County Championship, day one: Surrey fight back, Essex bring in sub, day one as it happened
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So that is that on the first day of a new County Championship season and despite it being a two-jumper day in the stands at some grounds, the action has warmed things up nicely.
First wicket of the season? Rory Burns run out at Edgbaston. First century? Emilio Gay (128) for Durham in Division Two. And the first ever subbed player under the new ECB regulations? Essex captain Tom Westley who was replaced by Noah Thain.
That's the quiz questions done on a day which probably had returning England players Zak Crawley (9), Jamie Smith (9) and Ollie Pope (20) wishing for the calmer waters of Test cricket.
We are, of course, back tomorrow for day two of four in five Division One matches and four in the second tier so please join us in the morning from 10:40 BST.
Scott Read
BBC Radio Manchester Sport
It's been an absorbing final session as Lancashire attacked with the older ball and Northamptonshire struck back with the new ball.
Lancashire were 289-4 when Northamptonshire took the second new ball, with Michael Jones and Matty Hurst sharing an excellent half century partnership, scoring at a good tempo.
However, its been a different challenge when its Harry Conway and Ben Sanderson bowling with the new one. Under the lights its been tricky.
The day has ebbed and flowed nicely, its looks a decent pitch and Lancashire have runs on the board already, and an attack led by James Anderson.
Let's hope the second day is just as enthralling.
The runs are flowing now...
Ben Foakes breezes to 188* with Sean Abbott on 33*, despite being beaten by a couple of Nathan Gilchrist deliveries in succession.
Surrey have a second batting point and have plenty of time to aim for a third.
Almost bored of repeating it, but they were 65-6 after lunch and they now have as many bonus points as their hosts, who were so good in the opening two-and-a-half hours of the day.
The Kent smiles have long since disappeared.
Kemar Roach is having some fun, walloping an overpitched one from Matt Milnes though the covers for four to move to 16*.
Kasey Aldridge has 42* and that third batting point is very much within reach.
Kent have six overs to wait for a new ball, which seemed an unthinkable proposition half an hour ago.
Nick Webb
BBC Radio Wales
It’s a testing time for Glamorgan back in Division One after Jonny Bairstow won the toss and put the hosts in at a bleak Sophia Gardens.
Intermittent rain, combined with a chilly wind, meant that play did not begin in inhospitable conditions until 16:15 BST.
Asa Tribe and Eddie Byrom, a rare bespectacled pair of batters, formed a new opening partnership with Byrom, who hit his first ball back in the team for four but was then beaten several times by Ben Coad.
Tribe punched a couple of trademark mid-wicket boundaries away to get the scoreboard moving but Byrom has fallen to a superb slip catch to Finlay Bean off Coad to give debutant Sean Dickson an early entrance..
Nick Gledhill
BBC Essex
A shower interrupted play here just ahead of the scheduled tea interval but Essex will be pleased with their efforts in difficult batting conditions.
After losing Tom Westley to a finger injury and then impressive debutant Wiaan Mulder to a superb ball from Kyle Abbott, they rallied thanks to an unbroken stand between Matt Critchley and Charlie Allison.
Allison produced the shot of the day, a back foot cover driven four off Eddie Jack straight after an audacious upper cut for six from the previous delivery.
He has moved down to number six with Mulder’s arrival but that just underlines Essex's increased strength in depth this season.
Sonny Baker has bowled with great pace and it was his delivery that forced Westley out of the game after a length ball struck the Essex captain on the glove.
Hampshire’s relatively inexperienced attack - Kyle Abbott apart - hasn’t quite made the most of the conditions on offer.
Adrian Harms
BBC Sussex
Credit to Leicestershire who have forced themselves back into the match largely through the efforts of skipper Ian Holland, who has taken three wickets bowling an excellent line and length on a pitch giving some help to the seamers.
The innings of the day has come from Tom Clark a classy 100 with shots all round the wicket including four effortless sixes.
Clark made a century in the first match of last season but failed to kick on, eventually being dropped from the Championship side, and he'll be keen to prove that won't be the case this season
New Sussex skipper Ollie Robinson would probably have taken this score having been asked to bat first, but from 192-2 Sussex will be disappointed with anything less than 300.
Leus du Plooy stepping up and showing he is one of Middlesex's best players. Was a great signing when we got him last season and hopefully he can propel us to promotion this season
Daniel, London
Division Two looks a brilliant division this season, do you think Middlesex are in the conversation for promotion?
They weren't a million miles away last year, but Derbyshire have got better, Lancashire and Kent look restocked, Durham and Worcestershire are back down, Darren Lehmann in year two at Northants, and Gloucestershire are there too... who's your pick?
Martin Emmerson
BBC Radio Newcastle
Emilio Gay has made a little bit of cricketing history today as he became the first centurion of the 2026 County Championship season.
He's rarely looked in trouble and has stroked some lovely shots around the ground for his 11th century in first-class cricket. It's his fifth for Durham.
The hundred came in 111 balls and included 18 fours. He batted through some difficult conditions after lunch, with low cloud and drizzle in the air. And the lights were on.
But, no sooner had he got there, the umpires took the players off for bad light - just as the sun was coming out! They were off for a total of four minutes.
Another sublime stroke from Emilio Gay, standing tall to carve Joey Evison for a boundary past backward point, his 17th, which takes him to 93*.
He follows it up with a cute glance to the rope at third from the next ball for another four.
