Key events
Tanya Aldred’s report from Trent Bridge
At Trent Bridge, the big screen shines into the empty darkness: County Champions 2025!
Congratulations to Notts, worthy winners. May their celebrations be long and jolly. Sorry about the truncated blog today, but thanks to all of you for your company below the line. I’m, nearly out of here, goodnight!
Roundup: Jimmy White’s grandson thwarting Hampshire
Tanya Aldred
At the Utilita Bowl, Surrey relinquished the title for the first time in four years, and the spotlight swung to their opponents, Hampshire, who need to match Durham’s result against Yorkshire to avoid relegation. Hampshire took a first-innings lead of 101 but Ralphie Albert, grandson of snooker’s Jimmy White, made an unbeaten 61 to ensure Surrey’s bowlers would have something to defend.
Mayank Agarwal’s stunning 175, including 20 fours and five sixes, had the Headingley faithful purring in their seats, and took Yorkshire to within 32 runs of Durham’s total, with five wickets remaining. Jonny Bairstow fell first ball, a third wicket for Ben Raine, who had earlier been Durham’s last man out for 101.
At Chelmsford against Somerset, Paul Walter’s highest first-class score of 158 took Essex close to safety in Division One.
Meanwhile, the Professional Cricketers’ Association refused to rule out taking strike action. The body’s chief executive, Daryl Mitchell, told the BBC that he was “disappointed and disheartened” by the first-class counties’ decision to stick with the schedule status quo.
“We will be led by the players,” he said. “The WhatsApp group last night was pretty animated and there were some high emotions. We are a union. I don’t think any union would rule out the possibility of strike action if their members wanted it.”
Close of play scores
Chelmsford: Essex 295-2 v Somerset 433
Southampton: Hampshire 248 v Surrey 147 and 225-6
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 374v Warwickshire 258 and 7-3
New Road: Worcestershire 123 and 270-6 v Sussex 350
Headingley: Yorkshire 314-5 v Durham 346
DIVISION TWO
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 265 and 41-2 v Lancashire 374
Canterbury: Kent 117-2 v Derbyshire 698-6dec
Lord’s: Middlesex 634-9dec v Gloucestershire 146-3
Wantage Road: Northamptonshire 189v Leicestershire 429 and 86-2
A final day’s missive from Hopps: “Perhaps somebody should wander around the ground to see if there is a smell of drugs in the air because the Headingley crowd is whooping and cheering like there is no tomorrow. Whatever happened to a sense of history?
“The reason is the increasingly free spirited batting of Mayank Agarwal. Since reaching his hundred the art of the step away to leg against mediocre bowling has been practised on many occasions. Fortunately, at least some Yorkshiremen are made of sterner stuff. One spectator has been invited to leave the ground after an altercation with the Durham coach Will Gidman. At least we are assuming he was a Yorkshire spectator. Perhaps we are giving way to stereotypes and he was a disillusioned onlooker on liquor from the Northeast as Agarwal runs riot.”
An enormous roar from the dressing room, applause round the ground from a delighted crowd, applause from the Warwickshire fielders.
“It’s incredible,” says Mick Newell, “it’s a fantastic feeling.”
Nottinghamshire win the County Championship with a six!
Awesome by Kyle Verreyne! A huge, gorgeous six, soaring towards the dressing room, brings up the magic 300! Nottinghamshire are county champions for the first time since 2010.
With Notts eight runs away, news from Headingley.
“Look, you might think I am a little late with this update, but as far as I’m concerned it is a legitimate health and safety issue. It is best not to report that Jonny Bairstow has been dismissed first ball in a tense relegation affair until he has had a chance to calm down a bit. The last thing you want to do is innocently tell the world and then meet him on the stairs as you head out for a latte.
“Anyway, he had a flirt at an innocuous delivery from Ben Raine (subs: do you think it would be safer to say it was unplayable?) and was caught at the wicket. The indefatigable Raine has also caused James Wharton to play on. With Yorkshire still more than 100 runs behind, and six wickets intact, the focus rests ever more on Mayank Agarwal, who is looking as unperturbed as ever on 130 not out.”
