Thanks for your company and comments on this truncated day. I’m going to knock this County Blog ‘umanely on the ‘ead and take my eyes over to events at Old Trafford where they are playing and England need wickets. Have a lovely afternoon, keep dry!
A (soggy) Day Four Round Up
Feverish checking and re-checking of weather apps was the order of the day across the land on Saturday. Old Trafford may have been the epicentre for the most fevered refreshing what with England’s Ashes hopes hanging as delicately and precariously as a cobweb in a monsoon, but they were scouring the screens and the skies across the shires too.
In Essex and North London the rain held off just long enough to see results at both Chelmsford and Lord’s. Under leaden skies Surrey beat Middlesex by eight wickets, Sean Abbot needing only two deliveries to prise out Tim Murtagh - the home side’s last man. An accurately speared short ball forced the veteran seamer to fend and flinch like a man poking at a wasp nest with a broom handle and only resulted in a looped edge to Dom Sibley in the slips. Rory Burns’ side required only 78 runs to win and despite Jamie Smith and the captain himself perishing in the early overs the top of the Division One table side ran out winners by 8 wickets. The result saw Surrey chalk up their first First Class win at Lord’s in 26 years.
Across to the east, the clouds were high enough to see Essex beat Kent by seven wickets. Sam Cook had Hamidullah Qadri snaffled by Simon Harmer at leg-slip and then skittled Matt Quinn to leave Kent nine down. Harmer himself then finished the job by pinning Joey Evison lbw to return figures of 4-72 off a mammoth spell of 44 overs that included seventeen maidens.
With Essex needing just 30 runs to win, Alastair Cook donned his tracksuit as Dan Lawrence strapped on the pads and headed out to open the batting. Lawrence bunted a four and reverse-swept for a single before holing out in the deep to Grant Stewart for five. Qadri pulled off a spectacular caught and bowled to pocket Matt Critchley after trapping Adam Rossington lbw but couldn’t pull off the hat-trick or the miracle Kent needed.
Elsewhere it was sou’westers and soggy handshakes all round with Warwickshire and Lancashire, Derbyshire and Durham and Yorkshire and Sussex all succumbing to the rains and calling it quits after no play at all. After six draws in their last nine games, the white rose of Yorkshire might feel particularly droopy as they see their chances of promotion fade away.
Finally, there was no action possible on day three between Gloucestershire and Glamorgan, another day of doom scrolling the weather apps looms for those at the Cheltenham Festival.
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