County cricket: Warwickshire v Essex, Gloucestershire v Sussex and more – live!

Curran and Wakely guide Northants to victory, which takes them up to second in the Division Two table, nine points ahead of Gloucestershire, 14 points clear of Durham, and 16 clear of Glamorgan, who will be overtaken by Sussex this afternoon.

Division One

Warwickshire 517; Essex 324 (Westley 141; Jeetan Patel 6-73) and 26-1. Essex trail by 167 runs with 9 wickets and 66 overs remaining .

Division Two

Gloucestershire 200 & 243; Sussex 370 and 24-1. Sussex need 50 to win.

Northants have lost a couple more wickets but it’s almost in the bag – just 20 more needed.

And THANK YOU so much to Wegie below the line for spotting this – it seems the Darren Stevens show may have another season yet to run.

“We are allowed to change our minds and we want to reward performance,” Kent head coach Matt Walker told BBC Radio Kent. “At the moment Darren’s performances are right up there.

“We have to get the balance right – especially at Kent – between still trying to be competitive and win, but also making sure young players are progressing.”

He added: “I’m very pleased with how he batted, more than how he bowled. Those runs at that stage of the game were very important.

“He hasn’t batted as well as he would have liked in this format and that was vintage Darren with the bat, which was great to see.

“And with the ball he’s been fantastic for the last few wickets, as he has been for however many years.”

Safe to say that David Warner has a bit of a shocker.

Out for 0 – lbw Broad

Out for 0 – c Bairstow b Broad

Out for 0 – lbw Broad

Out for 61 – c Bairstow b Archer

Out for 5 – c Burns b Archer

Out for 3 – b Broad

Out for 8 – c Bairstow b Broad

Out for 2 – lbw Broad

Out for 5 – c Bairstow b Archer

Gloucestershire all out. Sussex need 84 to win.

Ah! I forgot that the follow-on in county cricket is 150. Warwickshire have in fact enforced the follow on. And calamity! Nick Browne is out to the fourth ball of the innings. Essex 0/1.

Essex all out after a pig of a morning for 324. A deficit of 193. Warwickshire just need to bat out the day to be assured of Division One cricket next year, and hand Somerset a tasty lead going into the final two rounds.

The irrepressible Jeetan Patel finished with 6-73.

A wicket at Grace Road, Rob Newton for 29, but surely too late for any last-minute wobbles. Northants 74-1, need 67.

Thinking on the New Zealand tour – which, I was reminded at Lord’s yesterday, won’t count for the new Test World Championship. If they rest most of the World Cup & Test players and hand the captaincy to Stokes – on the assumption that he would like to go back to New Zealand -who else gets on the plane? Some names to throw in the pot – Sibley, Crawley, Azad (too soon?), Pope, Foakes, Ollie Robinson, Donald, Malan, Gregory, Bartlett?

Essex having a Friday wobble, two wickets gone in the first half hour.

Gloucestershire are having one of those mornings, the eighth wicket goes with the lead only 35. Sussex, who were jeered at by a rather pathetic bunch of home fans before the summer break, could be about to pull the rabbit out of the hat.

On his fiftieth birthday, Shane Warne makes one of his most important contributions to cricket, speaking out on the climate crisis.

A wicket with the fourth ball of the day for Chris Jordan down at Bristol, Jack Taylor for ten. Gloucestershire’s lead is just 30.

Follow all the latest at the Test with our crack team of OBOers.

We could pass the time BTL on what will be a quietish day by chewing on our pencils to come up with 16s for the men’s winter tour parties: New Zealand in November for five T20s and two Tests; then a mega-tour of South Africa from December to February consisting of four Tests, three ODIs and three T20s.

Division One: Warwickshire 517; Essex 278-6. Essex trail by 239 runs with four wickets remaining (first innings).

Division Two: Gloucestershire 200 & 197-6; Sussex 370. Gloucs lead by 27 runs with four wickets remaining (second innings).

Division Two: Leicestershire 308 & 189; Northants 357 & 22-0. Northants need 119 runs to win.

Division One:

Hampshire (149 & 436) beat Surrey (162 & 151) by 272 runs.

Kent (304 & 259) beat Nottinghamshire (124 & 212) by 227 runs.

Somerset (199 & 329) beat Yorkshire (103-9 & 127-9) by 298 runs.

Division Two:

Middlesex (143 & 151) beat Durham (147 & 191) by 44 runs.

Lancashire (418) beat Derbyshire (244 & 129) by an innings and 45 runs.

Worcestershire (205 & 299) beat Glamorgan (193 & 156) by 155 runs.

Good morning! from this final day of the-round-before-the-penultimate-round of the season, where just three games are still breathing. As it was ordained, the day has dawned brightly in Manchester now that Lancashire have returned to the bright lights of Division One, thanks to a thumping win over Derbyshire yesterday. They’ve been clearly the best team in Division Two all season.

Somerset finished yesterday 17 points clear of Essex, who will have to perform a small miracle at Edgbaston to conjure a win from a 239-run deficit, with Tom Westley 123 not out.

Northants (22-0) need only another 119 runs to beat Leicestershire and turbo-charge their promotion chances; and Gloucestershire have slipped up against Sussex, who are also still in the mix – with four second innings wickets left, they lead by just 27.

The weather is looking kind everywhere, even Bristol.