2 minute readAnderson, Flintoff – it’s a strong looking Lancashire team sheet this week. Pity they couldn’t dig out a Chapple or a Fairbrother or a Wasim Akram. It’s always been reassuring for Lancashire supporters to see Anderson on the team sheet. The club therefore went out and found one. With the
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5 minute readLancashire are 15 points behind Nottinghamshire and 20 points behind Warwickshire going into the last round of matches. Those two teams will play each other and a draw plus a couple of bonus points for Notts would be enough to save both. That would be true even if Lancashire were
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2 minute readAs Somerset showed last week, there are ways to beat Surrey. But if you can’t muster the same quality of spin bowling and you aren’t in charge of the pitch, what are your options? This week at the Oval, Durham tried something different. Durham tried reversing into their second innings,
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2 minute readIf you’re in charge of a county cricket club and you want to deliver on-field success, the last thing you want to do is produce England players. If you want to do well in the County Championship, your goal should be to develop (or hire) as many Not-Quite-England-Players as you
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3 minute readOur calendar says it’s time to check back in on the County Championship. When we last reported on the first division, all the way back in May, Surrey were top, Kent were bottom and Jordan Cox was the hot topic of conversation. As we return to it now, Surrey are
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2 minute readThe County Championship enters its first hiatus with not much in it at the top after Essex won by an innings and Surrey lost by an innings. Third-placed Somerset also lost by an innings, weirdly. What happened with Surrey then? Dunno really. Despite the fact everyone in their top six
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3 minute readIt’s not so easy to narrow things down this week. Quite a lot of interesting players made important contributions in the last round of county games. Upshot is… we’re talking about a lot of things. Dans Lawrence and Worrall If anything sums up Surrey’s strength right now, it is that
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4 minute readTiming is important. Ask anyone who has sat in a long line of cars at a temporary set of traffic lights, gazing wearily at a conspicuously queue-free expanse of empty asphalt at the other end of the cones. When timing is on your side, things open up for you. When
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2 minute readWhat an incredible sport. What an incredible competition. Somerset beat Essex, which somehow resulted in both teams vaulting ahead of Surrey in the County Championship. Essex started the week level on points with Surrey at the top of the table, but defeat took them three (bonus) points ahead. Somerset’s skittlesome
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2 minute readWe have now entered Phase 3 of this year’s County Championship and after almost four rounds of matches, only three sides have so far managed a win. Durham have won one, while Essex and Surrey have won two. Durham’s efforts have only earned them fifth place in the table, but
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