County cricket: Essex at Kent, Somerset at Warwickshire and more – live! | Sport

Rain has curtailed things at The Oval and Canterbury for now. Somerset fighting back at Edgbaston – Warwickshire now 338-7 – three for Brooks and three for the Overtons.

Notts! This was your chance. Now 125 for five at Scarborough. Three for Olivier, two for Coad and Maharaj has just bowled Ben Duckett, who had just hit him for six.

And Steven Finn is being thrashed round the ground by Sussex.198 for seven.

Good morning TanyaI was hoping you might be able to elicit Magnum PI’s view of the Foakes question. Specifically, is there a single good reason for omitting the world’s best keeper in favour of giving Bairstow the gloves? It recalls the Stewart/ Russell choice of days gone by, when the difference in batting average as keepers was only 7 and that between Stewart the keeper and Stewart the specialist batsman (and excellent all round fielder) 11 or 12. Although of course Stewart became a much better keeper than Bairstow as well as a better batsman and Foakes is better than Russell with both gloves and bat.

In April my top seven would have been: Burns (who appeared not to have done anything wrong), another opener, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler, Foakes. I still think Bairstow is an underachieving batsmen who could be a high-quality international front line batsman and at the moment he is a very good No. 7 and a more than adequate wicket-keeper, but not great. I think he could be more valuable for England in a different position. My another opener in April would probably have been Jason Roy. As a bowler I didn’t like to see batsmen hitting the ball back to me, and that’s what I like to see in an opener. Would I continue with him? It’s tricky, I think you have to give him a whirl but he does play the ball way out in front of him and he’s got to understand that red ball cricket is different – you can’t just go out there and hit it. Ben Stokes has adjusted – it is possible.

Selv has now left the building. Thanks for all your questions!

Given certain counties’ propensity to sign other counties’ talent (yes i’m looking at you , Notts), is there an argument to introduce transfer fees by way of compensation?

Yes. Or at least to make sure that counties are better compensated for that process. And it is not unreasonable for some counties to now consider themselves the game’s nurseries – and that’s not a bad thing. I have immense respect for Worcestershire for example. But at the same time you can’t impede people’s ambition and progress anymore – it is not feudal like it used to be.

Lord Selve’s views on the new England quick would be great but if that’s not on then how about his gravy recipe? We had a discussion a few years back here about gravy and the making of it. I think Busfield was here and his Ma had a recipe too.

I saw Jofra Archer’s first game here at Hove, one of the last games I did for the Guardian – and if you read it [see below] you’ll see what I thought three years ago. And since then, I got in touch with George Bailey at the Hobart Hurricanes two years ago and he said he was a superstar. I said how’s he bowling compared to Tymal Mills? And he said – he’s faster. And then in December last year I wrote a piece saying that irrespective of who he played for it was doing cricket a disservice that someone of his ability was being made to waste the best years of his life through an arcane qualification process. I didn’t care who he played for but the game could ill afford to lose talent like that. [HE LOVES HIM – ed]

My household is vegetarian bordering on vegan these days and last night we had a really nice spagetti bolognese made with quorn. I’m very much enjoying vegetarian and vegan dishes these days.

Two wickets have fallen here while I was doing Selv’s Q&A. Carey drove across a TRJ half volley and was caught for 56, and Luke Wells chipped TRJ to midwicket. That’s four for Roland-Jones, four MORE for Roland-Jones – and Middlesex are back in it. Even more so now as Ben Brown has a backfoot slash off Murtagh. Sussex 151 for 6.

Does he remember a player called Paul Hennessy who played for Middlesex’s under 16s in 2005? He took 3 for 27 yesterday (for Spain).

No, I was a bit out of the loop for a while – but well done!

Fifty for Jet Jennings.

And another….

How is Stuey Law doing in elevating the Middle Saxons up the CC2 table? What has or could be improved?

