Wes Agar opens his short stint with Kent with a maiden over.

Nathan Gilchrist to share new-ball duties and his first ball is a low and wide full toss that Sir Alastair Cooks helps to the boundary.

That is an absolute gift of a ball to get off the mark!

Chilly but sunny here at HQ.

Hameed picks up three runs with a lovely straight drive down the ground off Bamber.

Middlesex captain Toby Roland-Jones will bowl the next over.

He has 12 wickets in this Championship season so far.

Tight line outside off stump with four slips in place. Maiden over.

Ben Sanderson has the ball in hand for Northamptonshire and starts with a no-ball. He won't be happy with that.

Felix Organ and Fletcha Middleton are the Hampshire openers. Do you know anyone else called Fletcha? Nor do we.

It's a beautiful April morning in Taunton - a far cry from their opening home game against Warwickshire two weeks ago.

Tom Lammonby to take strike. Jimmy Anderson has the new ball in his hand.

Let's play!

Middlesex need points in their successive home games in this round and the next one (against Kent) before a tough assignment against Surrey at the Oval.

Umpires Alex Wharf and Martin Saggers are out in the middle.

Notts opener Haseeb Hameed will face Ethan Bamber.

His opening partner Ben Duckett is at the other end.

Alex Hoad
BBC Sport at Canterbury

The absence of Sam Cook is nearly as much of a boost for Kent as it is a blow for Essex.

Cook claimed 10 wickets in the visitors' thumping Championship win by an innings and 260 runs last September, including figures of 7-33 in the second innings as Kent were whipped out for 149 just four overs into the final morning.

He had also impressed for England Lions in their innings win over the touring South Africans at Canterbury just four weeks earlier.

Perhaps mindful of not having Cook in Essex's ranks, captain Tom Westley has opted to bat first.

Image source, Rex Features

It's been a mixed bag for Hampshire so far - an eight-wicket win over Nottinghamshire followed by a nine-wicket thumping in last week's game against Surrey at The Oval.

The quality of their seam attack, though, means they are a threat on helpful surfaces and Mohammad Abbas already has 15 wickets at a cost of less than 15 runs each.

Northants lost their opening game but bounced back to defeat Middlesex by seven wickets in a low-scoring contest.

They also have a man in form in Aussie paceman Chris Tremain, who is due to complete a three-match deal this week, before handing over to compatriot Lance Morris.

But Radio Northampton believes Morris has an injury, so maybe this isn't Tremain's last stand???

Martin Andersson comes in for Tom Helm to bolster the Middlesex batting - in an otherwise unchanged XI from the previous Championship round.

For Notts, Matthew Montgomery comes in for keeper-batsman Tom Moores, who has a broken finger after keeping wicket v Somerset last week. Ouch.

Joe Clarke is taking over with the gloves.

The bowling attack is the same one that bowled Notts to victory against Somerset last week:

Patterson-White, Hutton, Broad and Paterson.

As usual, we have full ball by ball coverage of each match, brought to you by our fantastic team of BBC local radio commentators.

Choose a game from the audio links at the top of this page and we'll keep you up to date with events elsewhere with frequent text updates.

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A pair of changes apiece as these two counties go in search of a first win of the campaign.

Somerset have injuries to Craig Overton and Josh Davey, so their bowling resources are tested. In come Kasey Aldridge and the evergreen Jack Brooks.

For visitors Lancashire, the headline news is the return of Saqib Mahmood. The England bowler has not played a County Championship game since this time 12 months ago due to a stress fracture in his lower back.

He should provide extra oomph to their attack while all-rounder George Balderson comes into the side. Will Williams and Steven Croft make way.

Mahmood will join England legend Jimmy Anderson in attack this morning as Lancashire will bowl after captain Keaton Jennings called correctly.

Image source, Getty Images

Competition for places in England's pace attack for the Ashes series will be hot and Ollie Robinson will be hoping to make an early impact as he makes his seasonal debut for Sussex.

James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes were among the wickets last week and now the 29-year-old has the chance to show what he can do and shake up former county Yorkshire.

