Kent centurion Sean Dickson timed his second County Championship century of the season just right at Canterbury.

As he was raising his bat to acknowledge the applause of the crowd, there was the dramatic entry stage left of the Red Arrows.

Was it planned? Or pure chance? Best ask Sean's mum.

"She's already been in touch from South Africa taking credit for the Red Arrows flying over the ground," he said with a smile.

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"Batting at Canterbury has been a bit of a struggle for me over the past two years. But all credit to Adrian Llong, the groundsman, who's really produced a nice batting track this week.

"I just looked to play straight. My game plan was to stay tighter, keep it in the 'v' and it's worked. The team target is 500-plus. As for me, I'm 50-odd away from a double hundred. Those opportunities don't come around too often, so I'll get my head down and try to battle through."

We have the usual ball-by-ball coverage for you today, courtesy of our BBC local radio commentary teams.

All you have to do to tune in is choose one of the eight games from the links at the top of the page.

We'll provide regular text updates on the rest, focusing especially on the matches in Division One.

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There has been a growing feeling in recent weeks that 2017 champions Essex are approaching full steam and on their way to a second title in three years.

That feeling turned into something a bit more tangible when they last week demolished leaders Somerset by 151 runs.

And only briefly at Trent Bridge yesterday did it look as if their momentum might run out against bottom club Nottinghamshire. At 126-2, with skipper Steven Mullaney in command as makeshift opener, Notts looked in control.

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But, by the end of the day, Notts had been rolled for 213, Aaron Beard, Jamie Porter and Peter Siddle all taking three wickets each, and Essex were 72-1 for only the loss of Sir Alastair Cook, on what is not his favourite ground.

"It's disappointing for us," said Notts coach Peter Moores. "It's a good pitch and it was a good toss to win but we couldn't go on and capitalise. We are going to have to bowl well to keep a foothold in the game."

"All credit to our bowlers," said Essex keeper Adam Wheater. "Sids, Ports and Harmy (Stuart Harmer) have been world class for a while now, and it's good to see Beardy come in and take his opportunity. It was great for him to come in last week and get a few wickets, and he's done the same here."

Of all the 23 County Championship matches to be played at out grounds this season, none of have received quite as much fuss and attention as Lancashire's arrival at Sedbergh School for their meeting with Durham.

Scenically situated in the rugged Cumbrian fells, and rather conveniently exactly halfway between both Manchester and Chester-le-Street, each 75 miles away, it proved so popular on Sunday that it was admission for members only.

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And the players quite like it too, especially Durham paceman Chris Rushworth, who spearheaded his side's attack with 2-50 from 21 overs.

"It's a glorious place," Rushworth told BBC Newcastle. "Everyone loves playing at out grounds and when you come somewhere as picturesque as this it's quite hard not to enjoy it.

"The overhead conditions looked like it would be perfect to bowl but the wicket probably didn't do as much as we thought it would. We've done a decent job. Equally, Lancashire will be quite pleased how they've gone. If we're being picky though, if you choose to bowl first, you're probably looking at having them more than five down."

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It was third time lucky for Yorkshire opener Will Fraine as he achieved a maiden first-class hundred against reigning champions Surrey at Scarborough.

He managed 19 and 30 against them for Nottinghamshire in 2018 - a game Surrey won by an innings and 183 runs - and 25 and 14 not out for Yorkshire at Guildford last month.

It was very different this time as he hit 106, including a six and 19 fours, and afterwards admitted it felt "awesome" to get the century "monkey off my back".

He added: "Surrey are the champions and have a very good attack, so it's nice to do it against them. This is my fifth county game and my third against Surrey. I keep playing against them and Morne Morkel."

Injury-ravaged Warwickshire knew they faced a battle when they arrived at Canterbury to face Kent minus seven injured fast bowlers, not to mention Chris Woakes, who these days is on permanent England duty.

"It's been a tough few weeks all round," a rueful Bears first-team coach Jim Troughton told BBC WM. "Even our team coach had injury issues and broke down on the way here, so we had to get a loan coach in to pick us up from Maidstone Services."

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The one hope was that Warwickshire might win the toss and take first use of such a batsman-friendly track.

Instead, it was Kent captain Heino Kuhn who called correctly, the hosts batted and ended the first day on 338-2, with South African Sean Dickson well set for more on 146.

"It was a good toss to win," admitted Troughton. "It would have been nice had we had first use. We are under extreme circumstances with all our frontline seamers injured and another playing for England in Chris Woakes. To have all our options taken away by injury is a little hard to swallow, so it was a tall order opening up with a couple of bowlers on loan who were maybe a little bit nervous."

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Middlesex head coach Stuart Law was less than impressed with side's efforts in the field after Derbyshire reached 372-4 on the opening day of their Division Two game.

Law's side are ninth in the table, with only one so far, and with three promotion places available this season, have a 33-point gap to make up on Sussex, who are currently third.

"We realised Derbyshire were missing two of their better players and we really needed to capitalise on that first up," said Law, whose team includes England pace bowlers Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones.

"We dropped not one but three chances and took a wicket off a no ball as well so we made it very difficult for ourselves. We only have ourselves to blame."

It's always glorious on the opening day of Wimbledon, right? Ha, ha, if only.

Anyway, cricket is what we're about and Alina Jenkins' forecast graphic suggests we should be largely ok, even if the sun is less keen to stick its head out from behind the clouds.

Division One

Kent 338-2 v Warwickshire

Nottinghamshire 213 v Essex 72-1

Somerset 408 v Hampshire 15-1

Yorkshire 327 v Surrey 48-0

Division Two

Derbyshire 372-4 v Middlesex

Glamorgan 354-6 v Worcestershire

Lancashire 275-5 v Durham

Northamptonshire 273 v Sussex 7-2

A good day for batsmen yesterday, by and large, with 2,702 runs scored in our eight matches.

For those of you of a statistical bent, if you divide that by the number of wickets to fall (61) that's an average of 44.295.

Enough messing about with the desktop calculator - it's almost time for the second day's play.

Welcome to our coverage. Good to have your company.

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