We’re not getting enough first-innings runs. We’re relying very heavily on Dawid – this is the sort of game where Dawid thinks he’d going to do it again and that’s not fair We’ve got a quality bowling attack, but when you’re defending 75 it’s not that easy for them. Stuart and Nic Pothas are doing a good job and are still trying to find things that work, who they like, who are team players . We’re trying to build a corporate spirit where the team comes first – which is really important. We’ve got a couple of young players who haven’t kicked on – Max Holden, Sterlo’s not had a cracker, I think he’s due, Steve Eskinazi has played ok, Dawid’s played brilliantly. He’s playing as well as anyone else at the moment – if England aren’t looking at him it is a travesty.

And rain has stopped play at Edgbaston with Warwickshire 313 for five. I’ve just interrupted Hoppsy and Selv arguing about The Hundred just like old times, to ask a few of your questions BTL.

I’d like to ask about what the London clubs are doing to sell out one T20 after another, when tickets are proving harder to shift in some other parts of the country. It’s not prices and it’s probably not just weather.

I can’t speak for other parts of the country (five sell outs out of seven at Hove interjects Bruce Talbot) but we play good T20 cricket, AB has helped a bit – a bit of spike when he arrived. The two sell outs at Lord’s have been home counties – Essex and Surrey.

A couple of wickets have fallen already at Colwyn Bay – both Josh Bohannon and Liam Livingstone fall to Michael Hogan. Lancashire now 93-3.

Ah, what a shame, Yates makes only another two before being dismissed by Brooks. What a waste of a night’s sleep.

And we have the Middlesex president in the box at the moment, looking very Magnum PI. Do send any questions BTL: he promises to answer.

DIVISION ONE

Canterbury: Kent 125-6 (Amir 3-30; Cook 3-25) v Essex.

The Oval: Surrey v Hampshire 222-7 (Vince 47; Clarke 5-52).

Edgbaston: Warwickshire 303-4 (Rhodes 82, Yates 139 not out) v Somerset.

Scarborough: Yorkshire 232 (Tattersall 92; Luke Wood 5-67 ) v Nottinghamshire 41-0

DIVISION TWO

Derby: Derbyshire 200 (Higgins 5-54 ) v Gloucestershire 46-2

Chester-le-Street: Durham 368-5 (Alex Lees 181) v Leicestershire

Colwyn Bay: Glamorgan 257 (Hemphrey 56, Patel 54, Carey 51) v Lancashire 85-1

County Ground: Worcestershire 186 (Moeen 42, Leach 53; Hutton 6-57) v Northants 140-3 (Wakely 63)

Hove: Sussex 128-3 (Wells 52 not out, Carey 46 not out) v Middlesex 75 (Robinson 8-34)

Good morning from gorgeous Hove – or gorgeous-ish Hove, it is now raining: a squall, I think. The hedgerow are embarrassingly verdant, the gulls are crying and I’m wondering how much one of those lovely victorian villas would set me back.

The last time I covered a match in Hove was when Sussex won the Championship in 2003, just after I got back from my honeymoon incidentally, when there was a queue out of the ground and down the road. No such queues today, but the usual loyal scattering cagouled and sandwiched for the day.

Ollie Robinson awakes a hero – tipped by his teammate Chris Jordan as a potential England player – of the line and length mould rather than Wood/Archer. Yesterday’s figures of 8 for 34 are the best by a Sussex bowler at Hove since 1955. Ted James anyone? Sussex resume today in the driving seat – Luke Wells has fifty and Australian Alex Carey, making his Championship debut, has 46.

Round the grounds: teenage sensation Rob Yates bats on for Warwickshire after a bad day for Somerset; Nottinghamshire aim for at least parity in the search for their first Championship win of the season after letting Yorkshire off the hook; Rikki Clarke kept Hampshire on their toes at The Oval; and Essex and Kent hope for better weather at Canterbury.

Northants are on top against Worcestershire; Alex Lees has batted Durham into a strong position at Chester le Street against Leicestershire with a sublime century; Ryan Higgins’ five for 54 puts Gloucestershire in control at the County Ground and the intriguing game between the Division two leaders continues at Colwyn Bay.