It is former Warwickshire and England captain MJK 'Mike' Smith's 92nd birthday today - we hope he is enjoying it.

Wonder how many modern players have read this? The foundations of good batsmanship are all in there.

Image source, BBC Sport

Dennis Hales, the grandfather of former England batter Alex, played all-time great Rod Laver in qualifying for Wimbledon in 1956 - he lost 3-6 6-1 6-4 6-2.

In the supposed words of Michael Caine: "Not a lot of people know that."

Division One

Hampshire v Worcestershire 546-5

Somerset 379 v Nottinghamshire 15-0

Surrey 597-3 v Durham

Sussex 60-0 v Warwickshire 415

Yorkshire v Essex 328-6

Division Two

Derbyshire 109-3 v Lancashire 367

Glamorgan 0-0 v Gloucestershire 380

Kent 446-5 v Northamptonshire

Leicestershire v Middlesex 438-6

Anthony Gibson
BBC Radio Somerset

Image source, Getty Images

The 2,000 or so schoolchildren who are here for the first of Somerset's two 'schools days' have been treated to an enthralling, and no doubt memorable, morning's cricket, on a gloriously sunny day.

Tom Banton missed out on a second century of the season, but he and Craig Overton had seen Somerset to a second batting point and denied Notts a third bowling point, when Matt Henry marched out to put the icing on the cake of Somerset's innings with a blistering 41 not out, featuring four fours and three sixes.

A total of 379 is probably about par on a good batting pitch, and the ease with which Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater survived the three overs possible before lunch showed the scale of the challenge now facing Somerset's bowlers.

Nick Webb
BBC Radio Wales

James Bracey dominated the first session in Cardiff with a brilliant 133 as he and Archie Bailey added 89 for the last wicket, a record for the Shire against Glamorgan, hitting 13 fours and four sixes despite frequent field changes.

Gloucestershire resumed on 279-7 but quickly lost Todd Murphy without scoring and Ajeet Singh Dale for two, as Timm van der Gugten twice found the edge.

Bracey farmed the strike effectively and punished the odd bad ball with the 300 coming up in the 104th over, while Bailey finally got his first Championship runs in his fifth match and third innings to earn a few cheers.

Bracey was dropped at deep mid-wicket on 87 and that proved costly as he moved into three figures for the third time in the season before finally holing out off Mason Crane.

Jemma Green
Former Hampshire Women player

This has been a session that has been pretty controlled by Hampshire given the status of the game where Worcestershire are very much in command at the minute.

Mike Taylor
BBC WM commentator

The bowlers so far have erred on the side of being full and occasionally they've gone a bit too full and when they have that proved to be very little margin for error.

It's brought some boundaries but they're having to maybe bowl a different way because they don't have quite the pacey threat that the Sussex attack have.

Wayne Madsen, as always, has led the Derbyshire recovery from 35-3, inspired by Jimmy Anderson's 2-19 in a fine seven over opening spell on his first ever appearance at Chesterfield.

Lancashire recovered from 44-4 to post 367 yesterday with two centurions, can Derbyshire follow the blueprint on day two, or will Anderson return after lunch to make further inroads.

Derbyshire are unbeaten while Lancashire remain winless in Division Two, but will that remain the case by Tuesday evening?

Zain ul-Hassan plays out a maiden over from Ajeet Singh Dale to end the morning session at Sophia Gardens.

When Gloucestershire were 291-9, it looked like they would only manage a single batting point.

James Bracey had other ideas as he completed his third century of the season, sharing a club record 10th wicket stand against Glamorgan of 89 with Archie Bailey, before he holed out on 133.

Much work for the Welsh county to do this afternoon.

Solid start from Daniel Hughes and Tom Haines, with the lefty-duo able to cash in on the short boundary.

Australian Hughes has seven fours in his 31* with Haines on 21* at the other end.

Earlier the home bowlers polished off the Bears tail in fairly short order, limiting the visitors to 415 having won the toss, elected to bat and been 340-4 at one point.

If these two can bat through the afternoon they'll fancy their chances of their side building a first-innings lead.

The bat continues to dominate on day two, with the wicket of nightwatchman Naavya Sharma for 18 Leicestershire's only success during the morning.

Ben Geddes is on 87 not out, within sight of his first Middlesex century, while Joe Cracknell has 32 at the other end.

A very tough morning for Northants, who only managed to take one wicket while Kent added 121 to their overnight score.

Joey Evison was the man to go, caught behind off Liam Guthire following a stand of 68 with Daniel Bell-Drummond.

The Kent captain found another reliable partner in Harry Finch and together they have put on 108, with Bell-Drummiond advancing to 113 not out and Finch ending the session on 64.

Image source, Rex Features

Surrey have added 190 runs in this morning session as this marathon partnership between Dom Sibley and Dan Lawrence extends to 319.

Sibley is just two short of reaching 250 for the first time in his career, while Lawrence, who really hit the accelerator after reaching his ton, goes to lunch on 166 not out.

Hampshire have bowled a lot better this morning, but the Pears remain in total control - they are one run shy of their highest ever total against Hampshire

Jake Libby has batted through four sessions and has 174* from 359 deliveries with Gareth Roderick on 31* at the other end.

Just a few signs that the ball might be starting to turn for the Hampshire spinners - something of interest for Pears loanee Callum Parkinson later in the day, maybe, perhaps, if not then over the next two days.

How many is enough for the visitors?

Matt Henry beats Ben Slater with an absolute beauty in the final over of the morning at Taunton but Somerset are unable to conjure a pre-lunch breakthrough.

They managed to add 104 to their overnight 275-6, with Tom Banton making 84 and Henry contributing a bright and breezy 41 not out.

Notts are going to have to produce something special with the bat if they are to win this game and ensure they stay ahead of Surrey at the top of the table

Essex have ended the session on a high after losing three wickets in quick succession, with Noah Thain and Michael Pepper posting an unbroken 50 partnership.

Thain, who has 28 to Pepper's 24, pulled the final ball of the session from Dom Bess to the deep square leg boundary to bring up that landmark.

for Wayne Madsenpublished at 13:01 British Summer Time 30 June

13:01 BST 30 June

Derbyshire 109-3 v Lancashire 367

... from 65 balls with six fours, brought up by a nudge for a single off Chris Green.

That's the 92nd half-century in first class cricket for the 41-year-old who has added 74 with Brooke Guest after his side were reduced to 35-3.

Evergreen.

What an innings this has been from Dom Sibley. The Surrey opener now has a career-high 245 not out to his name - overtaking the 244 he registered as a Warwickshire player back in 2019.

The interval can't come soon enough for Durham's beleaguered bowlers.

Jack Leach will take the new ball for Somerset. There was some spin there for Liam Patterson-White yesterday, let's see what the England left-armer can do.

Dropped catch by James Whartonpublished at 12:54 British Summer Time 30 June

12:54 BST 30 June

Essex 27-3 v Yorks 320-6

Essex have begun to claw this back with a partnership of 44 between Michael Pepper and Noah Thain - but Yorkshire might have re-established their grip by breaking the stand just before lunch.

Dom Bess is on and finds some turn in his first over, with Thain nudging sharply to short leg but James Wharton is unable to hang onto the chance.