Notts just 19 runs away as Liam Patterson White finds his inner batting goddess.
A fourth catch for Davies, Notts five down for 248 – Lyndon James the man out.
Elsewhere, Essex are roaring out of the blocks 197-0, a century for Paul Walter.
At The Rosebowl, Dom “the wall” Sibley is out. Surrey, three down, lead by seven. Notts, meanwhile, need another 72. I’m going to have to leave you to write, but do carry on as you have been, keeping thing alive BTL.
The ground rises to Hameed, out for 122
Out on the stroke of tea, but applauded off the pitch by the crowd and Warwickshire players.
A Hoppsogram.
“Yorkshire have made blissful progress at Headingley this afternoon courtesy of a second wicked stand-up 127 between Adam Lyth, a batter embedded deep into the Yorkshire earth, and Mayank Agarwal, a more superficial and short term addition perhaps, in the way of overseas players these days, but eminently watchable and committed all the same.
“Agarwal purred into life immediately after lunch with a series of delicate strokes and is not far short of his century. Durham’s most combative moments have come from Ben Raine, who briefly thought he had live court at the wicket on 58; Matthew Potts has been an Ashes selection of limited potency although he nearly had Lyth caught and bowled off a leading edge. Durham also have a wildcard in the shape of the Afghan legspinner Shafiqullah Ghafari but there appeared to be few wiles in the Bal that had live caught at slip, a rebound off the wicketkeeper’s gloves.’”
And no sooner had that landed than Agarwal reached his hundred with six over straight midwicket, off 122 balls.
A note drops from the Guardian’s former executive editor Mark Rice-Oxley who now writes a weekly newsletter about mental health, has been speaking to Ashley Giles about his new book, cricket, depression and that series. Here’s the piece (no paywall).
Worth a read, this evening, when all is done. Hameed brings up the 200 just before tea. One hundred needed.
100 for Haseeb Hameed – just!
HH collects his hundredth run, down in the dust on his belly, after running headfirst into a crazy single. The throw missed, and he stands up, dusts himself down and raises his bat, his 13th century for Notts.
Bang, bang, as they say. Haynes is caught behind for a duck from two balls, tips his head back in some despair and hauls himself off the pitch. Notts 179 for four.
And, from nowhere, Clarke gives Al Davies catching practise, shuffles off for 52 after a partnership of 122 with HH. Notts 179 for three.
Notts have put their foot on the accelerator, Joe Clarke stroking a couple of pretty boundaries to pass fifty, and HH calm in the 90s. Notts 178-2, need 122 to win the Championship.
News of Surrey’s second wicket (Patel, for 13, a second for Wheal) arrives at Trent Bridge just as Hameed drives Ali down the ground to bring up the Nottinghamshire 150.
The PCA doesn’t rule out strike action
During that lunchtime interview with the BBC’s Kevin Howells, PCA chief exec Daryl Mitchell said he was “disappointed and disheartened” by the first-class counties’ decision to stick with the schedule status-quo.
“We will be led by the players,” he said The WhatsApp group last night was pretty animated and there were some high emotions.
“We are a union. I don’t think any union would rule out the possibility of strike action if their members wanted it. We are completely at the behest of our members on that. We will have those conversations if they are deemed necessary by the player reps and our members.
“I don’t think that’s where we’d like to get to. It would have a negative impact on the counties and a negative impact on the game, and that’s not something we’re seeking to do.”
Some people are sitting in the shade at Trent Bridge, I can’t tell you why. And things are happening again at Southampton – Burns caught for four off Brad Wheal. Surrey 9-1.
Some catching up from earlier (thank you Tim Maitland) Sussex cadge a lead of 227, with an unbeaten 129 for John Simpson. Luis Reece now has his highest first-class score, 211, and Kent could at least celebrate getting Wayne Madsen out two runs short of his double hundred. Parky 3-155, Derbyshire 597-5.
