On the day the England and Wales Cricket Board whisked Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson away from County Championship action, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Hampshire and Derbyshire stole the show, tucking wins under their belt within three days.
At Grace Road, Leicestershire, without a win this summer, rolled over Yorkshire by an innings and 39 runs – their first victory in Division One since 2003. Dan Moriarty (51), with Dom Bess (40) and then Jack White (21), bashed 95 for the last two wickets, but it was too little, too late.
Hampshire’s dreadful season also had a timely fillip, beating Sussex by 118 runs in front of a large and vocal crowd let in for free on Father’s Day. Sussex needed 253 for victory and Dan Hughes and Tom Alsop sailed them safely to lunch but things hit choppy waters from there as Sussex lost seven for 26, with Eddie Jack grabbing a career-best four for 36.
Essex were undone by Nottinghamshire on a turning Chelmsford pitch that had been designed for Simon Harmer. Instead, it was Notts’ spinner Liam Patterson-White who finished with career-best match figures of nine for 109 as Essex were bowled out for 221 to lose by an innings. Fergus O’Neill pocketed five for 39.
It was another miserable day for Lancashire, who were dismissed before lunch at Chesterfield to tick off a fourth defeat of the season. Derbyshire’s Ben Aitchison completed a happy match with five for 49. Seventeen-year-old Joe Moores biffed a maiden first-class 50, clonking four sixes along the way.
Stokes warmed up with Durham and there was some dismay that his substitute Colin Ackermann would not be allowed to bowl. Stokes also had a hand in Northamptonshire bringing in substitute Gus Miller, called up to replace Luke Procter, whose finger had got in the way of a Stokes straight drive.
Miller top-scored in Northants’ second innings with a pretty 61, becoming the second Augustus to play for Northants after Richard Augustus Agincourt Beresford, whose niece Elisabeth wrote The Wombles. At stumps the Northants lead was 245, the game nicely in the balance. Matthew Potts again bowled with verve to pick up three for 58.
While there was no place for James Rew in England’s squad for the third Test, his brother Thomas stroked a second century for Somerset in eight days. His A-levels done and dusted, he hit an unbeaten 133 in an enterprising fightback against Warwickshire alongside Craig Overton (89 not out) to take the match into a tantalising fourth day.
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