Essex’s lingering hopes of winning the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One title were dealt a huge blow by Ben Sanderson’s bowling for Northamptonshire.

Essex need at least 400 but Sanderson claimed three for 15 with the wickets of Alastair Cook, Nick Browne and Dan Lawrence in a devastating nine-over spell, conceding just 14 runs.

They were 125 for four by close of play, still trailing by 244 runs but their slight hopes are still alive following Surrey’s collapse at the Ageas Bowl.

Liam Dawson claimed his fourth five-wicket haul of the season for Hampshire to make Surrey suffer, but the visitors only need a draw to seal top spot.

Left-arm spinner Dawson moved to 45 wickets for the season and his five for 44 kept Surrey, who needed to post 300 for the title, waiting.

Joe Denly smashed an unbeaten century to help relegation-threatened Kent to 345 for four on day two against Lancashire at Canterbury.

Kent were in pursuit of 327 and Ben Compton anchored their innings but fell five short of a century.

Denly then played a more flamboyant 105 not out, from 149 balls with 11 fours and a six, to record his first red-ball century of the season as Kent closed with two potentially crucial batting points and a lead of 18.

Neil Wagner registered a career-best 72 for Somerset but weather played spoilsport once again in their meeting with Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

There were 35 overs lost on day one and another 36 were wiped out on day two, which ended with Warwickshire on 112 for three in reply to the visitors’ 215.

Ryan Higgins became only Middlesex’s second player to make a County Championship century to give the relegation threatened side a chance of victory against Nottinghamshire.

Higgins held Middlesex’s first innings together with 137 – his first hundred for the county and shared partnerships of 61 with Stevie Eskinazi (58) and 108 with Jayant Yadav (56).

Middlesex claimed three batting bonus points with 366, but Nottinghamshire responded with 92 for two, with Ben Slater on 49 not out.

Worcestershire have secured promotion back to Division One of the LV= Insurance County Championship.

The Pears secured second spot in Division Two, behind champions Durham, after they reached 300 for a second batting bonus point during the early stages of a weather-interrupted second day against Yorkshire at Headingley.

Worcestershire started this fixture needing a maximum of two points to seal top-flight cricket for 2024 and were 280 for five overnight.

Captain Brett D’Oliveira reached a century before he fell lbw to Matt Milnes to leave the score 299 for six and Worcestershire were stuck on 299 for 10 balls before Baker pushed Milnes through the covers for two at 10.55am – 25 minutes into day two – as celebrations erupted on the players’ balcony.

Durham batter David Bedingham passed 1,000 runs for the season before team-mates Ben Raine and Vishwa Fernando did the damage with the ball on day two.

In a rain affected day, Division Two champions Durham looked to secure maximum batting points and declare with rain heavily on the radar and Bedingham passed his landmark and went on to make 156 as Durham declared on 457 for eight in Chester-le-Street.

Bowler Raine dismissed the visitors’ top four in the hour before lunch and Fernando picked up his first two wickets for Durham before rain arrived at 1.45pm with Leicestershire 96 for six.

Derbyshire’s Luis Reece became the first batter to be given out by a female umpire in 123 seasons of county cricket as they totalled 450 on day two over Glamorgan.

Reece had reached his century but Redfern lifted her finger in the 100th over of the Derbyshire first innings when he was caught behind by Chris Cooke off Jamie McIlroy for 139.

Glamorgan have a big total to chase but play was cut short by bad light with Zain ul-Hassan and Eddie Byrom unbeaten at 22 without loss from 11 overs.

Kent dropped into the bottom two of LV= Insurance County Championship Division One as they crashed to a heavy defeat against Nottinghamshire on Friday.

Dane Patterson took five for 41 and Brett Hutton four for 44 as Kent, set a notional target of 407, were skittled for just 85 in their second innings at Trent Bridge.

The hosts had declared on 372 for six after Will Young and Ben Slater both scored 87 and Joe Clarke a blistering 73 from 40 balls.

Bottom side Northamptonshire batted out for a draw against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford.