Rob Key explains why taking the vice captaincy away from Ollie Pope doesn’t make him more droppable. If I was Ollie Pope I wouldn’t take it as a huge vote of confidence. Also, farewell loyal England servant Chris Woakes.
Over to Hoppsy.
Imagine the state of mind of Mayank Agarwal. At 34, his unsung India Test career is held to be behind him, but the Karnataka captain has been summoned by Yorkshire for the last three games of the season to help protect their first division status. September has been bleak and unsettled and he came to the crease at no 3 today with two ducks and three innings to his name and a lurking fear of chilblains. At least the sun is shining, but he has struggled his way to five from 26 balls and lunch and needed prolonged treatment after he was struck on the arm by Ben Raine.
Yorkshire Expects this afternoon, but at the moment he will just be grateful to middle one and go from there. Yorkshire 28-1 in response to 346 at lunch.
Meanwhile, lunch in the media box is a confused affair because nobody can remember what they ordered. I forgot completely so reduced to lurking, vulture like, on the periphery, hoping this leads to an unclaimed cheese sandwich. This is the life.
At lunch round the grounds, Notts need another 200 to win the Championship (HH 54 not out); and Surrey have whistled Hampshire out for 248, fifty for Washington Sundar.
Lunchtime scores
Chelmsford: Essex 8-0 v Somerset 433
Southampton: Hampshire 248 v Surrey 147
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 100-2 v Warwickshire 258 Notts need 200 to win the Championship
New Road: Worcestershire 123 and 7-0 v Sussex 350
Headingley: Yorkshire 28-1 v Durham 346
DIVISION TWO
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 265 v Lancashire 168-2
Canterbury: Kent v Derbyshire 550-4
Lord’s: Middlesex 519-7 v Gloucestershire
Wantage Road: Northamptonshire 52-1 v Leicestershire 429
More from Hutton: “It’s been a team effort. Everyone is a good age – Freddie and Farhan have played the least but a lot of players have experience, and we’ve had a season in Div one to see what it is about. All the skills we’ve been working on for the last few years are starting to settle in and we enjoy each other’s company.
Notts have had nine different centurions and seven different bowlers have taken five-wicket hauls. “Tongue and Fergie were amazing, Abbas has done a great job, and we’ve been lucky with injuries, everyone has stayed fit and it is the same with the bat.”
Fifty for Hameed!
Brett Hutton is good on Hameed on the radio. “He’s very good, he’s calm and he loves the game and the team. He wears his heart on his sleeve and he’s always a hundred percent in it, that is part of being a leader. He trusts the rest of the boys to do their job and get their prep right, thats one of the things that’s puts us in a good place. “
And here comes his fifty courtesy of a misfield – 98 balls, nine fours. He waves his bat gently at the crowd. His ninth score above fifty this season.
Warwickshire fluff their lines play their part in the fairytale, dropping HH at second slip.
HH turns Gilchrist gently round the corner and down to the rope. Six more runs for the fairytale fifty. Notts 76 for two.
Lewis Goldsworthy approaches his century at Chelmsford, Somerset 418-8, as toothless Essex trudge on.
Exit young Freddie McCann, middle pole flattened by Bamber for one.
Slater has an attack of the collie-wobbles, slashes and is caught behind. Enter young Freddie McCann. HH kneels down and has a drink. Notts 56 for one.
Apparently the BBC’s Kevin Howells will be talking to the chairman of the PCA at lunchtime, which will be worth a listen.
HH slides the ball down for a couple watched over by bronzing trees and moon-faced spotlights – 250 more runs needed for the magic number.
I’m going to be a little bit distracted today, writing a feature on top of the usual, so please forgive an occasional dearth of updates.
Notts are progressing serenely here at Trent Bridge, 40-0, and each time I look up, more fleece wrapped bodies are strolling into the white bucket seats.
Aptly, Kent’s Championship season is ending in the sort of hole where it has been stuck most of the summer. Madsen and Reece are racing each other to 200 – Derby 461-2.
