Wednesday 14 September 2016 18:21, UK
Somerset threw the Specsavers County Championship race wide open with a 10-wicket win over treble-chasing Yorkshire at Headingley.
England hopeful Jack Leach took six wickets in Yorkshire's second innings with Somerset only being set 42 for victory, a straightforward target they chased down in 10.3 overs.
Victory takes Somerset on to 203 points, just one behind Yorkshire, who play leaders Middlesex (208 and still playing) in their final game next week while Wednesday's winners meet relegated Nottinghamshire at Taunton.
Yorkshire started day three on 57-3, still nearly 200 runs short of making Somerset bat again, and they lost opener Adam Lyth for 49 just before the innings reached three figures.
That wicket went to Craig Overton (1-57) but the remaining six all went to left-armer Leach, who is the leading England-qualified spinner in Division One this summer with 58 wickets.
He took the wind out of Yorkshire's sails by dismissing Adil Rashid (16), Tim Bresnan (1) and Andrew Hodd (1) before a superb partnership between Jake Lehmann and Liam Plunkett.
Lehmann, son of former Yorkshire batsman and current Australia coach Darren, scored his first century for the county and put on 101 with England all-rounder Plunkett before being trapped lbw by Leach for 116.
By the time he was dismissed, Yorkshire had built a small lead, but Leach (6-64) then removed Jack Brooks for a duck and Plunkett for a fine 73 as their innings came to an end on 286.
That left Somerset with a seemingly easy target of 42 to claim victory and they needed less than an hour to do it, with Marcus Trescothick hitting seven fours in his unbeaten 37 and Tom Abell contributing seven as they eased to 44-0.
Their hopes were helped by Lancashire, who rallied well on Wednesday against Middlesex and put themselves in with a chance of victory on the final day.
Middlesex were in control after two days at Old Trafford but Lancashire regrouped from a perilous 32-5 to post 259 in their first innings and then claimed four wickets in the final session.
Rob Jones was the hero for Lancashire, carrying his bat and scoring 106 for his maiden first-class century, while Liam Livingstone and Tom Bailey weighed in with 53 apiece in the lower middle-order.
Steven Finn dismissed Livingstone and Bailey on his way to figures of 4-71 but Middlesex were soon under the cosh as they tried to build a match-winning advantage.
Steve Kerrigan took three wickets, all leg before victims, to leave the leaders on 72-4 at stumps, leading by only 140 runs with six wickets remaining.
Sam Curran took 6-51 to improve Surrey's hopes of victory against Durham at the Emirates ICG Chester-le-Street.
Durham go into the final day with a lead of 247 with only two second innings wickets remaining after they were reduced to 213-8 by Curran's burst.
Surrey added 68 to their overnight score to finish their first innings on 367, trailing by only 34 after some valuable late runs from Gareth Batty (29) and Stuart Meaker (35). Graham Onions (5-90) claimed one of three wickets to fall to complete his five-wicket haul.
Durham lost their second, third and fourth wickets with the score on 77, with Curran taking all three in the same over, and he then dismissed Paul Collingwood to reduce them to 83-5.
Mark Stoneman, who is joining Surrey next season, scored a defiant 92 before becoming Curran's sixth victim, while Graham Clark added 54, but all results are possible heading into the final three sessions.
