying trend.

I was looking into that this morning. Going off previous seasons we're around 40 points from safety. I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief when we tick them off!

You'll struggle not to get a minimum 40 points from ten matches. Even Worcs have 28 from six defeats out of six!

There are easily two sides worse than us. Worcs for one *cough* Adrian Shankar *cough cough*

Dogged batting display from Lancs, after a ropey start.....Durham won the toss which suggests that it might be bowler friendly, so it will be interesting how Durham fare tomorrow.

This match will be a massive indicator of Lancs' title aspirations....Just hope they avoid a heavy defeat, which could fracture the confidence that they have built up recently.....From today's performance, it at least looks like they have the stomach for a scrap.

Yorkshire look set for another humping.

313 in a day should be enough to get the draw, at least. To get to a winning position Durham need a good 550, which will use up the best part of 2 days.

As you say though, at 215/6 it looked like a rather low score was on, and in trouble, but showing that sort of fight to get to a respectable score bodes well.

Plenty of rain forecast for early today so I can't see them racking up a massive score, well, not today anyway!
Good recovery from being 9-2 early on. Just a shame we lost the last 3 wickets for 1 run.
New ball is crucial whenever we start. I'm just a little worried about their middle order as they have all been in the runs this season so far. Be a nice time for them to all fail though

Been poor for Kent but we have picked up in our current match

Not looking good for Lancs-still over 200 runs behind with only 7 wickets left.

First defeat of the season confirmed, all out for 148.

Moores out, etc...

It will be interesting to see how they now react.....The start of the T20, which many feared could disrupt Lancs' progress, could now turn out to be a blessing.

A month of lower expectations, playing the slogging form of the game, could be the mental rest they need after a pretty high octane start to their Championship campaign.

I actually had the same thought as well mate! Have a knockabout for a month or so, enjoy themselves win or lose, rest the likes of Chapple and maybe Horton and resume where we left off before this game. Win our game in hand and we'll go back top anyway.

Might sneak up and watch Yorkshire vs Warwickshire T20 on Friday night.

Wooohooo! We didn't lose!