No Guardian representative at Lord’s today, but five wickets for Ajeet Singh-Dale, who pockets five-wickets on his Gloucestershire swan song.
Hopps at Headingley:
Durham‘s first innings has ended on 346, Ben Raine the last man out for 101, and with the first division survival on the line, the Yorkshire dressing-room will not be without anxiety. It has been no surprise to see Raine leading the fight. In a season when Durham’s pace stocks have been found wanting, Raine has persistently been the man running in with the determination: he has 39 championship wickets, comfortably more than the rest.
In this innings, he exhibited once again his ability as a clean lower-middle order striker, but this is only his second championship century to follow one made against Worcestershire three years ago. Can Durham now provide him with any sort of support with the ball?
100 for Ben Raine
A swashbuckling end to the season for Ben Raine. Durham, incidently, are all out 346.
That Gareth Batty glare had extra-charged power last night – Hampshire have lost three wickets for 11 runs so far this morning.
Good morning Tim Maitland:
“You’ll forgive me for missing day one of the denouement, but I was distracted by a minor case of the WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!s.
“Fortunately Super Typhoon Ragasa did not turn out to be quite as apocalyptic as advertised. It’s true, my neighbour did lose the glorified shed off the top of their roof (fortunately, not in our direction. Christmas will be cancelled unless they replace that artificial tree) and another had a hefty plant pot, with plant still attached, drop on his car from two stories up (Allegedly. I say allegedly, having surveyed the damage, that’s what I think happened) to leave a sizable dent in the roof and a terminal crack in his windscreen. Overall, we got away with it quite lightly.
“Having said that, if some genius on the OBO can explain, I’d love to know why Ragasa, the biggest tropical storm in the world this year, only uprooted trees, whereas six years ago Typhoon Mangkhut took mature trees and twisted their trunks halfway up as if they were matchsticks.
“Anyway, the point of all of this drivel is to ask one simple question: is it really so difficult for English cricket to ensure that all of the counties have access to their best players for the T20 final and the promotion/relegation/championship deciders?
“It’s obviously not a simple question. Because Sport 101 – the simplest, most rudimentary rules of running a competition – is to know what next year’s competitions are going to look like BEFORE you start this year’s. Anything else is utterly confusing, distracting and divisive.
“Obviously, they couldn’t do that, but still, having the season’s success and failures decided by teams half-filled with players from “The Stiffs” is in no-one’s best interests, is it? I shall miss you and the opportunities to whinge that you provide.”
Perhaps they should just leave comments from the last day of the season’s CCLive open till April. (And I’m glad you survived!)
To keep things interesting, Matt Fisher has just taken two wickets in his first over – Albert and Brown. Hampshire 155-5.
Fans slip into the stands, lonely sparrows and paired up love birds. Who doesn’t want HH to hit the winning runs? Notts are 0-0 after two overs.
There will be 104 overs at Trent Bridge which increases Notts chances of pulling things off today – though The Cricketer’s George Dobell says it was hard going batting yesterday.
It is said that the Trent Bridge groundsman prepared three tracks just in case – a spicy one, an inbetween one and a road. No prizes for guessing which one Notts plumped for.
It wasn’t a furious Gareth Batty who spoke to the press last night at the Rosebowl, but his deputy Jim Troughton.
“Over the last four years there has been a lot of success in this group and a lot of good days. The last game (vs Notts) was a tough one because we played a lot of good cricket and there were moments we let the game slip but then gave ourselves a chance to get back into it. It could have been a lot different points wise coming here.
“There are some younger faces in this group so it is up to the senior guys to front up and make sure they are taking the load off those guys.
“Four day cricket is a tough place to be when you are on the end of a difficult situation, it is not something we have had to get used to dealing with.
“The guys will shower it off, fuel up for tomorrow and acquit ourselves better.”
Meanwhile, at Headingley, David Hopps sniffs the autumn air.
