Key events
Kent need 164 to win!
Nine, ten, jack, as Hartley sweeps, misses and loses his stumps. Parkinson 3-70, Agar3-65. Lancashire 332 all out. Game on!
Agar back on to try and blast away Hartley and Bailey.
News from Derby â 23 points for Sussex in their second win of the season, deducted oen for a slow over rate, while Derbyshire pick up spare three.
And Agar gets his man Bailey lbw for a six ball one.
The capricious scoreboard at Old Trafford comes on just in time to show the wicket of Matty Hurst, 58 off 164 balls -a second wicket for Matt Parkinson. Done by the grip and the bounce, as Hurst props forward and DBD collects another cracking catch at slip. Lancs 329-8, the lead 160.
Some dreadful news from Derbyshire. Sarah, the wife of their overseas player Blair Tickner, has been diagnosed with leukaemia and is being treated in the UK. The couple have a nine-month old daughter, Florence. Sending all good wishes.
Teatime scores
DIVISION ONE
Old Trafford: Lancashire 92 and 320-7 v Kent 261
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 109-9 LOST TO Sussex 479 BY AN INNINGS AND 124 RUNS
Lordâs: Middlesex 312-2 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 519-7dec v Glamorgan 221 and 68-1
Hundreds for Sam Robson and Leus du Plooy!
And a very tasty position for Middlesex at Lordâs, with Sam Robson 140 and powering onwards and Leus du Plooy 129. 66 long overs since Leicestershire took a wickets. The Middlesex lead â two.
At Old Trafford, things are drifting along in a very positive way for Lancashire. The lead near enough the magic 150 and Matty Hurstâs excellent match continues with an unbeaten 57. Itâs the stodgy bit of the book before the racy final chapter.
Sussex BEAT Derbyshire by an innings 124 runs!
It seems that while my back was turned Jaydon Seales decided to get this match done, roaring through the Derbyshire XI with 5-29. Derby 109-9 (Blair Tickner unable to bat), top-scorer David Lloyd 26.
Derby: Derbyshire 246 109-9 LOST TO Sussex 479 BY AN INNINGS AND 124 RUNS
Scotland through to the women’s T20 World Cup for the first time!
An eight-wicket win with 22 balls remaining against Ireland in the qualifier semi-final takes Scotland to the final (against UAE or Sri Lanka) â and a guaranteed place in the T20 World cup in October in Bangladesh.
If anyone would like to post a memory of Josh Baker, Worcestershire have opened an online book:
The new ball does it! Bell goes for an excellent 65, edging Agar into the gloves of Finch, Crawley watching the ball all the way from first slip. Lancs 275-7, Kentish delight â the lead 106.
Hurst gives Hartley a pep talk as he walks past on the way to the strikerâs end. A pepper-grinder and a pepper corn now at the crease.
Yorkshire declare!
Just the 519-7 declared by Yorkshire, five wickets for Mason Craneâs perseverance, who picks up Harry Brook for 65 whence Yorkshire say thatâs enough.
In other news, Paul Edwards recommends Kevin Howellsâ lunchtime interview with Alan Higham on Five Live extra:
Robson (90) and Du Plooy (79) proving more than an irritant to Leicestershire, a partnership of nearly 150 now â just 100 behind. And the new ball has been taken at OT, Bell watchfully lets Gilchrist pass.
And another as Bell cuts Leaning for four in suddenly vivid sunshine, past the square, past the diving DBD. The lead ratchets up to 98.
And with a short-armed pull, fifty for George Bell, off 114 balls. The first Lancs boundary for 25 overs. And thereâs another as Hurst pulls Denly. Has more than doubled his score since he was dropped on 25.
Fifty for Harry Brook, an even quicker fifty for Jonny Tattersall, at Headingley. The Yorks 506-4, the lead has romped to 284.
A good handful of people here today, enough to season an OT-sized pizza. Parkinson wheels in, youâll be glad to hear that his shirt his untucked, though his knees arenât yet grubby. Seven overs away from the new ball.
Back on after lunch round the grounds. Lancashireâs lead is 59, Wes Agar, bolstered by vegetable tagine from the Old Trafford kitchen, canters in from the Statham end.
Lunchtime scores
DIVISION ONE
Old Trafford: Lancashire 92 and 224-6 v Kent 261
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 and 19-0 v Sussex 479
Lordâs: Middlesex 158-2 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 458-4 v Glamorgan 221
Root out for 156!
Twenty-one dreamy fours. Yorkshire are going to collect maximum batting points with about a zillion overs to spare. Brook 35 off 41 balls.
Things are looking destined for handshakes at 5pm at Lordâs, but Sam Robson has made fifty to brighten things alogn the way. Middlesex 133-2.
This time, it sticks! Bell-Drummond nets a low one at gully. Balderson gone for a steady 48. Lancs 197-6, the lead 28.
And with about half an hour to go until lunch, Sussex collect maximum batting points. Morely and Dupavillion have taken a couple of wickets this morning, including Pujara for 113, but some handy contributions at a quick trot all down the order have put Sussex in a good position â the lead over Derby 220.
Ah, a sharp chance goes down at OT, Crawley at first slip canât grab on as Bell bends and angles. Bell on 25.
