Mark Stoneman is in the mood here.

He moves to a run-a-ball 42 with successive fours off Tom Price, pulling the bowler square and pushing through cover off the back foot.

Making it look easy. It's not.

Image source, Getty Images

Leicestershire can at least breathe a little sigh of relief.

Liam Trevaskis clips his first ball through square leg for four and the Foxes go past the lowest Championship total in history of 12, by Northamptonshire.

But their own lowest is 25 so still work to do.

Middlesex loan player Martin Andersson is in the attack for Derbyshire - and the last ball of his first over is short and slapped through point for four runs.

Northants are ever so gently getting a foothold in this game after the early wickets of Prithvi Shaw and Luke Procter.

A heart in mouth moment for Max Holden, who is forward to Tom Price, edging the ball just past a diving gully for four.

Not the most convincing way to bring up the 50 partnership with Mark Stoneman, but these are precious runs in tough conditions after the early loss of Sam Robson.

The landmark comes in 66 balls.

Time to bed in for Glamorgan, and boy are they bedding in.

Ollie Robinson has bowled three straight maidens, with the last 28 balls seeing just two singles.

Crawling along now while the ball is zipping around should mean they can flourish once this Kookaburra ball softens up.

No English style for the Welsh!

The rain shows no sign of abating here in the north-east and the umpires have decided to take lunch at 1200 BST.

A vital game for both teams, Lancashire especially so as far as Division One status is concerned, is on fold for a couple of hours at least.

Middlesex continue to keep the pressure on promotion rivals Yorkshire, who are currently making short work of the Leicestershire top order, with four successive boundaries off the bowling of Singh-Dale.

Three of them are driven imperiously through wide mid off and the other is nudged just wide of gully.

That wicket off the first ball of the game feels like a distant memory.

Simon Mahon: Surrey signing Shakib Al Hasan to play against Somerset has the energy of a Sunday 3rd XI bringing in a player from the first team when going for promotion in club cricket.

Harry Moore is driven through mid off by Luke Procter for only the second four of the morning as the bowler is a tad too full and wide.

Moore loses his radar again with a leg side ball that disappears fine for four leg byes.

his last ball is too full and driven to long off for four more.

Looks more like a November evening than a September morning at Chelmsford.

No news of a start time in a big game at both ends of Division One.

Image source, Rex Features

Jaydev Unadkat has already picked up Asa Tribe to the bat pad catch.

And the Indian certainly sees that method of wicket as a potentially productive one against Glamorgan's right-handed batters, with TWO short legs in place when he's bowling at Kiran Carlson.

To the left-handed Colin Ingram, there is only one under the helmet, and he is miles away from doing anything about a controlled square drive to the boundary.

Image source, Getty Images

With Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, Dan Lawrence, Gus Atkinson. Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Reece Topley and Sam Curran all away with various England squads, Surrey have brought in Shakib Al Hasan for the title charge.

They are, of course, not the only ones to recruit a fresh face for this round, but being able to bring in Bangladesh's greatest Test cricketer may have a few people muttering and grumbling.

So, does county cricket need a transfer window like football?