Image source, Rex Features

How are your nerves after that?! I know, me too!

We hoped County Championship Day would be good, but we didn't expect it to be this good!

More than 20 wickets fell at Chester-le-Street, Leicester and Northampton, 17 in Cheltenham and 15 in Chesterfield.

Centuries for soon-to-be England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, Keaton Jennings, James Vince, Ben Brown Michael Burgess and James Wharton.

Five-wicket hauls for Vishwa Fernando, Timm van der Gugten and Ben Mike.

And breathe after so many runs and wickets!

Why not do it all again with us tomorrow? We'll be back from 10:30 BST when Jimmy Anderson should be bowling for Lancashire at some point in the day.

Division One

Chester-le-Street: Durham 190 & 33-3 v Worcestershire 112

Southampton: Hampshire 301-3 v Kent

Southport: Lancashire 344-8 v Nottinghamshire

Taunton: Somerset v Warwickshire 373-8

The Oval: Surrey 248-8 v Essex

Division Two

Chesterfield: Derbyshire 76 v Yorkshire 283-5

Cheltenham: Gloucestershire 179 v Glamorgan 133-7

Leicester: Leicestershire 179 & 40-1 v Middlesex 86

Northampton: Northamptonshire 97 v Sussex 143 & 83-2

Ben Allison's radar strays as his first ball flies off Peter Siddle's pads and past Gareth Roderick for four valuable leg byes.

Siddle plays out the rest of the over without alarm and that, ladies and gents, is that.

A turbo-charged day finally comes to a close after 19:30 BST.

Worcestershire have roared back well late on a first day of 23 wickets after being dismissed inside a session for 112, conceding a 78-run deficit.

Nathan Smith’s two wickets and another for Tom Taylor keeps them just about in the hunt, but Durham lead by 111.

Nathan Smith runs in for his final over of the day under bright blue Durham skies.

Matthew Potts defends, defends and the produces a lovely drive which goes straight to the mid-off fielder. No run.

The fourth ball catches a leading edge, but it falls safe, and Potts leaves the fifth, wide of off stump, well alone.

He then gets firmly behind the final ball from Smith who ends his six-over spell with 2-17.

One over to go.

A change of bowling as wicket-taker Tom Taylor is replaced by Ben Allison.

He begins with a big loosener which Gareth Roderick does well to take way down leg.

Peter Siddle gets a solid forward defensive to the second and leaves a wide third ball alone.

The Australian then clips for two before playing out two dots.

Two overs to go.

Plenty of oohs and ahh in the Pears slip cordon as Nathan Smith twice goes close to taking Matthew Potts' edge.

Smith then hurls the ball back in his follow-through and almost runs out Potts.

Nothing would surprise me.

Maiden. Three overs to go.

Dan Whiting
BBC Radio London

I think Essex might have shaded it for me.

Tomorrow is going to be a really good day and it could promise to be a day that could change the outcome of this County Championship season.

Glenn Speller
BBC Essex sport

That is a good day of county cricket between the country’s top two.

It has see-sawed one way and then the other, and both sides will probably be satisfied with their efforts.

Jamie Smith will take the headlines, and rightly so, but Eathan Bosch bowled extremely well.

Although there will be concerns over his and Jamie Porter’s fitness for the rest of the game as both were forced off with injuries.

This has been a fine day's play for Essex, who have battled through injuries to the bowling hands of Eathan Bosch, Simon Harmer and Jamie Porter but still almost forced Surrey out inside a day's play.

Matt Critchley will bowl the last over.

We have a slip and a forward short leg in.

Critchley tosses the ball up and James Taylor plays into the on side.

He glances the third ball behind square leg for four.

Taylor defends down the ground and then safely leaves the last ball to reach stumps.

An epic battle between the top two Championship sides on a wicket that has rewarded persistent bowling.

Surrey may yet have a competitive total if they can get up to around 260 to 270.

The big headline of the day aside from an excellent Essex bowling performance is the innings of Jamie Smith.

He made a sparkling century off 133 balls this afternoon and may yet bring his form to England in the West Indies Test series after earning a call up to the squad.

Trevor Owens
BBC Hereford & Worcester

It has been a very long day here and one which initially looked like it was going to be a very productive one for Worcestershire but it has rather got away from them.

Tom Lawes nudges Simon Harmer leg side but there's no run.

Tom Lawes gets a single off the third ball and Taylor sees off the over.

One more left tonight.

The Division Two leaders have roared back to take the honours on day one.

Sussex looked in big trouble when they were dismissed for just 143, but returned that with interest to bowl out the hosts in just 20.1 overs and steal a 46-run lead on first innings.

Tom Haines (45) was dismissed shortly before stumps, but the pacesetters take a 129-run lead into day two.

James Taylor is forward to Shane Snater with a thick inside edge pushed safely into mid on.

Taylor drives the third ball to mid off for one. Single to Tom Lawes.

A rare short ball from Snater and Taylor ducks.

Dane Paterson to bowl the last over of the day to Keaton Jennings.

The Lancashire captain shows the type of restraint that he has not needed in the last hour or so as he plays out a maiden.

But he deserves to bat through the day and take the applause of the appreciative Southport crowd.

Jennings leaves the field on a superb 183 not out and he has put his side in a terrific position after Notts asked Lancashire to bat first this morning.

It's already felt a long day at Chester-le-Street with 20 wickets falling - and we still have eight overs scheduled today.

Tom Taylor runs in with as much vigour as he can muster at this time of day and he's on the money.

It costs a single to Alex Lees (11) and a no-ball. Tidy stuff but the lead is 98.

Tom Lawes defends Simon Harmer down the ground.

Essex have had the better of the day but Surrey are still in this game if they can cobble together another 20 to 30 first innings runs.

Four runs to Lawes, back and across to drive through point.

Jamie Smith lit up the Oval with a century today in his first Surrey game since his call up to the England squad was announced.

But since then Essex have engineered a collapse from 203-5 to 224-8.

Shane Snater comes close to getting a caught and bowled as James Taylor drives the ball loosely back to the bowler.

A play and miss with a flashing drive follows and Snater beats Taylor again next ball on a defensive push.

Four overs left tonight.