Bean out (173), Brook in â who promptly smacks his ninth ball for six. The wicket belongs to Mason Crane, whose 12 overs for 103 now look more palatable with two wickets to add to the figures.
With a tickle off his heels for four George Bell brings up the Lancashire lead. Nicely done. A lead of 150 is the magic number being banded around OT this morning.
150 for Finlay Bean
Small beer for the man who made 441 in a second-XI Championship match, but his highest Champoinship score off just 166 balls.
A century for Joe Root!
At a run a ball! Brings it up with an off drive, then celebrates by kissing the ball straight back past bowler James HArris. Centuries in consecutive matches for Root. Yorkshire 316-2 in just 55 overs, a lead of 95 runs, Harry Brook next man in. Chin up Glamorgan.
Ken has provided Lancashire stats for your pleasure/sins:
The last time Lancashire lost consecutive County Championship matches by an innings was in August 1907 v Middlesex & Notts (they actually lost 3 in a row, also going down by an innings to Essex in the match before the Middlesex game!)
And the last time Lancashire won after following-on was against Oxford University at Old Trafford in 1888.
Tom Bruce walks slowly off, poor chap, as Agar pings the top off off stump like a well-aimed pebble at a justly-placed drinks can. Lancs 122-5.
In case you missed it, this was Harry Finchâs acrobatics to floor Keaton Jennings yesterday:
Under glorious Manchester sunshine, Wes Agar resumes. Not with quite the menace of yesterday. Balderson and Bruce tasked with settling in for the day.
Saturday’s round-up
Lancashire collapsed in spectacular fashion under floodlights , all out for 92 and forced to follow-on against Kent. With the sky interchangeably frowning and fretful, they were taken apart by outstanding seam bowling, the odd lackadaisical shot thrown in for good measure. Wes Agar thundered in from the Statham End entreating Luke Wells to edge to second slip, then removing Keaton Jennings and Tom Bruce in successive balls.
Nathan Gilchrist also operated with steely menace, picking away at the middle order to finish with a career best six for 24. It was only Matty Hurst, swinging the bat with abandon until he picked out Zak Crawley on the rope, who took Lancashire past their lowest score against Kent â 61 in 1884.
Lancashireâs second attempt looked to be running more smoothly, until they lost three for three just before stumps, Josh Bohannon caught driving, Jennings suffering a rush of blood against Matt Parkinson which left him splayed on the soil as Harry Finch pulled off a spectacular stumping, and nightwatchman Will Williams bowled for one. They remain 50 runs behind.
While waiting for the outfield to dry in the morning, Saqib Mahmood was spotted going through his paces. After a second stress fracture in two years wiped out his 2023 season, Mahmood has been working his way back to fitness in the Lancashire second XI, captaining the side and bowling four- and five-over spells.
Somerset wrapped up a three-wicket victory in two days at Taunton, first bowling Essex out for a second time for 138, whipping out the last four wickets for one run, then knocking off the 167 required. Despite Matt Renshaw and Sean Dickson putting on 75 for the first wicket, a partnership that defied previous batting efforts on a green pitch, the chase was full of jeopardy almost until the end. It was Somersetâs first win of the season.
On a turning pitch, Joe Root and Finlay Bean clattered 201 for the third wicket at Headingley as Yorkshire drilled their heels into Glamorgan hopes. Root was only eight runs short of a second consecutive elegant Championship century at stumps, while Bean danced along to a career-best 140.
Earlier, Dom Bess and Daniel Moriarty pocketed four wickets each as Glamorgan were bowled out for 221 â the first time Yorkshire had fielded two front-line spinners at Headingley since Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq in 2013. Bessâs four for 25 was a timely fillip after a torrid 2023 â dispatched on one-match loans to Somerset and Warwickshire, and a winter spent playing in Zimbabwe.
Leicestershireâs Peter Handscomb made a painstaking first century against Middlesex, and Rehan Ahmed hit 42, on a day when the ball kept going out of shape at Lordâs. Cheteshwar Pujaraâs unbeaten hundred, alongside fifties from James Coles, Tom Haines and Tom Alsop, put Sussex in a handy position against Derbyshire.
This is an extract from the brilliant Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport by Madeleine Orr. Highly recommended.
âGreetings Tanya,â writes Tim Maitland, innocently.
âJust flicking through yesterdayâs live feed watching the clatter of Lancashire wickets and 92 all out seems a bit un-Lancastrian, doesnât it? Even more so when their previous two innings were 146 and 107 at Chelmsford. Whatâs going on?â
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
Old Trafford: Lancashire 92 and 119-4 v Kent 261
Taunton: Somerset 128 and 170-7 BEAT Essex 156 and 138 BY THREE WICKETS
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire 246 v Sussex 357-5
Lordâs: Middlesex 64-1 v Leicestershire 306
Headingley: Yorkshire 295-2 v Glamorgan 221
Preamble
Hello! May is just perfection this morning, wild garlic, a hint of elderflower and a circling barn owl, all before breakfast! Just four games left after Somerset pulled it out of the bag against Essex yesterday, and it might not last too much longer at Old Traffordâ¦