He has 97* and that brings up the century stand with Graham Clark in just 113 deliveries.
He's hauled his side on top in this see-saw Division Two encounter.
Mike Taylor
BBC WM commentator
Warwickshire’s refurbished seam attack performed strongly in favourable conditions after winning the toss, but their most successful bowler Ethan Bamber will have left the field for lunch feeling happiest of all.
He claimed all three wickets to fall to bowlers, two of them in a second spell just before the break - Ollie Pope, lbw to an inswinger, and Dan Lawrence edging a firm drive to third slip.
Earlier he had found Jamie Smith’s edge as well, after Smith had looked as classy as it is possible to look while making only nine.
Ed Barnard won round one of the battle of the captains by running out his opposite number Rory Burns in the first 10 minutes.
Dom Sibley, never fluent, was immovable in response to Burns’ call for a single, but the latter would have to concede on reflection that Sibley was a good judge.
Division One
Cardiff: Glamorgan v Yorkshire - no play before lunch
Utilita Bowl: Hampshire v Essex 37-2
Leicester: Leicestershire v Sussex 154-2
Taunton: Somerset 78-3 v Nottinghamshire
Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Surrey 61-4
Division Two
Derby: Derbyshire 100-1 v Worcestershire
Riverside: Durham 125-3 v Kent
Lord's: Middlesex 45-1 v Gloucestershire
Northampton: Northamptonshire v Lancashire 99-1
David Bedingham has been on nought for near 20 minutes but the eighth ball he faces from Keith Dudgeon is right in the slot and he dispatches it with aplomb through the covers to get off the mark with a four.
His countryman offers him another opportunity with his next delivery and he cashes in again, and then again two balls later, this time driving square to the point boundary.
BUT HE'S GONE NOW.
The next ball rises and Bedingham can only uppercut straight down the throat of Zak Crawley at first slip.
Kent will take that exchange all day long and twice on Sunday.
4-4-0-4-W
Graham Clark is the new man, joining Emilo Gay on a breezy 34*. Kent on top once more.
Kent have a big breakthrough.
Keith Dudgeon gets one to move away from skipper Alex Lees and he can only nick through to Zak Crawley to take a tumbling catch at first slip and get Dudgeon off the mark in his second game for the club - a year after his first.
Durham were in cruise control at the Riverside but Kent have answered back.
David Bedingham is in for the hosts, joining Emilio Gay (28*).
Big 55 minutes coming up at CLS.
Lancashire are among the favourites to win the Division Two title and with Sir James Anderson to lead a decent looking line-up hopes remain high that they can justify their position near the top of the market.
After relegation in 2024 and a difficult 2025 season head coach Steven Croft has a clear run at changing fortunes and improvement on last season's fifth looks a given..
The return of Marcus Harris should hopefully provide some backbone to the middle order, both Luke Wells and Keaton Jennings will be hoping for another season which they break the 1,000-run barrier.
The addition of bowler Ajeet Singh Dale looks a very smart move, he was the club's number one recruitment target.
Darren Lehmann's Northants finished an underwhelming seventh last season but should build on that this season with him similarly getting a clear run at a second campaign
Australian batter Nathan McSweeney – already elevated to the red-ball vice-captaincy under Luke Procter – should strengthen the top-order this year, while the signing of leg-spinning all-rounder Calvin Harrison (an England Lions choice during the winter) from Nottinghamshire following a lengthy loan spell at Northampton in 2025 represented a notable coup.
Like Harrison, another newcomer, Louis Kimber from Leicestershire, is keen to play a significant role in all formats.
The same is true of both Saif Zaib, inexplicably ignored by the pre-Ashes-review England set-up despite enjoying the season of his life with the bat last year, and Justin Broad, appointed David Willey's deputy in the Blast.
For a second tier game, this one looks like a humdinger.
Many eyes will be on Zak Crawley, named in the Kent side, with Daniel Bell-Drummond winning the toss and inserting the hosts. With Ben McKinney getting the first chance to showcase his own England top-order credentials.
Matthew Potts will get to bowl at Crawley when Kent reply while Will Rhodes is a late scratch for the hosts with Colin Ackermann taking his place in the XI and Kemar Roach and Kasey Aldridge make their first appearances for Durham.
Sam Northeast, Matt Milnes and Keith Dudgeon make their second Kent debuts while Glenton Stuurman gets his first and Chris Benjamin is picked behind the stumps.
Alex Lees and McKinney head out for the opening session, a little early, what's two minutes after six months off, with Milnes taking the first over of the season.
We hope very much that the above phrase means 'welcome back' (if not, blame Google translate) and we use it now as there is Welsh representation in Division One of the County Championship for the first time since 2005.
Glamorgan did enough to secure second place in Division Two last summer despite losing their final game against Lancashire and have a new captain at the helm with Cardiff-born Kiran Carlson replacing Sam Northeast, who has moved back to Kent.
Many eyes will be on opening bat Asa Tribe, who hit a career-best 206 against Northants, and some observers feel he could be the 'next cab in line' should England decide the Crawley-Duckett pairing at the top of the order should not survive following the winter Ashes series.
Yorkshire's squad has undergone a bit of a shake-up after finishing seventh last season and they will be hoping their signings, including Sam Whiteman and Logan van Beek, hit the ground running.
Bad news, though - the weather is Cardiff is not great and it looks like we are in for a delayed start.