Image source, Getty Images

A thrilling finish at Chelmsford ends a round of County Championship games played in glorious sunny weather.

Essex kept their title hopes alive by beating Middlesex and now have a week off as they ponder an 18-point gap to leaders Surrey.

It's more clear-cut in Division Two with Durham's win over Sussex (pic, above) leaving them just five points short of promotion.

Thanks for your company over the past four days. We'll be back again on Sunday for more of the same. See you then.

Division One

Essex 304 & 319-7 dec v Middlesex 179 & 147

Essex won by 297 runs

Hampshire 308 & 330-3 dec v Somerset 137 & 316

Hampshire won by 185 runs

Northamptonshire 232 & 266 v Lancashire 524

Lancashire won by an innings and 26 runs

Division Two

Durham 505-9 dec & 57-3 v Sussex 266 & 295

Durham won by seven wickets

Yorkshire 297 & 520-9 dec v Derbyshire 247 & 293

Yorkshire won by 277 runs

Kevin Hand
BBC Radio London

Image source, Rex Features

Essex have the win, Middlesex can't take it to the fourth day but to be honest it would have been nothing more than a frustration for Essex if they had done so.

From winning the toss it always felt like a matter of time.

Yet another fivefer for Simon Harmer.

Now, do I stay for the hotel breakfast?

ESSEX BEAT MIDDLESEX BY 297 RUNSpublished at 18:31 British Summer Time 6 September 2023

18:31 BST 6 September 2023Breaking

Essex 304 & 319-7 dec v Middlesex 179 & 147

What a way to finish!

Toby Roland-Jones rocks back and smashes a short ball from Simon Harmer, and must have thought that was a guaranteed boundary.

However, he sees it ricochet off Nick Browne's back at short leg, and Adam Rossington does superbly to dive forward and catch the rebound one-handed.

Five wickets for Harmer, and Essex claim the win that they needed to keep the title race alive.

Ethan Bamber flashes hard at Matt Critchley and picks up four via a thick outside edge.

I thought that was the last over of the day, but they are carrying on...

Kevin Hand
BBC Radio London

There goes, possibly, the talk of playing tomorrow.

Crucially it's Ryan Higgins, the last of the recognised batters.

Ethan Bamber comes out.

Simon Harmer rattles through a maiden.

It's looking more and more likely that they'll be back tomorrow at Chelmsford.

BBC Essex's Dick Davies is currently telling the rest of the commentary team how he's never taken a selfie, which probably tells you something about what's going on in the middle.

Critchley's over passes without incident, and there are four left in the day.

Matt Critchley is into the attack with his leggies, so it will be spin from both ends for Essex.

We will have the extra half-hour at Chelmsford, so Essex have eight overs in which to try wrap up this game tonight.

Simon Harmer to continue..

Plenty of oohs and ahhs as Simon Harmer continues, but Toby Roland-Jones and Ryan Higgins play it well, taking eight runs from the over.

Surrey and Durham, the two divisional leaders, are not in action in the next round of games, so the focus will be very much on relegation/promotion. Here's the full list of games.

Division One

Canterbury: Kent v Nottinghamshire

Old Trafford: Lancashire v Middlesex

Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Northamptonshire

Division Two

Cardiff: Glamorgan v Yorkshire

Bristol: Gloucestershire v Derbyshire

Hove: Sussex v Leicestershire

Paul Newton
BBC Essex sport

I have to say the odds are now very much that the game will finish in three days.

It was a good, low catch, it went very sharply.

Simon Harmer is a wicket away from another fivefer.

A quick reminder that England women are in T20 action against Sri Lanka at Derby this evening.

Play starts in about 10 minutes and you can follow that game here.

Paul Newton
BBC Essex sport

Just when Luke Hollman was looking in rather good touch, Hollman is out for 15.

Ryan Higgins is still there obdurately, not even in double figures after more than half-an-hour - a most untyipical Higgins innings. He's defended very resolutely indeed.

Josh de Caires is well capable of providing some stout defence too.

Ryan 'Diggins' Higgins plays out a maiden from Jamie Porter.

We've got eight scheduled overs left in the day.

Image source, Getty Images

Hampshire captain James Vince hailed Liam Dawson's showing in the win over Somerset, but insisted it was a collective effort which got them over the line.

Six Hampshire bowlers took wickets across the 185-run win and Vince said: "There was some hard graft. A couple of key wickets for Mo Abbas set us up, then a dry spell and then in that afternoon session we closed the game up nicely.

"We expected it to be reasonably tough. Daws bowled really well but it was a shared effort across the bowlers, who all contributed with ball in hand.

"We stuck to what we set out to do with the ball and got our rewards in the end."

Hampshire are third, 22 points ahead of Lancashire, who have a game in hand.

Vince added: "We want to win the two remaining games and finish as high as possible. We've been there or there about in the last few seasons. It is a good opportunity to look at a couple of young guys and finish as high as possible."