Two teams are on the same number of points in third place. We presume it’s the alphabet which decides how they are presented, in which case Warwickshire have really struck lucky with it being Yorkshire who are matching them. If they separate teams on the same points through some other method, don’t try and explain it to us. Life is genuinely too short.
1st – Durham
Durham push Middlesex out of the top slot after beating Nottinghamshire. They secured a significant first innings lead thanks to 153 from 2010 player to watch, Will Smith, but then found themselves needing to score plenty of runs in not many overs in order to secure the win. They made 184 in 20.2 overs and cricket writers up and down the land noted that number of overs and drew fairly obvious conclusions about what modern batsmen are willing to try and do and why this is the case.
2nd – Middlesex
Drew with Surrey. Chris Rogers scored 214 and cricket writers up and down the country noted that he was in Australia’s Ashes squad and wrote things about that. We didn’t. We just left it there.
3rd – Warwickshire and Yorkshire (unless Yorkshire are actually fourth for some spurious reason)
Warwickshire drew with Sussex for whom Chris Jordan earns another mention with 4-73. Yorkshire’s match against Derbyshire has already been covered.
The next chapter
Somewhat unexpectedly, all of the above teams are playing this week and all matches start on Wednesday. They’re all playing counties who aren’t currently in the top three.
Warwickshire play Middlesex starting Wednesday, KC, so how on earth do you draw the conclusion you make in your final sentence?
You also choose not to mention that Durham and Warwickshire have played one match more than Middlesex and Yorkshire, but perhaps life is too short for you to make such a point.
We struggle to remember the names of the counties. There are so many of them.
I would add that Middlesex made no apparent effort to win their match, which was rather disappointing. As was my failure to spot Ged.
I spotted Ged at Lord’s once. I was perambulating counter clockways at lunch, Ged was running in a clockwise direction. Just by the Edrich Stand it was. I knew him immediately from the images posted on this site together with his match report from that game in Tibet. It wouldn’t have been right to say anything, mind.
Do say hello if you spot me next time. I am usually friendly and approachable at the cricket.
That is a message to you both or indeed anyone else around here.
Unless you, dear reader, are dangerously weird. In that case, I warn you to keep well away from me – I have a black belt in origami and know how to use it.
Yorkshire are actually ahead because they’ve won more matches. Cricinfo’s table is wrong.
I really like these updates, by the way.
I think it’s a little cliché to concentrate on the top of Div 1. I’d prefer a focus on the bottom of Div 2. All these updates tell me is tell me which players and teams I don’t have to worry about next year.