Ben Stokes had not played a Championship match for two years. He had not bowled properly since the Lord’s Test last year, excluding that cameo wicket-with-his-first-ball five-over spell during England’s fifth Test innings defeat to India in Dharamsala in March. Blackpool’s amphitheatre might not match the majesty of the Himalayas, but it was good enough for Stokes on his comeback, pounding with increasing vigour across the Stanley Park clod.

From soon after the start of play, Durham winning the toss and fielding against Lancashire, Stokes caught the eye. There he was at mid-off, touching his toes and running through his bowling action, all leonine hair and racehorse physique. There he was talking to Paul Coughlin at the top of his mark, dispensing advice and providing expert ball-polishing skills. There he was, throwing himself after the ball with the carefree joy of someone not coming back from a serious knee operation.

And there he was, suddenly at the top of his mark, that familiar gait, picking up two wickets along the way, with some occasional turf-kicking thrown in. There was huge appreciation from the crowd that Stokes was there, his run-up close enough to the boundary rope that the hot-dog seller next to the scoreboard could have taken an order. Stokes wasn’t the only England bowler in action.

Matthew Potts charged in with vigour, all demonstrative arms and legs, like a giant bounding puppy, trying to catch the eye of the ECB scout prowling the boundary. Potts picked up two wickets, Ben Raine three, while Keaton Jennings made 115 and Saqib Mahmood, also eyeing up an England return, a counter-punching 40 not out in one of Lancashire’s better batting performances of the season, as they closed on 350 for 9. But it was Stokes’s return that dominated close of play thoughts: it was “mint”, said Raine, to have him back in the Durham dressing room.

Elsewhere, Surrey picked themselves up from 15 for four, thanks to half-centuries from Dan Lawrence and Ollie Pope, but still subsided to 213 all out. Dan Worrall and Kemar Roach then almost ran through Worcestershire on a 17-wicket day at the Oval.

Centuries for Ed Barnard and Michael Burgess saved Warwickshire from a precarious position against Essex at Chelmsford; Lyndon James’s unbeaten 92 played a similar role for Nottinghamshire against Hampshire. Mohammad Abbas finished with four for 36.

There were punchy centuries for James Rew and Tom Banton as Somerset took Kent to the cleaners. Marnus Labuschagne was out for 23 on his Glamorgan return, one of four wickets for Middlesex’s Tom Helm; while George Bartlett and Rob Keogh steadied Northants with seventies in Derbyshire.

Ben Charlesworth made a rollicking maiden century and Cameron Bancroft his second in a row as Gloucestershire raced along against Leicester at Grace Road. Yorkshire rattled through Sussex, only to be rattled through in return – Joe Root (67) the only man to pass 26. Jofra Archer, meanwhile, was bowling for Sussex’s second XI.

Chelmsford: Essex v Warwickshire 308-6

Stanley Park: Lancashire 350-9 v Durham

Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 212-9 v Hampshire

Taunton: Somerset 440-7 v Kent

The Oval: Surrey 213 v Worcestershire 112-7

DIVISION TWO

Derby: Derbyshire v Northamptonshire 297-5

Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 183 v Middlesex 62-0

Grace Road: Leicestershire v Gloucestershire 385-2

Hove: Sussex 150 v Yorkshire 176-7

Good morning from Blackpool, where everything in the garden is lovely.