County roundup by Tanya Alred
Northeast breaks Gooch’s record in huge Lord’s hit
Sam Northeast, the Glamorgan captain, collector of mammoth scores, strode to the highest first-class score at Lord’s, eclipsing Graham Gooch’s iconic 333 with an unbeaten 335, containing 36 fours and six sixes against Middlesex. He reached the milestone with a shuffle-flick off his toes, raising his bat to a host of empty white bucket seats but rapturous applause from the balcony and the crowd lucky enough to be there.
The bolshy backline-of a-ballet-class action of Dan Lawrence and the leggies of Cameron Steel provided energetic entertainment at Old Trafford, where things finally got underway after lunch on day two, and Lancashire lost eight for 52 in an elongated evening session.
Lawrence, Surrey’s one big signing of the winter, had been talked up pre-season as a “genuine all-rounder” by the head coach Gareth Batty. But Batty can’t have expected his prediction to have come true in Surrey’s very first match.
Rory Burns pulled Lawrence into the attack in the ninth over at the James Anderson end, and he made the first breakthrough shortly afterwards when Keaton Jennings clipped the ball low and Lawrence pounced to his left. Josh Bohannon then put on 67 with Luke Wells and 57 with George Balderson, before Lawrence (four for 91), and Steel (a career-best five for 25), proceeded to rip through the Lancashire batting on a day where the crosswind threatened to tear off your trousers and unbutton your blouse. There was time enough for Surrey to face five overs under floodlights with a ring of noisy close fielders, and Nathan Lyon, playing alongside Tom Hartley as promised by the new coach Dale Benkenstein. Lyon, who made a golden duck, dropped quickly into the grove, with time for a classic drop-kneed appeal and there was a last over from Hartley bowling in what had suddenly become an almost supernatural luminescence.
Nottinghamshire suffered a similar collapse at Trent Bridge, slipping from 259 for four to 293 all out as Sam Cook collected a hat-trick and Essex restricted the hosts’ first-innings lead to 40 despite a century for Joe Clarke.
A fifty from Karun Nair and 92 from Luke Procter took Northamptonshire to 292 for seven at Hove. There were three wickets for Jaydon Seales, and Ollie Robinson collected a deserved wicket after 19 overs of toil for Sussex. While some stoical tailend batting helped Kent limp to 284, thanks to 85 from last man out Joey Evison. The Somerset captain, Lewis Gregory, pinged for 20 in his first over, finished with four wickets, and there was no space for England spinner Shoaib Bashir in the Somerset XI.
At Edgbaston, Ed Barnard made a sprightly 89 for Warwickshire against his old county Worcestershire, and Ben Mike did the same against his former county Yorkshire with a swashbuckling 90 at Headingley for Leicestershire.
It was a washout for the second day in succession at Derbyshire and Durham, where the groundsman was dubious about play tomorrow because of the saturated ground.
Close of play scores
DIVISION ONE
Chester le Street: Durham v Hampshire no play on days one or two
Canterbury: Kent 284 all out v Somerset
Old Trafford: Lancashire 202 v Surrey 11-0
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 293 v Essex 253 and 65-1
Edgbaston: Warwickshire 292-5 v Worcestershire 360
DIVISION TWO
Derby: Derbyshire v Gloucestershire no play on days one or two
Lord’s: Middlesex 138-1 v Glamorgan 620-3dec
Hove: Sussex v Northamptonshire 292-7
Headingley: Yorkshire 72-2 v Leicestershire 354
