And the first fifty of the round goes to Ali Orr, actually his first half-century for Hampshire since he skipped along from Sussex in the off-season. Hants 82-1.

A second Tom gone at Cardiff – Clark joining Haines back in the pavilion, caught off James Harris. Sussex 87-2.

Parky! Callum, in his first over at the Rose Bowl bowls Fletcha Middleton. A needed breakthrough for Durham with only 15 minutes till lunch, Hants 74-1. Siddle’s first five overs were tidy but unrewarding.

“Morning, Tanya”. Lovely to hear from you Smylers. “I presume this is actually round six, given that the teams not playing today have already played five matches. But that raises the question … why does the Country Championship do this, where each county misses a few rounds each season?

”Resting? (But surely that would apply to all teams.) Grounds needed for international matches? (But out-grounds exist. As do away fixtures.)

”Surely without these gaps, every county playing every round, the season could start later, avoiding the need for playing any matches early in cold and soggy April? And it would make the tables more meaningful, with everybody having played the same number of matches.”

The consensus seems to be that eight matches in two months is too intense, so each team is given a week off (and by the way, you’re quite right that this is round six) – so by the end of May, everyone will have played seven games. In terms of why everyone doesn’t play everyone else in Division One – I think because there isn’t enough space in the season once you’ve shoehorned four competitions between a wet April and a dark September.

A crunching six from Josh Bohannon, at Trent Bridge, Lancashire 42-1. And a wicket for George Scrimshaw at The County Ground – and a snorter it is too:

And Surrey start to open the throttle: Abbot arrows the ball in, hitting Rob Yates bang in the bullseye. Warwicks suddenly 59-2. Rory Burns, in floppy hat, joins the celebrating throng. I’ve just finished Ben Bloom’s Battling for Time and was amused/surprised to read that Burns had taken the whole of August off last year(?) to go on a family holiday because there was no red-ball cricket to play.

Switch over to the Surrey stream, where Jordan Clarks’ shirt is being flustered by a brisk breeze and the pitch is the colour of a queasy sailor. A scurry through the slips by Al Davies brings another boundary. And there’s the wicket! Davies loses his off stump the very next ball. Warwicks 59-1.

A wicket falls at Canterbury, Agar the greedy guzzler at it again, Libby lbw for 19. A wicket too at Trent Bridge, where Luke Wells, after scurrying up to 17, is a wicket for Paterson. The first chunk out of the biscuity coating.

Sussex have lost one of their Toms, this time T Haines, for 19 – a wicket for Mir Hamza. Meanwhile Warwickshire are galloping along at almost five an over at The Oval, 51-0.

Has anyone played for more counties than Peter Siddle? Currently pulling on cap number five with Durham – following stints with Somerset, Lancashire, Notts and Essex. Must wait to make his mark, usurped to the new ball by Potts and Raine – Hampshire 13-0.

Tweet of the day?

With nearly half an hour gone, there are no wickets round the grounds.

It must be a CCLive morning – my inbox pings, hello Tim Maitland!

”I’m trying again on the issue of Lancashire’s batting woes.

”Is there a consensus on what their issue might be?

”Is it that they’re less like an Uncle Joe’s Mint Ball and more like Mentos? Once you’ve got through the crunchy exterior that is their top three, you expose a soft and rather unsatisfactory middle?”

I think its very much a Mentos situation, or possibly a Gold Bar. A crunchy and tasty top three, though even Bohannon has only made one half century this year, followed by young but brittle biscuit talent lacking guidance in the absence of old heads and an overseas who, and I feel desperately sorry for him, can barely buy a run at the moment.

Agar, paint dabbed on his nose, is looking to do to Worcestershire, what he did to Lancashire last week. Lancashire, meanwhile, are 6-0 against Notts, boosted by the return of Saqib Mahmood – with Nathan Lyon taking a round off this week.

Canterbury looks beautiful on the live stream, lime grass and sunshine. Worcestershire and Kent lined up before play on the boundary edge to remember Josh Baker, the talented and much-loved 20 year old Worcestershire spinner who died just over a week ago. Silence, then a minute’s applause.

Bat? Bowl?

But, to restore your faith in humankind, a lovely spin by Rob Smyth on walking cricket:

And this was Barney, chewing over and spitting out private investment in Hundred Franchises:

News dropped yesterday that the ICC had renewed their deal with oil and gas giant Aramco, a global partner for another four years, until the end of 2027. Not content with ignoring the plight of its own game played in many of the most climate vulnerable nations in the world, the desperate calls of the UN for immediate action, and the worries of their own players over air pollution, they went ahead and trousered the money.

The “themes at the core of the partnership are performance with a focus to engage a younger audience” reads the press release, ignoring the depth of young people’s climate anxiety and their involvement in climate activism. “How to toxify your brand” might have been a better way of putting it.

Jonathan Liew wrote this in 2022 when the original deal was signed.

Division Two table

Division One Table

Fixtures

Preamble