The Red Rose finally declared in their first innings with a lead of 202, having reached 544 for seven with overnight pair George Balderson and Tom Hartley unbeaten on 49 and 24 respectively.

Northamptonshire were 213 for five, with captain Luke Procter and James Sales having shared an unbroken stand of 51, when the players shook hands. Emilio Gay had top-scored with 61.

Derbyshire openers Luis Reece and Harry Came shared in a county record first-wicket stand to earn a remarkable draw against Glamorgan at Derby.

The pair put on 360 as they batted throughout the final day, with Reece hitting 201 and Came 141.

Glamorgan, who had begun the day 125 ahead and hoping to force victory, failed to take a single wicket despite trying nine bowlers.

Worcestershire are in a dominant position after three days of their game against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham.

Joe Leach, Dillon Pennington and Adam Finch all finished with three wickets apiece as the hosts were bowled out for 301 in their first innings, to concede a deficit of 105, despite 115 from Oliver Price.

Jake Libby then top-scored with 117 and Matthew Waite added 62 as Worcestershire built up a commanding lead of 421 by reaching 316 for eight before the close.

Yorkshire’s clash with Durham at Scarborough was abandoned as a draw as play was washed out for a second successive day.

A total of 22 wickets fell on the opening day of the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One match between Warwickshire and Middlesex at Edgbaston.

Warwickshire were put into bat but were all out for just 60 runs – their lowest championship total since 1982 when they could only muster 43 against Sussex.

Middlesex were in scintillating form with the ball as Ethan Bamber took five for 20 and captain Toby Roland-Jones chipped in with three for 27, as the Middlesex attack made the most of the bowling conditions to remove Warwickshire with just 22.5 overs bowled.

The visitors had a lead of 139 after posting 199 in response. Ryan Higgins top-scored with 53 as bowlers Ed Barnard and Mir Hamza both took three for 49.

There was still time left for Warwickshire to start their second innings and they lost two wickets before stumps, reaching 53 for two at the end of a hectic day’s play.

Nottinghamshire opener Ben Slater notched his first ton since April last year to give his side a healthy advantage over Kent.

Slater put exactly 100 runs on the board before he nicked Jaskaran Singh straight into the hands of Harry Finch and while Haseeb Hameed, Will Young, Joe Clarke and Steven Mullaney all made starts, they failed to go on.

Kent took regular wickets to stop the hosts from going on to make a big partnership, but in the end it was wicketkeeper Tom Moores who frustrated the Kent attack, finishing unbeaten on 72 as Nottinghamshire closed on 275 for five.

Northamptonshire’s Emilio Gay posted three figures for the first time in nearly a year as their batters dominated against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford.

Gay posted 144, one run short of his career-best total, and hit 14 boundaries in his 342-minute innings which helped his side post an impressive 302 for five at the close of play.

Aiming to haul themselves off the bottom of the table, the Northamptonshire opener put on 207 runs with captain Luke Procter for the fourth-wicket stand and earn just their second batting bonus point of the season.

Jamie Porter took five wickets as Essex landed the first blow over Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.

Pace bowler Porter conceded just 37 runs as the hosts could only manage 120 on a bowler-friendly pitch, with Simon Harmer chipping in with three for 26.

Batting also proved tricky for Essex, who replied by reaching 145 for six at the close, but more importantly take a 25-run lead into day two.

Surrey’s Tom Lawes destroyed the Somerset top order as they were bowled out for just 170 at Taunton.

The hosts were all out after just 56.3 overs, with 20-year-old seam bowler Lawes claiming wickets of three of the top four on his way to figures of four for 41, Tom Kohler-Cadmore top-scoring with 59 for Somerset.

Surrey replied with 138 for four, Tom Latham leading the way with 67 not out while his fellow countryman Matt Henry began his final appearance of a prolific spell in red and white-ball cricket for Somerset by taking three for 26.

Division Two leaders Durham endured a frustrating day at Scarborough after Yorkshire openers Adam Lyth and Finlay Bean shared a century stand as the hosts threw the first punch on a curtailed day’s play.