Robinson has made 16 Test appearances so far, three of them in Pakistan in December, when Saud Shakeel made his debut for the home side.

They will renew acquaintance at Hove as Shakeel has been signed on a short-term deal by Yorkshire while they await the arrival of captain Shan Masood.

Image source, Getty Images

It was back in 2013 that Ashton Agar made a name for himself by scoring 98 batting at number 11 for Australia against England at Trent Bridge in his first Test innings.

A decade on and his younger, pace-bowling, brother Wes Agar gets a chance to show what he can do after being signed by Kent in a four-game deal.

He took 36 wickets for South Australia in this winter's Sheffield Shield and lines up against an Essex side minus seamer Sam Cook, who has a sore hamstring after claiming 10 victims in their first two games.

Adam Rossington is also absent after suffering a finger injury in last week's draw against Lancashire.

Ged Scott
BBC Sport at New Road

The 2023 County Championship season has been off and running for a fortnight now - and today it gets underway too at New Road, Worcester, where the Pears host Gloucestershire.

Such is the challenge of preparing the wicket at the most notoriously difficult ground in the country, at their flood-hit Severnside home, that Worcestershire now have an extra two weeks' grace built into the fixture list.

They now always play their first two game away from home - and new head coach Alan Richardson has made a tidy start, a win over Derbyshire, followed by Sunday's defeat by Durham at Chester-le-Street, when they made a bold attempt to chase a final-day target before their last pair Adam Finch and Dillon Pennington almost held out for a draw.

Image source, Ged Scott - BBC Sport

But now comes the acid test for the Pears. How will the New Road wicket perform under their new groundsman Stephen Manfield?

A year ago, they were hit by the eve-of-season departure of long-serving groundsman Tim Packwood, then former player David Banks juggled two roles when he stepped up to the job last summer.

But the thankless task now belongs to Manfield, who has now arrived from Essex, following previous experience with Glamorgan and Sussex.

And, first and foremost, he has got one thing right. Judging by the blue skies and early morning sunshine in Worcestershire, he has clearly ordered the weather!

Division One

Canterbury: Kent v Essex

Essex won toss and will bat

Lord's: Middlesex v Nottinghamshire

Middlesex won toss and will bowl

Northampton: Northamptonshire v Hampshire

Northants won toss and will bowl

Taunton: Somerset v Lancashire

Lancashire won toss and will bowl

Division Two

Cardiff: Glamorgan v Durham

Glamorgan won the toss and will bowl

Hove: Sussex v Yorkshire

Sussex won toss and will bat

Worcester: Worcestershire v Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire won toss and will bat

Image source, Getty Images

There was a big win for 2021 champions Warwickshire last week, beating Kent by an innings and 14 runs following superb innings of 165 not out and 128 by Sam Hain and Rob Yates.

Surrey, Notts and Northants also secured victories in Division One, but Essex and Lancashire had to settle for a draw in game which saw England's James Anderson collect five wickets for the Red Rose.

Durham were the sole winners in Division Two, with David Bedingham and Scott Borthwick making centuries as they defeated Worcestershire by 121 runs.

Leicestershire's Lewis Hill made an unbeaten 162 in a one-innings draw with Derbyshire, while Gloucestershire and Yorkshire never even made it to the middle at Bristol as their game was washed out with a ball bowled.

Looks like a reasonable start to the day according to the helpful graphic below, with the possibility of some showers appearing from the East during the final session of play.

For a more local forecast, use the search box on the BBC Weather site.

"I'm rather fond of cricket, though I wouldn't like anyone outside this planet to hear me saying that."

Thank you to the late Douglas Adams for that quote, and thank you also for the words 'Don't Panic' on the front of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - sound advice for any team for whom the start of the 2023 County Championship has not gone well.

Here we are at the start of round three - one of us back after missing the first two while swanning around in Italy in search of La Dolce Vita - and we have seven matches for you.

Welcome to our coverage of the opening day's play.

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, Rex Features