Luke Wells and Ben Brown hit big centuries for Sussex against Glamorgan

Luke Wells and Ben Brown smashed centuries for Sussex as they dominated day three of their Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash with Glamorgan at Hove.

Glamorgan trail their hosts by 187 runs with nine wickets remaining in their second innings heading into the final day after seeing their attack pummelled to all parts on Monday.

Sussex were 14 runs adrift of Glamorgan's first innings score of 291 at the start of play, with Ed Joyce having hit a century on Sunday, but they lost Luke Wright for 19 early on day three.

But his departure off the bowling of Graham Wagg would be Glamorgan's last success for more than 70 overs as Wells and Brown piled up the second-highest stand for the fifth wicket in Sussex's history (294).

Wells top-scored with 181 off 343 balls, hitting 18 fours and a six, while Brown remained unbeaten on 159 - an innings that took him 225 balls and included 15 fours and a six.

Wagg (2-98) eventually ended Wells' innings and Sussex declared on 552-5, giving Glamorgan 13 overs to face late in the day.

Sussex managed to claim one wicket with Nick Selman trapped lbw by Steve Magoffin for seven, with Glamorgan reaching 30-1 by stumps.

Ravi Bopara fell just short of a century as Essex built a big lead in their clash with Kent at Chelmsford.

Bopara was one of four Essex batsmen to score more than 75 on day two at the County Ground, but none of them could convert their innings into a three-figure score as the home side built a lead of 273.

Essex opened the day on 107-2, having lost Alastair Cook to the final ball on Sunday, and they would add another 169 runs before Kent grabbed their first wicket of the day.

Tom Westley made it to 88 before he was caught behind off Mitch Claydon (1-100) and Bopara managed six more than his third-wicket partner before being dismissed by Darren Stevens for 94, an innings which included 11 fours.

Jaik Mickleburgh was the only Essex batsman to 'fail' on Monday, making 24 before Adam Ball struck, but Dan Lawrence impressed in a fine knock of 82 in a superb partnership with captain Ryan ten Doeschate.

They added 101 for the sixth wicket in 19 overs and Ten Doeschate remained unbeaten on 77 when the second day's play came to an end with Essex on 480-6 in their second innings.

There was no play possible on the opening day of Derbyshire's clash with Northamptonshire at Chesterfield.

After Sunday's NatWest T20 Blast game at Queen's Park had to be abandoned without a ball bowled because of a saturated outfield, conditions were still deemed too wet for the four-day fixture to begin.

Umpires Neil Mallender and Ian Blackwell took the decision following an inspection shortly before 12.30pm when they judged the area of the bowlers' run-ups to be too dangerous.

Leicestershire are in control of their Division Two clash with Worcestershire at New Road, where the hosts trail by 214 runs with only three first innings wickets remaining despite a superb return for Tom Fell.

Ned Eckersley scored an unbeaten 92 for Leicestershire as they moved from 299-7 at the end of the opening day to score 407.

Brett D'Oliveira took two of the three Foxes wickets to fall to return figures of 4-80, with Ed Barnard (4-62) dismissing Richard Jones for 33.

Worcestershire's later problems seemed some way off when captain Daryl Mitchell and Fell, returning to action after 10 months on the sidelines battling testicular cancer, were piling on the runs in their 97-run second-wicket stand.

But the home side collapsed from 135-1 to 193-7 by the close, their innings falling apart after Mitchell was run out for 52.

Fell top-scored with 61 before he was caught behind off Ben Raine but only Joe Clarke (34) of their other batsmen even made it to double figures.