CC Div 1 Round-up

Only Sussex were victorious in the latest round of County Championship Games.

Kent v Lancashire

This game belonged to Ed Smith, who hammered a career best 203 to become the first man past 1000 runs this season. He was well backed up by Matt Walker, as the side cruised to 602-6, with Mark Ealham just missing his ton when he gave Mal Loye a first career First Class Wicket in his 159th game!

From there, it was a case of resiliant batting for Lancashire to save the game, and even though the wicket was taking spin, Lancashire got up to 365 in their first innings, with a great century from opener Mark Chilton.

Following on 237 behind, they were in big trouble early on, as Martin Saggers ripped out the first 3 wickets to reduce them to 12-3, which soon became 55-4. Former Kent favourite Carl Hooper dug in though, and scored a match-saving unbeaten century, with more good support from Chris Schofield and then captain Warren Hegg, he batted an hour and a half for 16, the match ending at 244-6.


Leicestershire v Sussex

The home side must wish they had a few more years available from Phil DeFreitas, who almost single-handedly gave his side any chance.

Entering the fray at 154-6, after Mushtaq Ahmed had bamboozled the top order, the Leicester skipper smashed 103, including a domination of a 9th wicket stand of 69 with Charlie Dagnall in just over an hour as his side recovered to make 320.

He then proceeded to bowl a super line to pick up 5-55 in just under 30 overs, but the rest of the bowling was loose, and Tony Cottey and Matt Prior capitalised to give their side a 96 run lead.

The magic ran out though, as Mushtaq took yet another 5 in the 2nd innings, to give him 10 for the match and 65 from 9 matches this season.

Needing only 163 runs, Sussex were never going to lose it, and had 5 wickets to spare when they crossed the finish line.


Middlesex v Warwickshire

The Bears were reduced to 100-5 on winning the toss, but their strength in depth rivals any county, and Tony Frost, Dougie Brown and Ashley Giles all scored big, and with even number 10 Melvyn Betts hitting 38, the final score was 496, an amazing turn around!

With neither overseas player selected, the bowling attack looked a little week, but Alan Richardson stepped up to the plate and picked up 4, along with Giles, as although 6 batsmen got to 29, only one got past 38 and they were dismissed for 260.

Rain had ruined the game though, and Sven Koenig and Ben Hutton dug in for a fine 159 stand in the second innings, against increasingly part time bowling, and the match was saved.


KENT 602-6 (Smith 203, Walker 150, Ealham 95, Jones 66*, Fulton 47, Hooper 3-147)
LANCASHIRE 365 (Chilton 114, Schofield 66, Hooper 60, Sheriyar 3-63, Saggers 3-93)
LANCASHIRE (f/o) 244-6 (Hooper 128*, Schofield 40, Saggers 3-31)

LEICESTERSHIRE 320 (DeFreitas 103, Stevens 51, Hodge 47, Mushtaq 5-93)
SUSSEX 416 (Cottey 147, Prior 96, Montgomerie 52, DeFreitas 5-55)
LEICESTERSHIRE 258 (Stevens 50, Ward 50, Maddy 40, Mushtaq 5-96)
SUSSEX 166-5 (Cottey 58)

WARWICKSHIRE 496 (Brown 113, Giles 96, Frost 84, Noffke 3-92, Keegan 3-125)
MIDDLESEX 260 (Nash 44*, Richardson 4-37, Giles 4-90)
MIDDLESEX (f/o) 281-3 (Hutton 102*, Koenig 96)

Posted by Marc