I think we’ve been here before:
Published: 2025-07-30 10:36:26 | Views: 17
Key events
I think we’ve been here before:
And from our not-so-roving correspondent, David Hopps.
Whiling away the hours watching Championship cricket in your dotage sounds so easy. In principle. It isn’t. Stuff happens. Today I’ve fallen foul of a somewhat inflexible Bee’s Nest remover who works on the emphatic Yorkshire principle that “someone will be at home all afternoon” means any time from noon sharp, rather than any of your soft-headed Southern-influenced ideas that the afternoon actually starts around 1pm, the time when my wife will be back home from a dog-walking social in some local gardens where the hours of attendance appear to be equally non-negotiable.
Sod’s Law will now invariably apply and he will pitch up around 3pm, if he pitches up at all, to reassert well-honed arguments about why Guardian-style ideas about saving the bees are thoroughly impractical and how the honeycomb is now so large that the ceiling could collapse by close of play. While all this is going on, I’m going to pass the time watching a bit of Durham vs Surrey where Surrey, 29 ahead with five wickets left and Dan Lawrence in inspired mood, look well positioned to take another step towards the title. Unless, of course, as befits my day, there is a sting in the tail...
North Marine Road shimmies up between Scarborough’s terraces, a sloping patch of green overlooked on two sides. If the crowds do not flock like they once did, there were still plenty of bums on the salt-burned wooden benches. Yorkshire won the toss and duly ran through Sussex, courtesy of disciplined bowling and some nifty slip catching, as well as a sprinting over-the-shoulder swallow dive by James Wharton to catch a top edge off Tom Haines. But then came 30 overs of frustration as the last-wicket pair of Danny Lamb and Gurinder Sandhu added an unbeaten 60.
After a high-class partnership with Rishi Patel (85), Rehan Ahmed ticked off hundred No 5 for the summer. It was the highlight of the day for Leicestershire, who then crumbled to Matt Parkinson. His seven for 104 temporarily cooled the brows of Kent members, whose last place in the table was made worse by news that their club had been docked eight points for disciplinary breaches.
Fifteen wickets fell at Chester-le-Streetwith Durham all out for 153 at tea to the Division One leaders, Surrey, who finished 29 ahead.
At Trent Bridge, Somerset’s calamitous start – 25 for three, all to Nottinghamshire’s Mohammad Abbas – improved as James Rew (162no) and Tom Abell (156) added 313, overtaking Peter Denning and Ian Botham’s 310 to become their club’s biggest fourth-wicket stand.
At Old Trafford, Australia spinner Chris Green found the devil in the dirt for Lancashire, winkling out six Glamorgan wickets. Dropped on 29, Kane Williamson duly advanced to century No 2 in two innings for Middlesex, against his old side Gloucestershire.
Tom Westley added a third hundred in five innings to give Essex another good day. From 89 for five, Martin Andersson’s 105 escorted Derbyshire to 348 for eight and tamed the Yuzvendra Chahal wicket-munching machine.
DIVISION ONE
Chester-le-Street: Durham 153 v Surrey 182-5
Chelmsford: Essex 350-4 v Warwickshire
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire v Somerset 338-4
New Road: Worcestershire v Hampshire 146-2
Scarborough: Yorkshire v Sussex 210-9
DIVISION TWO
Cheltenham: Gloucestershire v Middlesex 232-3
Canterbury: Kent v Leicestershire 386-9
Old Trafford: Lancashire v Glamorgan 260-8
Northamptonshire: Northants v Derbyshire 348-8
Good morning from Scarborough, where the waves tumble onto North Beach and I saw a weasel skittling around Anne Bronte’s grave. Play looks set fair for an 11am start as the players stretch and lurch and bat around the outfield. Do join us for day two of this final mid-summer round.