Lyth and Bean shared 113 inside 31 overs and went on to a score of 142 for two from 38 overs before Bean fell lbw to England Test pacer Matthew Potts.

Lyth led the way with 75 not out off 118 balls, but hail at lunch prevented an afternoon restart and when play looked to get under way at 2.30pm, rain fell again and it was not until 5.30pm when play resumed for nine overs before bad light cut short play for good.

Colin Ingram’s century put Glamorgan in the driving seat of their clash with Derbyshire.

Ingram notched his first century of the season and stood firm with a record second-wicket stand of 193 from 338 balls with Zain-ul-Hassan, who himself made 69 before being caught and bowled by George Scrimshaw.

After Ingram was bowled for 136 from 200 balls, Kiran Carlson and Billy Root hit half-centuries and shared a run-a-ball fifth-wicket stand of 107 as the visitors closed on 408 for six.

Middlesex’s first century of the season courtesy of Sam Robson was not quite enough to secure victory after their LV= Insurance County Championship Division One match at home to Northamptonshire finished in a scores-level draw.

The top-flight’s bottom two served up a thriller as Robson’s 126 not out, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 150 with John Simpson (75), saw the hosts close in on their 323 target.

Ten was required from the last over and three from the last ball but Robson could only scramble a two to the on-side and the draw did little for either struggling side’s prospects.

At the other end of the table leaders Surrey’s draw at home to Nottinghamshire was less dramatic with proceedings called to a halt with the visitors 118 for one in their pursuit of 297 in 52 overs.

Brett Hutton’s fifth five-wicket haul of the season was the highlight as the Nottinghamshire seamer took his Championship tally to 41, level with Durham’s Chris Rushworth at the top of the wicket-taking standings.

Leg-spinner Calvin Harrison chipped in with three for 99 to bowl out the hosts for 340 40 minutes after lunch but there was not enough time left in the day for either side to fashion a victory.

Essex moved into second place with a 46-run win at Lancashire as Rob Jones’ 111 proved in vain for the hosts, who were bowled out for 383 with 11 balls remaining in pursuit of what would have been the county’s record run-chase of 430 to win.

Luke Wells (75) and Josh Bohannon (68) contributed half-centuries after the visitors’ overnight declaration on 292 for eight but Matt Critchley and Doug Bracewell both claimed three wickets apiece.

Nick Gubbins’ four-hour defensive masterclass earned Hampshire an unlikely draw after they had slipped to 115 for seven still needing needing 55 to avoid an innings defeat against Somerset at Taunton.

Gubbins scored 50 not out off 241 balls and shared in a match-saving stand of 100 with Liam Dawson (68no) either side of tea, Hampshire closing on 215 for seven.

In Division Two, Derbyshire captain Leus du Plooy made a magnificent 128 but the bottom side came up 19 runs short as they came agonisingly close to chasing down a target of 380 in 58 overs against Sussex.

Du Plooy’s third hundred of the campaign makes him the division’s leading scorer with 979 runs but when he was caught in the deep Derbyshire still needed 54 from 41 balls, and when the eighth wicket fell with 11 balls remaining the hosts settled for the draw.

A total of 552 runs were scored in the day at Hove as 19-year-old James Coles was last out for a career-best 180 as Sussex declared 25 minutes after lunch on 384 for nine.

Yorkshire’s victory push was thwarted by the weather and Worcestershire’s third-wicket pair of Jake Libby (64no) and Gareth Roderick (34no) at New Road.

The home side began the day on 22 without loss in their second innings and had been reduced to 49 for two – still 116 runs short of avoiding an innings defeat – when play was halted for bad light and then rain.

Play resumed three hours later when the Libby and Roderick put on an unbroken stand of 110.

Rishi Patel scored his fourth century of the summer – a career-best 179 – but his Leicestershire side had to settle for a draw in a heavily-curtailed game of just two innings at Glamorgan.

Leicestershire, starting the day 28 for none, posted 451 for six in reply to their hosts’ 403 for nine.