There are some who claim perfectly sincerely that avoiding relegation and reaching the semi-final of the Metro Cup would represent a reasonably successful season for Yorkshire.
But to present reaching the last four of a developmental competition as success, while ignoring yet another summer’s failure in the Blast is like telling a 11-year-old on Christmas Day not to get too upset over the absence of a Skalextric because a dressing gown will come in very useful. You don’t just get cricket on this blog, you get emotional scars, too.
And that relegation cannot yet be discounted. Yorkshire might have dominated much of the first day against Durham, their rivals in distress, but Ben Raine’s doughty assault against the second new ball (87 not out from 85 balls) sees Durham resume on 322-7 and not too far off parity. An engrossing day lies ahead.
The Notts players are warming up with a spring in both steps, heart and lungs. Three hundred runs will clinch the Championship for them today after Surrey’s shambling day at Hampshire. The sun shines on.
Thursday’s roundup
As the season’s last round of championship cricket rolled around, players paid tribute to Dickie Bird, who died on Tuesday, aged 92. At his spiritual home, Headingley, a minute’s applause was observed, the players lining up on the pitch, and a bouquet of flowers and trademark umpire’s white cap placed on Bird’s dressing‑room balcony chair.
Bird, who funded the balcony in 2015, would have enjoyed the first five overs of the day when Yorkshire reduced their fellow relegation candidates Durham to seven for two, but 93 from David Bedingham and an unbeaten 87 from Ben Raine turned the tables. Yorkshire need eight more points to be sure of Division One cricket next year, Durham may require a win because of Surrey’s impression of a soggy paper bag at the hands of fellow strugglers Hampshire.
Surrey, champions for three years on the bounce, needed a maximum point win to put pressure on the leaders, Nottinghamshire. But, albeit with a side weakened by illness and the withdrawal of England players, they were dismissed for just 147, their lowest total of the season. Dan Lawrence top scored with 36. There were three wickets each for James Fuller, Washington Sundar and Kyle Abbott, who passed fifty wickets for the summer for the sixth time. Hampshire then sailed calmly to a seven-run lead at stumps.
All of which was music to the ears of Nottinghamshire, who bowled out Warwickshire for 258 in a frenetic last session and now need just two more points – 300 runs – to secure the title. Warwickshire had revived at 244 for five but lost their last five wickets for 14 runs, Dan Mousley last man out for 74.
Elsewhere, Steve Eskinazi made a first century for Leicestershire against Northamptonshire, Middlesex’s captain, Leus du Plooy, biffed an unbeaten 171 against Gloucestershire, the Somerset academy graduate Josh Thomas hit a run-a-ball fifty on his championship debut proper, and James Rew his fifth 50 of the summer to frustrate Essex, who remain in relegation danger.
After a season of wrangling, meetings, more meetings, letters and votes, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that the motion to remodel the County Championship structure had not received the required two-thirds majority of votes it needed to pass. The 18 first-class counties were tied at 9-9, which means the current two-division 14-game, two up, two down, competition remains.
The announcement drew an immediate retort from the Professional Cricketers’ Association. The union’s chief executive, Daryl Mitchell, said the current structure was “not fit for purpose,” while its chair, Olly Hannon-Dalby, said: “Over the past two years, we have seen increasing levels of genuine concern for player health and wellbeing and as an association we represented this in the strongest possible way. Ultimately the required minimum number of 12 county chairs did not see player welfare as a priority.”
Scores on the doors
Chelmsford: Essex v Somerset 339-6
Southampton: Hampshire 154-3 v Surrey 147
Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire 258
New Road: Worcestershire 123 v Sussex 228-5
Headingley: Yorkshire v Durham 322-7
DIVISION TWO
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 265 v Lancashire55-0
Canterbury: Kent v Derbyshire 389-2
Lord’s: Middlesex 394-5 v Gloucestershire
Wantage Road: Northamptonshire v Leicestershire 392-7
Preamble
Good morning from a sun-kissed Nottingham morning, just the sort of morning to win a County Championship…
