Summary

  • Second day in final round of County Championship season

  • Division One: Lancs v Hants; Notts v Yorkshire & Bears v Somerset

  • Hampshire, Lancashire and Warwickshire all in with chance of winning title

  • Division Two: Essex bowl out Northants for 41 to win by an innings and secure Div Two title; Gloucs beat Durham; Surrey v Glamorgan

  • Division Three: Kent v Middlesex; Sussex v Derbs; Worcs v Leics

  1. sun

    Weather outlookpublished at 10:31 British Summer Time 22 September 2021

    Today of course is the autumn equinox up here in the Northern Hemisphere. But enough of all that I hear you cry, is it going to rain in Birmingham, Liverpool or Nottingham is what you folk want to know.

    Thankfully that is not looking likely as Simon King from the BBC Weather Centre can happily inform us.

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  2. Good morning . . .published at 10:16 British Summer Time 22 September 2021

    . . . And welcome to another hopefully absorbing day of County Championship cricket.

    Day one of this year's final round of Championship fixtures was truly a day of extremes.

    Only four wickets fell at Edgbaston and The Oval - and just five at Hove, while Notts, 292-9 overnight in their game against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge, looks perhaps the most interestingly poised.

    New Road, Worcester in the September evening sunshjneImage source, Gcd Scott - BBC Sport

    But elsewhere, at all the five other grounds, the wicket-taking tallies were into double figures. 11 at New Road, 13 at Aigburth, 14 at Canterbury, 16 at Bristol and a whopping great 25 at Chelmsford.

    Several three-day finishes already look on the cards. And almost certainly less than that at Chelmsford, where Essex look set to lift their sixth trophy in as many seasons.

    But let's just enjoy it while it lasts. The sun is shining, there is still lots to play for - and let's just not think about the fact that, once this week and next week's Bob Willis Trophy final are over, it will be another six months before we see any county cricket again. Howl! Howl!